Greatness
- Michael Haldas
- Aug 7
- 5 min read
“To avoid being a stumbling block to anyone, we need to learn meekness and humility. ‘But whosoever will be great among you, let him be your minister; And whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant’ (Matt.20:26–27), the Lord teaches us. By washing the feet of His disciples, the Savior showed the true example of serving one’s neighbor. How far from this are those who, calling themselves Christians, allow themselves to beat other people, break church doors, and seize what does not belong to them! Do they really believe that such actions are pleasing to God? But what can we say about ordinary Christians, when even the one who out of his duty in service should be by his own example a model of meekness and humility, tries to usurp power in the Church, making himself the first and sole ruler, to whom the heads of other Churches must submit? Does such behavior not directly contradict what Christ teaches in the Gospel? Everyone will give an account to God for how he lived in this world. As for us, we must strive to live in such a way that our lives point others toward the path of salvation.” (Metropolitan Luke Kovalenko)
“If you want to be great in the way that Our Lord Jesus Christ desires us to be great. If you want to be a living saint, then you must follow Christ and imitate His love and sacrificial service. It’s definitely much harder than it sounds because it requires each of us to become less from an earthly perspective. I have all of these things that I desire, hopes, dreams and so forth. But many of these things have to be postponed or cancelled in order to fulfill the roles that God has given me. In order to become the man that God wants me to be, I must decrease and find a way to make everyone around me more important. I should be willing to make time for everyone, to help everyone, do be with others not only when they are happy but when they are in pain and have need. Each of us is called to serve one another in love.” (Fr. James Guirguis)
“The material success of modern technology creates an allusion of greatness. To a great extent it only bears witness to power and wealth. Much that is deemed “progress” is accomplished only through the forced measures of our various artificialities. Money and technology cannot create goodness. Only that which is good, in communion with the Good, has any abiding existence. All else is “hay, wood, and stubble” in the words of St. Paul (1Cor. 3:12). If, by some stroke of judgment, our world were suddenly stripped of its “hay, wood, and stubble,” leaving only the abiding presence of the good, we would see the truth of things. Many things (and people) who are presently despised would be revealed to be royalty and as brilliant as the noon-day sun. So much else, including people, would be seen in a diminished state bordering on nothingness.” (Father Stephen Freeman)
“…most of us spend the greater part of our lives actively as we aspire to reach our dreams. We leave other things for later, somehow for some other time, without giving much thought to who we are and where we are heading. Without all that rage of our earlier years, like, “Wow, he’s so smart, she’s so beautiful!” But life goes on and we begin to realize that the main thing lying ahead is to find the way to acquire peace and quiet. This is the way of Christ, the way of getting small in the eyes of men, but becoming great in the eyes of the Lord. God places us next to His Son and in Him He reveals man just as he is. So long as a man cuts himself off from God, he does not understand why he needs to spend the remaining part of his life until the very last moment.” (Archpriest George Zavershinsky)
“One sees great things from the valley, only small things from the peak.” (G. K. Chesterton)
"…Jesus re-defines what many people understand as “greatness” or, in modern-day terms, “success.” The measure of greatness, according to Him, is service; the extent to which one serves; gives of oneself." (Sr. Dr. Vassa Larin)
“The measure of greatness is not position, power, or prestige. It is service…Our care for others is the measure of our greatness.” (Foundation Study Bible, Matthew 20:26-27, Life Application Study Bible, Luke 9:48)
“The Bible teaches us that we were created for God; that is, we were created to relate to Him and to serve Him. Everything that we are and everything that we have has been given to us to reflect His greatness through our lives and to make us useful in the lives of others." (Thomas Jones)
“When we acknowledge God’s greatness in our lives, our hearts are humbled and we are reminded of who He is and His great love for us." (Dennis and Barbara Rainey)
“True greatness is found in simple surrender to God’s plan for our lives." (Jim Cymbala)
“One unsettling word hangs over all those earth-things that give our lives some sense of greatness: temporary. No friendship, no championship, no scholarship, no relationship, no ownership, no fellowship can fully satisfy our God-given hunger for something that will be great forever." (Ron Hutchcraft)
“When we pray it is far more important to pray with a sense of the greatness of God than with a sense of the greatness of the problem." (Gordon S. Jackson)
“Evidence of God’s greatness surrounds us, but...we can choose to ignore it and go our own way.” (Life Application Study Bible, 1 Kings 20:13)
“The greatness of God rouses fear within us, but His goodness encourages us not to be afraid of Him." (A. W. Tozer)
“Anyone who reads the New Testament seriously is almost always surprised to learn how often Christ saw life differently than we do. One example of that is to be found in Christ's teaching regarding greatness. In the ways of the world, greatness is defined by how many serve you; in the life of Christ, however, the opposite is true. He measured greatness and success by the number He served, and reminded us that in the Kingdom of God, it was upon the servant, and not the ruler, that greatness was conferred.” (Rev. Andrew Demotses)
“Service is characteristic of true greatness. The model is Christ’s incarnate life and death: the perfect man is the perfect servant…We can attain true greatness if we are willing to be a servant to all through Christ by serving Him in others.” (Orthodox Study Bible, Joy Corey)
“As sinfully and culturally defined, pursuing greatness looks like this: Individuals motivated by self-interest, self-indulgence, and a false sense of self-sufficiency pursue selfish ambition for the purpose of self-glorification. Contrast that with the pursuit of true greatness as biblically defined: Serving others for the glory of God. This is the genuine expression of humility; this is true greatness as the Savior defined it." (C. J. Mahaney)
“We ought not to be weary of doing little things for the love of God, who regards not the greatness of the work, but the love with which it is performed." (Brother Lawrence)
“…deeds of love and kindness, whether great in the eyes of the world or unnoticed, are all important to God and represent each one of us doing our part.” (Sacramental Living)
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