We can’t compare ourselves to others (The Pharisee and the tax collector Luke 18:9-14)

We can’t compare ourselves to others (The Pharisee and the tax collector Luke 18:9-14)

When I was younger, I used to love the sport of powerlifting. It was a sport where you were an individual competitor who was constantly competing against yourself to out do you last performance. You looked around you and seen people who lifted more than you and some that lifted less but the important thing was that you lifted more that you lifted last time. The competition was to better yourself; it was an internally war of letting your body know that you could and will do more and as long as you kept growing you was doing fine. In the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector we see that two individuals enter the temple with two very different perspectives of how they look at their spiritual performance. The Pharisee looks at those around himself and sees that he is doing better than them so he must be doing good in God’s eyes and the tax collector looks in his own heart and humbly asks the Lord to have mercy upon him. One was religiously puffed up and self-justified while the other was broken and knew he needed help desperately.

Our spiritual lives must fall in line with the tax collectors’ heart in this parable or we are way out of line with God. Just like in power lifting when you looked within for improvement instead of focusing on the successes and failures of other, we must do the same spiritual. The great thing about living the life of the Pharisee and constantly comparing oneself to others is that you can always find someone around you who makes you look good. It is easy to pick out the failures of those around you and justify yourself in your eyes because you know, you are doing life better them. The Pharisee was proud that he was living a better life than the thieves, evil doers, adulterers, and tax collectors but the problem is that God does not judge us compared to how those around us are doing. God judges us based upon how obedient our heart is to His will and purpose for our life. It is not a popularity contest where we try to beat out all of those around us for the love and attention of God it is a one-on-one relationship where we are continually looking inwardly to see where we can improve our relationship with God. We need to spend more time looking in the mirror and stop wasting our time and energy looking at those around us to see if we are spiritually in good standing. Inward focus produces disciples, while outward focus produces religious elite.