Sometimes the most blatant apples and oranges comparisons we make are when we compare ourselves with other people. There are many reasons why this doesn’t work and it’s futile to try and do so. While we share similarities in all being a part of the human race, our circumstances are all different, our abilities are different, and our callings in life are different. It really is, for lack of a better term, an apples and oranges comparison.
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.” The Bible calls these comparisons we make with one another unwise. And it really is. It’s unwise and it’s futile. What purpose does it really serve in the end? It’s just a way for us to either feel validated and justified in the wrong way, or superior to someone else. But the measurement of who we are isn’t set by someone else or how we compare to them. It’s set by God and how we compare to His standard.
Philippians 2:3: “[Let] nothing [be done] through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves.” This is one of the problems of comparing ourselves with others: it creates strife and division. It pits one person against another and makes us automatic enemies. It treats personal value as a zero-sum game. If another person somehow appears more valuable, then it becomes natural to think that their additional value was somehow stolen from you. Their currency goes up while yours goes down. But that’s not how it works. We each hold our own inherent value. And the best way to keep in harmony with other people is to hold them in higher regard than yourself. It keeps us in a place of humility and in a supportive role of that other person.
Galatians 6:4: “But let every man prove his own work, and then shall he have rejoicing in himself alone, and not in another.” If we should accomplish something great, then we need to judge it on its own—for its own inherent value. We don’t judge it according to what someone else did. That’s a false comparison. The full value of something we did is only determined by itself. We can’t gain any more personal currency by placing it up against someone else’s accomplishments.
Exodus 20:17: “Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that [is] thy neighbour’s.” Sometimes our comparisons spread from what we can do, and bleed out into the things that we have. The Bible speaks expressly against this notion. In modern day terms, it leads to the ‘keeping up with the Joneses’ mentality. Just like our personal value, our personal possessions don’t increase in value just because it’s more than someone else has. But within us, desiring the possessions of others creates a covetous heart which goes against God’s commands.
1 Corinthians 4:7: “For who maketh thee to differ [from another]? and what hast thou that thou didst not receive? now if thou didst receive [it], why dost thou glory, as if thou hadst not received [it]?” We must remember that any differences there are between us are determined by God and not by us. And these different gifts and abilities we have came from God, so how can we boast in them as they are our own and we didn’t receive them? Once we realize where all good things originate, it automatically puts us in a place of humility and of praise towards God. The elevation of self never accomplishes much. It ignores the reality by replacing it with false comparisons. Again—it’s apples and oranges.
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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.”
Philippians 2:3: “[Let] nothing [be done] through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves.”
Galatians 6:4: “But let every man prove his own work, and then shall he have rejoicing in himself alone, and not in another.”
Exodus 20:17: “Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that [is] thy neighbour’s.”
1 Corinthians 4:7: “For who maketh thee to differ [from another]? and what hast thou that thou didst not receive? now if thou didst receive [it], why dost thou glory, as if thou hadst not received [it]?”