In that hour the disciples came to Jesus saying, Who then is greatest in the kingdom of the heavens?
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
And Jesus having called a little child to [him], set it in their midst,
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
and said, Verily I say to you, Unless ye are converted and become as little children, ye will not at all enter into the kingdom of the heavens.
The disciples asked who would rank highest in the kingdom of heaven. The Lord answered by setting a small child in front of them. Instead of ranking them, He raised a far more serious question: whether they would get in at all.
Their question showed what they were really after:
They were after greatness — and that in the very thing they admitted to be the Kingdom of heaven. Yet in their thoughts they were making it nothing more than a kingdom of the Gentiles, a place to satisfy ambition and self-seeking, as they are shown later. Here a little child could be their teacher.
The ESV says "unless you turn"; older translations read "unless you are converted." The word behind both means turning in a new direction — away from what a person served before, and toward God:
This is from epistrephō, "to turn to." In Scripture it is the real effect that accompanies the new birth, a turning to God. It comes out beautifully in the Thessalonians, who "turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God." Without conversion they could not enter the kingdom of heaven.
Commentators point to something deeper behind the turning:
Now this is what is worked in a soul when it is converted: there is a new life given, even Christ. So there is much more than a change. That would fall very far short of the truth about a Christian. Of course the Christian is a changed man; but the change is because of something still deeper. A Christian is a man born again, with a life now that he did not have before. It is in this way that he becomes a little child.
This is why writers connect the scene to the Lord's night conversation with Nicodemus, the religious teacher told he must be born again:
What the Lord tells His disciples here is practically the same thing which Nicodemus heard from His lips in that night visit. The kingdom must be entered, and that means conversion, to turn about in a different direction, and become as a little child — in other words, a new life is given, a new existence begins, the believer is born again and enters the kingdom as a little child, as he entered by natural birth into the world.
The comparison reaches back to how every person enters this world:
The little child, as a picture, reminds us how God has arranged for people to enter this present life — in real lowliness and weakness… It is the same at the start of spiritual life. We enter it not as people who have done something great, but in weakness and poverty, to receive grace we are not owed. The end is like the beginning. We grow by grace. At the end, as at the beginning, what we receive is salvation. Reward at last is not a claim but mercy.
The disciples asked about position; the reply moved the whole subject back to the door:
The answer made it perfectly clear that the only way of entrance into the kingdom was by becoming small, not great. As the result of conversion a person humbles himself and becomes like a little child. Apart from this one is not in the kingdom at all. Then as we enter, so we progress; and so the humblest is the greatest in the kingdom.
Everything turns on knowing what this word means:
The Saviour showed plainly how necessary conversion is when He said, "Unless you are converted and become as little children, you will in no way enter into the kingdom of heaven." The statement is startling in its firmness. Put in that form, it makes us stop and ask what this conversion means. Any misunderstanding here would clearly be fatal to any of us.
Writers are careful, though, about how the words apply to the men standing there:
In correcting their mistaken ideas, the Lord begins at the very foundation. Ambition and self-seeking would not give them a high place in the Kingdom. These things would keep them out of it altogether. The very first thing needed would be to lay all this aside and be converted. Not, of course, that the disciples were not converted; but the Lord is dealing with the broad principle of entrance.
- Ambition — Their question "who is greatest?" showed hearts that treated the kingdom as a place for self-seeking.
- Turn — To be converted is to turn to God. It is the real effect that goes with new birth, as when the Thessalonians turned from idols to the living God.
- Life — Behind the turning is something deeper than reform: a new life given, so a person is born again, not merely improved.
- Littleness — We enter spiritual life as we enter this one: in weakness and poverty, receiving grace we are not owed. Reward at the end is mercy, not a claim.
- Entrance — Greatness is settled at the door: the way in is by becoming small, and the humblest inside is the greatest.
Whoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, *he* is the greatest in the kingdom of the heavens;
The disciples asked who ranks highest in the kingdom of heaven. Jesus answered by setting a child in front of them. His reply does not deny that some are greater — it changes what makes them so.
The disciples had a model of promotion in mind, drawn from how a king rewards his loyal men.
Our Lord shows here which moral feature suits the kingdom of heaven. He sets it against Jewish thoughts of greatness. They were still thinking of the kingdom of heaven according to Old Testament pictures of it. When David came to the kingdom, he raised his faithful followers according to their previous worth. There are the three great chiefs, then thirty other warriors, and so on. Each man's place matched how he had carried himself in the day of trial. The disciples came to our Lord with similar thoughts, full of what they had done and suffered.
Their question assumed a ranking. His reply changes the ground on which a person rises:
Does He deny that there is such a place as greatest? Does He say we shall all be equal in that day? He does neither. He sets their love of self against what will be the true ground of exaltation — personal love and devotion to Himself.
The verse is easy to misquote. It is not asking us to copy a child's act of self-lowering, because a child never performs one.
He does not say, as people often misquote it, "Whoever humbles himself as this little child humbles itself is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven." We cannot picture a little child humbling itself. Someone who is already in that place does not need to come down to it. He is already a little child. The Lord's words mean this: "You must become as this little child, if you want the highest place in the day of my kingdom glory." The words "a little child" (paidion) speak of infant helplessness. It is the same word the apostle John loves to use in his first letter, chapter 2, where he distinguishes "Fathers, young men, and babes."
