26 It shall not be so among you, but whoever desires to become great among you shall be your servant.
*Minor differences ignored. Grouped by changes, with first version listed as example.
It shall not be so among you. There can be no doubt that Christ refers to the foolish imagination by which he saw that the apostles were deceived. "It is foolish and improper in you," he says, "to imagine a kingdom, which is unsuitable to me; and therefore, if you desire to serve me faithfully, you must resort to a different method, which is, that each of you may strive to serve others." [1] But whoever wishes to be great among you, let him be your servant. These words are employed in an unusual sense; for ambition does not allow a man to be devoted, or, rather, to be subject to his brethren. Abject flattery, I do acknowledge, is practiced by those who aspire to honors, but nothing is farther from their intention than to serve But Christ's meaning is not difficult to be perceived. As every man is carried away by a love of himself, he declares that this passion ought to be directed to a different object. Let the only greatness, eminence, and rank, which you desire, be, to submit to your brethren; and let this be your primacy, to be the servants of all.
1 - "De se rendre serviteur a ses compagnons;" -- "to become a servant to his companions."
It shall not be so among you - Every kind of lordship and spiritual domination over the Church of Christ, like that exercised by the Church of Rome, is destructive and anti-christian.
Your minister - Or, deacon, διακονος. I know no other word which could at once convey the meaning of the original, and make a proper distinction between it and δουλος, or servant, in Matthew 20:27. The office of a deacon, in the primitive Church, was to serve in the agapae, or love feasts, to distribute the bread and wine to the communicants; to proclaim different parts and times of worship in the churches; and to take care of the widows, orphans, prisoners, and sick, who were provided for out of the revenues of the Church. Thus we find it was the very lowest ecclesiastical office. Deacons were first appointed by the apostles, Acts 6:1-6; they had the care of the poor, and preached occasionally.
But it shall not be so among you,.... This is not to be extended to Christian nations, as if there were to be no order of magistracy subsisting in them; but that all must be on a level, and no distinction of princes and subjects, of governors and governed; nor to Christian churches, as if there was no ecclesiastical authority to be used, or any church government and power to be exercised; none to rule, whom others are to obey and submit themselves to; but is to be restrained to the apostles as such, among whom there was an entire equality; being all apostles of Christ, being equally qualified and sent, and put into the selfsame office by him: the same holds good of all pastors of churches, who have no superintendency and pre-eminence over one another, or can, or ought to exercise any lordly power and authority, one, or more, over the rest; being equally invested with the same office power, one as another: for otherwise Christ's kingdom would appear like the nations of the world, and to be of a worldly nature; whereas it is spiritual, and does not lie in worldly pomp and grandeur, and in external superiority and pre-eminence of one another; but in the spiritual administration of the word and ordinances; which every pastor of a church has an equal right to exercise, and obedience to them lies in a submission to these things:
but whosoever will be great among you, let him be, or, as in Mark,
shall be your minister: whoever would be reckoned a great man in the kingdom of Christ, or under the Gospel dispensation, must be a minister to others if he is desirous of being truly great in the esteem of God, and of men, he must do great service for Christ, and to the souls of men; and seek to bring great glory to God, by faithfully ministering the word and ordinances, and by denying himself worldly honour and glory, and by serving others, through much reproach, difficulty, and opposition.
It shall not be so among you. No such lordship, no such authority, can be tolerated in your fraternity. The case is a rebuke of unhallowed ambition. Men prominent in the church should be the first to heed the admonition. Such priestly despotism as the absolute rule of the Catholic, Greek, and of some Protestant churches is at variance with this principle.
Whosoever will be great . . . let him be your minister. Your deacon, servant. Greatness in the kingdom of heaven consists in doing, rather than in being, and in doing for others, rather than for self. Greatness is to be found in service. Only those men are truly great who are the servants of their race, helpers of mankind.
Your minister - That is, your servant. Matthew 23:11.
*More commentary available at chapter level.