There is a Far Side cartoon that shows a dog in the back seat of a car as he is being driven past the dog in the yard next door. The dog in the car leans his head out the window, and with his tail wagging, boastfully declares, "Ha ha ha Biff. Guess what? After we go to the drugstore and post office, I'm going to the vet's to get tutored."
It seems that the fleshly part of us would like nothing more than for us to think better of ourselves than others. That sin nature is lifted up by another's misfortune. This is despite Paul's strict warning, "Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself" (Philippians 2:3).
This is simply not the way the world seems to work. Our competitive drive becomes a comparative drive. We judge how well we are doing by how others are doing. A "zero-sum game" is a game where all of the players' gains minus all of the of the players' losses equals zero. I can't do better unless you do worse. Having played football in high school and college, I am fully aware of the competitive drive, and we couldn't win a football game unless the other team lost.
The good thing about competition is that it fosters a drive to excel. I believe that doing everything that you can do to be the best you can be is a Godly goal. In the movie, Chariots of Fire, the British runner Eric Liddell explains his desire to be a champion runner to his sister saying, "I believe that God made me for a purpose. But He also made me fast, and when I run, I feel His pleasure." He was able to run in Olympic races because his desire was to be the best and fastest runner he could be. Winning a race meant that the other runners would lose, but the desire was not to defeat the others so much as to run the best race that he could.
Where we go astray in this urge to excel is when we decide that being a better person means better than someone else. In fact, pride and humility form something of a "zero-sum game;" the more pride that you have, the less humility. You must realize that you wouldn't be able to achieve anything if it were not for what God has given you. Every bit of skill, talent, and fortune is from Him. Yes, you must put effort into it, but even that ability comes from the Lord.
So it is with our salvation. As Christians, we can be prone to esteem ourselves better than others because we are saved. We see the worldly success of others or are treated badly by them and we comfort ourselves in the knowledge that at least we will be going to Heaven. The Apostle Paul clearly saw this tendency and deplored it in Ephesians 2:8-9, saying, "For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast." You are not allowed the least bit of pride at being saved, because you did not earn it, do not deserve it, and received it only as a gift from God. You don't get to hang your head out the window and taunt the others because you are on the way to Heaven.
A surprising twist on this was seen in Mark 9:33-7, where Jesus caught the disciples arguing over who was the greatest. Simply to be accepted into eternal life in Heaven should be a most satisfactory gift for anyone. To desire more than this, to be ranked ahead of another Christian brother in the eyes of the Lord, is a selfish and prideful desire, a greedy ego seeking undeserved approbation.
When we think of our status as one of the saved, we must not think of salvation as a "zero-sum game." In a football game, if one team wins, the other loses. Yet because you are saved does not mean that another must be damned. And it is much more than a game. Those who do not accept Christ face an eternity of unimaginable suffering. This is not a matter of sums but of division, with the condemned being permanently divided from God and their suffering divided by zero, meaning infinite. Even if you are the least of those in Heaven, you will enjoy forever what will be denied to the best person in Hell. When you look upon someone who denies Christ as their Savior, you must realize what awaits them.
Our drive to excel must be in the service of God, and part of that service means helping others to know Him. Being proud of your status as a Christian does not lead others to the Lord. In fact, the higher you esteem yourself as a Christian the worse you are doing as far as He is concerned; the more you see of yourself as winning the more you are losing. The Godly do not wish to see anyone suffer for eternity, and when we seek the salvation of others everyone wins.
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