SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 5/10/2023 10:29 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
PT-1 “The Precept of True Greatness”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Matthew
20:26-27
Message of the verses: “26 "It is not
this way among you, but whoever wishes to become great among you shall be your
servant, 27 and whoever wishes to be first among you shall be your slave;”
These
verses are telling its readers that what they thought about greatness was not
the truth. Jesus turned the world’s
greatness upside down. The self-serving,
self-promoting, self-glorying ways of the world are the antithesis of spiritual
greatness. Those have no place in God’s
kingdom, and they are not to be so among you Jesus told the Twelve. Jesus told the Twelve in other places the
same thing that He would tell Pilate, and that is “My Kingdom is not of this
world.”
John MacArthur writes “The world’s way of greatness
is like a pyramid. The prestige and
power of the great person is built on the many subordinate persons beneath
him. But in the kingdom, the pyramid is
inverted. As the great commentator R. C.
H. Lenski has observed, God’s ‘great men are not sitting on the top of lesser
men, but bearing lesser men on their backs.’
“Unfortunately,
however, there are still many people in the church who, like James and John,
continually seek recognition, prestige, and power by manipulating and
controlling others to their own selfish advantage. A tragic number of Christian leaders and celebrates
have gained great followings by appealing to people’s emotions and worldly
appetites. But that is not to be so
among Christ’s disciples today any more than among the Twelve.”
Jesus
would go on to explain that it is not wrong to desire usefulness to God, only
wrong to seek the world’s kind of greatness.
In the writings of Paul he pointed out that “it is a trustworthy statement:
if any man aspires to the office of overseer, it is a fine work he desires to
do” (1 Tim. 3:1). Paul goes on to point out more in verses2-7 “2 An overseer,
then, must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, temperate, prudent,
respectable, hospitable, able to teach, 3 not addicted to wine or pugnacious, but
gentle, peaceable, free from the love of money. 4 He must be one who
manages his own household well, keeping his children under control with all
dignity 5 (but if a man does not know how to manage his own household, how will
he take care of the church of God?), 6 and not a new convert, so that he will
not become conceited and fall into the condemnation incurred by the devil. 7 And
he must have a good reputation with those outside the church, so that he
will not fall into reproach and the snare of the devil.” From these verses we can conclude that the
standards for an overseer in Christ’s church are high. But the man who is willing to meet those
standards for the Lord’s sake and in the Lord’s power will have the Lord’s
blessing.
Jesus
goes on to say, “Whoever wishes to become great among you, and He is speaking
to be great by God’s standards rather than men’s, shall be your servant.” Jesus was not, as some have suggested,
contradicting what He had just taught.
Jesus is teaching about an entirely different kind of greatness than the
sort James and John were seeking and the kind that the world promotes. This kind of greatness that He is teaching is
pleasing to the Lord, because it is humble and self-giving rather than proud
and self-serving. The way to the world’s
greatness is through pleasing and being served by men; the way to God’s
greatness is through pleasing Him and serving others in His name. In God’s eyes, the one who is great is the
one who is a willing servant.
While
I was listening to MacArthur’s sermon on this subject I learned an interesting
thing. In the church the word deacon
speaks of being a servant, being helpful.
This was the word that the Holy Spirit used for this office. However in the Greek world that word was used
of a person doing menial work that they were hired to do, like taking the trash
out or cutting the lawn or other things like that. I think that it can be understood what the
Spirit of God chose that word for leaders in the church. Another word that was used to describe people
like this, as Paul described himself, and that word is “underrower,” a slave
who was on the bottom of a boat chained to his seat making the boat move
through the water.
Spiritual meaning for my life today: I desire to remember that the things that I
do for the Lord are things that He chose for me to do for Him before the world
was made. Therefore I desire to do them
to bring glory to my Lord.
My Steps of Faith for Today: Humility and
revival, along with memorization of Phil. 4:8 are things I desire to work on
today.
5/10/2023 11:28 AM
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