What Does The Bible Say About Competition
Competition is something we all experience, and it can be good or bad. It’s important that we understand what the Bible says about competition so we can apply it to our lives. Here are some ways Godly competition can help us:
Everything we have and do is a gift from God.
- God is the source of all things.
- God is the giver of all things.
- God gives us the ability to do things, have things and achieve things.
Godly competition helps you to focus on what’s important.
When we focus on ourselves, and not on our competition, it helps us to stay focused on what really matters. We can’t control what others do. We can only control how we respond to them. When you’re competing with someone else in a race, who’s more likely to win? The person who spends their time thinking about how fast their competitor is running or if they’ve had any injuries recently? Or the person who knows that they have trained hard and has put in the work necessary to be ready for this race?
When you let yourself get distracted by other people’s actions and performance instead of focusing on yourself and your own performance, it can be easy to forget why you’re even doing something like running in a race at all—because ultimately our goal should be glorifying God through whatever we do (1 Corinthians 10:31).
Godly competition encourages cooperation instead of selfishness.
Godly competition encourages cooperation instead of selfishness.
- We need to do our best for Jesus, not ourselves.
- God is the only one who can judge your heart and motives, not other people or even yourself.
Godly competition means using our resources wisely.
Godly competition means using our resources wisely. The Bible teaches us to be productive and creative with the time, money, and energy that God has given us.
A person who is not careful of his or her resources will soon find themselves with nothing to share or use at all. You should never be wasteful in any way!
Godly competition puts the glory where it belongs.
Godly competition puts the glory where it belongs: on God. We are to glorify God in all that we do, so when you compete, you should always put the glory in Him. This means more than just saying a prayer before your event; it means doing everything with His glory in mind.
For example, if you’re competing against others and find yourself getting jealous or angry because someone else won a championship title and not you, that’s not putting the glory where it belongs. Instead of focusing on how happy they make themselves feel by having that title (which is what their sinfully elevated hearts want), focus on how much happier God will be when He sees how many souls were saved through His grace during your event!
Competition can be good for us when it inspires us to do our best for Jesus.
The Bible tells us that we are to be competitive in the right way. The apostle Paul wrote that we are to do everything we do for Jesus Christ, who is our ultimate goal (1 Corinthians 10:31). We are also told that our works should not just be for people, but for God (Ephesians 2:9-10). When it comes to competition, this means that the person who wins should not feel as though they have done so because they are better than everyone else—they won because they wanted their work or product to be seen as having value before God.
Competition is good when it inspires us to do our best for Jesus. A business owner could use competition as a motivator in his daily life: if there is another business nearby with better products or services, he may feel inspired to improve his own offerings in order to keep up with them and gain more customers who appreciate what he has done well enough that they will come back again and again.*
Competition is a natural part of life. We all want the best for ourselves and our loved ones, and sometimes that means being better than others. But we also need to remember that God’s ways are not our own. He has given us this world to use wisely as stewards—and that includes competition as well as everything else in it! So next time you find yourself feeling jealous or envious of another person, remember these truths about how God views competition: It helps you focus on what matters most; it encourages cooperation instead of selfishness; it puts the glory where it belongs (on Jesus). And when those feelings strike again, turn them into motivation for your own good deeds instead of focusing on what someone else has or does not have!