Is Stephen Curry's Motto Bringing Glory to God?

If you follow the NBA, watch ‘Sportscenter’, or pay any attention to the sports’ world, you have probably heard of Stephen Curry. The six foot guard for the Golden State Warriors who hits threes in his sleep and makes averaging thirty a game look easy; yeah he’s really, really good. Everyone loves watching Steph Curry, talking Steph Curry, and trying to play like Steph Curry; you could say that the basketball world is in a ‘Curry craze’. But other than his lights out shooting, amazing dribbling, and fancy passes people notice his motto that he writes on his shoes, which says “I can do all things…” You probably know that this motto comes from Philippians 4:13 and you might get all excited that this great basketball star uses a verse from the Bible as his “slogan”. You might also think that Stephen Curry writing “I can do all things” on his shoes is a great thing for non-Christians to see, but is it really? Let’s take a deeper look at what Stephen Curry's motto really is.

Philippians 4:13 has much more to it than just the phrase “I can do all things.” There is a very important prepositional phrase that comes right after that, “…through Christ, who strengthens me.” Paul, the writer of Philippians, didn’t say “I can do all things” because he thought he was super-human or anything, but if you read before verse 13 you clearly see why he writes “I can do all things” and then puts “through Christ who strengthens me.” Paul went through almost every kind of hardship and trial and he got through them, but he doesn’t give himself the credit, he says that Christ is the one who brought him through.

So is writing “I can do all things” on your shoes showing Christ or showing you? Most likely, an unbeliever won’t know where that phrase came from and most likely an unbeliever doesn’t know the second part of the verse, the part that mentions Christ. And it’s hard for me to think that saying I can do all things brings any glory to God. God isn’t even mentioned. The subject is “I”, not God or Christ. Do you think a person seeing this for the first time will think Stephen Curry is bringing glory to God? I don’t think so. Actually, they would think the complete opposite, that Stephen Curry is glorifying himself.

I’m not saying that Curry is trying to glorify himself. He might be a Christian, he might not. I’m not judging the heart of Stephen Curry, only God can do that. But writing “I can do all things” on your shoes doesn’t necessarily show Christ’s glory. To the unbeliever it shows the contrary of glory to Christ, it shows glory to self, and that’s the complete opposite message Christians should want the world to hear.