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.