Greatness in the Kingdom of God

 God's values are not our human values. In fact, sometimes His values are the opposite of how most people see things. When it comes to His Kingdom, He rules according to His values. He promotes those who have the character that He is looking for. That is the character of Jesus. Jesus, Himself, had to stop and tell His disciples about this. We would think that they would have picked up on His values and began to change their character to be like Him, but they had not. Therefore, Jesus explained it to them and to us. (Matthew 20:25,26) Jesus told them that they knew about the values of the rulers of the Gentiles. Those rulers would lord it over the people. In fact, even the great men would exercise authority over others. However, Jesus assured them that among them it was not be be like that. If they wanted to be great, they had to become a servant. Then, He added that the greatest one in the Kingdom would be the one who is servant of all. That is significant for all of us.

God purpose in saving us was to forgive our sins, give us eternal life, and begin to grow us spiritually to become conformed to the image of Jesus. (Romans 8:29) Think about it. Who was the One Person who has been the "Servant of all?" It was Jesus. He came to earth for all of us. He was born of a virgin and lived a sinless life to serve everyone in the world. Then, He died and rose again to provide salvation to everyone in the whole world. While He was living on earth, He did not rule over people, but He served them faithfully. Therefore, if we are to have the values of God and be prepared for His kingdom, we must strive to be the servant of all, remaining humble, and willing to do whatever the Lord tells us to do for others. We are not saved by works in any way, but our works matter. They show the change in our character and our values. They show if we are ready to enter the Kingdom of God and hear, "Well Done."

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Tomorrow, I intend to read Matthew 21-23.