Do nothing from rivalry or conceit… Philippians 2:3 –
I couldn’t believe the guy on TV…
“People on the East Coast,” he said, “will be dealing with unbearable cold.”
In upstate New York, temps were expected to go as low as 5 degrees above zero.
“Stay inside!” he warned.
Five above?
That’s cold?
In the Midwestern United States, where I live, the overnight low was forecast to be -9…
That’s right, 9 degrees below zero with wind chills of twenty or twenty five degrees below zero…
No big deal! It’s winter!
We Midwesterners will put on our heavy coats, our winter boots, our ever-so-fashionable ski gloves, and walk twenty miles to work through 12 feet of snow in below zero weather…
Well…Maybe I am exaggerating just a bit…
But I’m sure we could make that walk…
Because by comparison, we are obviously stronger, braver, smarter, and hardier than those Easterners.
Comparison … It’s so much fun to compare myself to others… particularly when I come out on the good side of the comparison …which amazingly almost always happens.
There’s nothing wrong with thinking I am better than others, right?
…in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Philippians 2:3
But I have a lot of good qualities…
… I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think… Romans 12:3
I am just making a fair judgment about my capabilities in comparison to theirs…
“Judge not, that you be not judged. Matthew 7:1
But how will I get along in this world if I can’t compare myself to others?
Do not be conformed to this world…Romans 12:2
By comparison, others have so many things … things I want…
“You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his male servant, or his female servant, or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor’s.” Exodus 20:17
Judgment, greed, conceit, rejecting God for the things of the world…who would have thought they could all be wrapped up in the simple act of comparison?
What, then should we do?
Pay careful attention to your own work, for then you will get the satisfaction of a job well done, and you won’t need to compare yourself to anyone else. Galatians 6:4
2 thoughts on “Escaping the Comparison Trap”
The best reason to “compare” ourselves to others is to recognize how we can help build up each other. There is so much more joy and blessing to be found in being the body of Christ in spirit and in deed than by tearing each other down to make us feel better about ourselves, albiet temporarily.
Amen. Somewhere I read that any other kind of comparison merely robs us of our joy.