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| Matthew 20:26-27 |
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Lesson # Matt. 20:26-27 Study Material - Matt. 20:26-27 You must be in fellowship prior to your Bible study, so that the spiritual information you receive can become a source, of blessing to your soul and produce spiritual growth. Matt. 20:26-27 26 But [de] it shall [esomai] not [ou] be [esomai] so [houto] among [en] you [humin] : but [alla] whosoever [hos] [ean] will [thelo] be [ginomai] great [megas] among [en] you [humin] , let him be [esto] your [humon] minister [diakonos] ; 27 And [kai] whosoever [hos] [ean] will [thelo] be [einai] chief [protos] among [en] you [humin] , let him be [esto] your [humon] servant [doulos] : KJV-Interlinear Matt. 20:26-27 26 'It is not so among you, but whoever wishes to become great among you shall be your servant, 27 and whoever wishes to be first among you shall be your slave; NAS Master and servant is contrasted here. Their concepts are quite different when applied to the temporal world and when applied to the spiritual realm. Time is very short in this life on earth. Our average life span is around 80 years. Some of will go beyond that time frame a bit. Many will not make it that long here on earth. For all of us, an end will come to this life on earth. That is certain. When we die we all face eternity, and eternity is a very long time. So we are all faced with how we will enter eternity. Do we ignore Gods Word and prepare ourselves with whatever it is we learn in life? Or, do we consider that maybe God knows little about life after all, and make some attempt to learn His wisdom? This life's wisdom is characterized with a self serving and arrogant attitude. It teaches that to be successful in life you have to be bigger, better, stronger, faster, prettier, richer, smarter, thinner, more powerful and so forth. From bikini's to platinum cards we are pursued with the idea that to have any form of self esteem we need to fit into some successful category. But what we are faced with is a world with billions of people and only a handful get the winners gold medal, only a handful get on the cover of the magazine. Many of us will end up in the middle income bracket , and many will end up in the poor mans category. In this world (in the jungle) life is rigged against most of us from the start. Our circumstances of life might be less than desirable. Our natural talents or intelligence might be less than adequate or just average. So to succeed in life we struggle and struggle from month to month, from paycheck to paycheck, and in the end we still face death either sooner or later in our life. So what is it all for? Eternity is a very long time as we all know, but generally we just do not grasp its significance for the moment. We should be investing in that greater time frame (eternity) rather than investing in the lessor time frame (our life here on earth). When death occurs eternity kicks in and we leave everything on earth behind except that which is in our soul. And this is exactly what Jesus is attempting to teach the disciples. Whomever wishes to be great (earth's definition) will end up as a lower class of citizen in heaven (we'll have to define lower class with respect to heaven). He who wishes to be last (spiritual definition) will be great in heaven. On earth, ignoring God in ones life, means pursuing pride and self serving attitudes. What does that entail? Superimposing your own standards into your life with disregard of Gods standards. It is that simple. Sometimes these standards are little things - little white lies, boasting, bragging and such. Sometimes these standards are very significant - a dictator taking over a country for his own ego and lust. There is more than enough room in this definition to include us all in some form or another. Look into your own mirror. There is always a way out of this predicament and that is through Bible study. We study, we learn, we apply self discipline in our life and we persevere in our advancement in our spiritual growth. We learn Gods standards and we change our ways. We transform our thinking, we do this all for our self and to our self. We face the easy tests and pass them. We face the tough tests of life and pass them. When we fail we ponder our destiny and just what we are giving up so we can have our little pleasure, and then we (hopefully) reconsider whether it is really worth it, and we make the necessary changes in our life and move forward. In heaven there will be inequality. The first three chapters of Revelation covers this. There will be believers only in heaven. All will have total happiness, total peace, a resurrection body and so forth, but there will be a class of believers who have advanced in their spiritual lives here on earth and to those will be given greater rewards (beyond imagination) because they have placed their own interests (worldly standards) last, and placed Gods interests (Bible study) first. To the many who have placed their own stubborn selfish interests first and consequently lack spiritual growth, those 'additional' rewards will not exist, or will be very small. Remember that passage, ' to some will be given 10, some 20, some 100,' when it comes to being paid ones just wages. In life we can see these differences with examples. Imagine being born into this life as a child of a multi-billionaire. What would your life be like? Imagine being born into this life as the child of a middle income family. That is probably where you are now. There are things that you have, but there are many more things that you do not have. Imagine being born into this life as the child of a very destitute family. You do not have very much of anything but the state supports you and you are at least alive. So it is in heaven, sort of. There will be those who have heavens support on the lower end of the scale, and granted it will be infinitely better than being poor on earth. But we are just comparing the scales here for their differences not their specific attributes. Certainly being saved and in heaven is infinitely better than being in the Lake of Fire. If you advance in your spiritual life then you will be better off than if you have virtually no spiritual growth. If however, you advance to spiritual maturity, then you will be in the greatest possible position when eternity enters your life. In this life we had no say in the circumstances of our birth, but in heaven we have every opportunity now, to define for ourselves, the circumstances of our eternal status. And it only takes a consistent daily Bible study to begin and format your life for, forever. So little to invest and so much is on the line. What is the smart decision? 
Now is the time to post a prayer. End Of Lesson Study to show thyself approved (mature) unto God, a workman that needs not to be ashamed, rightly dividing (studying/discerning), the Word of truth. |
