He who is greatest among you shall be your servant.

Read Matthew 23

“But he who is greatest among you 

shall be your servant.

“And whoever exalts himself 

will be humbled, 

and he who humbles himself

 will be exalted.

                                                                         Matthew 23:11,12
A subtitle in my New King James Bible for this chapter reads, “woe to the Scribes and Pharisees.”
Jesus made it clear that the religious leaders of his day, had placed so many rules and regulations in place around worship, that the meaning God had intended was being lost.  They were even being hypocritical themselves in how things were done.
God intended the laws to point the way to Him.  He wanted to have a relationship with mankind, not rule him like a slave.  The religious leaders of Jesus’ time had placed all these regulations around, that had to be followed so precisely, that it made man a slave to the law.  God had never intended it to be so.
God knows the heart of man.  He knows what we are like on the inside.  God knows if we bring a gift to the altar, whether it is from the heart, out of duty or to impress those around us.
He wants our faith and our love.  It’s really that simple.
God wants to be in our lives and His ways are not the ways of man.  God wants us to be humble, and He in His time, will give us the acknowledgment we deserve.
“But he who is greatest among you shall be your servant.” States Jesus here in Matthew 23.
It is only when we have a servant’s heart, that we can succeed for God. Even those, most successful men and women in the secular world have a servant’s heart.  I’ve spoken to many, and they all say, “I provide a service people want.”
These people are successful because they find ways of providing the service better than anyone else.  They are constantly working on how they can improve that service.
As Christians, we must always remember that we are God’s servant and that we cannot do that if we are trying to exalt ourselves.
It is all about God and others, not about us.
Someone once gave me this analogy.  She said:
“Serving God is almost like being the manager of an exclusive hotel.  God is the owner.  He had put the investment into the place.
He has a plan and the best hotel in the world.
We are His managers and it is our job to go out there and implement the plan.  To bring people into the hotel.
In order for us to do this, we must first catch the vision that He has and then go out there and show the people how God can meet all their needs.
      We must show the people that we are willing to serve them for in doing so, we are serving God.”
Something to think about:
All too often, we loose track of the fact that even God humbled Himself and became a man.  That the creator of the universe came down to us, lived among us, served us, and died for us. That he became a servant setting the example for us.  Thus we should do the same.