He Must Increase, but I Must Decrease
A Study of John 3:25-30
"Now a discussion arose between some of John's disciples and a Jew over purification. And they came to John and said to him, "Rabbi, he who was with you across the Jordan, to whom you bore witness—look, he is baptizing, and all are going to him." John answered, "A person cannot receive even one thing unless it is given him from heaven. You yourselves bear me witness, that I said, 'I am not the Christ, but I have been sent before him.' The one who has the bride is the bridegroom. The friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly at the bridegroom's voice. Therefore this joy of mine is now complete. He must increase, but I must decrease.""
John 3:25-30 ESV
Definitions of the original language in the context of this passage:
-John (the Baptist): "Iōannēs", "Ἰωάννης"; proper masculine noun - John = 'Jehovah is a gracious giver'; John the Baptist was the son of Zacharias and Elisabeth, the forerunner of Christ. By order of Herod Antipas he was cast into prison and afterwards beheaded.
-Purification: "katharismos", "καθαρισμός"; masculine noun - of baptism, a symbol of moral cleansing.
-Beyond: "peran", "πέραν"; adverb - the region beyond, the opposite shore.
-Jordan: "Iordanēs", "Ἰορδάνης"; proper locative noun - Jordan = 'the descender'; the one river of Palestine, has its course of little more than 200 miles (300 km), from the roots of Anti-Lebanon to the head of the Dead Sea.
-Bore Witness (Have Testified): "martyreō", "μαρτυρέω"; verb - to give testimony in one's favor, to commend.
-Heaven: "ouranos", "οὐρανός"; masculine noun - equivalent to: by God.
-Christ: "Christos", "Χριστός"; adjective - Christ = 'anointed'; Christ was and is the Messiah, the Son of God.
-Sent: "apostellō", "ἀποστέλλω"; verb - to order one to go to a place appointed; either persons sent with commissions, or things intended for someone.
Ahead: "emprosthen", "ἔμπροσθεν"; adverb - before, i.e. to be sent before one.
-Bride: "nymphē", "νύμφη"; feminine noun - a betrothed woman, a bride.
-Bridegroom: "nymphios", "νυμφίος"; masculine noun - a bridegroom.
-Friend: "philos", "φίλος"; adjective - he who associated familiarly with one, a companion.
-Rejoices: "chairō", "χαίρω"; verb - to rejoice, be glad.
-Greatly: "chara", "χαρά"; feminine noun - joy, gladness; joyousness caused by the Holy Spirit.
-Joy: "chara","χαρά"; feminine noun - joy, gladness; joyousness caused by the Holy Spirit.
-Complete (Made Full): "plēroō", "πληρόω"; verb - to make complete in every particular; to render perfect.
-Must: "dei", "δεῖ"; verb - necessary, there is need of, it behooves, is right and proper.
-Increase: "auxanō", "αὐξάνω"; verb - to grow, increase, become greater; of the growing authority of a teacher and the number of his adherents.
-Decrease: "elattoō", "ἐλαττόω"; verb - to decrease in authority and popularity.
Observation/Summary (short explanation of what the passage says in your own words):
Some of John the Baptist's (JB) disciples noticed that more and more people were going to Jesus instead of JB for teaching and baptism. They told JB about this because they were upset their teacher was being overshadowed. JB sets things straight by telling them this is exactly what is supposed to happen. He came to prepare the way for Jesus the Christ, and now that the Christ had come it was only right and proper that Christ's ministry and following increase, while JB's decreased as people flocked to the One he had come to proclaim.
Implication (what does this mean to us):
This passage opens by telling us a dispute had arisen between JB's disciples and a certain Jewish person over "purification." We do not know any more details about the dispute, but because JB was baptizing it is likely the Jewish leaders took issue with some aspect of this baptism. Whatever the details of this dispute were, it seems JB's disciples learned that Jesus and His disciples were also teaching, baptizing and gaining a larger following than JB. They were seemingly distressed by this fact and told JB, with no small exaggeration, "...look, he is baptizing, and all are going to him." Of course "all" or "everyone" were not going to Jesus, but many people were. They were concerned about the decreasing attention shown to their teacher, but JB was not concerned at all. JB knew he had been sent by God to declare the coming of the Messiah, and the approval of God is what he was worried about, not the approval and praise of people. His decreasing following did not bother him one bit. Rather, he rejoiced to see the following of the One he came to proclaim increasing, and in the following verses he will explain this to his disciples.
He begins to explain and calm the worries of his followers in verse 27 by saying, "A person cannot receive even one thing unless it is given him from heaven." This is similar to James 1:17 which says, "Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change." Everything about JB, including his ministry, following and message to deliver, had been given to him by God in heaven. If these things had been given by God then they are to be received gratefully, used wisely, and released graciously. Whatever God puts into our hands is to be used for His glory, and must be let go of when the Lord decides to take them away. Whether we are talking about a following like JB's, a ministry assignment, health, position, authority, wealth, or anything else under the sun, everything we have comes from God and we have no right to hold onto it and respond with jealousy or discontent when He takes it away. As we read in Job 1:21, "And he said, "Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked shall I return. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord."" We come into this world with nothing, and we leave with nothing. Everything we have, even the breath in our lungs is a gift from God. We must remember we are not the King, we are merely stewards of the King's goods, sent to proclaim His manifold excellencies to a world in rebellion.
