But Jesus called them to him, and saith unto them, Ye know that they which are accounted to rule over the Gentiles exercise lordship over them; and their great ones exercise authority upon them. But so shall it not be among you: but whosoever will be great among you, shall be your minister: And whosoever of you will be the chiefest, shall be servant of all. For even the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many (Mark 10:42-45).
" + "Doubtless, we have all heard the phrase: "We make our living by what we get, but we make our lives by what we give." From the focus of the "holiday season" and many of the Christian inspiration books lining the shelves, many of us are overly focused on our "living," namely what we get, and less focused on "our lives," namely what we give, if this is even a concern of ours at all. Or, we see "our lives" as a utilitarian means to "make our living," or a subjective end, that is, many of us give in order to get—with strings attached. Why? Because that which we receive is and indeed becomes a means of validating our lives; what we receive or do not receive signifies how "successful" we are. Thus, more possessions or money signifies more prosperity, more faith and, consequently, a higher caliber of Christianity.
" + "Like James and John, we desire to sit at the right and/or the left of Jesus in his glory. Some of us, like the sons of thunder, are ignorant of the self-denial and sacrifice that drinking of the cup of Jesus and sharing in his baptism entail (Mark 10:38). However, there are many of us, who perceive that in order to be glorified with the Risen Lord there must be a dying with him in his baptism and yet still seek to eek out ways of our own, because of the judgment that we know better than God. To some of us, loving our neighbors as ourselves is a sign of weakness; in truth we'd rather "exercise lordship" over others through firm reliance on the example of our power over against the power of our Example. There is still the sinister belief that if we've memorized a certain number of scriptures, or if we speak in tongues, or if we've done "good works," as if plugging in the A's and B's or X's and Y's to satisfy some algebraic equation, then such - as obvious signs of our greatness - profits us something. This is simply not so (1 Corinthians 13:1 - 13).
" + "Such attitudes betray the fact that we still possess positive views of ourselves; that is, we truly believe that it is acceptable both to desire to please ourselves (pride) and to seek after those things, which please self (lust). To the degree that this is the case, we witness to the fact that we are still on the throne, relegating God to the position of co-pilot or co-signer (or Santa Claus no less); we witness to the ways in which we still idolize ourselves over against the sincere, faithful desire to be as Christ is in the world (1 John 4:16 - 21).
" + "Make no mistake, we—as Christ was—are born to die; we are born to die to ourselves and to those relationships which have heretofore defined us, be they national, racial, cultural, social, philosophical, religious, etc. Our sole identification must be with Christ, for it is only then that God empowers us to walk in the liberty and newness of the adoption of sons and daughters (2 Corinthians 3:16 - 18; 5:16 - 17). In John 5:39, Jesus says to the Jews, "Search the Scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me." Jesus goes on to say that in writing the Torah, which the Jews in 1st century Palestine and many orthodox and unorthodox Jews today still esteem greatly, Moses wrote of him (John 5:46). Thus, we see that Jesus came to understand his identity and the prophetic, kingly, and priestly functions God ordained for him to perform by reading, studying, obeying and believing the Scriptures. That is, Jesus had faith in the Word of God; more, it is this faith, the faith of Jesus Christ, which enables us to have faith in Christ and to love God with all and our neighbors as ourselves (Matthew 22:36 - 40; Galatians 2:20).
" + "In truth, we are born again for the purpose of dying to ourselves, so that we may live as God wills, that is, by witnessing to the unconditional love of God in thought, word, and deed. This means that we must love our neighbors even at our own expense without thought for compensation or reward (Isaiah 58:5 - 7; 61:1 - 3). As we meditate on what being born to die means for us, let us commit and/or continually re-commit ourselves to doing those practical things that witness this death to self: obeying the Word, prayer, meditation on the Word, and fasting. Further, let us strive to exhibit a Godly concern for the "least of these" (Matthew 25:34 - 40). In this manner, we are not born again and do not die to ourselves in vain (Hebrews 9:27 - 28).
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