Prior Book | Prior Chapter | Prior Verse | Next Verse | Next Chapter | Next Book | Viewing NASB and Amplified 2015 | |
NASB | Matthew 11:11 "Truly I say to you, among those born of women there has not arisen anyone greater than John the Baptist! Yet the one who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. |
AMPLIFIED 2015 | Matthew 11:11 "I assure you and most solemnly say to you, among those born of women there has not risen anyone greater than John the Baptist; yet the one who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater [in privilege] than he. |
Subject: "Least in the kingdom of God"? |
Bible Note: Zsuzsi I’m sorry for jumping into your discussion with Emmaus. However, I enjoyed it and wanted to offer a few thoughts on the topic. So, I hope you both don’t mind…. There is a term called 'self-mastery'. This concept is a paradox in the sense that by being the absolute master of our own lives, we freely put ourselves into slavery. Jesus and Paul were both excellent examples and teachers of the concept. Very simply, as we are able to control and/or remove from ourselves all of the different forms of personal slavery (Gen 4:7 and Mt 6:24) - whether it’s the holding on to old feuds, dislikes for this person or that person, addictions, and so on. Then we are able to progress to the point in which we are in a position to allow ourselves to more fully and freely experience Gods love. (By the way, God provides healing grace to help us reach that point). The more we allow ourselves to freely accept Gods love, the more we will desire to continue experiencing the greatness of that love. And, we will also desire to respond to that love with our own love and desire to serve God with all of our heart, soul and mind (Mt 22:37) – to put ourselves into a voluntary slavery. Love responds to love. Our response to that love will be such that we will want to do whatever God asks of us. As an act of self-love (Mk 12:31) we always move towards what we feel is the greatest good. By desiring to live within the presence of Gods love, we are freely choosing this as the greatest good. God’s purpose for creating man is for all men and women to live in union with God (Lev 19:2 and Jn 17:21). God’s desire is that we give glory to God (Jn 17:1) and to help our brothers and sisters come into union with God (Jn 17:22 and Mt 9:31) in order that they also will experience (as we do) Gods love (Jn 17:26 and Mk 12:31). To paraphrase St Catherine of Siena: ‘The sweetest tears that we can ever express, are for those who will never experience God’s love – because their source is a love for our brother, as strong as we have for ourselves”. The question now becomes, to what degree do we try to serve God; specifically in helping our brothers and sisters experience Gods love. Will it be just on Sunday at our church service or will it be every moment of every day, in good weather or bad, to people who respond to our efforts as well as those who will mock us and humiliate us and sometimes, provide us with physical suffering (Jn 17:14). However, keep in mind that there where times in which Jesus, Himself, turned and left a town rather than being attacked. So God prefers that we also use a little bit of wisdom. By mastering our own being, we will have absolute and complete control over our life - and when we fully experience Gods love, we will freely give up our own life in order to become a slave to serve God (Mt 10:39 and Rom 1:1). Not a physical death, but a death to serving our own desires (our other masters) and choosing the life of serving God. Our free-response sacrifice (a free-will response to Gods love) for the glory of God is not just to appreciate what Jesus did for us – but it is actually joining Jesus in the act of His love for God (Jn 17:18-22). It was this act (His ministry and suffering on the cross) – all done with the purpose of serving God by bringing His brothers and sisters to know God’s love (Mt 12:49-50). This is how the acts of sacrifice and suffering is loved by God, as well as God’s love for the individual. Any other sacrifice and suffering not with this center, is hollow. We must also remember that the main teaching of Jesus, first and foremost, was about loving God, not loving Jesus. Although, we do love Jesus with all of our heart, soul and mind. Brian |