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Compare John 3:3, 5; 13:20
The idea that we should be childlike has become a cliche. Sometimes we scarcely hear it. And, sometimes, we misuse or misunderstand it.
But, coupled with concepts that the greatest of us should (in a sense) be the least of us, and that leadership consists in service to others, it’s difficult to understate the radical character of Jesus’ teaching on this point.
His notion of greatness represented a dramatic departure from the ideals of the Greco-Roman world and even of contemporary Judaism, and finds very few genuine followers among the leaders and the power-brokers of the world still today.