Comparison’s Companions

Modern society has modified people to compare themselves to everyone around them. The modern person’s emotional well-being is often hinged on what others think of them. And, when they don’t receive the emotional validation they seek, pride and insecurity rears its ugly head.

Being in my mid-forties, I remember life before the internet and social media. Playing outside, coming back at sundown, etc. The generations that followed were, and are, more dependent on the internet and social media. It’s become part of modern life and in my opinion it’s destroyed lives and minds to keep people enslaved emotionally. Even secular studies have begun to show the negative effects of social media on the emotional well-being of children, teens and adults. This issue has ballooned to the point where some states are passing legislation limiting social media use for children.

This is not a political issue; it’s a spiritual issue. The unregenerated mind in its natural sinful state heaps its lusts upon itself according to fleshly preference. You can find plenty of examples online, on any platform, where people of different ideological viewpoints meet.

Comparison has two companions: Pride and Insecurity — one lifts self up, the other tears self down, but both keep the eyes off Christ.

The First Companion: Pride

Luke 18:11 “The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank thee, that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican.”

The Pharisee stood in the temple and compared himself to everyone around him as he prayed. He was in public to be seen and compare himself to others to justify himself at the expense of others. He thought he was better, more righteous and correct.

Comparison turns disagreement into superiority and conviction into contempt. You become the judge instead of the sinner who calls on God for mercy.

The religious man looks at another and justifies himself, “I’m not like that guy…” In that moment, he becomes the Pharisee with eyes that don’t see and ears that are dull of hearing. This is the mindset toward God that put Christ on the cross and it’s still rampant today (Judges 17:6). This is man in his natural state (1 Corinthians 2:14).

Pride is comparison turned upward — measuring yourself as superior to others instead of humbled before God.

The Second Companion: Insecurity

2 Corinthians 10:12 “For we dare not make ourselves of the number, or compare ourselves with some that commend themselves: but they measuring themselves by themselves, and comparing themselves among themselves, are not wise.”

Paul wrote the epistles to the Corinthian Church admonishing (if not chastising them) for being fleshly, worldly and high minded. Comparing yourself to another for emotional validation or happiness is not wise, the Bible is plain. Comparison, along with pride, also breeds insecurity. People look on the lives, success, spiritual gifts, etc., of others and feel small. Such feelings can lead to fear, depression and worse. It’s self-focused and man-focused.

My Bible reads that there are two kinds of people: saved sinners and unsaved sinners. Logically then, we don’t need to compare ourselves to others who are just like us. Our righteousness is not our own and not of us. It is most certainly not of our own works. Christ is the standard; He is also always…the answer. Fear is sin; it’s the polar opposite of faith.

Insecurity is comparison turned inward — measuring yourself as inferior and forgetting your identity in Christ.

The Solution

Comparing ourselves to others doesn’t impress God, because when we do, we take our eyes off Christ. What you put your eyes on determines your inner thought life, your mind, and heart (Matthew 6:22–23). God is looking for that man or woman who beats their chest and says, “God be merciful to me, a sinner.”

You don’t need to measure up to anyone else. You need to be faithful where God has planted you. Stop running someone else’s race; run your own race faithfully and insecurity will flee from you.

Christians are at liberty to live as they please, but we need to remember 1 Corinthians 10:23. Also, liberty is not an excuse to sin. Being free from condemnation and fully justified by Jesus Christ, the believer should seek to earnestly contend for the faith. He should live righteously because he is free.

Liberty frees you from condemnation, frees you from comparison, and frees you unto obedience.

If you have no peace and are being broiled in the wasteland of modern life, you can begin the journey believers are already on. One simply needs to repent (change your mind from your way to God’s way) of their sin and believe in the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ for the remission (forgiveness) of sin. Then, one becomes born again and their sin is washed away. Repentance is not cleaning yourself up — it is changing your mind about who is Lord.

Being fully justified by the blood of Jesus, their position before God changes and they are eternally secure for heaven to be their home when they die. Also, they are free to do many things. Among them, it is to quit comparing themselves to others. Christ becomes our Lord and our God. We compare ourselves to Him and live for Him (the best way we can by faith) because He died for us. Obedience is better than sacrifice.

Comparison dies when Christ becomes the standard.