Every year I’m faced with the need for insurance. It could be a simple renewal of household or car insurance, or maybe the excitement of requiring travel insurance, but the need pops up regularly. And just as regularly, I begin to trawl the comparison sites. Since I discovered them I’ve saved hundreds of pounds; they’re a great idea! Did you know that comparison, which can be both good and bad, is as old as the first human family?
Cain and Abel, sons of Adam, grew up to become a farmer and shepherd respectively. Eventually, both offered sacrifices to Yahweh from the fruit of their labours. Abel’s was accepted, but Cain’s was not, and this firstborn son was furious. He took his brother out into the fields and killed him [Genesis 4:1-8]! Such a violent reaction to comparison is not, thankfully, very frequent, but it can stimulate murderous or miserable thoughts! “Envy is an easy trap to fall into,” writes Monica La Rose. “It feeds on our deepest vulnerabilities, wounds, and fears, whispering that if we were only more like so-and-so, we wouldn’t be struggling, and we wouldn’t be feeling bad.”
Comparison is still rife; media profiles proliferate, and unrealistic images produce anxiety, envy and even despair. We are encouraged to promote idealistic visions of ourselves, so discontent and envy is fostered. As believers in Yahshua, let’s not even go there!
The apostle Peter encourages people to “put aside every trace of malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy…” as a prerequisite to being able to love each other sincerely and unselfishly [1 Peter 2:1; see also 1:22]. Peter wants us to think about who we are in Yahshua, precious members of “a chosen people…[Yahweh’s] special possession” [v9]. We have no need to compare ourselves to each other, for we are all chosen and belong; each one uniquely precious to our Father.
“Since by your obedience to the truth you have purified yourselves for a sincere love of the believers, [see that you] love one another from the heart [always unselfishly seeking the best for one another]” [1 Peter 1:22, Amplified Bible].
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1 timothy 3:16 NIV - Beyond all question, the mystery from - Bible Gateway
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