In 1887, John Edward Acton, the first to hold the title of baron, wrote a letter to express his opinion about power.  He said in the letter,  “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.  Great men are almost always bad men.”  He actually borrowed the quotation from English politician William the Elder, who was also the Earl of Chatham and at one time Prime Minister of England.  The statement was made to Parliament that “Unlimited power is apt to corrupt the minds of those who possess it”.  It is often true that those in power will do almost anything to remain in power, especially when they benefit from their power financially and in other ways.

        “Words from Above” in the Bible tell us in Luke 22 that when Jesus was eating His last meal with His disciples before His crucifixion, He told them that someone sitting at the table with them was going to betray Him.  He also explained that whoever would do such a thing would regret doing it, and naturally they talked among themselves about who should do such a thing.  Then they began to argue about which of them would be the greatest after Jesus was gone.  Jesus then pointed out that the kings of heathen nations in that day exercised lordship and authority over the people over whom they were rulers. Jesus said that this should not be true of those who  followed Him, and that if they wanted to be the greatest, they should serve others.

        The apostle Paul wrote about this in Philippians 2, where He used the example of Jesus Himself.  Paul told them to have the mind of Jesus, who took on the form of a servant and was made in the likeness of men.  Paul said that as a man Jesus humbled Himself and became obedient to death, namely death on the cross.  Paul then concluded that because Jesus did all of this, God highly exalted Him, and gave Him a name above every name, and that at the name of Jesus every knee would bow in the earth and every where else, and that at the name of Jesus every tongue would confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

        Paul also spoke about this matter in Romans 12, where he said people should not think more highly of themselves than they ought to think.  It is important for us to realize that whatever we are in life, we are what we are by the grace of God, and all that we do we should always do for the honor and glory of God, and never for ourselves.