This laid down Christ’s pattern for servant-leadership after His own pattern of servant-leadership for His beloved called-out church to follow and fit, as being taken out from the darkness of the oppressive world’s systems. He emphasized humble leadership devoid of ambitions that usually characterize leadership in the world’s systems. In context, He said these very important words to rebuke the myopic selfish ambitions of some of His disciples that made His other disciples indignant. He taught His disciples to be unlike the unbelievers who can be so ambitious to lord over others, and they were supposed to not do so similarly. Greatness in His kingdom should not come from rulership over others, usually over the weaker, nor exercising autocratic nor authoritarian authority to assert dominance over others, but through humble, willing, and loving service to others. Selfless service, not rulership, should be the goal of those wanting to lead in His church. Highly esteemed leadership in His kingdom is through humble service, not dominating and subjugating rulership.
In connection, in church polity, there is some kind of confusion or conflict between the principle versus the practice regarding the role of the pastor (or bishop or elder), that whether he should be an overseer or overlord in the church. By definition, the church in the New Testament as used by the Greek-speaking peoples before Christ, refers to an assembly of people, regardless of the nature of the assembly. Israel is considered as His Church in the Old Testament setting. But as Christianity evolved through the centuries, people added their own cultural modifications, as well as introduced their own traditions, which may or may not be sanctioned by the Scriptures, particularly, the New Testament, the guide and constitutional template for His Church consisting of the saved Israelites and Gentiles who put faith in Him now supposedly unified in love to Him and each other.