by Edwin Crozier<\/p>\n
The disciples repeatedly struggled with the very problem I have. In Luke 9:46, “An argument arose among them as to which of them was the greatest<\/em>” (ESV). And that’s the problem. I want to be great. At least, I want you to think I’m great. Of course, you don’t have to think I’m great all by myself, but greater than the next guy.<\/p>\n How easy it is to get into the competition with other Christians. How easy it is to be unsatisfied with hearing, “Well done, my good and faithful servant<\/em>,” and long to hear, “Great job, my best and most faithful servant.”<\/p>\n We long for greatness.<\/p>\n In Christ’s kingdom, however, things are upside down. Jesus doesn’t measure greatness as the world does. In His kingdom, the least are the greatest. The servants are the leaders. The slaves are the masters. The last are first.<\/p>\n We don’t climb the ladder to kingdom success. We don’t ascend the ranks to become the top dog. Instead, we descend. We humble ourselves before not only the King, but before His other servants. We wash feet and do dishes. We stack chairs and clean gutters. We visit the sick and do laundry. We interrupt our busy, important schedules to serve others with no thought of receiving anything in return.<\/p>\n Children, in Jesus’s day, were not idolized as they are today. They were a drain. Until they could contribute, they were considered among the least. When Jesus said, “Whoever receives this child in my name receives me<\/em>,” the point was in contrast to an unstated alternative. When a king, governor, or rich man knocked on your door and wanted to be your guest, and you received him, his honor rubbed off on you, your home, and your family. But a child?<\/p>\nReceiving a child would do nothing for you. A child could be little more than a beggar. But when we humbly receive the little child who can do nothing for us, we are actually receiving the King of heaven. And when we receive Him, we are also receiving His Father. And when we humbly receive the child, the honor of God Himself rubs off on us, our home, our family. by Edwin Crozier The disciples repeatedly struggled with the very problem I have. In Luke 9:46, “An argument arose among them as to which of them was the greatest” (ESV). And that’s the problem. I want to be great. At least, I want you to think I’m great. Of course, you don’t have to think…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[27],"tags":[463],"class_list":["post-98058","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-humility"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":97209,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/greatness-and-humility\/","url_meta":{"origin":98058,"position":0},"title":"Greatness and Humility","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 10, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"by Hugh DeLong Who is the greatest in the kingdom of God? Out of all the people in Galilee, out of all the people who came to see Jesus, out of all the disciples who followed Jesus, the apostles were chosen. Is that not enough? No, they constantly argued about\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1885,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/how-can-i-be-a-better-servant\/","url_meta":{"origin":98058,"position":1},"title":"How can I be a better servant?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 27, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I was reading Mark 9 and I came across the passage where Jesus says that the one who wishes to be great in the kingdom of heaven must make himself a servant and I wanted to know how I could go about being a better servant. Because I'm homeschooled\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":84181,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-would-a-servant-do\/","url_meta":{"origin":98058,"position":2},"title":"What Would a Servant Do?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 7, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"by Chadwick Brewer \"But Jesus called them to him and said, \"You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. It shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":66002,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/using-our-god-given-abilities\/","url_meta":{"origin":98058,"position":3},"title":"Using Our God-Given Abilities","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 18, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"by Bret Miller Think on These Things, Vol 55, No. 1, January-March 2024 In Matthew 24, Jesus is asked about the signs of the end of the age. Jesus then spoke for a long time on many different subjects, answering what the kingdom of heaven would be like in the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":46600,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/serve-to-be-great\/","url_meta":{"origin":98058,"position":4},"title":"Serve to Be Great","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 4, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"by Dennis Stackhouse Notice the statement made by Paul in I Corinthians 4:1:\u00a0\"Let a man regard us in this manner, as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God.\"\u00a0 Be especially careful to recognize that Paul identifies himself and his fellow workers as \"servants of Christ.\"\u00a0 Does that\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":26449,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/young-man-so-you-want-to-preach\/","url_meta":{"origin":98058,"position":5},"title":"Young Man, So You Want to Preach","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 15, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"by Eddie Bragwell One of the encouraging things that I see among my brethren is the number of young men who are expressing a desire to make preaching the gospel their life's work. Along with that the number of local churches that are willing to financially and morally support an\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98058","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=98058"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98058\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=98058"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=98058"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=98058"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nThose who are least are great. Let us receive and welcome them. More than that, let us be satisfied being them.\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"