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.
The question that exposed the questioners
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.
What "converted" means
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.
More than a change of behaviour
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.
Why a child, and not a hero
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.
Entrance first, greatness afterwards
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.
The force of the warning
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.
Summary
- 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.