The Greatest In The Kingdom Of Heaven

This is the Eleventh post in the series from Chapter 5 of Friends With God: God’s Called Out Ones. In the previous post we began to examine what Christ said regarding the structure of the Church, how it is financed, and who is the leader.

In this post we will see how things were done (both rightly and wrongly) in the first century after Christ was resurrected.

How To Control Believers

Unfortunately, despite Jesus’ admonitions and instructions, “power over others” did creep into the first century church. As we have seen in Chapter 2, it was prophesied that  many false leaders would attempt to make a profit out of members, by claiming to be working for God, but would actually be using the money given to the church for their own benefit! (2Peter 2:1-3)

Such false and evil leaders will eventually get their just desserts, but in the meantime we in the church (or any organisation really) need to be careful not to fall under the sway of (or even foolishly welcome) any kind of authoritarian leadership.  

However, no matter how groups are established, sociologists have discovered that all groups eventually tend to end up with some kind of authoritarian leadership structure. This apparently unstoppable drive toward authoritarianism is termed the Iron Law of Oligarchy.

In any group there appears to be a strong momentum to push power up to those in the top positions. This is particularly so in large organisations, as small decisions can’t be determined by everyone all the time. Leaders need to be able to make determinations on minor things, or nothing will ever get done.

Unfortunately, the need for such minor decisions to be made, tends to become more frequent and of greater significance, until the leaders are dictating to everyone else what they must be doing! That, however, is not what God wants in his group of called out ones.

Yet, power going to the top is certainly evident in our political ‘democracies’, which have inexorably degenerated into elected dictatorships. We have leaders who commonly claim “mandates” to do whatever they want. They shamelessly break promises, and then claim that such were not ‘core’ promises- as if such were listed as ‘core and noncore’ to those who elected them.

Is Democracy The Best Of The Bunch?

While the creed of democracy is ‘government by the people, for the people, of the people’ it has rarely, if ever, been like that. Instead, it’s often ‘government by the rich, for the rich, of the rich’.

While “the price of freedom is eternal vigilance”, only God is eternal! Such vigilance is essential to prevent the drive toward totalitarianism, that haunts our democratic governments.

And “haunts” is the correct word, as the first democracy, in ancient Greece, also fell foul to the Iron Law of Oligarchy. Despite the many anticorruption checks and balances built into this great political experiment, within a short period of time the rich dominated the voting through bribery and vote stacking. This foundation of democracy lasted just over 100 years, before they again reinstated a King, who (just to make it sure they knew who was boss) eventually declared himself a god!

Such was the final outcome of this experiment in equality from a human perspective. Yet, as we will see, equality and respect for each other is fundamentally how God wants the church to be structured.

What the Greeks did was commendable, but they simply didn’t have the necessary wisdom of the Spirit of God to guide them. They built their house on the sand, and no matter how beautiful the design of the building, if the foundations aren’t strong it will fall. (Matt 7:24-27)

Paul Confronts Authoritarians In The Church

Paul is not subtle when attacking authoritarian leaders in the church, and those foolish lay members who actually welcome them. He mocks the Corinthian Church members, who were willingly under the authority of abusive, cruel, and merciless totalitarian leaders:

You (think that you) are wise, so you will gladly be patient with fools! (who lead you) I say this because you are even patient with someone who forces you to do things and uses you. You are patient with those who trick you, or think they are better than you, or strike you in the face! I am ashamed to say it, but we were too "weak" to do such things to you. (2Cor 11:19-21)

Paul was not so bold or aggressive to treat people this way, but apparently the Corinthians were welcoming such “strong” abusive leadership! Paul clearly told them that such leadership is not of God, but from Satan! (2Cor 11:13-15)

He also warned the young minister Timothy, to not associate with any abusive leader:

For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady, high minded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God;
Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.
(2Tim 3:1-9)

What an incredible indictment of corrupt leaders in the Church! They, like the Pharisees before them, were not children of God, but children of Satan. (John 8:42-47)

The great motivational desire of authoritarian leaders, is to acquire your money and live the easy life. (1Tim 6:9-10) This is the same in any organisation, be it church, government, unions, or business. Whom you give your money to, and what those who get it should do with it, are very important subjects dealt with in great detail by scripture, and have been addressed in previous posts from Appendix 2: Giving To God, or Being Taken For A Ride?

