In the current age, competition redirects our focus away from love. Competition for resources, money, jobs, land, etc. turns into a quest for dominance and this particular issue plagues our planet. When Jesus arrived on earth, the Jews were expecting a conquering Messiah to take over the Roman Empire and the entire earth. When His ministry began, the blindness of the Jewish leadership prevented them from seeing that Jesus was the Messiah and failed to receive the revelations that were to be brought forth at that time. Instead, Jesus chose twelve men of various backgrounds to establish His Kingdom and spread the Good News across the land. In the meantime, the Jewish leadership kept looking toward the heavens for a conquering messiah who would lead them into a position of dominance to rule the world.
Competition is a quest for dominance, dominance is a quest for exalting oneself over another, and exalting oneself is an attempt to make yourself a god. In the U.S. especially, sports have promoted this cycle. Athletes are paid millions of dollars to perform every weekend. Fans choose a team to support and then over time, define their lives by the performance of their team. Some fans become ruthless bullies when their team wins a national championship and further exalt themselves by disparaging the opposing team and its fans. All of this is an attempt to exalt themselves above others.
As an individual projects or defines his life based on the performance of someone else, he manufactures an identity other than his own and creates a surrogate power. A surrogate means "substitute". The person assigns away his gifts and power to a false identity and thus causes his gifts to lie dormant for the duration of this assignment. For example, a young boy idolizes a football quarterback, he buys the team jersey with the quarterback’s number, and wears it everyday projecting himself to be that quarterback. The boy takes his focus off of what he is really called to do and fails to develop his gifts. Isn’t it harmless to wear the jersey? Only until he defines his life and hands over his indigenous power to the "false dominance" he sees in his idol.
Cravings, addictions, and compulsions compete with our natural functions and strive for dominance over us. Chemical addiction is a worldwide problem and society now assumes it to be normal. Is there any difference in an addiction to smoking versus Coca Cola, Diet Coke, Dr. Pepper, or Pepsi? When physical cravings dominate the body, the person’s gifts and calling are put on hold to some degree. These cravings compete for the person’s resources and will lead to ultimate destruction if left unchecked. Addiction takes on many forms. People are becoming addicted to video games, gambling, Internet surfing, etc. The list is endless. By looking at your time spent on activities, your expenditures, and your recurring imaginations, an honest assessment will reveal the reality of this issue.
Mar 13:7-8
And when ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars, be ye not troubled: for [such things] must needs be; but the end [shall] not [be] yet.
For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be earthquakes in divers places, and there shall be famines and troubles: these [are] the beginnings of sorrows.
What is the ultimate result of competition? War. The financial bubbles occurring over the last 30 years have been about competition for perceived wealth. The housing bubble was all about individuals obtaining a house they couldn’t afford to impress people they didn’t know thus creating a false identity. Man’s quest for power is the pursuit of a false identity. Men begin to believe that they deserve resources held by other countries and focus on a plan to take that country’s resources by force. Troops are trained to be fierce competitors and conquerors of the enemy. One major purpose of boot camp is to tear down the soldier’s emotion and rebuild the soldier to "think and respond" according to the conquering mentality.
Jesus prophesied of increased competition in the above Scripture and I don’t expect it to subside until the end of this age. Must we all succumb to the cravings of competition? An emphatic No! The Apostle Paul writes the following:
Ephesians 2
1 AND you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins,
2 in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience,
3 among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts (cravings) of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others.
4 But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us,
5 even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved),
6 and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,
7 that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.
8 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God,
We are not doomed to live by cravings but by HIS GREAT LOVE are we delivered! The solution to competition is LOVE because when you serve your brother your are not attempting to dominate him. The world is going to experience this in the age to come!