John was content to decrease in perceived improtance and popularity among the Jewish people if only Christ Jesus would correspondingly increase. Like a man introducing another at the podium, he was all too willing to step down and let the one he introduced take the limelight. He knew himself unworthy to be even a lowly slave of Christ, to unloose the straps of the sandals of one so exalted and holy.
And we pray:
Lord, let us be content to be a door keeper in the house of our God rather than to dwell in the tents of the wicked (Psalm 84:10). Help us to decrease in our own estimation and You to increase. Lessen our opinion of ourselves to that which squares with truth, and help us to see increasingly how exalted and glorious You truly are, Amen.