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To one degree or another, most of us have a competitive edge. Children race to be first. Family game night quickly becomes a fun-filled clash. Athletes push themselves to the limit to outperform. In the workplace, employees strive for advancement and promotion. There is something inside us that responds to challenge. We want to test ourselves. We want to excel. We want, if we are honest, to outdo others.
Competition can be misused by pride and envy. But the competitive drive—the impulse to strive and surpass—is not automatically sinful. In fact, the Bible takes competition, places it in the context of the gospel, and directs it as a fruit of love. The Apostle Paul wrote: “Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor” (Rom. 12:10).
The word “outdo” translates a word that carries the idea of going before or taking the lead. When someone is training for a race, he sometimes has a pacer—someone who runs just ahead of another to set the pace. That is Paul’s point. In brotherly love, each of us should think of ourselves as pacesetters staying just ahead of everyone else. And it paints quite the picture. If everyone does this—one person runs out front to set the pace, but then someone else overtakes him to do the same—you get a competition to outdo one another.
This brotherly affection is demonstrated in competing to show honor. As it is used here, “honor” is a word that means “esteem” or “dignity.” We are to treat fellow believers with the same regard that Christ Jesus has for them. This means that we value them not on the basis of their usefulness, personality, or status but according to the same love with which Jesus freely loves His own.
Positively, to honor other Christians is to acknowledge God’s grace at work in them. Like you, they are being transformed into the image of Christ. It means recognizing them as vital members of Christ’s body and appreciating the gifts of the Spirit through which they serve others.
Honor subdues the sins that often divide the church and create sinful rivalries. It kills envy at another’s success, refuses indifference and coldness, and rejects the pride of self-exaltation that regards others as inferior. Where honor flourishes, contempt cannot survive.
This is not how the world competes for honor. There, competition is a contest to secure recognition, influence, or applause for ourselves. We strive to be noticed and regarded as better than others. But in the arena of the church, our competition is of a different kind. Secure in Christ, we contend to bestow honor on others, and it is our glory to set the pace in doing that.
Imagine, if you will, a congregation whose every member races not to gain recognition but to give it, a love-based competition to outdo one another in showing honor. Such a competitive spirit would not fracture the body; it would draw it together in the bond of genuine brotherly affection.