What the Lord loves in a child is not innocence but the absence of self-concern.
The spirit He loves in His disciples is to be nothing. It is a spirit of lowliness, dependence and trust, with no thought of self. This is the natural feeling of a little one. It may be spoilt; but naturally it looks up to its parents, and thinks there is nobody like them.
Another writer ties this to the new birth. Becoming a child is the entrance; living as one is the rule:
You must enter the kingdom, and that means conversion — turning about in a different direction and becoming as a little child. In other words, he receives a new life and a new existence begins. He is born again and enters the kingdom as a little child, just as he entered the world by natural birth. So He gives the great marks of those who have entered the kingdom, and the principles that are to govern them. It is lowliness, littleness and dependence.
The One speaking had already lived what He said.
The first man sought to exalt himself and believed the devil's lie, who kept back the truth. But the Lord Jesus humbled Himself (Phil. 2). He went down lower than any, He goes up higher than any; in all things He must have the pre-eminence. That is the principle here: he who goes down shall be raised up.
For us it is different. The low place was always ours:
None is so great as the Holy One Whose words we are listening to! And who could stoop so low as He did? As for us, in taking the low place, we only take our own.
Entry is one thing. Staying childlike is another.
So we have to become very small to enter into blessing. The next verse teaches us to continue small. Even King Saul was little in his own sight to begin with (1 Sam. 15:17); exaltation and power drew out his inherent pride and stubbornness, to his ruin. A later king, Uzziah, walked well "till he was strong. But when he was strong, he grew proud, to his destruction" (2 Chron. 26:16).
The choice is not whether we become nothing, but how:
If we do not know how to be nothing, God must make us nothing. The place of nothingness is that of moral exaltation (Matt. 18:4).
- Down. The disciples measured greatness by service done, as David ranked his men. Christ answers with a child, and points the other way.
- Down means become, not perform. A child never humbles itself — it simply is small, so the call is to become that, not to act it.
- Down is a nature. Lowliness, littleness and dependence mark the new life. Conversion starts it; these traits then govern it.
- Down was His road first. He went lower than anyone and rises higher than anyone. When we take the low place, we only take what was always ours.
- Down is chosen or given. Saul and Uzziah began small, and strength ruined them. If we will not learn to be nothing, God will make us nothing.
and whosoever shall receive one such little child in my name, receives me.
The disciples had asked who would be greatest, and Jesus set a child in front of them as the answer. Verse 5 turns the lesson outward, from what they must become to how they must treat someone who is already that small.
The chapter first tells the disciples to make themselves small. One writer links that humbling to the way we then regard others:
It is not only becoming like little children as born of God. There is also the practical humbling of ourselves. And not only the humbling of ourselves, but how we feel toward others: "Whoever receives one such child in My name receives Me." However lowly the Christian may be, we should see him with all the glory of Christ. That is what receiving him in the name of Christ means. He does not defend his rights or claim his own glory. He is willing to bend and make way for anyone, while he knows the glory that rests on him.
Nothing about the child earns this welcome. The Name does all the work:
He then takes a child and declares that whoever receives such a one in His name receives Christ. And whoever receives Christ receives the Father who sent Him. The name of Christ is the touchstone, the only thing on earth really great by faith.
Take the Name away and the same kindness loses its weight altogether:
That child was an insignificant scrap of humanity. Yet to receive one such in His Name was to receive the Lord Himself, and also the Father who sent Him. Receiving a thousand such in any other name or on any other ground would mean very little. The Master Himself is so great that the relative position of His little servants is not worth arguing about.
The phrase shifts as the chapter goes on. In verses 2–5 a real child stands in front of them. By verse 6 the subject is "one of these little ones who believe in me." One writer holds both senses together:
At the start of the chapter, the Lord corrects the ambition of the disciples with the picture of a little child. A child is as far as possible from any such thought. But verse 6 makes it certain that He goes on to the "little ones who believe in Me." Still, before He closes the subject, it seems fitting for Him to comfort us about "little ones" like the one He called and set in their midst. He speaks more plainly here than anywhere else. How many die at an early age? Do they perish?
The welcome does not stop with the child, and it does not stop with Christ either. Bending down to the smallest person puts you in company you never expected:
The disciple who receives one of these little children in His Name follows the Lord in the path of true greatness. He will be stooping to the lowest in the Name of the Highest. Doing so, he will find himself in company with Christ, and to receive Christ is to receive the One who sent Him. So when we refuse self and refuse to push ourselves forward, we find ourselves in the company of Divine Persons.
A child can give you no advantage and no return favour. That is why the Lord chose one as the measuring stick:
A child could not give a man the dignity of greatness. But a person's genuine care for little ones shows whether he is morally great.
One writer names why this welcome carries such weight. He then turns it on our habit of dismissing believers we think little of:
The great thought put before us here is the Lord's identification with every little one. That means everyone who has become a little child, that is, born again. So when you honour one of the little ones, you honour Him. When you injure one of them, you injure Him. What glory of the believer this reveals! How this fact should teach us how to behave toward one another, and not to despise anyone who is Christ's. How ready we are to do this. This one is so little taught in the Word. That one is so ungracious. And with all our criticism we forget that he is, after all, one of Christ's own.
