“He must increase, but I must decrease.” – John 3:30
John the Baptist was a Big Deal and everyone knew it. He was the first true prophet in Israel in hundreds of years. He was calling people to repent of their sins and crowds were flocking to him! He was the talk of Israel. However, John knew that he was just God’s “opening act”. He had a purpose and that purpose was to prepare people for the coming of God’s Anointed One, the Messiah, the Christ, Jesus.
When John’s followers became concerned and jealous about the rising attention being paid to Jesus, John gave the answer recorded in this verse. It’s the perfect heart attitude of every true follower of Jesus. Jesus must increase. People must look to Him, see Him, believe in Him, be saved by Him, and worship Him. We are His messengers and royal ambassadors. He is the King. We must diminish in stature, pointing people toward Jesus rather than ourselves.
As Christians, we should be humbly, deeply aware that we’ve been forgiven, adopted, and exalted as a gift of God’s grace received only through faith in Jesus. We’ve earned none of the overflowing love God has for us. We must recognize that the life transformation we’ve experienced in Christ has been a work of God’s Spirit rather than our self-discipline. We should learn to be content being enormously loved by God, united with Jesus, and filled with the Holy Spirit. We shouldn’t need to distract or divert people from seeing, hearing about, and believing in Jesus.
As you mature in Christ, are you increasingly content for less and less attention to be paid to you so that more is directed toward Jesus? John showed us the way. Will you follow it? #FollowJesus