“He must increase, but I must decrease.” (ESV)

“He must become greater; I must become less.” (NIV)

“He must become greater and greater, and I must become less and less.” (NLT)

Dive Deeper:

Did you know that Jesus blatantly pronounced who the greatest person to ever live was? No, He didn’t say Himself. It wasn’t Abraham or David, nor was it Elijah or other previous prophets. Jesus pronounced the G.O.A.T. was none other than His cousin, John the Baptist (Matthew 11:11a)—a wild man that lived in the wilderness who wore camel's hair and ate locusts and honey (Matthew 3:4). How could this be? Sure, he was born in a miraculous fashion and lived a righteous (and weird) life. He was beheaded by King Herod because he stood up for the Word of God and called Herod out on his sin. He did a lot of good things like preparing the way for Jesus by baptizing and teaching, but yet his resumé still pales in comparison to other heroes of the faith. Wasn’t he brash with his words? Didn’t he hesitate to respond to Jesus’ request to be baptized? Didn’t he even ask if Jesus was the Christ when he was in jail (Matthew 11:3)? How could Jesus claim that he was the greatest born of a woman? The one word answer is humility.

Every time Jesus defines greatness, He links it to humility and lowliness. The one time Jesus even describes himself, He says that He is gentle and lowly of heart; that’s not how you would expect the King of the universe to be described. Just a few verses after Jesus makes the claim that John is the greatest born of a woman, He says, "Yet the one who is least in the kingdom of heaven is even greater than he." Greatness means humility and service, which John seems to top the list as the most humble servant according to Jesus. (That’s a pretty good nomination if you ask me.) In John 1, JB tells us he is merely here to prepare the way for the true Messiah (John 1:20-23). He knows who he is and doesn’t pretend to be greater. In John 3:30, we get to our key passage. Referencing Jesus, John the Baptist says, “He must increase, but I must decrease.”

Our criteria for humility is as simple as knowing who we aren’t. If we think we are greater than we are, we begin to live a life of pride, the opposite of humility. We begin to think we deserve something from God or people rather than having a heart of gratitude. We become harsh when we don’t get what we expect rather than gratefully receive what we didn’t deserve in the first place. We begin to expect an increase. But JB didn’t become the greatest because he increased in stature, in popularity, or in followers; he was the greatest because he DECREASED. John didn’t set out to heal people nor could he raise the dead back to life, but he knew the Man who could and who did. He did his job by pointing everyone to Jesus, and it cost him a comfortable life and his disciples. Eventually it even cost him his life.

Decreasing doesn’t always mean you lose things in your life slowly, but it does mean that Christ becomes more and more important than yourself and everything else in your life. Everything that you choose to give up is filled by Christ Himself. Your desires that you give up are replaced with even better and right desires that are eternally and fully fulfilled in Christ. Do you want to be great? Decrease.

Written by Garrett Belzer (Draft 1 due July 12)

Challenge: 

Practice the art of decreasing yourself and increasing God in your mind. Set a timer for 5 minutes after you wake up in the morning and spend the time asking for God’s will to be done in your life.

Some sample prayers to get you started:

• Help me to look more like Jesus to the people around me. 
• Do big things in my life to help me to love you with my whole heart, mind, soul, and strength. 
• Give me vision to see the needs of others and the compassion to love people like you do.