Authoritarianism in all its manifestations is not showing love or respect toward others. As Jesus said it shall not be so among you. (Matt 20:25-28)

Righteousness Preserves The King

Yet totalitarianism is not the same as authoritarianism. The ancient concept of Noblesse Oblige, is the idea that whoever is of a noble or ruling class, must conduct himself honourably, particularly toward those who are less fortunate, and reliant upon them.

When following this principle of Noblesse Oblige, a totalitarian regime, such as a monarchy, will not actually produce authoritarian leadership. This can be seen when the Israelites asked God to institute a monarchy, as they wanted someone to fight their battles for them. (1Sam 8:20)

God allowed a totalitarian monarchy in Israel, but he said it would be successful only if it was led in mercy, humility and righteousness. (Deut 17:14-20) so that his heart may not be lifted up above his brothers.

Kings were to lead by example in mercy, righteousness, and faithfulness:

• Mercy and truth preserve the king; and his throne is upheld by mercy. (Prov 20:28)

• The king that faithfully judges the poor, his throne shall be established for ever. (Prov 29:14)

• It is an abomination for kings to commit wickedness: for the throne is established by righteousness. (Prov 16:12) .

Unfortunately, we have the opposite of mercy and truth in most modern democracies. While the constitutions may state that the people are supposed to be equal to their leaders, in reality the leaders mostly lord it over them.

This is clearly manifested during a national crisis, when emergency laws are passed that are rarely ever revoked when the crisis passes.

Similarly, trade unions have been legitimate voices for oppressed workers, yet, often, they too have become authoritarian in nature- using strong arm thugs to force people to join, or to obey their dictates.

Both capitalist and communist businesses can be generous or dictatorial, with subsequent loyalty or rebellion by employees being the respective outcomes. We can learn a lot from such lessons of history when developing a structure for the Church.

Whoever Shall Humble Himself…

We noted in the previous post that whenever Jesus predicted his death the disciples would invariably ask, “who’s going to be the greatest, or the leader in the Church, after you’re gone?” Which is what happened when Jesus again predicted his death in Matthew 17:22-23. A few verses later the disciples asked him:

Who is the greatest in the kingdom of Heaven? And Jesus called a little child to Him and set him in their midst, and said, Truly I say to you, unless you are converted and become as little children, you shall not enter into the kingdom of Heaven. Therefore, whoever shall humble himself like this little child, this one is the greater in the kingdom of Heaven. (Matt 18:1-4)

They wanted to know who was going to rule over others in the Kingdom of God. However, Christ did not name names, but gave them the general principle that without being humble, you simply will not be in the Kingdom.

They therefore should not have been vying for power amongst themselves, as this question revealed they were, but instead should have learned to be humble, or they would not actually be in the Kingdom at all!

The next thirty verses elaborate on this topic from different perspectives. First off, he warns them:

whoso shall receive one such little child in my name receives me. But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea. (Matt 18:5-6)

What is he talking about? He is addressing the Apostles, those who would lead the church. He is telling them to be mindful to help the very weak in the church. While some may be children, others may not. The point is not the age of the people, but the fact that God loves them all, and he does not want any to perish.

Cut Off Your Hand!

He then goes on in verses 7-9 with the incredible hyperbole of ‘if your hand or your foot causes you to sin, cut them off and throw them from you.’ In the context what he is emphasising is the incredible importance of not harming, in any way, these little ones in the Church. Which is what he tells them in the next verse:

Take heed that you do not despise one of these little ones. For I say to you that in Heaven their angels always behold the face of My Father in Heaven. For the Son of Man has come to save that which was lost. (Matt 18:10)

So, Jesus progressed from ‘do not offend’ to ‘do not despise any of these little ones’. He then continued to elaborate on the same subject:

What do you think? If a man has a hundred sheep and one of them strays, does he not leave the ninety and nine and go into the mountains and seek the straying one? And if it happens that he finds it, truly I say to you, he rejoices more over it than over the ninety and nine which did not stray. (Matt 18:12-13)

He was still talking about the same ‘children’ we are not to offend, or not to despise- for the very next verse tell us: “Even so it is not the will of your Father in Heaven that one of these little ones should perish”. (Matt 18:14)

Time and time again Jesus continually hammered this point of protecting the little ones. This is not simply because the little ones are the most vulnerable, but because the apostles asked him ‘who should be the greatest in the Kingdom’.

He therefore wanted to make it crystal clear that being great was not about your being able to lord it over others, but it’s rather about fulfilling your responsibility to look after those who most need your help and protection.

Jesus continued to discuss the topic of leadership in the Church for the next twenty verses, which we will examine in some detail in the next post in this series.