On A Scale Of One To Ten

On A Scale of One to Ten

Scriptures: Genesis 1:26-31; 5:1-3;

Introduction:

Please turn with me to Genesis 1:26, 27, and 31. It reads: “Then God said, ‘Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping things that creeps on the earth.’ God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them….God saw all that He had made and behold, it was very good.” (Genesis 1:26, 27, 31)

My message this morning in titled “On a Scale of One to Ten” and the very first thing I want you to know this morning is that when God create man, he created man as a ten – perfect in every way because He made man after His own image!

We have been taught from an early age to differentiate between one thing and another; to compare and/or rank something and then choose the best. We start learning this at an early stage in life. For example, before our children ever attend elementary school where this teaching is perfected we begin to train them at home. How many times have we taken our children to the store knowing that they will ask us to buy multiple items for them? We explain to them that we cannot purchase everything they want and they must choose only one of the items. In a matter of seconds our children go through the process of comparing and ranking each item and then choosing the one that they want the most based on some reasoning that only they understand. They may not understand the scale of one to ten, but they do understand how to choose an item that they really want versus another that they would “like” to have.

As we grow from being children to adults, we continue with what we have learned and we apply it to almost everything in our lives. Let me give you an example. In 1979 a movie starring Bo Derek came to the theaters. The movie was called “Ten”. I never saw the movie and know very little about it, but what I do know I bet most males over the age of 45 knows and that is that Bo Derek in that flesh colored swimsuit running along the beach with her hair flying looked good. The reason that movie was such a hit was because she was running on the beach in a swimsuit and she looked like a ten on a scale of one to ten. I bet there are men who purchased the movie on VHS and just paused it on that frame. In that movie Bo Derek became in the eyes of many men a perfect ten - on a scale of one to ten. Although I did not see the movie, I do remember that scene of her running on the beach. For those of you who never saw the movie, just to be clear, this was in 1979 and she was wearing a one piece swimsuit. It did not show what you can easily see today on television or in the movies. Her swimsuit was actually made with some fabric versus the strings we see today that get lost as the woman moves – but that’s another story. Trust me when I tell you that there were men who got in trouble taking their wives or girlfriends to the movie with them. I mean you’re sitting there enjoying the movie quietly eating your popcorn just waiting for that scene. When the scene finally comes on you lean forward to concentrate only to be backhanded by the woman next to you who knows what you’re concentrating on and that it was not her who was sitting beside you. Again, as I did not go and see it I am just imagining what could have happen. But my point is this: there was some criteria that were established that people agreed with that stated that Bo Derek was a ten in that movie even though the movie was not about how she looked.

Comparing and ranking something is very much a part of our lives. Think about this, the scale of one to ten assumes that ten is the perfection, the best, and one is the worse. Now how many surveys have you taken that uses a scale of one to ten or maybe one to five? The thought is the same. By comparing different choices, you will choose the one that best describes or fits you. We spend a majority of our lives comparing and ranking things. We go deeper and deeper into debt to ensure we have the most recent and best appliance, television or cars. The most troubling comparisons and ranking that we do especially as Christians is when we compare and rank people in general or other Christians especially. We love to rank and compare people, especially if we are the ten and the other person is below us. Even though Jesus warned us against judging others we ignore Him and do it anyway. If feels so good to look at someone else and rank them against ourselves or someone we know. This sounds cruel and it is, but you know what, we do not care and that is why we continue to do it.