Expositions of Holy Scripture: St. LukeMaclaren, Alexander
Religion
Expositions of Holy Scripture: St. Luke
Maclaren, Alexander
Bible. Luke -- Commentaries
So it comes to be a very important question for us all, how we may
not merely be content, as so many of us are, with having scraped
inside and just got both feet across the boundary line, but may
become great in the kingdom. Let me answer that question in three
sentences. The little ones in Christ's kingdom become great by the
continual exercise of the same things which admitted them there at
first. If greatness depends on position in reference to Jesus
Christ, the closer we come to Him and the more we keep ourselves in
loving touch and fellowship with Him, the greater in the kingdom we
shall be. Again, the little ones in Christ's kingdom become great by
self-forgetting service. 'He that will be great among you, let him
be your minister.' Self-regard dwarfs a man, self-oblivion magnifies
him. If ever you come across, even in the walks of daily life,
traces in people of thinking much of themselves, and of living
mainly for themselves, down go these men in your estimation at once.
Whether you have a beam of the same sort in your own eye or not, you
can see the mote in theirs, and you lower your appreciation of them
immediately. It is the same in Christ's kingdom, only in an infinitely
loftier fashion. There, to become small is to become great. Again, the
little ones in Christ's kingdom become great, not only by cleaving
close to the Source of all greatness, and deriving thence a higher
dignity by the suppression and crucifixion of self-esteem and
self-regard, but by continual obedience to their Lord's commandment.
As He said on the Sermon on the Mount, 'Whoso shall do and teach one
of the least of these commandments shall be called great in the kingdom
of heaven.' The higher we are, the more we are bound to punctilious
obedience to the smallest injunction. The more we are obedient to
the lightest of His commandments, the greater we become. Thus the
least in the kingdom may become the greatest there, if only, cleaving
close to Christ, he forgets himself, and lives for others, and does
the Father's will.
III. Lastly, I travel for a moment beyond my text, and note the
perfect greatness of all in the perfected kingdom.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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