No Comparison
Today I’d like to tell a few stories from the Bible,
As well as read some of the Bible’s teachings concerning comparisons.
Then, at the end, I’d like to consolidate some of the lessons we can learn from what the Bible teaches concerning comparison. This 5-Point message you’ll only get the points at the end, and then we’ll find there’s really only one point. But I’m getting ahead of myself.
Genesis 4:1-9
Now Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain, saying, “I have gotten a man with the help of the Lord.” And again, she bore his brother Abel. Now Abel was a keeper of sheep, and Cain a worker of the ground. In the course of time Cain brought to the Lord an offering of the fruit of the ground, and Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat portions. And the Lord had regard for Abel and his offering, but for Cain and his offering he had no regard. So Cain was very angry, and his face fell. ...
6 Then the LORD said to Cain, “Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast? 7 If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must rule over it.”
8 Now Cain said to his brother Abel, “Let’s go out to the field.” While they were in the field, Cain attacked his brother Abel and killed him.
9 Then the LORD said to Cain, “Where is your brother Abel?”
“I don’t know,” he replied. “Am I my brother’s keeper?”
10 The LORD said, “What have you done? Listen! Your brother’s blood cries out to me from the ground. 11 Now you are under a curse and driven from the ground, which opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand. 12 When you work the ground, it will no longer yield its crops for you. You will be a restless wanderer on the earth.”
. . . 16 So Cain went out from the LORD’s presence and lived in the land of Nod, east of Eden.
The first murder, first sibling rivalry, first comparison, first death in the Bible.
It should be clear that the results of the first comparison were catastrophic. The Bible begins with a story that teaches
NO COMPARISON
But this is not the only story of comparison in the book of beginnings. There is Sarah, comparing herself to Hagar, Esau comparing himself to Jacob, and, most notably, there is the story of Joseph.
Genesis 38
3 Now Israel loved Joseph more than any of his other sons, because he had been born to him in his old age; and he made an ornate robe for him. 4 When his brothers saw that their father loved him more than any of them, they hated him and could not speak a kind word to him.
Then Joseph had some dreams, in each it seemed his brothers and even his parents would bow down to him. Of course he told his family about these dreams. And the response was not good.
8 His brothers said to him, “Do you intend to reign over us? Will you actually rule us?” And they hated him all the more because of his dream and what he had said.
Joseph’s dad sent him to check on his brothers . . .
So Joseph went after his brothers and found them near Dothan. 18 But they saw him in the distance, and before he reached them, they plotted to kill him.
19 “Here comes that dreamer!” they said to each other. 20 “Come now, let’s kill him and throw him into one of these cisterns and say that a ferocious animal devoured him. Then we’ll see what comes of his dreams.”
21 When Reuben heard this, he tried to rescue him from their hands. “Let’s not take his life,” he said. 22 “Don’t shed any blood. Throw him into this cistern here in the wilderness, but don’t lay a hand on him.” Reuben said this to rescue him from them and take him back to his father.
23 So when Joseph came to his brothers, they stripped him of his robe—the ornate robe he was wearing— 24 and they took him and threw him into the cistern. The cistern was empty; there was no water in it.
25 As they sat down to eat their meal, they looked up and saw a caravan of Ishmaelites coming from Gilead. Their camels were loaded with spices, balm and myrrh, and they were on their way to take them down to Egypt.
26 Judah said to his brothers, “What will we gain if we kill our brother and cover up his blood? 27 Come, let’s sell him to the Ishmaelites and not lay our hands on him; after all, he is our brother, our own flesh and blood.” His brothers agreed.
28 So when the Midianite merchants came by, his brothers pulled Joseph up out of the cistern and sold him for twenty shekels of silver to the Ishmaelites, who took him to Egypt.
This story begins as catastrophically as the story of Cain & Abel, but, it doesn’t end there. After God promoted Joseph to 2nd in command of Egypt and, therefore, he was able to save Egypt and his family from starvation, the saga was still not finished. There is a beautiful epilogue to the story in
Genesis 50
15 When Joseph’s brothers saw that their father was dead, they said, “What if Joseph holds a grudge against us and pays us back for all the wrongs we did to him?” 16 So they sent word to Joseph, saying, “Your father left these instructions before he died: 17 ‘This is what you are to say to Joseph: I ask you to forgive your brothers the sins and the wrongs they committed in treating you so badly.’ Now please forgive the sins of the servants of the God of your father.” When their message came to him, Joseph wept.
18 His brothers then came and threw themselves down before him. “We are your slaves,” they said.
19 But Joseph said to them, “Don’t be afraid. Am I in the place of God? 20 You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives. 21 So then, don’t be afraid. I will provide for you and your children.” And he reassured them and spoke kindly to them.
Joseph’s Christ-like response has resulted in many people seeing a New Testament lesson here. We’ll come back to that later.
There are clear restrictions in the Bible against comparisons. One of the briefest statements of God’s guidelines for living is the 10 Commandments. One of those commandments is devoted to restricting comparisons.
Exodus 20:17
“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.”
Could it be any clearer? Why does God give commandments? Because He knows we need them. Where does the temptation to covet come from? When we compare what we have to what others have, we want what others have. The final, 10th Commandment says, basically, NO COMPARISON!
