Luke 9:46-50
Who Will Be the Greatest
46An argument started among the disciples as to which of them would be the greatest. 47Jesus, knowing their thoughts, took a little child and had him stand beside him. 48Then he said to them, "Whoever welcomes this little child in my name welcomes me; and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me. For he who is least among you all—he is the greatest."
49"Master," said John, "we saw a man driving out demons in your name and we tried to stop him, because he is not one of us."
50"Do not stop him," Jesus said, "for whoever is not against you is for you."
The disciples argued which one of them would be the greatest...It seems it is not natural for us to be humble...Competing can get us into trouble and cause arrogance, especially when we and our teams are winning...It gets easy to compete with others, even our neighbors...Our neighbors buy and have something, and then we may have this same desire to compete with them and want to buy something of greater status......Even the disciples were competing to be great...Jesus knows us, He shows us who we really are...He knows our innermost thoughts...Jesus looked at them and knew their thoughts...He took a little child and had him stand beside Him...Then He said to them that whoever welcomes this little child in My name welcomes Me...Whoever welcomes Me, welcomes the One who sent Me...For the least among you is the greatest...The disciple John told Jesus that they had seen someone driving our demons in Your name, and we tried to stop him, because he was not one of your disciples...Jesus told John not to stop him, for whoever is not against you is for you...
Jesus knows our thoughts...It is not right for us to want to be the greatest on earth...A humble person does not think he is the greatest in the group...This is not being humble (to act and think you are the greatest)...These are earthly thoughts and from earth...We are from below and Jesus is from above...We are from this world, Jesus is not from earth and not of this world (John 8:23)...But being humble is not a sign of weakness...A humble person is not a proud person...A humble person can have great authority and great strength...A humble person knows who he is...He shows his humbleness in how he treats others...Jesus was humble yet,the strongest of the strong...Jesus can walk on water, turn water into wine, heal anyone, and do any miracle...Yet, no where in the Bible do we get the feeling that Jesus is arrogant...
Jesus teaches us that another sign of our humility is to enjoy children and those who others in this world would consider insignificant...
When we see or hear about others working and doing good in Jesus name that is good...They do not have to be like us, in our group, or have our okay...Those working in His name and doing good is a Christian, and whoever who is not against us is for us...
We should, like Jesus teaches, try to share the word with others...This is the Great Commission (Matthew 28:16-20)...We should not care about material things, being one of the greatest, and status because the way to true happiness is through humility...For the least among us is the greatest...