Mark 9:33-40

33Jesus and his disciples arrived at Capernaum. When they were in the house, Jesus asked them, ‘What were you arguing about on the way?’

34But they did not say anything. They did not want to tell Jesus why they were arguing. On the way, they had argued about who was the most important disciple.

35Jesus sat down. He told the 12 apostles to come to him. Then he said to them, ‘If you want to be the leader, make yourself less important than everyone else. You must become the servant of everyone.’

36Then Jesus brought a child to stand in the middle of them all. He took hold of the child and he said to the disciples,

37‘If someone accepts a child like this because of me, then that person also accepts me. If he accepts me, then he is not only accepting me. He is also accepting my Father God, who sent me.’

38John said to Jesus, ‘Teacher, we saw a man who was causing bad spirits to go out of people. He was using your authority to do it. But he is not in our group. So we told him that he must not do it.’

39‘Do not tell him to stop,’ Jesus said. ‘That man is using my authority to do powerful things. Someone who does that cannot immediately say anything bad about me.

40If someone is not against us, he is working to help us.