‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men...'

(see Luke 18:9-14)

One person may be a relatively decent sinner and another may be a flagrant sinner, but both are sinners... If sixty is the passing grade... it does not matter if you scored forty and I scored twenty. We both failed to get a passing grade. There is no point in your boasting that your failing grade is superior to mine. The only thing that matters is that we both failed the exam...

This eliminates any room for comparison of ourselves with others who may appear more sinful - or at least less holy - than we are. So if we are to live by the gospel every day, all tendency to compare ourselves with other believers, not to mention unbelievers, must be put away. Rather we must measure ourselves against God's perfect standard and daily confess that we have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.

-Jerry Bridges, The Discipline of Grace, p.52-53