Outdo one another in showing honor…
Joshua at “In Search of the City” has written a very good post called “When it’s OK for Christians to compete.” His post is the 10th post in our chain blog on the topic of “one another.”
When Joshua writes about Christians “competing” he’s not talking about competing for place, or for people, or for money. No, he’s talking about competing with one another to show more honor to one another.
This is what Paul wrote in Romans 12:10 – Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor. (Romans 12:10 ESV)
In response to that instruction, Joshua writes:
Outdo one another, he says. Other translations say to “honor one another above yourselves.” Either way what Paul is saying is this: Go for the gold when it comes to raising other brothers and sisters up higher than yourself. See who can do it the most, the best. Strive to be number one in this arena. Don’t let anybody show more honor toward you than you show toward them.
(Please jump over to Joshua’s post to read the rest of what he wrote. It’s very good. Then, if you haven’t already, read the other posts in the synchroblog and consider writing the next post.)
Can you imagine what that would look like? What would it look like if we actually “considered others as more important than ourselves” and “outdid one another in showing honor” and all of the other instructions that tell us to put others first?
I know what it would look like. It would look like Jesus.
How has someone shown honor to you lately?