2 Corinthians 10:12-….But when they measure themselves by one another and compare themselves with one another, they are without understanding.

I have an brother who is 5 years older than me.  We attended the same high school where he was a “star” wrestler for all four years.  So it was natural that when I attended school there, the coaches expected me to desire to do the same thing. But I knew it would have been unfair to myself to measure myself with him.  Trying to find my value in comparing my accomplishments with his would have left me feeling like a failure or possibly (though unlikely) diminishing his value.

I knew from a young age that trying to measure up with people and compare yourself to them creates not only competition, but eventually strife in most cases.  Seeing other people as a benchmark for your own value makes you either de-value them to feel better, or in delusion inflate your own value to feel better.  Without God instilling value in your soul through the gospel, where do you find value from?

God gave His Son to die on our behalf because of His great Love, regardless of how heinous our sin was, is, and continues to be.  With this kind of love and value, instead of competing with people and comparing myself to them, I can build them up and not feel threatened.  I can pray, defer, and compliment people without feeling like it is taking away my value!

I believe the biggest struggle for Christians is our unbelief in the value of what the gospel instills through Christ for our whole personhood.  Fight against the notion that measuring yourself with other people can give you a greater since of value than God can.  You actually de-value yourself when you compare yourself to others, because they really can’t give you life, or really know you as Christ does, yet He died to give us value in Himself for our good and His glory.

In His Love, Ld