- Humble — the verse follows a call to make yourself small. The same grace makes you welcome others.
- Receive — the test is whether you make room for the weakest person, who can give you nothing back.
- In His Name — the Name gives the act its weight, not the child. The same welcome on any other ground counts for little.
- Christ — stooping to the lowest in the Name of the Highest puts you in company with Christ and the Father who sent Him.
- Greatness — honour one of His little ones and you honour Him. That, not rank, is true greatness.
But whosoever shall offend one of these little ones who believe in me, it were profitable for him that a great millstone had been hanged upon his neck and he be sunk in the depths of the sea.
Matthew 18 opens with a question about rank: who is the greatest? The Lord answers by setting a child in front of the disciples, then warns them sharply about how they treat the smallest and weakest believer.
The phrase is not just decoration. One writer looks at the word behind it and points to a specific group.
The word used here for "little ones" is "mikroon," one who has not yet grown up and is not necessarily a child. It is the same word used of Zacchaeus — he was small, "mikroon," not grown in height. In verse 6, where the word first appears, the Lord says of these, "who believe in Me." He means those who had believed in the Lord but had not grown much in the truth — what we may call new converts. We believe the Lord's word to Peter in John 21:15, "Feed my lambs," is close to this passage.
Older translations read "offend," which can be misread as hurt feelings. One commentator draws a line between wounding someone's pride and damaging their faith.
There may be the very opposite of this — "Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to sin." What does this mean? It means anything likely to shake their confidence in Christ, anything that puts a stumbling block in their way. It does not mean anything said in faithful love to their soul. People may be hurt by that, but that is not what the Lord means here. It is what tends to shake the confidence of the little one in God Himself.
The severity of the punishment makes sense only if the Lord counts Himself involved.
The great thought set before us here is that the Lord identifies Himself with every little one — with everyone who has become a little child, that is, born again. He is their Father and their Lord, closely identified with them. It reminds us of that beautiful word "Whoever touches you touches the apple of His eye" (Zech. 2:8)… And so honour done to one of the little ones is done to Him, injury done to one of them is injury done to Him. What glory of the believer this reveals! This fact should teach us how to behave toward one another, and not to look down on anyone who belongs to Christ. How quick we are to do that! We say one person knows so little of the Word, and another is so ungracious. With all our criticism we forget that he is, after all, one of Christ's own.
Notice the heat in the language. One writer hears a protective love in it, not cold legal measurement.
So this love wraps itself around the ones it loves, like a mother with a baby. It grows, you might say, fierce in condemning anyone who would hurt them. "But whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened around his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea." That is how God cares for the weakest of His own!
A stumbling block is rarely deliberate cruelty. More often it is simply the way we live. One commentator applies the verse to that kind of inconsistency, writing about Gehazi — the servant of the prophet Elisha, who chased money from Naaman, an army commander God had just healed.
Gehazi chose the lure of riches over the eternal well-being of a soul. He is one of those who cause one of these little ones to sin — the people of whom it is said that it would be better for them to have a great millstone fastened around the neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea. Do we think enough about how the worldliness of our life may do lasting harm to these little ones in the faith? How this thought should cause us to give heed to all our conduct!
A common defence is that the offended person was oversensitive. That excuse is turned around here.
Take care you are not a stumbling-block. You may say that a person must be very weak to feel such a thing, but that is the very reason he should be cared for. May the Lord keep us from ever hindering the weak, and make us help them!
The verses that follow tell the disciple to cut off hand or foot. Together the two halves set a double standard — one for others, one for oneself.
As for the disciples, if the thing they valued most became a trap to them, they had to pluck it out and cut it off. They were to take the greatest care, in grace, not to become a trap to a little one who believes in Christ. And they were to be utterly severe with themselves about anything that might trap them.
- Little. The "little ones" are believers who have not grown much yet — new converts, the lambs Christ told Peter to feed.
- Linked. Christ identifies Himself with each of them, so injury done to one of them is injury done to Him.
- Loved. The warning has the heat of a mother guarding a baby; God cares for the weakest of His own.
- Lethal. To cause a little one to stumble is to shake a weak believer's confidence in Christ — and a worldly life is the usual way it happens.
- Lowly. The remedy runs two ways: full grace toward others, unrelenting severity toward whatever ensnares us.
Woe to the world because of offences! For it must needs be that offences come; yet woe to that man by whom the offence comes!
Jesus has just set a child in front of His disciples. He warned that anyone who trips up one of these little ones would be better off drowned. Verse 7 widens the view to the whole world. It also raises a hard question: if these stumbling blocks must come, why is the man who brings them still guilty?
Older translations render the word here as "offences," and it comes from the world of trapping. One reference work traces the same term across Scripture:
The same word is used for the snare that Balaam taught Balak to lay for the Israelites (Revelation 2:14). It is also the word used for the "offences," or snares, that must, by the nature of things, exist in the world for the feet of the saints — Matthew 18:7; Luke 17:1. It is used again in the striking case where the Lord said to Peter, "You are an offence to Me" (Matthew 16:23).
