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Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Matthew 18:1

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At the same time came the disciples unto Jesus, saying, Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?

Ch. Mat 18:1-4. A Lesson in Humility. The Kingdom of Heaven and Little Children

Mar 9:33-37; Luk 9:46-48.

1. At the same time ] “in that hour.” The preceding incident and our Lord’s words had again excited hopes of a glorious kingdom on earth.

greatest ] Literally, greater (than others).

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible

Mat 18:1

Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?

The greatest in the kingdom of heaven

I. The occasion of this question. The payment of the tribute money (Mat 17:1-27.) They might have learnt from hence humility and obedience to princes, though tyrants exacting that which is not due; and a willingness to part with their right rather than to offend. But prejudice makes Christs humility an occasion of evil. Some of the Fathers were of opinion that the disciples, when they saw Peter joined with Christ in this action of the tribute, did imagine that he was preferred before them. The true explanation is that We trusted that this had been he (Luk 24:21). Can Christ do this, and thus submit Himself? Can He be a king that thus pays tribute. This, instead of teaching the disciples humility, foments their pride.

II. The persons that move the question-The disciples. The disciples had been instructed that the kingdom of Christ was not of this world, yet conceit shut their understanding against the truth. Ambition finds a pillow to sleep on even in the bosom of disciples themselves. Satan makes snares of our own desires. He maketh curious nets, entangles our fancy, and we straight dream of kingdoms. Who shall be greatest? They are not always the worst men that put this question.

1. And this we need not much marvel at, if we consider the nature of this vice. It is a choice vice, preserved by the devil to abuse the best; this weed only grows in a fat soil, Base natures seldom bear it. What cares the covetous person for honour, who will bow to dirt?

2. It is a vice to which the world is much beholden, and therefore finds more countenance than any. Ambition has been productive of the worlds chiefest books and deeds.

3. It is a vice which amongst many men hath gained the reputation of virtue. It is the kindler of industry.

Inferences:-

1. Prejudice kept the disciples so long from the true knowledge of the Messias who had been so long with them. Prejudice puts out the eye of our judgment. So dangerous was it to the disciples that no words or miracles could root it out; not till the fiery tongues consumed it (Act 2:2-3).

2. Since the devil made use of this error of the disciples, and attempted them where they were most open to him, let us as wise captains used to do, double our watch, and strengthen our weakest part. If the disciples leave all and follow Christ, he will tempt them with honour.

3. Let us not seek the world in the Church, nor honours and preferments in the kingdom of Christ. Let us not fit religion to our carnal desires, but lay them down at the foot of religion. Let Christianity swallow up the world in victory. Let us clip the wing of our ambition, and the more beware of it because it carries with it the show of virtue.

III. The question itself. The disciples were mistaken in the terms of their question, for neither is greatness that which they supposed, nor the kingdom of heaven of that nature as to admit of that greatness which their fancy had set up. In this kingdom Lazarus may be ruler over Dives. The difference between this kingdom and the kingdoms of this world.

1. The subjects of this kingdom are unknown to any but God Himself.

2. Of this kingdom there is no end.

3. The seat of this kingdom is the hearts of the faithful.

4. Their laws are different. It is a common error amongst men to judge of spiritual things by carnal. Goodness is greatness. Let us seek for honour; but seek for it in its own coasts; let us look up to the highest heavens where its seat is. (A. Farindon, B. D.)

Prejudice fruitful of mistake

For all mistake is from the eye, all error from the mind, not from the object. If the eye be goggle or misset, if the mind be dimmed with malice or ambition and prejudice, it puts upon things what shape it pleaseth, receiveth not the true and natural species they present, but views them at home in itself, as in a false glass (which renders them back again as it were by reflexion), which is most deceitful. This makes gods and sets up idols in itself, and then worships them. And this is the reason why Christ is so much mistaken, why the gospel of Christ receives such different entertainment. Every man lays hold on it, wrests it to his own purpose, works it on his own anvil, and shapes it to his own fancy and affection. (A. Farindon, B. D.)

Desires turned into snares

The craft of Satan is various, and his wiles and devices manifold. He knows in what breast to kindle lust, into which to breathe ambition. He knows whom to cast down with sorrow, whom to deceive with joy, whom to shake with fear, and whom to mislead with admiration. He searcheth our affections, he fans and winnows our hearts, and makes that a bait to catch us withal which we most love and most look upon. He fights, as the father speaks, with ourselves against ourselves; he makes snares of our own desires, and hinds and fetters us up with our own love. If he overcome us with his more gross temptations, he insults: but if he fail there, he then comes towards us with those temptations which are better clothed and better spoken. He maketh curious nets, entangles our fancy, and we straight dream of kingdoms. Like a wise captain, he plants all his force and artillery at that place which is weakest and most attemptable. We see the disciples hearts were here the weakest, and here lay most open: hither therefore the devil directs his darts, here he placeth his engines, to make a breach. So dangerous a vice is ambition; and so hard a thing it is even for good men, for mortified persons, for the disciples of Christ to avoid it! (A. Farindon, B. D.)

Greatness adds nothing to virtue

Nothing accrues to a good man when he rises and comes on in the world; nothing is defalked from him when he falls and decays. The steed is not the better for his trappings; nor doth the instrument yield sweeter music for its carved head, or for the ribbon which is tied unto it. (A. Farindon, B. D.)

Greatness adds nothing to comfort

It is but a fancy, and a vain one, to think there is most ease and most content in worldly greatness, or that we sleep best when our pillow is highest. Alas! when our affrighted thoughts shall awake each other, and our conscience put forth her sting; when those sins shall rise up against us, by which we have climbed to this pitch; all the honour of the world will not give us ease. (A. Farindon, B. D.)

Ambition corrected

I. A strange inquiry.

1. They did not inquire about character, but persons.

2. They did not perceive the nature of His kingdom.

3. They thought of the crown without the cross.

4. They set up a mistaken claim.

5. They forgot the Saviours omniscience.

II. An instructive reply.

1. It shows a danger.

2. It teaches a necessity.

3. It speaks a privilege.

(Congregational Pulpit.)

The peerage of the kingdom

I. The question. It showed ignorance, pride, selfishness.

II. The answer. Learn: The way of entrance. The principle of recompense, not merit; not personal worth and greatness. The acknowledgment of unworthiness even to get in at all. (H. Bonar D. D.)

