Decreasing and increasing
posted by Jesse on Saturday, April 12, 2008 at 8:17 pm
I just wanted to share some thoughts with you from a passage that I was reading the other day in John. Chapter 3, verses 22-36. It’s John the Baptist’s response to those who were asking him about the attention that was being taken away from him because of Jesus and his ministry. John’s response is extremely revealing of the way he viewed himself in light of the savior. I hope that you’ll read the entire passage on your own, but I want to focus on verse 30, where John says of Jesus, “He must increase, but I must decrease.”
That sounds simple enough, I guess, but it’s important that we ask what it really means. What does it mean to increase and decrease? Well, I’m sure that there’s a lot more than I’m going to write about here, but here’s a couple thoughts that come to my mind when I think about this.
First, increasing and decreasing has to do with importance. Ask yourself this: how important do I think I am? Although we might have an important role in our family, our church, our community, etc., the fact is that God could use anybody to fill that role. He is not depending on you to fulfill His will or to make Him complete. But on the contrary, without Him we would be nothing and would have nothing. This is exactly what John says in verse 27, “A man can receive nothing, except it be given him from heaven.” John the Baptist certainly had an significant role in being the “forerunner” of the messiah, but he had a proper perspective in realizing that any importance that he had in this world came directly from God. He was entirely willing to decrease his role of importance and influence in order that Jesus might increase in His.
Second, it is a matter of attention. This crowd of Jews and John’s followers mentioned to John that “all men come to him [Jesus].” I get the sense from this passage that they were sincerely worried about this, kind of like the leaders of a political party when their candidate starts getting overshadowed by the other candidate. This didn’t seem to bother John though. In fact, he was happy to see Jesus receiving the attention because he knew that Jesus was the incarnate God, and therefore knew that He deserves a place of glory and honor.
Above both of these first two things, I believe that this thought of increasing and decreasing is primarily an issue of glory. It is so vitally important that we realize that God’s one single reason for doing all that He does is to receive glory. What I find interesting is that this one area has been attacked by the devil more than any other. The thing that he hates more than anything else is to see God receiving glory. What was it that he tempted Adam and Eve with: pride. What did he unsuccessfully tempt Jesus with: pride. What was David’s greatest sin? Adultery with Bathsheba? No, it was in II Chronicles 21 when satan directly tempted David with pride by numbering his kingdom so he could know how powerful he was, and how big of an army he had. When man is filled with pride, he attempts to take from God the glory that belongs to Him.
Pride is at the heart of sinful human nature, and unfortunately our susceptibility to it does not seem to diminish once we come to know Christ. Examine yourself carefully and I bet that you’ll see, as I have in my life, that nearly every sin issue that you have comes from a pride problem, and pride is nothing more than an attitude of independence from God. This is the constant struggle of the Christian life; it’s a struggle of dependence or independence, of decreasing or increasing.
Sadly we can even find this pride in Christian ministry. Unfortunately I have found myself many times serving and ministering not with a heart of glorifying and increasing the name of Christ, but to meet my own needs of fulfillment, praise, acceptance, and significance. Let’s just cut to the chase and call this what it is: idolatry. It is nothing more than self-worship, and I truly believe that more Christians are guilty of it than we think. If we are not in the process of increasing Christ and decreasing self, then we are functioning from a motive of independence and pride which always will magnify self. The scary thing is that it can even look good on the outside: the missionary going to a foreign field, the pastor leading his church, the Christian attending church 9 times per week. As humans, and especially Americans, we are impressed with action and results. God, however, sees right through these things and sees our motives, our intent, and our purpose in why we do everything we do.
So, how about it? Are you increasing or decreasing? In your life, is Christ being increased or decreased? Is God’s glory being magnified and shown through your life, or are you too concerned about receiving the importance, the attention, and the glory for yourself?
Category: christianity
