“I’m not interested in crowd approval. And do you know why? Because I know you and your crowds. I know that love, especially God’s love, is not on your working agenda. I came with the authority of my Father, and you either dismiss me or avoid me. If another came, acting self-important, you would welcome him with open arms. How do you expect to get anywhere with God when you spend all your time jockeying for position with each other, ranking your rivals and ignoring God? (The Message)

”…I know you. I know that you do not have the love of God in your hearts” (v.42 NIV).

If genuine love for God Himself is not the mainspring of ‘ministry’, self-love is likely to be the driving force. Such self-love shows itself in ugly warts like working for human approval, and the pride which manifests itself in a competitive spirit.

Every leader in the church must examine his/her own heart, and seek to live ‘for an audience of one.’ Our calling is to walk humbly before God, desiring His will and glory, and repeatedly crucifying every expression of pride, arrogance and self-promotion.

‘ Democracy demands that little men should not take big ones too seriously; it dies when it is full of little men who think they are big themselves.’ C.S. Lewis