The members of Christs kingdom

I. None but the childlike are in the kingdom at all. The entering implies a conversion, a turning of the back upon the old course of life, and setting the face in the opposite direction.

II. The most childlike are the greatest. That which is most admirable in a Christian man, and the mark of truest greatness, is childlike humility.

III. The childlike are Christs truest representatives in the world. (Dr. Culross.)

Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell

CHAPTER XVIII.

The disciples inquiring who should be greatest in Christ’s

kingdom, 1.

He takes occasion to recommend humility, simplicity, and

disinterestedness, 2-6.

Warns them against offences, 7.

Recommends mortification and self-denial. 8, 9.

Charges them to avoid giving offence. 10, 11.

Parable of him who had lost one sheep out of his flock

consisting of one hundred, 12-14.

How to deal with an offending brother, 15-18.

A gracious promise to social prayer, 19, 20.

How often an offending brother who expresses sorrow, and

promises amendment, is to be forgiven, 21, 22.

The parable of the king, who calls his servants to account, and

finds one who owed him ten thousand talents, who, being unable

to pay, and imploring mercy, is forgiven, 23-27.

Of the same person, who treated his fellow-servant unmercifully,

who owed him but a small sum, 28-30.

Of the punishment inflicted on this unmerciful servant, 31-35.

NOTES ON CHAP. XVIII.

Verse 1. At the same time] Or hour; but is frequently used to signify some particular time: however, instead of , three MSS., all the Itala but four, and Origen, read , day. Origen says both readings were extant in MSS. in his time.

Who is the greatest] Could these disciples have viewed the kingdom of Christ in any other light than that of a temporal one? Hence they wished to know whom he would make his prime minister – whom his general – whom his chief chancellor – whom supreme judge, c., c. Is it he who first became thy disciple, or he who is thy nearest relative, or he who has most frequently entertained thee, or he who is the oldest, merely as to years? Could this inquiry have proceeded from any but the nine disciples who had not witnessed our Lord’s transfiguration? Peter, James, and John, were surely more spiritual in their views! And yet how soon did even these forget that his kingdom was not of this world! See Mr 10:35, &c. Joh 18:10, c. The disciples having lately seen the keys delivered to Peter, and found that he, with James and John, had been privileged with being present at the transfiguration, it is no wonder if a measure of jealousy and suspicion began to work in their minds. From this inquiry we may also learn, that the disciples had no notion of Peter’s supremacy nor did they understand, as the Roman Catholics will have it, that Christ had constituted him their head, either by the conversation mentioned Mt 16:18-19, or by the act mentioned in the conclusion of the preceding chapter. Had they thought that any such superiority had been designed, their present question must have been extremely impertinent. Let this be observed.

Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible

Mark, who relates also the same history more largely, Mar 9:33, saith, that this discourse was in the house at Capernaum, and that our Saviour began with them, asking them what they had been discoursing of by the way. That they held their peace, for they had been in the way arguing one with another who should be the greatest; they might at the same time also ask Christ the question. Luke, in whom we find the same history, speaketh of it only as a question that had arisen among themselves, Luk 9:46. It had been the matter of their thoughts in the way, yea, and of their more private discourse also. Luke saith, Jesus knew the thoughts of their hearts. We had need set the Lord at all times before our eyes, for we are always in his sight. He encompasses all our paths, as the psalmist saith. In the way, when we think also we cannot be overheard, he heareth us, and will call us to account for our travelling thoughts and discourses. They were at first ashamed to tell the Lord what they had been thinking and discoursing upon, for Mark saith, Mar 9:34, they held their peace. But by and by they propound the question to Christ himself; so saith Matthew, What do they mean here by the kingdom of heaven? or what gave them occasion to such a discourse? It is most probable that they did not in this question intend the kingdom of glory; but either the church, or gospel dispensation; or (which indeed is most likely) that earthly kingdom which the Jews thought the Messiah should exercise on the earth. The general error of their nation, about a secular kingdom, which the Messias, when he came, should exercise upon the earth, restoring the kingdom to Israel, as they phrase it, Act 1:6, seemeth to have infected them; so as though in this they differed from the unbelieving Jews, that they owned Christ to be the promised Messiah, and the Christ the Son of God, yet they looked for a temporal kingdom which he should administer. Three times we find them in this mistake; here, and Mat 20:21, and at our Saviours administration of the supper, Luk 22:24; and by Act 1:6 it should seem that till Christs ascension they were not fully instructed in the nature of Christs kingdom, but expected that after his resurrection this kingdom of his should have began; and therefore they say,

Wilt thou at this time restore the kingdom to Israel? Some think that that which at this time raised their jealousy and stirred up their ambition, was our Saviours promising Peter the keys of the kingdom of heaven, Mat 16:19, and paying tribute for him, Mat 17:24-27. But neither of these could be, for had not the keys been given equally the question had been determined, they needed have reasoned no more. He that had the keys was certainly to be the greatest; and for the paying of tribute, it was too minute a thing to cause such a jealousy. Besides, this discourse of theirs was by the way to Capernaum, where he now was; that was after he came to the house. But they doubtless fancied a temporal kingdom of the Messiah, in which places would be bestowed; and Christ, by his discourse about the tribute, had asserted himself a Kings Son; and they conceived that after his death and resurrection (which Christ had lately been speaking of) this his kingdom would begin, which also agreeth with what we have Act 1:6; they therefore thought it now time to speak for places. They had been arguing the point amongst themselves, and could not come to a resolution. Some of them were Christs near kinsmen (such was James, Gal 1:19). Some of them had more extraordinary parts; he named two of them, on this account, the sons of thunder. To others he had showed a more particular kindness; John is called the beloved disciple; Peter, James, and John were taken up to the mount to see his transfiguration. These things might cause some emulation and suspicions; they therefore come to our Saviour to be resolved.

1. How slowly do we conceive, and how hardly do we come to understand, spiritual things! We are of the earth, and we are earthly.

2. How prone are we to seek great things for ourselves, neglecting our higher spiritual and eternal concerns! This text lets us see, that even the best of men are subject to earthly mindedness, ambition, emulation, and hardly brought truly to understand, believe, and seek the things which are above.