Yet the Psalmist, 400 years later, expresses the common human struggle
Psalm 73:2-6
But as for me, my feet had almost stumbled, my steps had nearly slipped. For I was envious of the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. For they have no pangs until death; their bodies are fat and sleek. They are not in trouble as others are; they are not stricken like the rest of mankind. Therefore pride is their necklace; violence covers them as a garment.
So far we’ve seen that comparing resulted in murder, hatred, broken relationships, and even crises of faith. The Old Testament testimony is clear. Comparison is unhealthy and should be avoided (NO COMPARISON). That brings us to the New Testament. James echoes the teachings of the Old Testament.
James 3:16
For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder and every vile practice.
But the New Testament adds still another reason to avoid comparisons-looking at yourself as superior-spiritual arrogance.
Luke 18:9-14
[Jesus] told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and treated others with contempt: “Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.’ But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’ ...
The parable is powerful, yet Jesus’ own disciples didn’t seem to get the message. . .
Luke 9:46-48
An argument arose among them as to which of them was the greatest. But Jesus, knowing the reasoning of their hearts, took a child and put him by his side and said to them, “Whoever receives this child in my name receives me, and whoever receives me receives him who sent me. For he who is least among you all is the one who is great.”
If we compare ourselves with others we are in danger of one of two extremes, either we will begin to envy and hate those who we percieve as having more or doing better than ourselves, or we will develop a fatal arrogance in which we think ourselves better than others. Paul said it this way.
Romans 2:3-4
Do you suppose, O man—you who judge those who practice such things and yet do them yourself—that you will escape the judgment of God? Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?
So, now we have the problem, clearly and excplicitly stated.
How bout the solutions?
The Bible offers several solutions to this perennial problem:
1. We’ve already discussed= Take the Eternal Perspective (Joseph & Asaph/David-the Psalmists)
2. Count Others as better than yourselves
Paul thought of himself as least.
1 Corinthians 15:9-10
For I am the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me.
Luke 22:24-27
A dispute also arose among them, as to which of them was to be regarded as the greatest. And he said to them, “The kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship over them, and those in authority over them are called benefactors. But not so with you. Rather, let the greatest among you become as the youngest, and the leader as one who serves. For who is the greater, one who reclines at table or one who serves? Is it not the one who reclines at table? But I am among you as the one who serves.
3. Follow Jesus
John 21:15-19
Peter had a little discussion with Jesus, in which Jesus told Peter that if he loved Him he should feed His sheep. Then Jesus explained to Peter that he would die as a prisoner. Jesus then said “Follow me”. Rather than focusing on his own calling, Peter wanted to know what Jesus planned for his fellow Apostle, John-“What about this one?” he asked. Jesus said “if I want him to remain until I come, what is that to you. Follow me”.
I think this gives us a hint at one solution the Bible provides to those who struggle with comparing. We just need to focus on Jesus (Hebrews 12:1)
4. Be so busy being cool and doing cool things that you don’t have time to notice or bother about what others are, do, or have.
Simon Sinek has done some writing and speaking on the subject of finite vs the infinite games. I recommend them. He also has the interesting distinction of having trained leadership in a number of companies, including a few that are in competition with one another. In one week he did training at Microsoft, where they were introducing a new, really cool product ZOOM, Microsoft’s product developed to compete with the ipod. The whole conference they were talking about Apple & all they needed to do to beat the competition. Zoom was a really cool device, and right after that conference, Sinek was scheduled to train at a very similar Apple conference. He struck up a conversation with Apple employee who picked him up at the airport & told him about Zoom and how it was MUCH BETTER than the i-pod. The Apply man said,
“I have no doubt”
That was the end of the conversation. Simon Sinek followed up this story saying,
“Because the Infinite Player understands that sometimes your competitor has the better product and sometimes you have the better product, & sometimes you’re ahead, and sometimes you’re behind.
& there’s no such thing as being best or first or beating your competition. There’s only ahead and behind. & the reality of an infinite game is that you’re actually ONLY competing against yourself, that the objective every single day is “how can we become a better version of our own institution this year than we were last year”? “How do we improve our culture? “how do we do a better job of being able to provide the service we claim to be providing?” “How do we improve ourselves?” That is the main point of being in an infinite game. Because at the end of the day we don’t have the same metrics as somebody else. & We’re not even necessarily playing to the same ends.
1. Take the Eternal Perspective (Joseph, David)
2. Count others as better (humble yourself)
3. Follow Jesus (Heb 12-Mark 4/John 6 & 21)
4. Be so busy being cool that you don’t notice what others are doing
5. Give Thanks.
Give thanks to the Lord for He is good; His love endures forever. 1 Chronicles 16:34
Speaking to one another with psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, Sing and make music from your heart to the Lord, ALWAYS giving thanks to God the Father for EVERYTHING, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Ephesians 5
Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Philippians 4
I encourage you to do a google search of all the benefits of being thankful-longer life, improved stress response, improved immune system, better relationships . . . but the Bible has been encouraging Thanksgiving for thousands of years. Modern science isn’t even catching up with the Bible’s teaching from the first millennium BC.
But if you’re paying attention you may see there are really only two points, or, really, just one.
Focus on Jesus-point your heart and mind toward God-enjoy His goodness and be grateful, and these other concerns, complaints and comparisons will simply fade=
For, when you’re looking at Jesus, there is simply no comparison.
