Volume XXIII, Number 27 (Issue 1136) | July 7, 2025
“Each one should test their own actions.”
This past Wednesday morning I encountered the following text from Galatians 6:2-5 during my devotional session.
“Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ. If anyone thinks they are something when they are not, they deceive themselves. Each one should test their own actions. Then they can take pride in themselves alone, without comparing themselves to someone else, for each one should carry their own load.”
While I have considered this text on numerous occasions, on this reading it spoke to me in a new way. I suppose that is self-evident given its prominent position in today’s missive. Perhaps it will speak to you as well. Whether it does or does not, permit me to share a few of my thoughts from last week.
For starters, how often are you and I guilty of comparing ourselves to others? When we want to justify ourselves, we think, “well, at least I am not as bad as him/her.” At other times, our tendency is to compare ourselves to someone else in ways that cause us to be envious, jealous, or see ourselves as a bit of a failure or somehow less worthy. While both comparisons are easy traps to fall into – not one of us is perfect – both are fundamentally unhealthy. When we use another as a benchmark to make us feel good about ourselves, our behaviors, choices, etc., we are attempting to justify, nay rationalize, our decisions and actions. Simply understand this: “rationalize” might be better spelled “rational lies.”
Therefore, the better basis for comparison should be
Am I a better me today than I was yesterday? (a focus on personal improvement);
Are my actions attitudes, and thoughts more or less like those of Christ?
Granted, the latter is an impossible standard to achieve but it is nonetheless a target we should consider working toward.
That said, there are valuable lessons to be had in comparing oneself to a desired persona or future state. Known in psychological terms as cognitive dissonance, it affords an individual the opportunity and means by which one can judge one’s plans or actions as being consistent (or more aptly, inconsistent) with those of a desired individual/station. All have heard the expression, “dress for the job you want, not the job you have.” In the same fashion, helping someone focus on the gap between their actions and those associated with the person or station they would like to emulate goes a long way in aligning behaviors with those of the person they most want to be like. In that vein it is akin to the “WWJD” mantra that was so popular in the Christian youth movements of the 1990s.
So, the next time you are inclined to beat yourself up because you do not match up to someone else, do not be too quick to pass judgement on yourself. We all have different gifts and vastly different circumstances and opportunities. Likewise, do not attempt to excuse your actions with thinking that relies on an inferior point of comparison. You be you – only strive to be the best possible version of yourself.
Soli Deo Gloria
“Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet.” John 13:14
J. Keith Hughey
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E-mail: keith@jkeithhughey.com
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