Let us now observe how our Saviour behaveth himself towards his disciples upon this question, and what answer he makes to it.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

At the same time came the disciples unto Jesus,…. When the receivers of the half shekel had spoke to Peter about his master’s paying it, and Christ and he had conversed about it, by whose orders he had taken up a fish out of the sea, and from it a piece of money, which he had paid for them both; just at this time came the other eleven disciples to the house where Christ and Peter were: saying,

who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven? Mark says, that the disciples disputed this point in the way; and that when they came to Jesus, he put the question to them, what they had been disputing about: and Luke takes no notice of any question put by one or another; but observes, that Christ perceiving the thoughts of their hearts, in order to rebuke, and convince them, took the method hereafter mentioned. All which is reconcilable, and of a piece: the sum is this; that as they were in the way to Capernaum they fell upon this question, which, being known to Christ, the omniscient God; when they came to Capernaum, and to the house where he was, and knowing that the same thought was in them, he asked them what they had been talking of by the way; upon which they were silent; but calling them nearer to him, and they finding that the matter was known, took courage to put the question to him, and desired to have his sense of it. The Vulgate Latin reads, “who dost thou think”; and the Arabic version, “who in thy opinion”, c. The occasion of this could not be the respect shown to Peter, in paying the half shekel for him for this conversation was begun in the way, and before this was done, or, at least, before they knew it: rather it might be occasioned by his promise of giving the keys of the kingdom of heaven to him; or by his taking him, and James, and John, so lately to the mountain with him, where he was transfigured before them; though it seems best to ascribe it to the mention Christ had made of his resurrection from the dead: for as Dr. Lightfoot, Hammond, and others, have observed, something of this kind generally followed any account Christ gave of his death and resurrection, as Mr 9:31 and this thought of an earthly kingdom still continued, when they saw him risen, Ac 1:6 for they had been taught, that the resurrection, and the kingdom of the Messiah, would be at the same time x. And, by the kingdom of heaven, they meant, not the kingdom of glory in another world, but the kingdom of the Messiah in this; and which they looked upon to be a temporal one, though they call it the kingdom of heaven; not only because Christ often used this phrase, but because the times of the Messiah, and his reign, were frequently so called by the Jews;

See Gill “Mt 3:2”. Now, what they wanted to be satisfied in was, who should be advanced to the post highest in that kingdom next to the Messiah; and, as they doubted not but it would fall on one of them, to have the most honourable post, and the place of the greatest trust, they were desirous of knowing who it should be.

x Vid. Poceck. not. miscell. ad. Port. Mosis, p. 103, 104, 105, 106.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

The Importance of Humility.

1 At the same time came the disciples unto Jesus, saying, Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven? 2 And Jesus called a little child unto him, and set him in the midst of them, 3 And said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. 4 Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven. 5 And whoso shall receive one such little child in my name receiveth me. 6 But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea.

As there never was a greater pattern of humility, so there never was a greater preacher of it, than Christ; he took all occasions to command it, to commend it, to his disciples and followers.

I. The occasion of this discourse concerning humility was an unbecoming contest among the disciples for precedency; they came to him, saying, among themselves (for they were ashamed to ask him, Mark ix. 34), Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven? They mean not, who by character (then the question had been good, that they might know what graces and duties to excel in), but who by name. They had heard much, and preached much, of the kingdom of heaven, the kingdom of the Messiah, his church in this world; but ass yet they were so far from having any clear notion of it, that they dreamt of a temporal kingdom, and the external pomp and power of it. Christ had lately foretold his sufferings, and the glory that should follow, that he should rise again, from whence they expected his kingdom would commence; and now they thought it was time to put in for their places in it; it is good, in such cases, to speak early. Upon other discourses of Christ to that purport, debates of this kind arose (Mat 20:19; Mat 20:20; Luk 22:22; Luk 22:24); he spoke many words of his sufferings, but only one of his glory; yet they fasten upon that, and overlook the other; and, instead of asking how they might have strength and grace to suffer with him, they ask him, “Who shall be highest in reigning with him.” Note, Many love to hear and speak of privileges and glory, who are willing to pass by the thoughts of work and trouble. They look so much at the crown, that they forget the yoke and the cross. So the disciples here did, when they asked, Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?

1. They suppose that all who have a place in that kingdom are great, for it is a kingdom of priests. Note, Those are truly great who are truly good; and they will appear so at last, when Christ shall own them as his, though ever so mean and poor in the world.

2. They suppose that there are degrees in this greatness. All the saints are honourable, but not all alike so; one star differs from another star in glory. All David’s officers were not worthies, nor all his worthies of the first three.

3. They suppose it must be some of them, that must be prime ministers of state. To whom should King Jesus delight to do honour, but to them who had left all for him, and were now his companions in patience and tribulation?

4. They strive who it should be, each having some pretence or other to it. Peter was always the chief speaker, and already had the keys given him; he expects to be lord-chancellor, or lord-chamberlain of the household, and so to be the greatest. Judas had the bag, and therefore he expects to be lord-treasurer, which, though now he come last, he hopes, will then denominate him the greatest. Simon and Jude are nearly related to Christ, and they hope to take place of all the great officers of state, as princes of the blood. John is the beloved disciple, the favourite of the Prince, and therefore hopes to be the greatest. Andrew was first called, and why should not he be first preferred? Note, We are very apt to amuse and humour ourselves with foolish fancies of things that will never be.

II. The discourse itself, which is a just rebuke to the question, Who shall be greatest? We have abundant reason to think, that if Christ ever intended that Peter and his successors at Rome should be heads of the church, and his chief vicars on earth, having so fair an occasion given him, he would now have let his disciples know it; but so far is he from this, that his answer disallows and condemns the thing itself. Christ will not lodge such an authority or supremacy any where in his church; whoever pretend to it are usurpers; instead of settling any of the disciples in this dignity, he warns them all not to put in for it.

Christ here teacheth them to be humble,

1. By a sign (v. 2); He called a little child to him, and set him in the midst of them. Christ often taught by signs or sensible representations (comparisons to the eye), as the prophets of old. Note, Humility is a lesson so hardly learned, that we have need by all ways and means to be taught it. When we look upon a little child, we should be put in mind of the use Christ made of this child. Sensible things must be improved to spiritual purposes. He set him in the midst of them; not that they might play with him, but that they might learn by him. Grown men, and great men, should not disdain the company of little children, or think it below them to take notice of them. They may either speak to them, and give instruction to them; or look upon them, and receive instruction from them. Christ himself, when a child, was in the midst of the doctors, Luke ii. 46.

2. By as sermon upon this sign; in which he shows them and us,

(1.) The necessity of humility, v. 3. His preface is solemn, and commands both attention and assent; Verily I say unto you, I, the Amen, the faithful Witness, say it, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. Here observe,

[1.] What it is that he requires and insists upon.