So the picture is not hurt feelings. William Kelly draws a line between honest words that sting and something far worse:
What is meant by this? Anything likely to shake their confidence in Christ, to put a stumbling block in their way. It does not mean anything said in faithful love to their soul. People may take offence at this; but it is not what is spoken of here. It is what tends to shake the confidence of the little one in God Himself.
The verse holds two things together. These offences must come — and yet the Lord condemns the man who brings them. T. B. Baines presses the point:
Here Jesus declares plainly that offences must come. But does He therefore approve or excuse the offence? He knew what was in man, and predicts the sad result, only to pronounce judgment against the one who brings it about.
Another writer puts the same balance in one line: these are sad certainties in such a sad world, but that does not make them less serious or easier to overlook.
Occasions of stumbling will indeed come: these are sad certainties in so sad a world; but that does not make them less grave, or easier to be passed over.
The verse says "woe" twice. One writer notes that the word does not always carry the same weight:
The word "woe," though often a pronouncement of judgment, as in the last clause, is not always so. It can also express pity, as in Matthew 24:19, Mark 13:17, Luke 21:23, Revelation 8:13 and Revelation 12:12.
Commentators differ on where the offences come from. The same writer leans to Christ's own people rather than the world outside:
I lean to the conclusion that the "offences" here are offences in the professing church. I also take the opening "woe!" of the verse to be a long, drawn-out sigh from the Lord's loving heart over the confusion He foresaw among His own... the scandals the world has seen among professing Christians have hindered so much blessing!
Being tripped is one thing; choosing to stay down is another. Leslie Grant refuses to let the person who stumbles off the hook entirely:
It is inevitable that offences will come, and souls are tested by such causes of stumbling. Of course, if someone stumbles, it is his own fault if he stays lying on the ground. It is foolish to put his confidence in one who stumbles him. But the man who is guilty of this offence comes under a sentence of a solemn woe.
Kelly reads the Lord's next words about the hand and the foot as the answer to verse 7. Guarding others begins at home:
What is to be done? The Lord shows in two ways how to guard against these stumbling blocks. The first is this — I must begin with myself. That is the most important means of not stumbling another... It may be in one's service, or in one's walk. But if hand or foot becomes the occasion of stumbling — something in which the enemy takes advantage against God — deal with the evil thing firmly and at once.
Compare the second "woe" with the Lord's words about His betrayer:
He pronounces a "woe" against His own betrayer in almost the same language as the "woe" on anyone who causes His little ones to stumble. Of the one He says, "Woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed." Of the other, "Woe to that man by whom the offence comes." So we should take constant care never to do anything — even unintentionally — to stumble or discourage the feeblest of His own.
- Snare — The word pictures a snare set for the feet. An offence is not a wounded ego but whatever shakes a believer's confidence in God Himself.
- Certain — Stumbling blocks will come; the world guarantees it. Certainty is a forecast, not a permission slip.
- Guilty — The Lord predicts the offence only to pronounce judgment on the man who supplies it. The woe on that man matches the woe on the betrayer.
- Scandal — Offences among Christ's own people do the deepest damage. The scandals the world has seen among professing Christians have hindered much blessing.
- Remedy — Guarding others begins with yourself. Deal at once with whatever in your service or your walk trips you, and you will not become the thing that trips someone else.
And if thy hand or thy foot offend thee, cut it off and cast [it] from thee; it is good for thee to enter into life lame or maimed, [rather] than having two hands or two feet to be cast into eternal fire.
In Matthew 18 the Lord sets a child among the arguing disciples and warns against anything that trips up one of these little ones. Verse 8 turns the warning inward: deal first with what makes you stumble, because the stakes are eternal.
The Lord's first remedy for stumbling-blocks is not to police other people.
What is to be done? The Lord shows two ways to guard against these stumbling-blocks. The first is this — I must begin with myself. That is the most important way of not making another person stumble... It may be in my service, or in my daily walk. But if a hand or a foot becomes the cause of stumbling — something the enemy uses against God — then deal with the evil thing firmly and at once.
The Lord asks for a real cutting off, but not one done with a knife.
Clearly the physical act is only a picture, used to describe in strong terms a spiritual cutting off and throwing away. Nothing that is a trap is to be spared, even if it seemed as close and as necessary as a hand, a foot, or an eye. Eternity is at stake, and a judgment no one can escape, which spares nothing that is against God. I do not think this means that in the day of glory those who have put the flesh to death will carry marks of shame. Rather, such people will be there — and how much better that, than to leave the flesh unjudged, allowing the desires of the body and the mind, and be thrown into hell-fire!
The offence in view here is one my own conscience feels.
If a person's hand or foot makes him stumble, let him cut off the part that causes it. This is swift, immediate judgment. The question here is not offending God or someone else. It is my own conscience offended by my own actions or my walk. Unsparing self-judgment is the only way to deal with this — not a literal cutting off, of course, but a spiritual refusal of the evil in myself. An unbeliever never honestly judges himself, so he will be thrown into everlasting fire with all his parts.
The verse asks the reader to weigh one loss against another.
Hand and foot and eye are very valuable parts of our bodies, and we do not give them up lightly. But life in the coming age is beyond all price, and hell-fire is a terrible reality.
