Companions or competitors?

I commend to you Phoebe our sister, who… has been a helper of many.– Romans 16:1-2

The French philosopher Jean-Paul Sarte (1905-1980) had nothing but disdain for the concept of companionship. He saw all people as competitors. According to this view, people are always striving with one another in a kind of continual rivalry.

Competition can be healthy in the worlds of business and athletics. It becomes detrimental, however, when a person’s attitudes and actions become viciously self-serving. Such competition should have no place in a marriage or in the church.

When spouses try to outdo each other in a career, or in some other endeavor, the marriage may be in trouble. The apostle Peter, in a male-dominated society, admonished men to treat their wives as companions, as "heirs together of the grace of life’ (1 Peter 3:7).

When someone starts complaining about people in the church who always try to run things, a competitive spirit may be at the heart of the problem. In Romans 16, Paul saw his fellow believers as companions, not competitors. All Christians, men and women, are members of God’s family and serve Jesus as co-workers in the greatest of all enterprises.

Companions, not competitors – that’s what Christ wants us to be! – Herbert Vander Lugt

Lord, help me live from day to day
In such a self-forgetful way
That even when I kneel to pray,
May prayer shall be for others.
– Meigs

READ: Romans 16:1-20