We spend a lot of time looking at other people (it’s okay, we can admit it). And we spend more time looking at ourselves. But when we look at ourselves, we tend to spend a little more time with that than when we glance at someone in passing. That paired with the critical nature of our own minds creates something that we all know too well: comparison. And that can be a massive problem, because one, when we compare ourselves to others, we tend to act as if God made a mistake when He made us the way He did. Two, we can lose sight of who God made us to be, and three, the idolizations that spawn from comparison are unbiblical.
Today, we’re in Genesis, Hebrews and John.
A lot of the time, the first comparison that we make with another person regards outward appearance. We look at someone, and for every good thing about their appearance, we find three bad things about our own. And before we know it, we, in our emotional state, see a mess in the mirror rather than a child of God. But that’s not what the Lord intends for us to do! Take a look at Genesis 1:27 (NIV), where the Bible says, “So God created mankind in His own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.” The key words there are “in His own image.” So, when we compare our images to others’ and tear them down, we’re not being humble, we’re being destructive. It’s like we look in the mirror, then tell God that He could’ve done better. And, my friends, God doesn’t make mistakes, so telling Him that He did when He crafted you with His own two hands is prideful.
The Lord has made all of us beautiful.
We have to act like it!
Comparison can also distort our perception of who God has created us to be. For example, I have caught myself saying, “well, everyone I know is in a relationship and I’m not. There must be something wrong with me.” Of course, there’s nothing wrong with being single. There is, however, something wrong with the ideology behind my thinking there—I had allowed my comparison to make an idol out of something that bothered me. Instead of loving the person that God has called me to be in this season, I was complaining because I didn’t fit my own idea of who I was supposed to be or what was supposed to be happening in my life. I was also ignoring the things that God was telling me at the time, because I was so caught up in the idea that I’m single and everyone else isn’t that I allowed it to cloud my perception of who I was in Christ. On a more widespread level, we also tend to compare ourselves to celebrities and other people online. We see curated images of people with lots of money and lavish lifestyles and think, “I wish that were me.” But, the Bible says, “Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you’” (Hebrews 13:5 NIV). That comparison spurs the love of money and luxury, and that is unbiblical (now, being wealthy itself is not unbiblical. It becomes so when that wealth mutates
into an idol).
What’s more is that the idolization of that lifestyle goes with the world, which also goes against God’s Word. In John 15:18-19, Jesus says, “’If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you.'” In our comparison, we long for “better looks” or “more wealth”—we long to be like a place that hates us. We long to be like a place that hates the One who loves us so much that he was nailed to the Cross for us.
Comparison is like the root to a weed that prevents us from blooming into the people that God has created us to be. It takes up space in every part of our lives, can be harmful to the good things in our lives, and it needs to go. We need to let the Lord weed out the comparison in our lives, and sow new seeds that produce a mindset and a heart that focuses on Him.
MEET THE AUTHOR:
Katie Pennington is a writer and editor who is originally from Hazard, Kentucky, but currently resides with her family in central Tennessee (though she frequently visits her Appalachian roots). Her favorite Bible verse is Psalm 42:5, which reminds her that in despair, there’s hope in God, and there’s healing in praising Him.