Brian L. Knack

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What is Greatness?

    A couple of weeks ago a brother in Christ approached another brother and me before service and asked us to answer a question for him. He had been in prayer and was seeking God’s counsel on what ‘Greatness’ is and the Lord told him to come and ask us to answer that question because greatness was on us. WOW! I don’t think I have ever heard anyone outside of my wife tell me that there was greatness on me. It kind of took me by surprise and left me reflecting on greatness for most of the past 2 weeks. The following is what I have discovered about greatness.

    In my study to discover what greatness is, I of course went to the greatest one of all, Jesus. I looked over the gospel accounts of His life, watched what He did and how He behaved Himself. There are several accounts where Jesus even describes what greatness is to His disciples.

    Matthew 18:1-4, “At the same time came the disciples unto Jesus, saying, who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven? And Jesus called a little child unto him, and set him in the midst of them, and said, Verily I say unto you, except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven.”

        Greatest: Strong’s
G3187 - greater, larger, elder, stronger

    Mark 9:34-35, “But they held their peace: for by the way they had disputed among themselves, who [should be] the greatest. And he sat down, and called the twelve, and saith unto them, if any man desire to be first, [the same] shall be last of all, and servant of all.”

        First: Strong’s
G4413 – first in time or place, first in rank, influence, honor

    Luke 9:46-48, “Then there arose a reasoning among them, which of them should be greatest. And Jesus, perceiving the thought of their heart, took a child, and set him by him, and said unto them, Whosoever shall receive this child in my name receives me: and whosoever shall receive me receives him that sent me: for he that is least among you all, the same shall be great.”

        Great: Strong’s
G3173 – as belonging to persons, eminent for ability, virtue, authority, power, things esteemed highly for their importance, a thing to be highly esteemed for its excellence: excellent

    Luke 22:24-26, “And there was also a strife among them, which of them should be accounted the greatest. And he said unto them, The kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship over them; and they that exercise authority upon them are called benefactors but ye [shall] not [be] so: but he that is greatest among you, let him be as the younger; and he that is chief, as he that doth serve.”

        Greatest: Strong’s
G3187 - greater, larger, elder, stronger

    I wanted a dictionary definition of ‘greatness’ so that we may have a common understanding of the word as it is understood today.

Greatness – Noun: The quality of being great, distinguished, or eminent.

Synonyms: grandeur – magnitude – size – largeness – majesty

Great- Adjective: Of an extent, amount, or intensity considerably above the normal or average.

Noun:    A great or distinguished person.

    I’m not going to make this a long discussion or break everything down to the molecular level. By reading about Jesus’ life and how He taught His disciples to be great, I believe that the answer is very simple and straight forward!

    Greatness is simply having humility before God and man. Greatness is one who knows that he is a servant to all and humbly walks with Jesus and man in that humility.

    Micah 6:8, “He hath showed thee, O man, what [is] good; and what doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God.”

“The greatness of a mans power is the measure of his surrender.” – William Booth