Commenting on this chapter directly, the same writer reduces the whole calculation to a sentence: to offend one of the little ones brings the severest judgment, and this leads the Lord to set His disciples in the light of eternal things — "There is such a thing as 'everlasting fire,' and any sacrifice is better than incurring that."
Some read this fire as one that burns people up and then ends. One writer tests that reading against the Lord's own words.
Why everlasting? Do you really believe the Lord meant to alarm us with this word, if the word meant nothing? What does it matter that the fire is everlasting, if we are burned up in an instant? Everlasting fire... has no real meaning if I stopped existing; it might as well go out... And why would it be better for a man to be thrown into the sea with a millstone round his neck? On that reading he might as well live on.
In the kingdom, real faith and empty profession stand side by side. The Lord warns both without separating them.
He does not pass sentence on them, for some may be truly born of God and others not. He puts it to them plainly: people who are indifferent about sin are not of God. No soul can be born again and go on being careless about what grieves the Holy Spirit... It may cost a great deal, but God is not a hard Master; no one is so tender and loving.
One last thing shapes how these words land: who is saying them.
It is the Saviour of men — the One who died in His love to redeem them — who always gives the most earnest and forceful warning of where sin must bring those who hold on to it.
- Start — Begin with yourself. The surest way not to trip anyone else is to deal at once with what trips you.
- Cut — "Cut it off" pictures a spiritual refusal of evil, not a knife. The test is what your own conscience says about your actions and your walk.
- Cost — A hand and a foot are worth keeping. That is the point: life in the coming age is worth more than anything you give up now.
- Everlasting — The word means what it says. Empty it out, and the Lord's warning is no warning at all.
- Love — The sharpest words about the fire come from the One who died to save people from it. He is no hard Master.
And if thine eye offend thee, pluck it out and cast [it] from thee; it is good for thee to enter into life one-eyed, [rather] than having two eyes to be cast into the hell of fire.
Just before this, the Lord warned about being a snare to others; now He turns the warning inward. The eye is the last of three examples, and His question is blunt: what is sight worth if keeping it costs everything?
Two duties stand side by side in this chapter. One writer names them:
Two things go together here: care not to offend these little ones, and the strictest severity toward self. To be a stumbling block, or a snare, to one of the little ones that believed in Christ was to ensure terrible judgment. Tender care for the weakest, and severe self-judgment, was to be the rule of the kingdom. If this existed, no stumbling block would offend the least, and no snare entangle the disciple.
The Lord is not asking for surgery on the body. One writer gives the reason:
The Lord is not calling for self-mutilation or asceticism in these words. The Creator will never demand that His creature mutilate the body he has received from Himself. Even if someone plucked out both his eyes, the lust would still remain in his heart. Instead, the Lord is extending His teaching here to the matter of self-judgment.
The language is a picture. Another writer shows how much it demands:
Clearly the physical act is only a picture. It describes, in strong terms, a spiritual cutting off and casting out. Spare nothing that is a snare, even if it seemed as near and as necessary as the hand, the foot, or the eye. Eternity is in question, and so is a judgment that no one can escape — a judgment that spares nothing contrary to God. I do not think it means that in the day of glory those who have put the flesh to death will carry marks to their shame. It means rather that such people will be there. And how much better that, than to leave the flesh unchecked, giving way to the desires of flesh and mind, and be thrown into hell fire!
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Hand and foot cover what we do and where we go. The eye goes quieter still: what we look at, and what conscience says about it:
We must judge not only what the hand does or where the foot walks, but also what the eye looks at. Men know it when they see something that bothers their own conscience. Ignoring conscience is dangerous. It can sear the conscience until a person hardly feels its protests. And if someone never judges the evil his eye sees, he is not a believer. He will be thrown into the hell of fire with two eyes.
The word translated "hell" here is Gehenna. It named a real place outside Jerusalem that every hearer could picture:
Gehenna is the Greek form of two Hebrew words meaning "valley of Hinnom." It was the place near Jerusalem where the Jews made their children pass through fire to pagan gods. Later the place was defiled. A fire burned there without stopping, which made it a fitting picture of the place of eternal punishment.
That is a location, not a state of mind, and the verse says so by what it does with the body:
Gehenna is a place. "Whole body … cast into hell" (Matthew 5:29). "Two eyes … cast into hell fire" (Matthew 18:9).
The kingdom holds real faith and false profession side by side. So the Lord speaks in a way that tests every hearer:
No soul can be born of God and stay careless about what grieves the Holy Spirit. So He sets before them the certainty that such people will be cast into everlasting fire. That could be said of no one born of God. But the kingdom of heaven can hold a false profession as well as a true one. So the believer must watch that he allows no sin in any part of himself… It may cost a great deal, but God is not a hard Master. No one is so tender and loving.
The warning is stern. Notice who gives it:
Better to cut off a hand or a foot. Better to pluck out an eye, if it made you stumble, than to keep them and be thrown into the hell of fire. This is the Saviour of men speaking. He died in His love to redeem them, and He is the One who always gives the most earnest and emphatic warning of where sin must bring those who cling to it.
- Snare — the eye stands for what we look at. The trap lies in the desire behind the eye, not in the eye itself.
- Knife — the cutting is spiritual, not physical. Blind yourself and the desire still sits in the heart.
- Cost — nothing is exempt, however near or necessary it feels. Eternity is what hangs on it.