First, “You must be converted, you must be of another mind, and in another frame and temper, must have other thoughts, both of yourselves and of the kingdom of heaven, before you be fit for a place in it. The pride, ambition, and affectation of honour and dominion, which appear in you, must be repented of, mortified, and reformed, and you must come to yourselves.” Note, Besides the first conversion of a soul from a state of nature to a state of grace, there are after-conversions from particular paths of backsliding, which are equally necessary to salvation. Every step out of the way by sin, must be a step into it again by repentance. When Peter repented of his denying his Master, he was converted. Secondly, You must become as little children. Note, Converting grace makes us like little children, not foolish as children (1 Cor. xiv. 20), nor fickle (Eph. iv. 14), nor playful (ch. xi. 16); but, as children, we must desire the sincere milk of the word (1 Pet. ii. 2); as children, we must be careful for nothing, but leave it to our heavenly Father to care for us (ch. vi. 31); we must, as children, be harmless and inoffensive, and void of malice (1 Cor. xiv. 20), governable, and under command (Gal. iv. 2); and (which is here chiefly intended) we must be humble as little children, who do not take state upon them, nor stand upon the punctilios of honour; the child of a gentleman will play with the child of a beggar (Rom. xii. 16), the child in rags, if it have the breast, is well enough pleased, and envies not the gaiety of the child in silk; little children have no great aims at great places, or projects to raise themselves in the world; they exercise not themselves in things too high for them; and we should in like manner behave, and quiet ourselves,Psa 131:1; Psa 131:2. As children are little in body and low in stature, so we must be little and low in spirit, and in our thoughts of ourselves. This is a temper which leads to other good dispositions; the age of childhood is the learning age.

[2.] What stress he lays upon this; Without this, you shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. Note, Disciples of Christ have need to be kept in awe by threatenings, that they may fear lest they seem to come short, Heb. iv. 1. The disciples, when they put that question (v. 1), thought themselves sure of the kingdom of heaven; but Christ awakens them to be jealous of themselves. They were ambitious of being greatest in the kingdom of heaven; Christ tells them, that, except they came to a better temper, they should never come thither. Note, many that set up for great ones in the church, prove not only little, but nothing, and are found to have no part or lot in the matter. Our Lord designs here to show the great danger of pride and ambition; whatever profession men make, if they allow themselves in this sin, they will be rejected both from God’s tabernacle and from his holy hill. Pride threw the angels that sinned out of heaven, and will keep us out, if we be not converted from it. They that are lifted up with pride, fall into the condemnation of the devil; to prevent this, we must become as little children, and, in order to do that, must be born again, must put on the new man, must be like the holy child Jesus; so he is called, even after his ascension, Acts iv. 27.

(2.) He shows the honour and advancement that attend humility (v. 4), thus furnishing a direct but surprising answer to their question. He that humbles himself as a little child, though he may fear that hereby he will render himself contemptible, as men of timid minds, who thereby throw themselves out of the way of preferment, yet the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven. Note, The humblest Christians are the best Christians, and most like to Christ, and highest in his favour; are best disposed for the communications of divine grace, and fittest to serve God in this world, and enjoy him in another. They are great, for God overlooks heaven and earth, to look on such; and certainly those are to be most respected and honoured in the church that are most humble and self-denying; for, though they least seek it, they best deserve it.

(3.) The special care Christ takes for those that are humble; he espouses their cause, protects them, interests himself in their concerns, and will see that they are not wronged, without being righted.

Those that thus humble themselves will be afraid,

[1.] That nobody will receive them; but (v. 5), Whoso shall receive one such little child in my name, receiveth me. Whatever kindnesses are done to such, Christ takes as done to himself. Whoso entertains a meek and humble Christian, keeps him in countenance, will not let him lose by his modesty, takes him into his love and friendship, and society and care, and studies to do him a kindness; and doth this in Christ’s name, for his sake, because he bears the image of Christ, serves Christ, and because Christ has received him; this shall be accepted and recompensed as an acceptable piece of respect to Christ. Observe, Though it be but one such little child that is received in Christ’s name, it shall be accepted. Note, The tender regard Christ has to his church extends itself to every particular member, even the meanest; not only to the whole family, but to every child of the family; the less they are in themselves, to whom we show kindness, the more there is of good will in it to Christ; the less it is for their sakes, the more it is for his; and he takes it accordingly. If Christ were personally among us, we think we should never do enough to welcome him; the poor, the poor in spirit, we have always with us, and they are his receivers. See ch. xxv. 35-40.

[2.] They will be afraid that every body will abuse them; the basest men delight to trample upon the humble; Vexat censura columbas–Censure pounces on doves. This objection he obviates (v. 6), where he warns all people, as they will answer it at their utmost peril, not to offer any injury to one of Christ’s little ones. This word makes a wall of fire about them; he that touches them, touches the apple of God’s eye.

Observe, First, The crime supposed; offending one of these little ones that believe in Christ. Their believing in Christ, though they be little ones, unites them to him, and interests him in their cause, so that, as they partake of the benefit of his sufferings, he also partakes in the wrong of theirs. Even the little ones that believe have the same privileges with the great ones, for they have all obtained like precious faith. There are those that offend these little ones, by drawing them to sin (1Co 8:10; 1Co 8:11), grieving and vexing their righteous souls, discouraging them, taking occasion from their mildness to make a prey of them in their persons, families, goods, or good name. Thus the best men have often met with the worst treatment in this world.

Secondly, The punishment of this crime; intimated in that word, Better for him that he were drowned in the depth of the sea. The sin is so heinous, and the ruin proportionably so great, that he had better undergo the sorest punishments inflicted on the worst of malefactors, which can only kill the body. Note, 1. Hell is worse than the depth of the sea; for it is a bottomless pit, and it is a burning lake. The depth of the sea is only killing, but hell is tormenting. We meet with one that had comfort in the depth of the sea, it was Jonah (Mat 2:2; Mat 2:4; Mat 2:9); but never any had the least grain or glimpse of comfort in hell, nor will have to eternity. 2. The irresistible irrevocable doom of the great Judge will sink sooner and surer, and bind faster, than a mill-stone hanged about the neck. It fixes a great gulf, which can never be broken through, Luke xvi. 26. Offending Christ’s little ones, though by omission, is assigned as the reason of that dreadful sentence, Go ye cursed, which will at last be the doom of proud persecutors.

Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary

Who then is greatest ( ). The seems to point back to the tax-collection incident when Jesus had claimed exemption for them all as “sons” of the Father. But it was not a new dispute, for jealousy had been growing in their hearts. The wonderful words of Jesus to Peter on Mount Hermon (Mt 16:17-19) had evidently made Peter feel a fresh sense of leadership on the basis of which he had dared even to rebuke Jesus for speaking of his death (16:22). And then Peter was one of the three (James and John also) taken with the Master up on the Mount of Transfiguration. Peter on that occasion had spoken up promptly. And just now the tax-collectors had singled out Peter as the one who seemed to represent the group. Mark (Mr 9:33) represents Jesus as asking them about their dispute on the way into the house, perhaps just after their question in Mt 18:1. Jesus had noticed the wrangling. It will break out again and again (Matt 20:20-28; Luke 22:24). Plainly the primacy of Peter was not yet admitted by the others. The use of the comparative (so in verse 4) rather than the superlative is quite in accord with the Koine idiom where the comparative is displacing the superlative (Robertson, Grammar, pp. 667ff.). But it is a sad discovery to find the disciples chiefly concerned about their own places (offices) in the political kingdom which they were expecting.

Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament

The Rev. inserts then after who, thus restoring the Greek ara, which the A. V. overlooks. Who then? Who, as things stand. Since one of our number has been doubly honored in being called “the rock,” and in being appointed to take part in a special miracle, who then is greatest?

Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament

Mat 18:1

. At that time the disciples came to Jesus. It is evident from the other two Evangelists, that the disciples did not come to Christ of their own accord, but that, having secretly disputed on the road, they were brought out of their lurking-places, and dragged forth to light. There is nothing inconsistent with this in the account given by Matthew, who hastens to Christ’s reply, and does not relate all the circumstances of the case, but passes over the commencement, and relates in a summary manner the reason why Christ rebuked the foolish ambition of his disciples for the highest rank. When Christ makes inquiry about a secret conversation, and forces the disciples to acknowledge what they would willingly have kept back, this teaches us that we ought to beware of all ambition, however carefully it may be concealed. We must also attend to the time at which this occurred. The prediction of his death had made them sad and perplexed; but as if they had received from it unmingled delight, as if they had tasted of the nectar which the poets feign, (497) they immediately enter into a dispute about the highest rank. (498) How was it possible that their distress of mind vanished in a moment, but because the minds of men are so devoted to ambition, that, forgetful of their present state of warfare, they continually rush forward, under the delusive influence of a false imagination, to obtain a triumph? And if the apostles so soon forgot a discourse which they had lately heard, what will become of us if, dismissing for a long period meditation on the cross, we give ourselves up to indifference and sloth, or to idle speculations?

But it is asked, what occasioned the dispute among the disciples? I reply, as the flesh willingly shakes off all uneasiness, they left out of view every thing that had given rise to grief, and fixed on what had been said about the resurrection; and out of this a debate sprung up among idle persons. And as they refuse the first part of the doctrine, for which the flesh has no relish, God permits them to fall into a mistake about the resurrection, and to dream of what would never take place, that, by mere preaching, Christ would obtain a kingdom, an earthly kingdom, and would immediately rise to the highest prosperity and wealth.

There were two faults in this debate. First, the apostles were to blame for laying aside anxiety about the warfare to which they had been called, and for demanding beforehand repose, and wages, and honors, as if they had been soldiers that had served their time. The second fault is, that, instead of laboring with one consent, as they ought to have done, to render mutual assistance, and to secure for their brethren as large a share of honors as for themselves, they strove with wicked ambition to excel each other. If we wish that our manner of life should receive the approbation of the Lord, we must learn to bear patiently the burden of the cross that has been laid on us, till the proper time arrive for obtaining the crown, and, as Paul exhorts, in honor preferring one another, (Rom 12:10.) To the first of these faults is closely allied the vain curiosity of those persons in the present day, who, leaving the proper duties of their calling, eagerly attempt to fly above the clouds. The Lord, who in the Gospel invites us to his kingdom, points out to us the road by which we are to reach it. Fickle persons, who give themselves no concern about faith, patience, calling on God, and other exercises of religion, dispute about what is going on in heaven; as if a man who was about to commence a journey made inquiry where a lodging-place was situated, but did not move a step. Since we are commanded by the Lord to walk on the earth, those who make the condition of departed saints in heaven the subject of eager debate will be found, in so doing, to retard their own progress towards heaven.

(497) “ Comme si tout alloit a souhait et comme si ce qu’on leur a dit estoit aussi doux a avaller que sucre;” — “as if every thing went to their wish, and as if what was said to them were as pleasant to swallow as sugar.”

(498) “ De la primaute;” — “about the primacy.”

Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary

UNRIGHTEOUS AMBITION AND GRAVE RESPONSIBILITY

Mat 18:1-35.

THERE is such a thing as combining an unrighteous ambition with a grave responsibility. The fourteen verses elected for this study are an illustration of our thought.

The disciples of Jesus were far from perfect men. A disciple is a learner and a follower; perfection, therefore, is not to be expected. Because Christ is perfect, worldly men unreasonably conclude that all Christians should be equally so. In other words, they imagine because one is willing to learn, he should know all; willing to attain, he should instantly be perfect! History does not so conclude.

We may be tried with the disciples who come to Jesus asking, Who is the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven? but we should be comforted, rather, that they are so much like us; that so, in the face of our weaknesses, we may also claim to be disciples.

Christs answer to their petty and even unrighteously ambitious question, involves

A STRIKING ILLUSTRATION.

Jesus called a little child unto Him, and set him in the midst of them, and said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven.

Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven (Mat 18:2-4).

In many respects, a child is the best illustration of Christianity. That is not to say that Christianity is feeble in intellect, for it has always been the intellectual religion of the world. That is not to say that Christianity is crude in its ideas and ideals, for no religion can present such a perfection of ideas and ideals as does Christianity. That is not to say that Christianity is, at its best, immature, simple and sweet perhaps, but not efficient, for such is not and never has been the truth of it. But that is to say that Christianity is childlike in its innocence, childlike in sweetness, childlike in unfaltering faith, childlike in altruistic spirit, childlike in the absence of vain boasting and self-glorification, childlike in its sincerity of heart and its purity of motive.

