MAKING OTHERS BIG

“Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.” Philippians 2:3,4.

What an unusual quality for believers to have in a world of arrogant pride and self-interest. According to Jesus, true greatness is to be found in humble service – making others big at our own expense. This is not the world’s way of achieving greatness. In the world, “greatness” is most often arrived at, either by climbing on other people’s heads, or by self-aggrandisement at the expense of others.

There is, in the Trinity, a beautiful picture of the perfect unity and harmony between the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Each Person in the Trinity focussed on making the other two Persons big. As I read through John’s Gospel, for example, I am struck by Jesus’ passion to exalt His Father and the Holy Spirit. During an altercation with the religious leaders who accused Him of being demon-possessed (how they reached that conclusion one does not know), He vehemently defended His relationship with the Father.

“I am not possessed by a demon,” said Jesus, “but I honour my Father…” John 8:49.

Over and over again, He declared His submission to the Father and exalted both the Father and the Holy Spirit above Himself. And yet, when He was speaking of the Holy Spirit’s ministry to His disciples in the Upper Room, He assured them that the Spirit would exalt Him and teach them about Him. “He will bring glory to me by taking from what is mine and making it known to you.” John 16:14.

The Father, too, has elevated the name of Jesus above all other names and given Him the highest position heaven can afford. “Therefore, God exalted Him to the highest place and gave Him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” Philippians 2:9-11.

We not only have examples of the way the three Persons of the Trinity made each other big, but we also have the example of the human Jesus in the way He acknowledged people and treated them all, no matter whether they were good or bad, big, or small, with respect and dignity and made them big by accepting and acknowledging each person equally.

Since Jesus calls us to follow Him, and since God’s kingdom, alone, is eternal, and functions in the opposite way to the world, we, as followers of Jesus, can only find our true selves and true greatness in doing what He did. Even when He dealt with obvious “sinners” like the Samaritan woman, or the woman taken in adultery, no accusing word passed His lips, but love and acceptance that set them free.