He Must Increase, But I Must Decrease

John concludes with the words: “He must increase, but I must decrease.” The “I” here is in an emphatic form. He had to get out of the way and let Jesus shine. John’s ministry had been a total success. This is not to say that John the Baptist was perfect. The fact he was still baptizing rather than referring all requests to Jesus and his disciples indicates this. Perhaps this is the real reason John the Baptist ended up in prison. As long as John the Baptist was in the world alongside Jesus, there would be those who would follow him rather than Jesus. It seems likely that many of the disciples of John never came to Jesus which makes one wonder if they were disciples at all. Years later, in Ephesus, there was still a gathering of people who had been disciples of John the Baptist.

When one comes now to verse 31 and following, one must ask: “Which John is speaking?” “Is it John the Baptist or is it commentary by the Apostle John who composed the Gospel?” There has been scholarly contention over this issue as there had been concerning whether John 3:15-21 in the previous passage was spoken by Jesus or was commentary by John on Jesus’ dialog with Nicodemus. Some have noticed the similarities of verses 31-36 to 1 John and thing that it is commentary. Others think that John the Baptist spoke these words.

Again, we can see that controversy can be the cause of division. Satan tried to separate John the Baptist from Jesus. In this passage, we have already discussed the controversy over the mode of baptism. Now there is an attempted division between John the Baptist and John the Apostle. So how do we deal with this. I think the best way to resolve this is to properly understand the doctrine of the inspiration of Scripture. It is the God-breathed words of God by the Holy Spirit. It is God who speaks, whether through Jesus or to John, Paul, Peter, John the Baptist, etc. by means of the Holy Spirit. Scholars place too uch emphasis on the human element of Inspiration. By this they have reduced the authority of Scripture to the speculations of men. We must avoid being divided by these ploys. What matters is that the Holy Spirit spoke verses 31-36, whether He used the mouth of John the Baptist or the pen of the Apostle John.

Verse 31 tells us that there is a great distinction to be made between heavenly things and earthly things. Even though Jesus fully shared in our humanity, He was also eternally God the Son. He is over all things. As human, he knew earthly things as well. But he would use earthly things in His teaching to explain heavenly reality. He did this with Nicodemus when he uses the analogy of the wind and the Spirit. In both Aramaic and Greek, the word for “spirit” and “wind” are the same. The Spirit of God is like the wind which one perceives but cannot see directly. Jesus also used parables to compare the Kingdom reality to earthly things. The earthly man can only speak of earthly things. From this we should see that the success or failure of our ministry is not based upon earthly standards but rather heavenly ones. Did we do what we were called to do?