He must increase

John 3:22-36 from the daily reading in the One Year Bible

After these things Jesus and His disciples came into the land of Judea, and there He was spending time with them and baptizing. ²³ John also was baptizing in Aenon near Salim, because there was much water there; and people were coming and were being baptized— ²⁴ for John had not yet been thrown into prison.

²⁵ Therefore there arose a discussion on the part of John’s disciples with a Jew about purification. ²⁶ And they came to John and said to him, “Rabbi, He who was with you beyond the Jordan, to whom you have testified, behold, He is baptizing and all are coming to Him.” ²⁷ John answered and said, “A man can receive nothing unless it has been given him from heaven. ²⁸ You yourselves are my witnesses that I said, ‘I am not the Christ,’ but, ‘I have been sent ahead of Him.’ ²⁹ He who has the bride is the bridegroom; but the friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly because of the bridegroom’s voice. So this joy of mine has been made full. ³⁰ He must increase, but I must decrease.

³¹ “He who comes from above is above all, he who is of the earth is from the earth and speaks of the earth. He who comes from heaven is above all. ³² What He has seen and heard, of that He testifies; and no one receives His testimony. ³³ He who has received His testimony has set his seal to this, that God is true. ³⁴ For He whom God has sent speaks the words of God; for He gives the Spirit without measure. ³⁵ The Father loves the Son and has given all things into His hand. ³⁶ He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.”

“He who has the bride is the bridegroom”   John makes this reference to Jesus as the groom and His followers as His bride. Throughout scripture Jesus is compared to a groom and a loving husband. In Matthew 25 Jesus tells the parable of the ten virgins, a parable of the kingdom:    “Then the kingdom of heaven will be comparable to ten virgins, who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. ² Five of them were foolish, and five were prudent. ³ For when the foolish took their lamps, they took no oil with them, ⁴ but the prudent took oil in flasks along with their lamps. ⁵ Now while the bridegroom was delaying, they all got drowsy and began to sleep. ⁶ But at midnight there was a shout, ‘Behold, the bridegroom! Come out to meet him.’ ⁷ Then all those virgins rose and trimmed their lamps. ⁸ The foolish said to the prudent, ‘Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.’ ⁹ But the prudent answered, ‘No, there will not be enough for us and you too; go instead to the dealers and buy some for yourselves.’ ¹⁰ And while they were going away to make the purchase, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went in with him to the wedding feast; and the door was shut. ¹¹ Later the other virgins also came, saying, ‘Lord, lord, open up for us.’ ¹² But he answered, ‘Truly I say to you, I do not know you.’ ¹³ Be on the alert then, for you do not know the day nor the hour.        There is an exhortation for us to live in expectation of Jesus, to be prepared for Him. If the kingdom of heaven has come, if indeed it is already here in our midst and within us, as Jesus says, then we should live each day, each moment of each day with the anticipation, expectation and excitement of being with Him. There should be no place in our lives for indulging our lusts and desires we should be focused on being prepared for Him.   In James 4:4-8, James says:    You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. ⁵ Or do you think that the Scripture speaks to no purpose: “He jealously desires the Spirit which He has made to dwell in us”? ⁶ But He gives a greater grace. Therefore it says, “God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble.” ⁷ Submit therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. ⁸ Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded.

Paul also refers to the church and Jesus followers as His bride. In Ephesians 5:25-30 he says:     Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her, ²⁶ that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word, ²⁷ that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish… we are members of His body, of His flesh and of His bones.   God the Father and Jesus love everyone.  “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.”(John 3:16)        Jesus died though, not so that we would remain as we were tainted by sin, but rather that we would be sanctified and cleansed, that we would be without spot, wrinkle or blemish, holy unto Him. We need to recognize that those who we criticize, judge and condemn; God calls His beloved. We also need to realize that as much of a mess as she might presently be, Jesus loves the church. When we criticize the church we criticize His bride. Rather than speaking negatively about the bride we should, like Jesus, speak words of exhortation encouraging her to be prepared each day for Jesus.

John’s ministry, the call on his life was to prepare the way for the Lord. His was a ministry of calling people to repentance and many responded to his call. John though recognized that as successful as his ministry was, it wasn’t about him or his agenda. It was not about advancing his doctrine or his agenda, it was about preparing people to be ready for Jesus, the bridegroom. John says:  “He must increase, but I must decrease.”     We too must have that same mindset. We need to lay aside our own preconceived ideas, agendas and doctrines. We need to live that Christ might increase. At the end of today’s text John says:    ^“The Father loves the Son and has given all things into His hand. ³⁶ He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.”     Jesus Himself says there will be some who will not be ready, He says:    Truly I say to you, I do not know you.’  Be on the alert then, for you do not know the day nor the hour.     Our lives should be lived each day in expectation of His presence. He must increase, but I must decrease.   God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:8) Christ died for us, for everyone, while we were sinners, but not so we would remain as we were. Rather, Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her,  that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word,  that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish   

Whether our mission and our call is, like John’s, to prepare the way of the Lord, calling people to repentance that they might see Him or we are called to serve and invite the unlovely, those on the highways and the byways, may we not be divided, arguing about who is right and who is wrong, may our focus and purpose be that:   He must increase, but I must decrease. May our lives, our love and our words point others to and prepare them for Jesus Christ, the bridegroom. May we, like John say: the friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly because of the bridegroom’s voice. So this joy of mine has been made full.