We have to be imitators of Christ to resolve conflicts

The sons of Zebedee come with their mother to ask for a preferential position when Christ is in His Kingdom and the Lord confronts both them and the other ten disciples who are offended with these first two brothers and shows them that things in the Kingdom God's and leadership matters are processed in a very different way than they are processed in the world.

And it is interesting what the Lord Jesus Christ says to everyone when He calls them to chapter. And He says to them: "You know that the rulers of the nations rule over them and those who are great exercise authority over them, but it will not be so among you, but whoever wants to become great among you will be your servant and the one who he wants to be the first among you, he will be your servant. As the Son of Man did not come to be served "and then He continues to develop His thought.

How interesting this statement of the Lord Jesus Christ where He establishes a very great contrast between the conduct of His disciples and His own conduct and also the way things are resolved in the Kingdom of God. All these disciples project carnality, selfishness, pride, insincerity with one another; a Machiavellian attitude, calculating, selfishness, personal ambition. All of these carnal attitudes are expressed in the way they behave towards each other in this passage.

On the contrary, the Lord establishes a very different attitude for them. And He says: look at the world, look at the world. What people who are in authority in the world do is take advantage of their position of authority to lord it over others, to gain their own advantage; They don't think of the people they are supposed to be serving but they think of themselves.

Many times they act in an arrogant, controlling, oppressive, exploitative way and we could have a portrait of what the political world is like in our time where nations are continually suffering and being prevented from progressing in their economies and in their social situation because who are in power exploit them, take advantage of them and corrupt themselves using the resources of that culture and that society that has put them to administer it for them and instead what they do is they administer it to their own personal gain.

The corruption of the world, the attitude of the world and the Lord says: you know what? this is how the world is conducting itself and this is how you are conducting yourself in this case wanting to take advantage of your condition of closeness to Me to gain profit when My Kingdom comes in the future. But in the Kingdom of God things are not processed that way.

What the Lord is saying to you is: now look at how things are done in the Kingdom. Look at Me for example: I am the Son of God, I have been sent by My Father to fulfill a mission and I am not looking for My own benefit; I do not try to serve Myself, I do not try to gain advantage of My position of closeness to the Father and the power that God has given me but rather I use My power to bless others, to serve God and myself. I deny Myself so that the Will of the Father may be done in the world.

That attitude of generosity that the Lord exemplified, that attitude of service, obedience, self-denial, surrender to the Will of the Father; to put the comfort and well-being of others above His own comfort, that is the attitude that we have to adopt in our life. In all aspects of our life: be it in marriage, be it the way we treat our children, be it the way we conduct ourselves in our work, be it the way we conduct ourselves in ministry, in the pastorate. Never seeking our own advantage, never doing anything simply because we are in power, never trying to draw attention to ourselves.

Always acting in an upright, generous, benevolent, caring way showing the values of the Kingdom of God and the attitude of Jesus Christ. We have to be imitators of Christ in that generous and selfless way in which He lived. As Philippians chapter 2 verses 5 to 11 says: "Let there be in you the same mind that was in Christ Jesus, who being equal to God did not take being equal to God as a thing to cling to but emptied himself and he became obedient by assuming the form of a servant and humbled himself to the cross. "

That is the attitude that we have to exemplify, that is the attitude that suits the Kingdom of God and as we can clearly see that was not the attitude that these men were expressing but quite the opposite; a carnal, selfish, stubborn attitude trying them to earn their own place and their own advantage. The Kingdom of God is very different.

If our churches, if our ministries were conducted according to that generosity, that goodness, that humility that Christ reflected, things would be very different in the world and I believe that many more people would have already converted and believed in Jesus Christ as the Son of God. God.

May the Lord wish that we can apply ourselves to those kinds of principles every day in our own lives. If we apply them, our ministries will be places of peace, of harmony, of blessing instead of places of conflict. Examine yourself and ask yourself how can I use these principles in the field that I occupy as a father, as a husband, as an employee, as a colleague, as a friend and I know that you are going to be very blessed by this. God bless you and until our next meditation, Pastor Roberto Miranda says goodbye to you.