Luke 3:16 - Life is Not About Us

Luke 3:16 (ESV)

John answered them all, saying, “I baptize you with water, but he who is mightier than I is coming, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.

Untying sandals was a household slave’s job. John, the one whom people think might be Messiah, was saying that he was less than a slave compared to the one who was coming. Fame and popularity are addictive. Today we have people who are famous simply for the reason that they are famous. Popularity builds on popularity without substance. It is heady when people recognize you, follow you online, or praise you. John could easily have let his fame go to his head, but he had a higher purpose. There was one coming that he was to introduce.

That’s a good word for us today. Whatever our fame, popularity or notoriety, as believers in Jesus Christ we have someone to introduce. It’s not about us. Compared to the one we are introducing we are less than slaves. When life, family, and/or ministry becomes about us, our polish, our reputation, our standing in the eyes of others, we’ve taken the drug of popularity and fame. In taking that drug we begin to overshadow Jesus. May it never be. As believers in Jesus Christ, may we never forget that life is not about us.

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