“For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”
Luke 14:11
Why is obtaining status crucial to so many people? I mean, it seems to be the fuel that perpetuates our society in all aspects of life, a game of who’s who it seems. Some people spend their lives chasing that next level of professional or social status or both! When some manage to obtain that desired status, their thirst for the next level only intensifies to an unquenchable thirst for more– take politics, for example.
Man’s desire for status and honor is not new-age thinking. We see it occurring among the disciple when James and John sought to be seated on Jesus’s right and left hand in heaven. At one point, the disciples argued about which one of them was the greatest. It seems the disciples were at one time bucking for who would sit where at the dinner table with Jesus. So much so that Jesus introduced to them a parable.
In Luke’s gospel, Jesus uses the example of a guest at a wedding feast or a reception, as it is today, and the guest decides to sit in the chair reserved for the groom’s best man. As you might expect, the groom asks the guest to move because he’s in the wrong seat. Now the guest is humiliated as he takes the remaining seat way over in the corner of the room.
Jesus further shared that the guest should have taken the least of all the seats should the groom see him and invite him to sit closer to the main table. Then the guest is honored by being moved to a more prominent position. “Well, what if the groom does not ask the guest to move to a better seat?” If so, the guest still avoids being humiliated and is still honored by being a guest no matter where he sits.
Therefore, as ambassadors for Christ in the world, let us consider the words of Apostle Paul. Paul wrote, “Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility consider one another as more important than yourselves; do not merely look out for your interests, but also the interests of others.” Only by the example of Christ seen in and through us can those of the world see a better way, the only way– the Way, the Truth, and the Life, Jesus!
Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture is taken from the New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.
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