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Like Little Children
One of the strongest needs we have is the need for significance. This is the reason
The Purpose Driven Life was a best seller. Many people bought the book and never read it. The title itself resonated with people because we all have the need to love and to be loved. It is the greatest need we have and the greatest motivator of behavior. We act in ways to be loved. We conform to group pressure to be loved. Now we call it by different names - attention, affirmation, encouragement, approval - but it's really love.
No one wants to be left out; to feel unimportant. No kid wants to be the last one picked for a team. But that need often makes us competitive and drives us to seek self-importance at the expense of others. It's a dog eat dog (even though dogs don't eat dogs) world out there. We fight and compete and have power struggles because we want to be important. We get so full of ourselves that there's no room for others.
Jesus dealt with this need for love that goes awry in a pursuit of self-importance and self-promotion. One day the disciples asked Jesus who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven? Notice these were disciples - not just the Twelve but others as well. Even though we are saved, we are not perfect. Discipleship is our relationship to Jesus by which we learn to be like him. Even in the kingdom of God people strive for superiority wanting to be the greatest; to be number one; to be in first place.
Jesus has a little child stand in the midst of the group and says, "I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children you will never enter the kingdom of heaven" (Matt 18:3).We want children to learn from us, but we also need to learn from them. He defines the greatness of a child by one virtue - humility. We have to humble ourselves, Jesus tells us, if we want to be truly great in life. "Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this little child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven" (Matt 18:4). The greatest act of humility is when we admit we are sinful and cannot save ourselves. Instead of trying to earn our way into the kingdom by self-righteousness, we humble ourselves by trusting Christ alone as our Savior. When we come to the end of ourselves, we come to the beginning of new life.
 
P.S. This Sunday I am concluding the series entitled: Unless.. Meeting God's Conditions with "Unless You Are Born Again" (John 3:3). See you on Sunday!
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