- Conscience — ignore its warnings and it grows hard. Never judge what your eye sees, and you are no believer at all.
- Love — the warning of Gehenna's fire comes from the Saviour who died to redeem, and He is no hard Master.
See that ye do not despise one of these little ones; for I say unto you that their angels in [the] heavens continually behold the face of my Father who is in [the] heavens.
In this chapter the Lord warns His disciples not to despise a little child. Two questions follow: who are "these little ones," and what are "their angels"?
Commentators differ on the reach of the phrase. One reading keeps it wide. It takes in a literal child and any young believer. And the reason the Lord gives is not innocence:
This is a beautiful word. Our Lord states it so widely that it takes in a little child as well as the little ones who believe in Him. I believe this chapter was meant to give encouragement about little ones. The ground our Lord takes is not that they were innocent, which is the way people so often speak of them. It is that the Son of Man came to save the lost. This assumes the stain of sin is there, and that the Son of Man came to meet it. So we may have confidence in the Lord, not for our own souls only, but for the little ones too.
Another reading works from the Greek word and from its earlier use in the chapter:
The word used here for "little ones" is mikron, one who has not yet grown up and is not necessarily a child. It is the same word used of Zacchaeus — he was little, mikron, not grown as to his stature. In verse 6, where the word first appears, the Lord says of these, "who believe in Me." It refers to those who had believed on the Lord but had not grown much in the truth. We may call them new converts.
The Lord links Himself to the very people we are tempted to overlook.
The great thought put before us here is the identification of the Lord with every little one... So honour done to one of the little ones is done to Him, and injury done to one of them is injury done to Him... How ready we are to do this. We say this one knows so little of the Word, or that one is so ungracious. And with all our criticism we forget that he is, after all, one of Christ's own.
One explanation takes "angel" to mean a representative. The angel stands for someone else before God.
Here the Lord warns the disciples against despising a little child. The reason He gives is that "in the heavens their angels" — that is, those of the heavenly host who represent them in the presence of God — "always behold the face of My Father who is in the heavens." He said "My Father," not "their Father." The question here was not the little child's relationship to God. The angelic ministry spoken of is quite separate from that. It is God's provision for the creature as such.
Others read the word differently, drawing on Acts 12:15, where believers hearing Peter at the door said, "It is his angel."
What our Lord calls "their angels" here seem to be the spirits of children now in heaven. The spirit represents the person in the present state until the resurrection. Compare Acts 12:15; Hebrews 12:23; and Revelation 1:20, this last representing the assembly. Some speak of a "guardian angel" as the meaning here. But that does not seem to give a good reason for the Lord's warning, and Scripture nowhere mentions it.
Read that way, the verse becomes an assurance about children who die. Commentators differ here, and some who take the "angel" as a real angel still refuse to build the idea of a personal guardian on it:
"Are they not all ministering spirits sent out for service on account of those who shall inherit salvation?" (Hebrews 1:14). Faith can enjoy it — childlike faith, without going into speculation. However, the passage does not teach that every believer has an angel who guards and protects him and who sees the Father.
Seeing a face carries a meaning here, and a duty follows from it:
Seeing His face means they are always in divine favour... The Father looks on these little ones with favour, and angels care for them. So disciples should take an interest in them and help them all they can... Let us take care, then, that we do not despise these lambs of the flock.
The Lord's warning rests on more than angels alone.
They are not to be despised for three reasons. First, angels minister to them without ceasing. They stand represented before the face of the Father in heaven. Second, they are objects of the Saviour's saving grace. Third, the Father's will is toward them in blessing; He does not desire that one should perish. Sweet words of comfort these for those who have lost their little ones in early life.
- Small — "Little ones" covers the young child in front of Him and the believer who has not yet grown. Commentators differ on which is mainly meant.
- Seen — What people overlook stands before the Father's face, and to see His face is to stand in His favour.
- Represented — Commentators read "their angels" two ways: heavenly beings who stand for them before God, or their own spirits in heaven. Scripture nowhere mentions a personal guardian angel.
- Sought — They are not called innocent but lost, and the Son of Man came to save the lost.
- So — The Father does not want one of them to perish. To despise the least believer is to despise Christ Himself.
For the Son of man has come to save that which was lost.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
What think ye? If a certain man should have a hundred sheep, and one of them be gone astray, does he not, leaving the ninety and nine on the mountains, go and seek the one that has gone astray?
The Lord has set a little child in front of the disciples. Now He asks them to picture a shepherd with a hundred sheep and one missing, and to judge the case for themselves.
This same parable appears in Luke's Gospel. What it means here depends on what comes just before it in Matthew.
No doubt we can take in all those who are saved on the same principle. The Gospel of Luke shows us (Luke 15) this very parable applied to any sinner. But here the Lord is taking it up in connection with what went before, namely, right feelings toward one who belongs to the kingdom of heaven. Starting from a little child whom He sets in the middle of them, He carries the thought of the little one all through this part of His discourse.
The shepherd leaves ninety-nine safe sheep to look for one. Who are those ninety-nine? One writer takes them as people who never think of themselves as lost at all:
The joy over one being found is greater than over ninety-nine who had never gone astray. Of course this ninety-nine stands for people who think of themselves as righteous and never lost. "The lost" are those who admit their lost condition. Of course all are by nature and practice lost, but many refuse to admit it. However, the Father's tender care for little ones is a most important feature of the kingdom of heaven: it is not His will that one of these should perish.
