Passage Read: Acts 20-21
Meditation Verses: 20:29-30
Thought
There is selfish ambition, and there is ambition for the kingdom of God. They are not the same. Paul warns that in time false teachers will come, and some will arise even from within the body of elders. They will see the crowd of believers, how they worship and seek God and hang on His every word, to know Him better and serve Him better, and they will desire that attention, respect and honor for themselves. They will not be willing to share it with others, so they will need to introduce special teachings, different from the other elders, so as to make a distinction between them and the others, so as to convince the crowd to choose them over the rest. They will not be seeking God's glory, teaching the people to worship and serve the Lord himself, but using God's name and strange ideas about Him to gain a following for themselves.
Application
I don't need a following, and I need to guard against the desire for one. I need to continually remember that I serve Jesus and my duty and the need of all men everywhere is to worship and serve Him as He desires and directs. I am a servant of Christ, a messenger, whose responsibility is to gain more followers for Him, not me. My importance and value comes not from how many people hang on my word and praise me, but from how many people I point to Jesus, to hang on His every word and praise Him. Honoring and praising me is of no value to me or anyone else; that'll only get all of us condemned to an eternal hell.