The Mirror of the Word and other works by C.E. White can be purchased on her website, cewhitebooks.com or on Amazon.

“Be devoted to one another in brotherly love; give preference to one another in honor.”

—Romans 12:10

“Love one another” is something we see all over the Bible. 

It’s easy to forget this means anything extraordinary, so I love how the next sentence takes it to a new level. “Give preference to one another in honor.” Some versions say, “Outdo one another in showing honor.”

There are about a thousand ways we try to outdo one another: in performance, success, by possessing the latest gadget or the nicest car, by dressing or looking a certain way, and by comparing our kids to other people’s kids. We can even try to outdo one another in our religious zeal and end up like the Pharisees: “God, I thank you that I am not like other people: swindlers, crooked, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I pay tithes of all that I get” (Luke 18:11–12).

But what if we each tried to outdo one another only in showing honor? Imagining a world like this makes me take a deep breath and smile, because it would mean no one was trying to overshadow anyone else. No one would be oppressing others, but rather lifting them up. We would all be happy to rejoice in others’ success even if it surpassed our own.

So let’s take that deep breath, relax into the lives we have instead of the ones we don’t, stop worrying what standards others are judging us by, and live free of all the other cumbersome “outdoing one another” that keeps us in the trap of comparison, insecurity, and fear of the opinions of others. 

Let’s attempt to outdo others only in showing honor and wow them with our love.

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