Comparison & Competition

Have you ever played with someone who was so competitive they took the fun out of whatever you were doing? Have you ever been that person? - Competition...

At least I’m not that guy…Comparison...

Often we have conflicts in our relationships because we’re comparing or competing rather than connecting & collaborating.

Self-Centered attempts to gain:

Acceptance

Security

Significance

There are lot of things that can cause conflict…we’re going to look at Comparison & Competition in 1 Corinthians 3 to see how Paul encouraged the church of Corinth to come out of that conflict.

1 Corinthians 3:1-23 Just Reference

1 Corinthians 3 NIV

1 Brothers and sisters, I could not address you as people who live by the Spirit but as people who are still worldly—mere infants in Christ. 2 I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for it. Indeed, you are still not ready. 3 You are still worldly. For since there is jealousy and quarreling among you, are you not worldly? Are you not acting like mere humans? 4 For when one says, “I follow Paul,” and another, “I follow Apollos,” are you not mere human beings? 5 What, after all, is Apollos? And what is Paul? Only servants, through whom you came to believe—as the Lord has assigned to each his task. 6 I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God has been making it grow. 7 So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow. 8 The one who plants and the one who waters have one purpose, and they will each be rewarded according to their own labor. 9 For we are co-workers in God’s service; you are God’s field, God’s building. 10 By the grace God has given me, I laid a foundation as a wise builder, and someone else is building on it. But each one should build with care. 11 For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ. 12 If anyone builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, 13 their work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each person’s work. 14 If what has been built survives, the builder will receive a reward. 15 If it is burned up, the builder will suffer loss but yet will be saved—even though only as one escaping through the flames. 16 Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in your midst? 17 If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy that person; for God’s temple is sacred, and you together are that temple. 18 Do not deceive yourselves. If any of you think you are wise by the standards of this age, you should become “fools” so that you may become wise. 19 For the wisdom of this world is foolishness in God’s sight. As it is written: “He catches the wise in their craftiness”; 20 and again, “The Lord knows that the thoughts of the wise are futile.” 21 So then, no more boasting about human leaders! All things are yours, 22 whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future—all are yours, 23 and you are of Christ, and Christ is of God.

Comparison, Competition, and Criticism

Compare-A-Sin

Comparison & Competition are often a search for Significance.

Jealousy, Quarreling, Competition

Greed…self-centeredness…

What causes fights and quarrels?

James 4:1-3 What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? You desire but do not have, so you kill. You covet but you cannot get what you want, so you quarrel and fight. You do not have because you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.

Envy & Jealousy

Vocabulary.com:

Envy is when you want what someone else has, but jealousy is when you're worried someone's trying to take what you have.

If you want your neighbor's new convertible, you feel envy. If she takes your husband for a ride, you feel jealousy.

Jealousy involves resentment towards the person…Envy wants what the other person has…Jealousy would want it and feel resentful that you have it.

Selfishness & Greed

Greed = More for Me

+ Scarcity mindset…it is the LOVE of money that is the root of all kinds of evils!

+ Stinginess = not wanting to lose what you have...Tight-Fisted

Generosity = More for Others

+ Abundance mindset

+ Giving = Stewardship (all is a gift of grace) and trusting that God will provide for you and that He has placed you here to be a blessing to others.

+ Open Handed

“I place no value on anything I have or may possess, except in relation to the kingdom of God. If anything will advance the interests of the kingdom, it shall be given away or kept, only as by giving or keeping it I shall most promote the glory of Him to whom I owe all my hopes in time or eternity.” - David Livingstone

In Christ we HAVE Significance:

We are ONE in Identity & Value

Same field

Same building (temple)

Children of God (John 3, Galatians 3-4, Romans 8, etc.)

All equal at the foot of the cross

+ My value is not determined by being right…or doing right…but by WHOSE I AM…by who I belong to…

Comparison & Competition

We are ONE in Purpose

+ All servants…

Same Lord (we are all servants)

Connotation is Servants OF God and WITH God…

+ Co-workers in God’s field

Planting, Watering, Harvesting…you could even add breaking ground…all necessary parts and not one more honorable than the other in God’s eyes.

+ Co-workers in God’s building

Laying foundation, building of different parts…

+ Build with good materials!

How we spend our time, talent, and treasures will be judged…did you invest in lasting things?

HOW we live our lives, our attitudes, choices, priorities are building something…is it of eternal significance???

We are ALL one Temple together

+ We are one temple…together.

Paul later uses the picture of being one body and each part having a different function…

What helps one, helps us all…if we’re a body, it is for the common good. There’s no reason for comparison or competition.

We have everything that we need for life and godliness IN CHRIST (2 Peter 1:3)

We have this already “In Christ!” we don’t need to strive…compete or compare!

+ HIS divine power has given us everything we need!

Conflict & Community

Challenge to repent of and renounce comparison, competition, and criticism…envy, jealousy, selfishness, and greed...

Reject the lies that your identity is tied to being right, winning, success, wealth, status, etc.

Invitation to receive…maybe for the first…or to receive again.