Humility, a childlike characteristic, is most Christian. Christ laid especial emphasis at that point. Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven.

One of the things that made Christ, Christ, finds expression in the experience of Christ Himself,

Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God,

But made Himself of no reputation, and took upon Him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men:

And being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the Cross? (Php 2:6-8).

A man who went up into the Temple to pray boastingly and thank God that he was better than other men, received no blessing such as did the humble soul who smote his breast, crying, God be merciful to me a sinner, and went to his house justified.

That is why James wrote, Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He shall lift you up (Jas 4:10).

This doctrine was not preached by Christ to His Apostles as a new thing. It had long been known to the language of revelation. Solomon had written his proverb, Better it is to be of an humble spirit with the lowly, than to divide the spoil with the proud (Pro 16:19). Isaiah makes a remark to be dwelt upon, The great man humbleth himself (Isa 2:9).

Pride and arrogance are never the traits of true greatness. The moment a man stands up and begins to speak, you know whether he is great or not. If he takes on airs, if he employs high sounding and unusual speech, and indulges in big words requiring dictionaries for definitions, you know that his soul is small. Joseph Parker said, In proportion as a man is truly learned is he truly modest; in proportion as a man is really great is he really childlike. The superb spirits of the earth are simple, clear, sincere. They are as guileless as children; and in that very fact, their truest element of greatness exists.

The child-receiving spirit is the Christ spirit. And whoso shall receive one such little child in My Name receiveth Me (Mat 18:5).

We hesitate to make any single act or attitude the full basis for a final judgment, but if we were so disposed, we should almost be compelled to feel, if not to say, that men or women who have no child receiving spirit can hardly know the Christ. Women who are content to go their way through the world without knowing children, preferring not to be bothered by babies or hampered in their social engagements by little ones, may possibly be Christians, but certainly any antipathy to the child is out of harmony with the whole spirit of Christ. Men and women who are annoyed by the presence of children, and who, if they could find such a sanctuary, would never attend a church where children were present, are far removed from the spirit of the Kingdom of Heaven. Some of us believe that the overwhelming proportion of the population of the celestial city is of little ones, and how shall people who hated children on earth be themselves happy in Heaven? It is very unpopular now to be the parents of a large family, and yet we confess with great frankness that we never see a family of eight, ten, or a dozen in number, brought into the house of God, lined into the pews until two seats are chuck full, so to speak, but we imagine the smile and approval of Jesus as He views the steps that rise from the yearling up.

But there is more in this Scripture than Christianitys child type. This text moves to

A SOLEMN RESPONSIBILITY.

But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in Me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea.

Woe unto the world because of offences! for it must needs be that offences come; but woe to that man by whom the offence cometh (Mat 18:6-7).

It is easy to see that Jesus slips over from the child to the saint, of which the child was a sample, and when He has disposed of the little one, He has put us under obligation concerning the larger one, and yet that one, who being Christs, has a child spirit, and is, in the judgment of Christ, among the little ones which believe on Him (1Jn 2:12).

There is in this Scripture, then, a suggestion at least for the deliberate degradation of a soul.

Perhaps since Christianity came into the world, there has been no century in which the sins to which this text refers, have been so regnant, yea, even blatant, as now. There has never been a time when the teachers of youth were so often engaged in the very destruction of faith to which this text refers. Text books that are elected for our grades, High Schools, colleges, and universities are written by men who deliberately seek to destroy the faith of their believing fellows; and of the thousands of men and women whose profession it is to teach the youth, a large proportion of them now are known to be of the company here condemned. They scoff the Christian religion; they take positive pleasure in undermining the faith of the young, and removing the foundations of the feeble; and, sad to relate, ofttimes the pulpit appointed of God for the very purpose of strengthening that faith, turns traitorous and produces skeptics instead.

Is it any wonder that Christ, anticipating the last days, and remembering the false teachers and the false prophets that should arise, warned against both in the language of the text, Woe unto the world because of offences! for it must needs be that offences come; but woe to that man by whom the offence cometh!

We should remember the deformer can never undo his work. That is true of sinners of every sort, but especially true of faith-destroyers. When my older brothers were little ones, once the eldest shut the door on the fingers of his junior. He is an old man now, but he will carry an abnormal finger nail to the grave. But that slight hurt suffices to illustrate the truth that wounds leave scars.

When John Newton was a boy, he ran away from home one day and learned the sea trade. He sailed to the South Sea Islands, and even to Africa, engaged in slave trading. On board a trading vessel, he met a young English boy, over whom he came to have a potent influence. Newton initiated this lad into every iniquity, until this young man excelled his teacher in the grossest sins. When Newton was converted, he sought assiduously the salvation of this man, but the man only laughed at religion and replied, You taught me all I know of a vicious life; it is too late for you to turn preacher to me now. Newton had a brilliant ministry and brought many men to Christ, but the testimony of his dying hour was that he had never known a serene moment, such sorrow had been his because he had corrupted a youth. One might repent his deeds and be forgiven by a merciful God, but even that will not erase the effects thereof.

You remember how Arthur Dimmesdale in Hawthornes Scarlet Letter carried with him daily the stings of a conscience. One sin kept his tear tubes open throughout all his life, and there was never an hour when there was not a sob in his throat. Tears could never wash the tears from Hesters letter, nor relieve his own heart of a blighting, black burden.

We may have marvelled at times at what Christ said here, but before the facts of history we marvel no more. He said,

Wherefore, if thy hand or thy foot offend thee, cut them off, and cast them from thee: it is better for thee to enter into life halt or maimed, rather than having two hands or two feet to be cast into everlasting fire.

And if thine eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee: it is better for thee to enter into life with one eye, rather than having two eyes to be cast into hell fire (Mat 18:8-9).

Who can understand such speech? Who can sound the depth of such judgment? And yet, who can deny that history has a thousand times illustrated the truth of these verses? Sin may at first suggest with Heavenly shows, but when it is finished, it bringeth forth death.

Full well did Christ turn back again to His original proposition of despising little ones and destroying their faith. Take heed that ye despise not one of these little ones; for I say unto you, That in heaven their angels do always behold the face of My Father which is in Heaven (Mat 18:10).

This is a sentence that seems to suggest both guardian angels and judging ones. Why not? If the Heavenly life is a life of active service, what could profit men more or better honor God than to have some member of the family in Heaven in charge of some believing one on earth? And, what more likely than that guardian angel should do more than look after the little ones of our Lord, reporting their enemies, pass sentence against them? They have access to the Father; they behold His face, and they doubtless bear their testimony.

