Servant leadership

Matthew 23:11-12 (NASB)

The greatest among you shall be your servant and whoever exalts himself shall be humbled and whoever humbles himself shall be exalted.

I can’t help it, when I read this passage, I think of all my years in the businessworld where the higher rank of a person, the more that person expected to be exalted.  This is certainly true in the military although justifiable.  When you read the context of these statements you find that Jesus was aiming them at the religious leaders of that time, the Pharisees.  They, like so many people with worldly power today, expected to be exalted, to be treated with honor and respect, not because of whom they were as people, but who they were because of their title or rank.

Jesus made many kinds of statements like this one that must have boggled the minds of His hearers then (and outraged the self-centered Pharisees) as it does to us today.  Really, reflecting on the standards of worldly societies and organizations, a statement that leaders of those organizations should be servants and humble themselves seems preposterous.  Yet, these kinds of “contrary to the world standard statements” that Jesus consistently uttered, are in line with the verse from Isaiah 55:8 that “….My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways, declares the Lord.”  Jesus’ teachings are always opposite of what the world teaches.    

Indeed, it takes great faith to believe and great humility to practice servant leadership.  Humanly, we all want to be praised, applauded, exalted, and served.  However, if you seek to be a Spirit-filled Christian, your sincere desire must be to serve, to humble yourself by putting others’ needs first, and to love others as you love yourself.  Deep down you know that this is a great truth, yet it is so difficult to practice.  What can you do to start or continue the practice of serving others first?  One suggestion simply is to start encouraging someone through kind words and thoughtful actions without any regard to what that person will do in return.