“…till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ…”
Ephesians 4:13
There is one singular desire for the church–to be like Jesus. How often we have prayed, “Lord, make me like You!” We are all headed towards that glorious end. And though “it has not yet been revealed what we shall be,” we know this, “that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.” (1Jo 3:2) Until that time, we must remind ourselves that He is the pattern. God has predestined us “to be conformed to the image of His Son,” (Rom 8:29) so with this glorious goal in mind, we shouldn’t make the mistake of measuring ourselves by one another.
As we studied in Acts 11 last week, we saw God’s record of Barnabas. We read, “he was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and of faith,” and through his labor, “a great many people were added to the Lord.” (Act 11:24) It was by his efforts that a man named Saul came to be accepted by the church in Jerusalem (Act 9:26-28) and who later would serve the church along side Barnabas in Antioch. (Act 11:25-26) But as time went on, we would come to know Saul as the Apostle Paul, and Barnabas would fade from the spotlight as God began to bless Paul’s ministry.
The point is this–if Barnabas had begun to compare himself with Paul, he might have viewed his ministry as a failure. Much like John the Baptist when Christ began His ministry, Barnabas would decrease as Paul would increase. We have no idea how Barnabas’ ministry ended. Were many more souls saved under his preaching? Was he responsible for more church plantings among the Gentile? We don’t know, but we do know the record we have of God. Barnabas “was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and of faith”. He was a faithful servant of Jesus Christ mightily used by the Lord, period! Comparing ourselves to others will only lead to pride or discouragement. What matters is what God thinks of us.
Remember, God is the Creator. He formed our physical bodies and He is the One fashioning the spiritual body of Christ. In 1Co 12:16-18, we read: “And if the ear should say, ‘Because I am not an eye, I am not of the body,’ is it therefore not of the body? If the whole body were an eye, where would be the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where would be the smelling? But now God has set the members, each one of them, in the body just as He pleased.” You are exactly who you are supposed to be in Christ. Don’t forget it! When Jesus told Peter how he would glorify God in his death, Peter looked at John and said, “What about him?” Jesus said to him, “ If I will that he remain till I come, what is that to you? You follow Me.” (Jn 21:22) It’s spiritually unhealthy to measure ourselves by one another. We’re actually setting our sights too low. Christ is our standard. We must fix our gaze on Him!
Jamie