Matthew's account adds a word that Luke's does not have — an "if". That small difference tells us whose search this is.
The parable in the first part of Luke 15 seems to be repeated in Matt. 18, only that there it says, "And if so be that he find it". There is no "if so be" in Luke 15, for there it is the work of the Lord Himself as Shepherd. There is an "if so be" in Matt. 18, for there it is our work. The Lord always finds the one He goes after; I may fail, but that does not mean I ought not to try to recover a brother who has gone astray. I may have the pleasure of bringing him back again.
Right after this parable, the Lord tells us what to do when a brother wrongs us. The search comes first, and it sets the motive.
Just before this (v. 12), the Lord had been speaking of His own search among the mountains for the lost sheep, and of His joy when the straying one came back. No doubt He did this so that we might see the value He puts on one of His own, and learn to act toward them in the same way. Notice that nothing is said here about putting right any wrongs. The Lord does not say, "if he listens to you, all your wrongs shall be put right," but "if he listens to you, you have gained your brother."
The same picture carries a warning. We can congratulate ourselves on guarding the safe majority and forget the sheep left on the hillside.
But if someone wanders from the truth, what then? Are we to be finished with him? Not at all — we should all the more leave the ninety-nine good ones and seek this one until we find him. Is it separation from evil to busy ourselves with the ninety-nine we think are right, and leave the lost sheep? Not at all, it is not the Lord's way.
The Lord gives more than one reason for never looking down on a little one.
Down to verse 14 we are still occupied with the little child. They are not to be despised for three reasons. First, they are the continual objects of angelic ministry, and are represented before the face of the Father in heaven. Second, they are objects of the Saviour's saving grace. Third, the Father's will toward them is blessing; He does not want one to perish. These are sweet words of comfort for those who have lost their little ones in early life, and full assurance of their blessing. The tendency to go astray is in a little child as much as in a grown man, as verses 12 and 13 show. But a child's wandering is not put to his account in the same way until he reaches years of responsibility.
- One child. The parable starts where the chapter started, with a little one set in the middle. Everything the Lord says about sheep, He says about that child.
- One stray. Ninety-nine safe sheep do not cancel out one missing one. The one in danger draws out the shepherd's love; the safe numbers do not.
- One search. In Luke, Christ Himself seeks, and He never fails. In Matthew there is an "if", because this search is ours. Ours can fail. We must still make it.
- One brother gained. The search sets the aim for the verses that follow: not wrongs corrected, but a brother recovered.
- One will. The Father does not want one little one to perish. That is why the shepherd goes out, and why we go after those who wander.
And if it should come to pass that he find it, verily I say unto you, he rejoices more because of it than because of the ninety and nine not gone astray.
Jesus has set a little child in front of the disciples, and He keeps that little one in view through the whole passage. Here He asks what a shepherd feels when the one sheep that wandered off is found again.
The same picture of a shepherd and a straying sheep appears in Luke's Gospel applied to any sinner. Here He aims it at a narrower target.
No doubt the same principle covers everyone who is saved. Luke's Gospel shows us (Luke 15) this very parable applied to any sinner. But here the Lord is taking it up in connection with what came before — that is, right feelings toward one who belongs to the kingdom of heaven. Starting from a little child whom He sets in the middle, He carries the thought of the little one all the way through this part of His discourse.
The wandering one absorbs everything for a while. That is not a slight on the rest of the flock; it is how a shepherd's heart works when one is missing.
The ninety-nine seem to be mentioned here for one reason only. For the moment, the one lost sheep has drawn to himself all the Shepherd's concern — and, when found, all His tenderness, as if there were no other. Yet this overflowing joy does not lessen His interest in the ninety-nine. For the moment it is simply not shown in the same way. Let any of these become the lost one, and they too would stir the same anxiety and tenderness.
Commentators differ here. One reading treats them simply as the rest of the flock, as above; another hears in "never went astray" a description of people who think they never needed saving at all.
Of course this ninety-nine stands for those who think themselves righteous and count themselves as never having been lost. "The lost" are the ones who admit their lost condition. Of course all are by nature and practice lost, but many refuse to admit it.
Luke's shepherd searches until He finds. Matthew attaches a condition to the finding. One writer draws a practical difference from it.
The parable in the first part of Luke 15 seems to come again in Matthew 18. Only here it says, "And if he finds it." There is no "if" in Luke 15. There the work is the Lord's own, as Shepherd. There is an "if" in Matthew 18, for there it is our work. The Lord always finds the one He goes after; I may fail, but that does not mean I ought not to try to recover a brother who has gone astray. I may have the joy of bringing him back again.
Right after this verse the Lord tells us what to do when a brother wrongs us. The joy of verse 13 is the reason that errand is worth the trouble.
Next comes a sentence of the very deepest importance to us: "if he listens to you, you have gained your brother." Doesn't this show us why I am to tell him his fault? And why it is to be between him and me alone? It is "to gain" my brother. Just before this (v. 12) the Lord had spoken of His own search among the mountains for the lost sheep, and of His joy when the straying one came back. No doubt He did this so that we might see the value He places on one of His own, and learn to treat them the same way.
