Challenge yourself

“Should a Christian compete?” is the wrong question. We should instead ask, “How should a Christian compete?”

At its core, competition is a struggle to be the best one can be, but often people see competition as a struggle against others. The dictionary definition of compete, according to Dictionary.com, is “to strive to outdo another for acknowledgment.” We may try to compete with someone else, but who are we to measure ourselves against the gifts and talents that God has given to them alone? No personal trainer will assign an exercise program to Johnny No Muscles based on what a champion weightlifter can do—that would be unhealthy. In the same way, competing against the standard set by someone else is an unhealthy mindset and is also deeply unsatisfying for many people. A more Christian definition of competition is to strive to exceed one's own successes, successes that come from one's unique and God given talents.

In the parable of the talents, the Master is just as happy with the man who made five talents as the one who made two. If we use a secular definition of competition, this parable is useless. After all, what is two talents next to five? Yet in the world of the Master, “From everyone who is given much, much will be required, and from the one who has been entrusted of much, even more will be asked” (Luke 12:48, NET). The Master of Christ's parable sees the success of his servants and assigns them more talents so that they may exceed their previous successes, not so that they can “win” against each other.

This more biblical definition of competition renders many of the traditional methods of competition invalid. Imagine with me that the servants sabotaged each other in an attempt to get the most talents. Would the Master still say “Well done, good and faithful servant”?

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