32. But the followers did not understand what he meant, and they were afraid to ask him.
33. Jesus and his followers went to Capernaum. They went into a house, and Jesus said to them, “I heard you arguing on the way here today. What were you arguing about?”
34. But the followers did not answer, because their argument on the road was about which one of them was the greatest.
35. Jesus sat down and called the twelve apostles to him. He said, “Whoever wants to be the most important must make others more important than themselves. They must serve everyone else.”
36. Then Jesus took a small child and stood the child in front of the followers. He held the child in his arms and said,
37. “Whoever accepts children like these in my name is accepting me. And anyone who accepts me is also accepting the one who sent me.”
38. Then John said, “Teacher, we saw a man using your name to force demons out of someone. He is not one of us. So we told him to stop, because he does not belong to our group.”
39. Jesus said, “Don’t stop him. Whoever uses my name to do powerful things will not soon say bad things about me.
40. Whoever is not against us is with us.
41. I can assure you that anyone who helps you by giving you a drink of water because you belong to the Messiah will definitely get a reward.