Our culture teaches us self-promotion from a young age. Most of us grow up thinking the only way to achieve happiness is to reach out and take it. “The first shall be first,” we could call it. Really this is not a new issue in our sinful world. Right after Jesus predicted His death as the way to win His kingdom, His disciples asked Him who would sit in the privileged positions at His right and left hands in glory. Who would be first? Christ’s life and purposeful death cut against that grain. His life is a new standard. He is exalted because He humbled Himself (Philippians 2:8-9). Jesus is Lord because He first became a servant.


Jesus said that “unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds” (John 12:24). As a husband, I am learning that it is only through death to myself – not insisting on my own wants – that I can have a God-honoring marriage. “Whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant”
(Matthew 20:26).