ELASSON (Less)

WRITTEN BY DREW MATZ

What is the Word?

We’ve all heard the figure of speech “less is more.” It may sound like a platitude to most, and perhaps for good reason. Most of what we encounter in life is oriented toward excess and grandeur. To do with less, or to decrease, seems counterintuitive to everything our society emphasizes. Yet, the idea of “decreasing” or becoming “less” is a truly Biblical idea – provided we understand it correctly. One word the scriptures use for this idea is elassón.

How does the Bible use this word?

Elassón is a Greek word which refers to “less” of something, or to “decrease.” It is an adjective which the New Testament writers use to refer to the idea of humbling yourself, or making oneself less before God – with the purposes of magnifying God. It is not an act of self-deprecation for a morbid sense of worthlessness, but a sacrificing of one’s desires so that God might be glorified in and through a person, which in turn uplifts the individual.

Where in the Bible?

Jesus himself had a very high view of John the Baptist, and it was in part because of John’s ability to lay his own will down before God:

John answered, “A person cannot receive even one thing unless it is given him from heaven. You yourselves bear me witness, that I said, ‘I am not the Christ, but I have been sent before him.’ The one who has the bride is the bridegroom. The friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly at the bridegroom's voice. Therefore this joy of mine is now complete. He must increase, but I must decrease.”

-John 3:27-30

John’s fulfillment lies not in his own glorification, but in drawing eyes and ears to Christ – the true lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. He gives us an example of how to orient our obligations in the world.

Becoming Less

John paints for us a portrait of what it means to become less that God might become greater. It seems paradoxical, but our fulfillment comes not in trying to gain the world, but in denying it. Let us follow in his footsteps, deny ourselves, and pick up our own cross.