Who then would dare make sacrilege a pastime? Who then would dare to scoff the faith of Christs followers? Who then would dare snub the true believer, belittle the Bible student, poke fun at the praying man, and treat the faithful as if they were fools? The conservation of Christianity in ones own life and in the lives of others, is the highest accomplishment, and to cast contumely and scorn upon faith in God is the climax of deviltry. Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful (Psa 1:1).

SUGGESTED DISCIPLINE.

The remainder of this chapter has to do with suggested discipline;

First, as it involves disagreement between brethren.

Moreover if thy brother shall trespass against thee, go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone: if he shall hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother.

But if he will not hear thee, then take with thee one or two more, that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established.

And if he. shall neglect to hear them, tell it unto the Church: but if he neglect to hear the Church, let him be unto thee as an heathen man and a publican.

Verily I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in Heaven: and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in Heaven.

Again I say unto you, That if two of you shall agree on earth as touching any thing that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of My Father which is in Heaven (Mat 18:15-19).

The language of Scripture seems to suggest contradictionsIf thy brother shall trespass against thee. The natural inference is that a brother would not so do; but the philosophy of life, even of Christian fraternity, often falls before the mailed fist of fact, and the sad fact is that a Christian brother has trespassed against his fellow. Had that not been true, the controversy between Peter and Paul over John Mark would never have been possible. Had that not been true, the first church council held at Jerusalem would scarcely have been a necessity. If that were not still true, church troubles would be far fewer. It is a sad concession to make, but it is true, that ofttimes the trespasser is hard, unapproachable, and will not even hear what his offended brother has to say. It is a bit difficult to imagine that hard natured, unyielding people, people with unreasonable gusto, who go their own way indifferent to the feelings of others, careless concerning the wounds they have made, are Christian; and yet that the church contains many such, no one questions; and this text is a law of procedure for the injured church member. When the offender will not hear, and two or three others have been convinced personally of that fact, the church is to be told, and if he neglects to hear the church, he is to be regarded as a heathen and a publican. The plain inference is that a man may be in the church and yet not of the church; he may be of the professed body of Christ, and know nothing of the spirit of Christianity. Certainly it has always been so, and, for this age at least, will so remain.

What a contrast is this separation of brethren and its sad results to the blessed suggestion that follows:

Again I say unto you, That if two of you shall agree on earth as touching any thing that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of My rather which is in Heaven (Mat 18:19).

Disunion has discouraged and damaged a church a thousand times; agreement between brethren has always been a powera power that could bring any blessing from Heaven, since where two or three are gathered together in Christs Name, He, Himself, is in the midst, and Christs Presence makes all things possible.

Second, the discipline of the Spirit in the matter of forgiveness.

Then came Peter to him, and said, Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? till seven times?

Jesus saith unto him, I say not unto thee, Until seven times: but, Until seventy times seven (Mat 18:21-22).

On first blush, this sounds like a hardship. One might easily reason, I will never be free from insult, if my enemy finds out such a law of the Lord. One might feel, What is the use of forgiving when insult can follow insult, until 490 times have been felt. Such a multiplication of injuries would render endurance impossible and patience unthinkable.

But is there not another side to this subjecta bright side with which even the injured may bless his own soul? We are told that except we forgive men their trespasses, neither will the Heavenly Father forgive us our trespasses, and may we not reason that if God expects us to forgive our offending brother 490 times, will not He, whose grace is exceeding greater than that of any mortal man, forgive us our offenses again and again, and yet again? In its best analysis, is not this teaching of Jesus the basis of the brightest possible hope for men who sin almost with every breath, whose thoughts are often iniquitous, and whose dark deeds are daily multiplied? We confess that in our darkest hours, this text has thrown to us a light of hope, and when we have been able to review life and face all its foibles, failures and multiplied sins, until discouragement took hold upon the heart, we wondered if Gods grace was adequate, and even then we remembered that we could forgive our enemies; we had forgiven them and held not one single grudge against any; and in that consciousness we have risen from the very slough of despond to the mountain heights of hope. He is more forgiving, more tender, more compassionate, and a thousandfold more forgetful of injuries.

The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy * *

He hath not dealt with us after our sins; nor rewarded us according to our iniquities.

For as the heaven is high above the earth, so great is His mercy toward them that fear Him.

As far as the east is from the west, so far hath He removed our transgressions from us.

Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear Him.

For He knoweth our frame; He remembereth that we are dust * *.

But the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting (Psa 103:8; Psa 103:10-14; Psa 103:17).

What a blessed requirement that we forgive men 490 times! Faith takes wings at the very thought of it and rises to some comprehension of Gods fatherly forgiveness.

Third, the frightful fact that the unforgiving are unforgiven.

Therefore is the Kingdom of Heaven likened unto a certain king, which would take account of his servants.

And when he had begun to reckon, one was brought unto him, which owed him ten thousand talents.

But forasmuch as he had not to pay, his lord commanded him to be sold, and his wife, and children and all that he had, and payment to be made.

The servant therefore fell down, and worshipped him, saying, Lord, have patience with me, and J will pay thee all.

Then the lord of that servant was moved with compassion, and loosed him, and forgave him the debt.

But the same servant went out, and found one of his fellow servants, which owed him an hundred pence: and he laid hands on him, and took him by the throat, saying, Pay me that thou owest.

And his fellowservant fell down at his feet, and besought him, saying, Have patience with me, and I will pay thee all.

And he would not: but went and cast him into prison, till he should pay the debt.

So when his fellowservants saw what was done, they were very sorry, and came and told unto their lord all that was done.

Then his lord, after that he had called him, said unto him, O thou wicked servant, I forgave thee all that debt, because thou desiredst me:

Shouldest not thou also have had compassion on thy fellowservant, even as I had pity on thee?

And his lord was wroth, and delivered him to the tormentors, till he should pay all that was due unto him.

So likewise shall My Heavenly Father do also unto you, if ye from your hearts forgive not every one his brother their trespasses (Mat 18:23-35).