Recovering someone costs the recoverer something. The aim shapes the manner.
If my errand to my brother were only to hurt him, the task could easily be done without a scrap of exercise; but if I am to gain him, then grace must work both in him and in me.
The next verse gives the Father's will about these little ones. One writer uses it to answer a question that haunts grieving parents.
How many die at an early age? Do they perish? We are not left to spiritual instinct, or to reasoning from general principles. Nor is it the unbelieving and unspiritual plea that they are "innocent." They do belong to the fallen race, for whose sake the good Shepherd came and died: "so it is not the will of my Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish." Are we not right, then, to look beyond those who believe to "these little ones," and be sure that if they are taken before they could believe, they will not perish?
- One. The shepherd's whole heart narrows onto the one missing sheep, as if there were no other. The ninety-nine lose nothing by it: any of them straying would draw the same search.
- Joy. Finding, not counting, makes Him glad. The greater joy is over the one recovered, not over the ones who never wandered.
- If. Luke's Shepherd always finds. Matthew's "if he finds it" fits our own efforts, where we may fail — and still must try.
- Gain. The Lord shows us His joy so that we will copy it. When a brother wrongs us, the errand is to gain him back.
- Perish. The parable closes on the Father's will that not one of these little ones should perish — solid comfort for anyone who has buried a child.
So it is not the will of your Father who is in [the] heavens that one of these little ones should perish.
Jesus set a little child before disciples who were arguing about greatness. He then spoke of a shepherd who goes after one straying sheep. This verse ends that whole word with one conclusion about the Father's will. Two questions press: who are "these little ones"? And how far does this promise reach? (Where the ESV reads "my Father," the older translation these writers used reads "your Father"; the point they draw is the same.)
The chapter uses a child as a picture of the spirit believers should have. So some read "little ones" as grown believers who are humble. One writer answers that the wording rules this out.
I know He is giving them as the pattern of our spirit. But there was a real infant there, and He was speaking of him. If He meant a holy person who was as humble as a child, there would be no sense in saying, "it was not the will of your Father that one of these little ones should perish, for their angels," and so on. So it is the infant.
The verse closes a short argument. One writer sets out its three parts.
We must not despise them, for three reasons. First, angels care for them all the time, and they are represented before the face of the Father in heaven. Second, they are objects of the Saviour's saving grace. Third, the Father's will toward them is blessing; He does not want one of them to perish.
The verse assumes children could perish, or the promise would mean nothing. One writer asks where that leaves those who die young.
How many die at an early age? Do they perish? We are not left to spiritual instinct, or to reasoning from general principles. It does not rest on the unbelieving, unspiritual plea that they are "innocent." They do belong to the fallen race, for whose sake the good Shepherd came and died... Are we not free to look past those who believe, to "these little ones," and be sure that if they are taken away before they could believe, they are not to perish?
In Luke 19:10 the Lord came "to seek and to save the lost." Here the word "seek" drops out, and one writer finds the difference deliberate.
The comparison of verse 11 with Luke 19:10 is instructive. There the subject is a grown man, who had had plenty of time to go astray, so the word "seek" appears. Here the subject is a little child, and that word does not appear. The tendency to go astray is in each, as verses 12 and 13 show. But God does not count the wandering in the same way until the years of responsibility come.
The Lord does not rest this on the child's condition but on what God wants. That makes the assurance as steady as God Himself.
Here it is the Father's will which He has come to carry out, and it is not the Father's will that one of these little ones should perish. How sweet and perfect an assurance! It is only the contrary will of man that hinders his salvation: on God's part there can be no contrary one... Thus the little ones removed from us by death we may trust confidently to the divine love which waits on them. Our assurance as to them is rooted in the unchangeableness of the divine nature.
One writer builds the salvation of infants on this passage, and rests it on Christ's atonement.
We believe that Matthew 18:10-14 furnishes the foundation of the precious truth of the salvation of infants... Are you not fully persuaded that all who die in infancy are saved? That since their little bodies undergo the penalty of Adam's sin, their precious souls share the benefit of Christ's atonement!
The same parable appears in Luke 15. Matthew's version adds one small word — "if" — and one writer makes it the key.
The parable in the first part of Luke 15 appears again in Matthew 18, only that here it says, "if he finds it." There is no "if" in Luke 15, for there the work is the Lord's own, as Shepherd. There is an "if" in Matthew 18, for there the work is ours. The Lord always finds the one He goes after. I may fail, but that does not mean I should not try to recover a brother who has gone astray.
Commentators differ on the reach of the words. Some read "little ones" as infants. Others include any disciple who strays.
- Will. The verse rests everything on what the Father wants, not on what the child is. On God's side there is no will against a little one's salvation.
- Lost. That will meets a real need. Children belong to a fallen race, so no plea of innocence will do. They need the death of Christ.
- Saved. He came to save them, but the word "seek" drops out; their wandering has not yet begun in the way a grown person's has.
- Sure. Because God does not change, parents who have buried a child may trust them to that love.
- Ours. The same will puts work in our hands. Matthew's "if he finds it" makes recovery our task, and failure is no reason not to try.