John 3:29-31 - He must increase, but I must decrease

3:29,30

John likens the situation to a wedding. The “friend of the bridegroom” is like our “best man”. The bride belongs to the bridegroom, anything else would be an absolute travesty! And the church is the bride. The best man delights in the bridegroom receiving the bride. It is his purpose to make sure everything runs smoothly and that the bridegroom gets married! So John is delighted when Christ appears and the crowds are going to Him, that is the way that things are meant to be. So John’s joy is complete.

“He must increase, but I must decrease”. These words sum up the situation, and are often used to encourage the correct attitude in Christian servants. It is our role to lead people to Christ, not to ourselves. 

3:31

John (the apostle) is now adding further commentary on the matter. John the Baptist is “of the earth”. The word translated earth is not the word cosmos for the world, it is not implying any moral deficiency here. But what John is doing is stressing the enormous difference between a man who is “of the earth” and the man sent who “comes from heaven”. Jesus is clearly in a far better position to tell us about God. He is above all.