If you were going to measure the distance between your house and your favorite store, would you use a measuring cup or a ruler? If you wanted to find out how much you weigh, would you use a measuring spoon or a yardstick? At your annual performance review at work, does your boss only compare you to other employees? These are, of course, absurd examples. You would use a device to measure miles to find the distance to your favorite store, a scale to find your weight and your boss should use a set of standards for your job description. There is a correct measuring stick for each of these situations. Likewise, there is a correct measuring stick we must use in spiritual matters.
Consider for a moment the parable Jesus gave in Luke 18:9-14.
Also He spoke this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous while despising others. Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, “God, I thank You that I am not like other men – extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I possess.” And the tax collector, standing afar off, would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, “God, be merciful to me a sinner!” I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.
The Pharisee determined his righteousness by comparing himself to others. Jesus condemned him for using the wrong measuring stick.
In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus taught against unrighteous judgment (Matthew 7:1-5). He condemned anyone who would judge the seemingly small sin of another while ignoring his own significant faults. The individual with a plank in his own eye trying to remove the speck in another’s eye was using the wrong measuring stick.
If our righteousness is not found by comparing ourselves to others, what is the correct measuring stick? The first part of 2 Corinthians 13:5 says, “Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves.” Paul made it clear Christians must compare themselves to something. James compared someone who hears God’s Word but does not obey it to an individual who looks at himself in a mirror but walks away without fixing any flaws he sees (1:23-24). The next verse explains to what an individual should compare himself. “But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does.” Clearly, God’s Word is our measuring stick. “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work” (2 Timothy 3:16-17).
Examine your life. Use the correct measuring stick for the job. Compare your words and actions to God’s Word. Make changes as needed.