Continuing his explanation JB reminds his followers they heard him say, "I am not the Christ, but I have been sent before Him." In verse 26 they demonstrated their recollection that Jesus is the One who JB "bore witness" about. Now, in verse 28 JB is essentially saying, "Remember what else I said about Him?" JB came to declare Jesus to be the Christ. JB specifically said he himself was not the Christ, and John, the writer of this gospel account, spent much of the 1st chapter explaining that JB was not the Christ, never said he was the Christ, and that he specifically came to declare the coming of the Christ. (Christ is not a name, it is a title given to the Messiah). We can see from this confusion amongst even JB's own disciples why John the gospel writer felt the need to make it abundantly clear that JB was not the Christ in chapter 1. Even the disciples of JB who had spent so much time listening to his teaching needed to be reminded of this. What they were seeing in the rise of Jesus's following was the confirmation of the truth of the message JB was sent to proclaim.
To help them understand what his role was, JB uses the analogy of a Bridegroom's best friend at a wedding. Understanding this analogy will also help us understand our role in following Jesus. The bridegroom's best friend at a wedding is not there to shine the spotlight on himself. The role of the best friend is to help facilitate the joining of the bridegroom to the bride. In this analogy Jesus is the bridegroom and all who follow Him are the bride. The concept of God as a husband and His people as a bride was not a new one to the Jews. In the Old Testament Yahweh is described as the husband of Israel, and Israel is in turn described as the bride of Yahweh (Is. 54:5, 62:5; Jer. 2:2; Ez. 16:8; Hos. 2:19, etc). This theme is carried through in the New Testament to describe Jesus and the church as well (2 Cor. 11:2, Eph. 5:25-27). And the final triumphant unification of Jesus and His beloved church in heaven one day is described in this way:
"Let us rejoice and exult and give him the glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his Bride has made herself ready; it was granted her to clothe herself with fine linen, bright and pure"— for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints. And the angel said to me, "Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb." And he said to me, "These are the true words of God.""
Revelation 19:7-9
"Then came one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues and spoke to me, saying, "Come, I will show you the Bride, the wife of the Lamb.""
Revelation 21:9
From this we learn that we who follow Jesus are both the friend of the bridegroom and the bride. Our role as bride is to be joined to Christ and bear the supernatural, living fruit of the Holy Spirit into existence in a dying world. By fruit I mean the fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, gentleness and self-control. I also mean by sharing the gospel with words and action through which the Lord Jesus will call people who have been dead in their sin to be born again to new life in Him. As His bride He loves us fiercely and tenderly, and as His bride we are to be the means through which He supernaturally brings the life giving fruit of the Holy Spirit into existence from the unseen, undying realm of heaven into the visible, dying realm of earth under the curse of sin.
This describes not only our role as the bride of Christ but also as the friend of the bridegroom. Having been saved, or we could say married to Christ in a close intimate relationship that earthly marriage is, at least in part, a smaller picture of, we are now called to bring forth His supernatural, life giving fruit of the Spirit. And as His friend we are to shine the light on Him as we invite others to enter into this same heavenly marriage covenant where Jesus is our Provider and Savior.
JB's focus was on the Lord and what He was doing. JB knew the purpose of his ministry was never to shine the spotlight on himself, but rather, on Jesus, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. If the time for people to be flocking to him to hear about the coming Messiah was coming to an end, he was not only content to let the attention and crowds go, he was actually overjoyed to see them flocking to Christ, the bridegroom who he has been sent to call people's attention to. This is why he says of himself, "Therefore this joy of mine is now complete." JB wanted his followers to understand what they were seeing was not the end of his ministry, but rather, it was the fulfillment of his ministry. JB did not lose anything. He fulfilled his role in helping to unify Christ with His bride, the church, meaning all those who believe in Him.
JB did not despair to see his own following decrease as the following of Jesus increased. He was glad to see it and he then says what is one of my favorite verses in the entire Bible: "He must increase, but I must decrease." The goal of all of us who follow Jesus must be to make Him greater, more visible and known among the people we have been sent by the Father to live among. We must never live to make a name for ourselves. We are not the bridegroom. We cannot save anyone from their sin. We have been called to introduce people to the only One who can save them and who loves them so much He died for them. Our goal as servants of the King of Kings should always be to make Him more widely known, even and especially at the expense of us becoming less known and less visible.
Whether we are called to serve in a visible ministry role like JB, or to serve in less visible roles, our calling is the same. Magnify the glory of the Lord Jesus and make His name known. The humility JB demonstrates in this passage is the humility we must all clothe ourselves with (1 Peter 5:5). No matter the place, amount of people or type of role we are called to serve the Lord in, we must have this same humble heart that rejoices in becoming less visible and making the name of Jesus more visible. In this we will fulfill our role as both friend and bride of the Bridegroom.
Application (How does this change how I think, act and pray?):
From this passage we learn of the importance of humility as we follow Jesus. He is the Bridegroom. He is the Savior of the world and Lover of our souls. It is His name that we are to proclaim and magnify not our own. This humility is the key to contentment and joy in all circumstances. Whatever circumstances, time or place God has called us to serve Him in, a humble heart that rejoices in seeing the Lord glorify His name among people is the heart that suffering, diminished visibility or anything else this world throws at us cannot touch. The person that is satisfied only in Jesus Christ cannot be shaken or crushed by the loss of anything in this world, because Jesus will never be taken from them.
Self-love and self-exaltation are not the keys to joy and prosperity. The love and exaltation of Jesus Christ in our hearts and minds, and with our words and deeds is the path to joy and peace. We were made to worship Him. It is only in worshiping Him and magnifying His glory that we will be satisfied and filled with joy.
Self Reflection:
Does the sight of other believers doing well in one way or another cause me to rejoice or to be jealous?
Is my desire to make the name of Jesus known or my own name known?
How can I grow in understanding and embracing the attitude of John the Baptist who said of Jesus, "He must increase, but I must decrease."?
#Joy #Bride #Jesus #humility #HeMustIncreaseIMustDecrease