John 3:30 – “He must increase, but I must decrease.”
THEME OF THE DAY. WE WILL DO ONE OR THE OTHER TODAY. Today’s scripture is the words of John the Baptist. And these are not just historical words recorded in the Bible. Since they were uttered, they have become the “either/or” of the Christian life. Every action we take; every situation we are in; every circumstance we find ourselves; every relationship we have; and every word in our conversations will do one of two things; cause Jesus to be exalted and increase or cause ourselves to be exalted, and Christ decrease. And this is a choice we are responsible for and will make throughout each day of our lives.
That last paragraph was kinda tough, huh? But not really . . . only if we are trying to do both things in our lives; do God’s will and ours at the same time. Christianity is always uncomfortable and difficult when we try to wear Christ’s yoke which He says is “easy and light” and our yoke which is “hard and heavy” due to sin. And in the Lord’s love for us, He will not allow us to wear two yokes. Pull against His by putting our own on, and welcome a very difficult and joyless Christian experience.
Yet, there is another reason for the toughness of the first paragraph and that is the “either/or” certainty; Christ either increases or decreases. This leaves no “wiggle room” of compromise or disobedience. There is no third option. We will either make Christ increase or decrease based on our actions, attitudes, and speech. Are we humbled about this? I hope so because if so, we are now on the path of being able to learn how to ensure Christ increases in our lives, not decreases. Let’s consider two applications to help us toward that end . . .
Christ will increase in our lives and thus control our lives in action, attitude, and speech when we cherish our relationship with Him as the most important and highest priority in life. I call this a “necessity of delight.” If this gets leftovers from us in time, energy, and commitment, He won’t increase in our lives and people won’t see Him through us. Instead they will see the ugliness of sinful self, and a very poor representation of Christ. Guard the sacred privilege of knowing the Lord through His Word, prayer, and church. He simply will not reveal Himself, and transform us into the image of Himself, thus increasing Himself in our lives, without a firm and uncompromising commitment to know Him through the means of grace He has given.
Another way to see more and more of Christ increasing in us and self decreasing is to ensure we are spending a lot of quality timae, especially on the Lord’s Day, with other Christ-centered, Christ-loving, Christ-exalting Christians. This is so important and sadly so lightly viewed by too many Christians as an absolute necessity for healthy spiritual growth and witness. Don’t be one of those. God places great emphasis on being together as believers. In fact, there are 59 “one another” passages in the New Testament testifying of God’s desire for us to live the Christian life in the context of together. And we will become like the crowd we associate with . . . Christ-increasing people dying to self or Christ-decreasing people living to self. Get lost in His amazing love, hang out a lot of with others lost in His amazing love, and Christ will increase in all we do, think, and say.
PRAYER: “Lord, make me so enamored with You that everything in my life causes You to increase, and me decrease.”
QUOTE: “Christ increases or decreases in all we do. Which occurs rests on where our hearts are fixed; Him or self.”