6 As for those who seemed to be important—whatever they were makes no difference to me; God does not judge by external appearance—those men added nothing to my message.
Being in the military, I understand authority structures and how they work. I am trained to look at the outward rank, their appearance, and act accordingly. I must salute or be saluted by everyone except those of my same rank. When someone of a higher rank enters the room, we all stand at attention and give them their proper respect. And all this is based on small pieces of cloth or metal placed strategically on our uniforms. Those outward tags tell us who fills what position in the organization and consequently who has the most responsibility and privilege. The highest ranking people get their own parking places close to the buildings. They may even have a driver who escorts them from place to place. Generals have aids who take care of all the small details of their travels and meetings. This allows the Generals to focus on the important issues and not have to worry about the hotel arrangements. But in Kingdom life the greatest is to be servant of all. We are not to lift up those who have seemingly important positions. They are simply fulfilling their place, empowered by the Spirit. We are to give honor to whom honor is due, but we have to be sure when honor is given to us that it is passed on to the Lord. We cannot control how others receive our honor, we can only respond appropriately when honor is given to us. As soon as we start to think we deserve the praise, we are in trouble. We should honor our pastors, but if the pastors get big heads then something is wrong. I pray that I never have “Stan Arnold Ministries” or some other inflated label. Paul didn’t seek out the people of power in order to raise his position in the early Church. It was not the outward that mattered, and the outward should not matter to us either. But in our liposuction, airbrushed world, it is difficult to ignore our conditioning and listen to the message beyond the polished exterior. We must choose to be the servant and that choice means our ego bubble never fills up.
The Arnold Journey 