But they measuring themselves by themselves, and comparing themselves among themselves, are not wise. — 2 Corinthians 10:12

One of my son’s most prized possessions is a simple tape measure. He carries it around the house, and he measures anything he can find. He has measured the television, couch, and, much to their dismay, the dogs. He is always trying to measure things and see how they compare to other things.

One day, he decided that he wanted to measure his height. He asked for my help and used his measure to see how tall he was. Then, he took the same tape measure and wanted to see how tall I was. He compared, realizing that I was taller. He quickly told me one day, he would be tall like me.

As he compares the length, height, and width of things, he has learned that some things don’t measure up like others. Sometimes things don’t fit. But it seems that he always has something that he is comparing it to. As I reflected on that one day, I thought of this verse in 2 Corinthians.

There are many people in life that would like to look at themselves as model Christians. They believe that many others should strive to be like them. That is not to mean they are a bad person, but scripture teaches us that none of us are perfect. We were given the perfect example of Jesus to live our lives by.

But we often look at and judge things by our own measuring stick. But the real measuring stick should be God. Instead of measuring things to ourselves, we should measure them by God’s word and the will of God. We won’t be judged by how things measure up to other Christians or even our own example. We will be judged on how things measure up to God.

Jared Dyson

Another Well Ministries