Teks -- Matthew 20:27 (NET)

20:27 and whoever wants to be first among you must be your slave–

Tafsiran/Catatan -- Catatan Kata/Frasa (per frasa)

Vincent: Mat 20:27 - Servant Minister

Servant ( δοῦλος ) Minister, Mat 20:26 , ( διάκονος )

Δοῦλος , perhaps from δέω , to bind , is the bondman, representing the permanent relation of servitude. Διάκονος , probably from the same root as διώκω , to pursue, represents a servant, not in his relation, but in his activity. The term covers both slaves and hired servants. The attendants at the feast at Cana (Joh 2:5) are called διάικονοι . In the epistles διάκονος is often used specifically for a minister of the Gospel (1Co 3:5; 2Co 3:6; Eph 3:7). The word deacon is, moreover, almost a transcription of it (Phi 1:1; 1Ti 3:8, 1Ti 3:12). It is applied to Phoebe (Rom 16:1).

Clarke: Mat 20:27 - Your servant

Your servant - Δουλος the lowest secular office, as deacon was the lowest ecclesiastical office: δουλος is often put for slave

From these directions of our Lord, we may easily discern what sort of a spirit his ministers should be of

1.    A minister of Christ is not to consider himself a lord over Christ’ s flock

2.    He is not to conduct the concerns of the Church with an imperious spirit

3.    He is to reform the weak, after Christ’ s example, more by loving instruction than by reproof or censure

4.    He should consider that true apostolic greatness consists in serving the followers of Christ with all the powers and talents he possesses

5.    That he should be ready, if required, to give up his life unto death, to promote the salvation of men.

TSK: Mat 20:27 - whosoever

whosoever : Mat 18:4; Mar 9:33-35; Luk 22:26; Act 20:34, Act 20:35; Rom 1:14; 1Co 9:19-23; 2Co 4:5, 2Co 11:5, 2Co 11:23-27, 2Co 12:15

Tafsiran/Catatan -- Catatan Kata/Frasa (per Ayat)

Poole: Mat 20:25-27

Ver. 25-27. So Mark hath much the same, Mar 10:42-44 . Luke hath also much the same, (but it seemeth spoken at another time), Luk 22:25-27 . I shall not here intermeddle with the disputes some have founded on this text: Whether there may be a civil, magistracy amongst Christians; a thing undoubtedly foreign to the sense of this text. Or, Whether Christ here establisheth a party amongst ministers; which I do not think our Lord’ s design here. Nor yet with that other question, Whether ministers of the gospel may take upon them the exercise of any civil power. That which our Saviour here intends is,

1. To distinguish his kingdom from the kingdoms of the world. Those kingdoms are over men’ s bodies and estates; his was a spiritual kingdom, over the hearts and consciences of men. Or rather, his was a kingdom of glory, where there would be no need of rulers and magistrates, as in the government of the world, nor any such exercise of authority as is here exercised in the government of earthly kingdoms and politics.

2. To condemn ambition and pride in his disciples, as making them most unfit for this kingdom, which is a thing he had before taught them. The way to be greatest in heaven is to be humblest, to be low and mean in our own eyes. This I think to be the most proper interpretation of this text; our Lord by it correcting the erroneous opinion his disciples had of the nature of his kingdom, as also their pride and ambition, and pressing upon them other studies, than how to be the greatest in any earthly kingdom. If any do think that in this text our Lord hath some respect to the kingdom he hath upon earth, he rather checks ambition, and an affectation of superiority, than any thing else, and lets us know that such as love the preeminence are most unfit for it; that the work of heads of the church is but a ministry, not a domination; and that those who are fittest for it, and deserve most honour in the church, are those that least seek and affect it; and those most unworthy of that honour, who most hunt after it. But I prefer the first sense given of this text.

For certainly what our Saviour here saith was not only occasioned by, but had a great relation to, the petition of James and John with their mother; and the bearing rule and exercising authority mentioned there relates to the kingdom mentioned in that petition; which I think cannot be understood of the church, which was a kingdom of Christ, which they as yet little understood: but they either meant the kingdom of glory, entertaining carnal conceptions of that, that there would be some superiority and inferiority there amongst the saints, which our Saviour here correcteth their mistake in; or else they fancied a secular kingdom, to be exercised by Christ on earth, after his resurrection from the dead. Our Saviour correcteth this mistake also, intimating that his kingdom should be of another nature, and the way to be highest in it was to be humble and low, and mean in opinions of ourselves.

Gill: Mat 20:27 - And whosoever will be chief among you // let him be your servant; // shall be servant of all

And whosoever will be chief among you,.... Or first, or have the pre-eminence, the first place in the kingdom of the Messiah,

let him be your servant; or, as in Mark,

shall be servant of all: not only a minister, but a servant; not a servant of some only, but of all. This was verified in the Apostle Paul, who became a servant to all men, though he was free, that he might gain some to Christ; and by so doing was the chief, though he reckoned himself the least of the apostles, yea, less than the least of all saints. The Jews have a saying somewhat like this, that ^h.

"everyone that makes himself כעבד, as a servant, for the words of the law in this world, shall be made free in the world to come.''