The next section was repaired by the men of Tekoa, but their nobles would not put their shoulders to the work under their supervisors. (Nehemiah 3:5)
What a disgrace! The nobles of Tekoa were too good to join in this great work. Apparently, they were the only ones who wouldn’t help with the walls; no other abstainers were mentioned. These men allowed their pride to keep them out of one of the greatest acts of God in Jewish history.
God hates pride. It’s at the root of so many of our sins. Pride caused Satan’s fall; pride caused ours. We want to be in charge like God, but we’re not qualified for the job. At most, we are big fish in a little pond. A little bit of talent or intelligence or money or good looks or whatever… and we think we are better than those around us.
You will have prideful thoughts as you work toward sexual purity. Promise. Mine typically come around the time I meet someone who has more serious struggles than me. I think, “Huh…well, I’ve never done that.” That’s called the sin of “compare-a-son.”
I get the name for this sin from the story of the Prodigal Son in Luke 15. When the bad son returned from his sinful living, the father was so grateful that he killed the fatted calf and threw a celebration for him. The older, more faithful son had been in the field and missed all the commotion, but he knew a party when he heard one. When he learned what had happened, the older son became indignant. He stood outside and pouted until his father came out to find out what was wrong. When his father begged him to come in and celebrate, the oldest son protested that he had been good all his life. He had never wasted his money on prostitutes. Compared to the younger son, it was obvious to him who really deserved a party.
You might agree with him. The youngest son didn’t deserve a party, but neither did the oldest son. Sure, the oldest son had led a decent and obedient life, but so what? That’s what he was supposed to do. He was never promised a prize for doing what he was supposed to do.
One of the many rich teachings of this story is that God can do whatever He wants when He chooses to show grace to us. We don’t deserve anything more than hell for what we’ve done. All our good works are like filthy rags. But God, in His grace, chooses to bless us exceedingly abundantly above all that we could ever ask or imagine.
Satan is always trying to trigger our pride by getting us to compare-a-son. He points out other people who are “worse” than we are. They could be other Christian brothers or sisters, or they might just be our lost neighbor next door. We compare their lives to ours and say, “At least I’m not like that guy.” In light of the other person’s sinfulness, we look pretty good, so we are reassured about our own sin.
The problem with this line of thinking is that God doesn’t grade on a curve. God has a firm standard of morality, and it never changes. When we compare ourselves to others, we are playing an inverted game of “keeping up with the Joneses.” As long as we stay a little more moral than our neighbor, we’re “okay.” But instead of getting better and better, we are getting worse and worse. As “the Joneses” fall more and more into sin, we stay just one step behind them, still confident that we’re okay because we are ahead of them.
Like the Tekoan nobles, we stop working on our walls. Our pride convinces us we don’t need them. After all, ours are already higher than those of our friends and neighbors. We believe that we are such super-spiritual Christians that Satan can’t touch us. It’s a trap! Anyone remember this verse?
Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall. (Proverbs 16:18)
Or this one?
Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed that he does not fall. (1 Corinthians 10:12 – NAS)
God doesn’t want us to compare ourselves to each other. Without Jesus, none of us is righteous (“no, not one”). God is never impressed that we are “better” than the guy next to us. What God wants us to do is to compare ourselves to His holy standard and accept no substitutes.
Wallbuilder Ministries 