If you turn to Luke chapter 22, you will read about Jesus observing what would be His last Passover, until He returns to earth to observe it in the age to come.
Jesus instituted here the New Testament symbols of the Passover - the bread and fruit of the vine. All explained in detail in my many studies on the Passover on my website.
Notice verse 24, "And there was also strife among them, which of them should be accounted the GREATEST!!"
Oh my, the human heart, how off the tracks it can get at times. To them, 12 of them, well someone surely had to be the greatest, is what they were thinking. There just had to be a "top dog" - "a chief" above all the Indians. There had to be, to them, someone who could be the final authority, the one so great he could act as the final dictator of the group. I mean they thought, this is the way it is, everyone, all nations, did it that way, someone had to be the CEO of the company.
What did Jesus answer them? Oh He admitted the world did do it that way - a top dog - the boss of the herd as it is with a herd of horses. But Jesus said, "It shall NOT be so: but he that is greatest (well thinking that he is and maybe in abilities etc. he is) among you, let him be as the younger, and he that is chief (having the abilities to maybe be the chief leader), as he that does serve. For whose the greatest, he that sits at the food table, or he that serves? Is it not he that sits at the food table? But I AM AMONG YOU AS HE THAT SERVES!! (Luke 22:25-27).
I submit to you the above words of Jesus as pretty simple to understand. As Jesus at another time said, unless you become like little children you shall not enter the Kingdom of God. I think a child can understand what Jesus just said.
Now it's possible that someone has been given great gifts within the Church of God, someone with so many gifts that it is kinda natural for him and everyone around him to think he should be the greatest.
It may be very natural (and that's the problem the word "natural") for everyone to want to make this guy the greatest, the "chief" the "top dog" - he himself also may "naturally" think he should be for all kinds of "human" reasons.
Such has HAPPENED in the Church of God down through the centuries - others/and/or the man himself putting himself as the "chief leader" of the herd. It's all around us - the world has got to have its "leader" - some physical person has to lead this or that nation. It is so much a part of the world we grow up in that it becomes a part of us, it tends to "rub off" on us. But we Christians are not supposed to be "of the world" - we are "in the world" but we are not to be "part of the world." We are to have a different mind-set - we are to have the mind of Christ (Phil.2:5). And you see here as clear as a sunny day with no clouds, what the mind of Christ is on this matter of "greatness" in and among His disciples.
Oh the Corinthians had a mighty big problem over this matter. Paul had to lay it on the line with them. Some claimed to be of "Peter" - some of "Apollos" - some of "Paul" - and no doubt others of others. You can read about it all in 1 Corinthians chapter one and the correction Paul had to do - pulling no punches - just laying the truth down on the table for them.
How this matter has effected the Church of God in the 20th century - oh it's not anything that died away centuries ago - at times it can be very well and healthy, I'm sorry to say.
The real true servants of the Lord will never want to try and put themselves as "top dog" - they will not desire others to try and put them as the "chief" either. They will always be willing to be along side with anyone in the Church of Jesus Christ. They will appreciate the gifts God has given to others in the body of Christ. They will love and appreciate every single person in the body of Christ, knowing we are all a team, all one body of our Savior Christ Jesus.
Sure it is written the Lord has put some as apostles (just means ones sent forth), evangelists, prophets, pastor and teachers, but that is FUNCTION friends NOT some "pecking order" of "this is greater than that" attitude.
HUMILITY is (maybe the most important is) the precious gem of the Christian crown. I wrote an article called that many many years ago now. It's on my website somewhere. If you've never yet read it, I hope you will do so, a good time is now during this Passover and Feast of Unleavened Bread season.
Jesus clearly taught that there is no "pecking order" in His church that He was going to build, and as He said that the gates of hell (death) would never prevail against His church, then that teaching of His is for His church for all times, in every age, in every generation.
It truly is as the apostle Paul was inspired to write, "Let everyone esteem the other better than themselves," (Phil.2).
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