Comparison--and Covetousness

For the purpose of measuring progress, for the purpose of measuring merit, some kinds of comparison are essential. They tell us where we are with respect to where we were, and where we ought to be. They give us standards and a sense of values, as we compare one thing with another. This is a useful kind of comparison.

But there is a kind of comparison which becomes or can become akin to covetousness. And this kind of comparison is the basis of much of man’s unhappiness.

Even when we have what kings once couldn’t have had, we sometimes make ourselves unhappy because we don’t have some big or little thing that someone else has. Furthermore, we don’t always know how happy another man is with what he has, and we seldom know what price he pays.

We see the surface, but we don’t know what is deep inside. We see the present, a little moment of time, a little part of the picture, but we don’t see the whole eternal picture.

We see the obvious and the outward, and come to quick conclusions. But this, always, we must remember: There is a great universal law of compensation, which is simply another way of saying that God is just. And since He is just, it follows that in the ultimate accounting no man gets what he doesn’t deserve, or loses what he does deserve.

Epictetus once asked one of his associates if he would be willing to give up everything he was, to have what someone else had. The obvious answer was, “No.” We should like some things that others have, but rarely would we find a person who would be willing to change places with another person completely.

On this subject the much-quoted Socrates said, “Oh, race of men, whither are ye hurrying? What are you doing? . . . You wander up and down like blind folk: . . . You seek peace and happiness elsewhere, where it is not to be found. . . . Why do you seek it outside? . . . It is not there . . . Whom shall we trust on this matter? Shall we trust you who look upon the fortune [of others] from outside and are dazzled by the outward show, or [shall we trust] the men themselves? . . .If you had wished, you should have found it [peace and happiness] in yourselves and would not have sought the things of others as your own.”

Even in the midst of plenty, even in the midst of comfort, much unhappiness, much discontent come from the kind of comparisons that are akin to coveting. “Thou shalt not covet,” is still a valid commandment for peace of all people.