(1) we seek the right kind of greatness;

(2) we allow God to decide what is greatness;

(3) we are willing to pay the full price that greatness demands, and

(4) we are content to wait for the judgment of God to settle the whole matter of who is great at last.

It is vitally important, however, that we know what Christ meant when He used the word great in relation to men, and His meaning cannot be found in the lexicon or dictionary. Only when viewed in its broad theological setting is it understood aright. No one whose heart has had a vision of God, however brief or imperfect that vision may have been, will ever consent to think of himself or anyone else as being great. The sight of God, when He appears in awesome majesty to the wondering eyes of the soul, will bring the worshiper to his knees in fear and gladness and fill him with such an overwhelming sense of divine greatness that he must spontaneously cry "Only God is great!"

All this being true, still God Himself applies the word great to men, as when the angel tells Zacharias that the son who is to be born "shall be great in the sight of the Lord," or as when Christ speaks of some who shall be great in the kingdom of heaven.

Obviously there are two kinds of greatness recognized in the Scriptures - an absolute, uncreated greatness belonging to God alone, and a relative and finite greatness achieved by or bestowed upon certain friends of God and sons of faith who by obedience and self-denial sought to become as much like God as possible. It is of this latter kind of greatness that we speak.

To seek greatness is not wrong in itself. Men were once made in the image of God and told to subdue the earth and have dominion. Man's very desire to rise above his present state and to bring all things under subjection to him may easily be the blind impulse of his fallen nature to fulfill the purpose for which he was created. Sin has perverted this natural instinct as it has all others. Men have left their first estate and in their moral ignorance invariably look for greatness where it is not and seek to attain it in ways that are always vain and often downright iniquitous.

By the life He lived and the words He spoke our Lord cleared up the confusion that existed concerning human greatness. That is, He cleared it up for all who are willing to hear His words and to accept His life as a model for their own.

The essence of His teaching is that true greatness lies in character, not in ability or position. Men in their blindness had always thought that superior talents made a man great, and so the vast majority believe today. To be endowed with unusual abilities in the field of art or literature or music or statecraft, for instance, is thought to be in itself an evidence of greatness, and the man thus endowed is hailed as a great man. Christ taught, and by His life demonstrated, that greatness lies deeper.

"The princes of the Gentiles," He called the men who gained political power by their superior talents or who inherited their position of dominion over their fellow men. It is obvious that He was not impressed by that kind of greatness, for He drew a sharp line between it and true greatness. "It shall not be so among you," He told His followers. A new and radical conception of greatness had been introduced.

While a few philosophers and religionists of pre-Christian times had seen the fallacy in man's idea of greatness and had exposed it, it was Christ who located true greatness and showed how it could be attained. "Whosoever will be great among you, let him be your minister; and whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant." It is that simple and that easy - and that difficult.

The ease and the simplicity are there for anyone to see. We have but to follow Christ in service to the human race, a selfless service that asks only to serve, and greatness will be ours. That is all, but it is too much, for it runs counter to all that is Adam in us. Adam still feels the instinct for dominion; he hears deep within him the command: "Replenish the earth, and subdue it," and he does not take kindly to the command to serve. And there lies the confusion, the contradiction, that sin has brought, for sin is the trouble after all, and sin must go. Sin must go and Adam must give way to Christ; so says our Lord in effect. By sin men have lost dominion, even their very right to it, until they win it back by humble service. Though redeemed from death and hell by the vicarious labor of Christ on the cross, still the right to have dominion must be won by each man separately. Each must fulfill a long apprenticeship as a servant before he is fit to rule.

After Christ had served (and His service included death) God highly exalted Him and gave Him a name above every name, As a man He served and won His right to have dominion.

Christ found it easy to serve because He had no sin. Nothing in Him rebelled against the lowliest ministrations our fallen nature required. He knew where true greatness lay and we do not. We try to climb up to high position when God has ordained that we go down.