There is a class of people in the world for whom judgment is set. It is the class encouraged by Nietzsches philosophy of hardness; it is the class imagined by the evolutionary hypothesis which makes no provision for sympathy; it is the class who look upon life as a struggle for existence, and who know only the doctrine of survival of the fittest, and so are determined to trample their fellows, and if possible, convert them into stepping stones for their own exultations; it is the class made up of men who, when they are in debt, will plead for time, but who, when others are indebted to them, show no mercy; it is the class that will fawn at the feet of those who have power against them, and beg for the exercise of patience, but who, when power is with them, lay hand on the throat, thrust into prison, and laugh at compassion. Such men are seldom brought to judgment in this life. They cut their way through the world as bullets cut their way; they wound and tear, but march on till all force is spent and they fall limp, useless, and adjudged.

There are few sins that men commit that the Scriptures declare unforgivable; I know of but twoblasphemy against the Holy Ghost, and unforgiveness. Is it possible that they are one? In a sense they are, for they both amount to the same, the actual rejection of Jesus Christ. To put Him away permanently, is to blaspheme the Spirit, and to refuse to have Him in life is to be both unforgiving and unforgiven.

Fuente: The Bible of the Expositor and the Evangelist by Riley

CRITICAL NOTES

Mat. 18:5. One such little child.Whether literally or only morally a little child. Our Saviour had reference, we doubt not, to both phases of childhood. That He refers to literal childhood may be inferred from Luk. 9:48. But such a reference, though real, would be only bridging the way for His far more important reference to moral or spiritual childhood (Morison). In My name.Literally, upon My name, upon the ground or footing of My name, i.e. in consideration of Meout of regard or respect for Me (ibid).

Mat. 18:6. Offend.Or morally ensnare. Whosoever shall give him occasion for relapsing into unbelief, as was done by hierarchical arrogance (Lange). It were better for him.It is profitable for him (R.V.). Literally, it is advantageous to him, in order that a millstone might be hanged about his neck. There is an awful and august irony in the literal expression. It it assumed that be who leads astray one of Christs little ones had an end in view. He contemplated some advantage or other. Let it be so! says our Saviour. Advantage! Let him have the paltry advantage which he seeks. It is an advantage with a tremendous disadvantage coming behind. The spiritual wickedness which is impelling him to seek the imagined advantage has a terrific aim beyond. And thus, poor infatuated creature, he is advantagedis he? If he be, it is in order that a millstone may be hanged about his neck! Such is the graphic force of the Saviours idea, when his expression is resolved into its constituent elements (Morison). A millstone.Literally, a millstone turned by an ass, and so larger than the ordinary millstone. The manner of death alluded to appears to have been unknown to the Jews. But Plutarch mentions this punishment as being common to Greece and Rome. Cf. Juv., Sat., xiv. 16, 17, where, as in other places, it is named rather than the cross as a swift and terrible penalty for crime (Carr).

Mat. 18:7. Woe.The interjection is one of sorrow as well as denunciation, and here the former meaning is predominant, as the latter is in the next clause of the verse (Plumptre). Needs be.Especially in the age blessed by the presence of the Messiah; just as insects abound in summer (Bengel). Offences.The occasions (R.V.). It is possible that Matthew here (Mat. 18:7-9), according to his custom, has grouped cognate sayings, not originally spoken in this connection (Maclaren).

Mat. 18:10. In heaven their angels.A difficult verse, but perhaps the following may be more than an illustration: Among men, those who nurse and rear the royal children, however humble in themselves, are allowed free entrance with their charge, and a degree of familiarity which even the highest state-ministers dare not assume. Probably our Lord means that, in virtue of their charge over His disciples (Heb. 1:13; Joh. 1:51), the angels have errands to the throne, a welcome there, and a dear familiarity in dealing with His Father which is in heaven, which on their own matters they could not assume (Brown).

Mat. 18:11. For the Son of man, etc.Omitted in the Sinaitic, the Vatican, and other important MSS., also in R.V. However, as Carr says, it falls in precisely with the train of thought, and is almost required to connect Mat. 18:10; Mat. 18:12.

MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.Mat. 18:1-14

True greatness.How the opening question of this passage came to be asked seems to be taught us by St. Mark. It was after a dispute on the subject of inquiry, which had occurred by the way (Mar. 9:33-34). The same reference also seems to throw light on the exact purport of the question itself. Tell us then (Mat. 18:1, R.V.) what is the truth about this subject of greatness. Who is greater and who is less, in regard to this point? The Saviour answers by placing a little child in the midst of them, and then taking it in His arms (Mar. 9:36), as though He would say by that action, This is to be great in My kingdom, and to be dear unto Me, viz., to be as this babe is, and think nothing about it. True greatness in My kingdom consists, in other words, in not seeking greatness at all. In the rest of the passage the Saviour goes on to further explain and enforce this statement, by showing, first, what is true of such persons on earth; and, second, what is thought of them in heaven.

I. What is true of them upon earth.Viz., that they are those on whom the welfare of the world itself turns. We may see this, on the one hand, by what is true of their friends. How well it is with all those who show them kindness and love! How well it is even in the case of the very humblest among them! To receive the least of such as being what he is, viz., a believer in Christ, is all one, in Christs sight, with receiving Himself (Mat. 18:5). This is the well-known principle of Mat. 25:40. And this is, also, if we think of it rightly, having a crown of greatness indeed. What, for a creature, can be a greater privilege than that of ministering to the Creator (see Rev. 22:3). It is a privilege certainly of which the holy angels seem glad indeed to partake (Mat. 4:11; Luk. 22:43). Can any persons be greater, therefore, than those who can put this privilege within any mans reach? And who are in this way, therefore, as it were, the ambassadorial representatives of Christ Himself upon earth? We may see the same also, next, by seeing what is true of those persons who are the enemies of such men. Unhappily, that there are such is only too plain. There are those, who, so far from receiving (Mat. 18:5) these, seek to hinder them in their course; and, either by persecution or opposition, on the one hand, or by persuasion and temptation, on the other, seek either to drive them or seduce them into wrong. Evil indeed is it with any man who attempts anything of the kind. All such attempts are things, in Gods sight, of the most serious kind. Nothing more so, in fact. Better anything, in fact, for any man than to have this true about him. Better have round about him in the most helpless position the heaviest possible weight (Mat. 18:6). Better lose also any part of himselfeven the limbs he moves with, the eye he sees withthan in this way to lose all and lose it also for ever! (Mat. 18:8-9). Nothing is more evil, in fact, than being the occasion (Mat. 18:7) of evil to those that are Christs. See, therefore, on the whole, what a double crown of greatness these carry about with them as they move. There are none more to be cherished than thesenone more to be feared than theseamongst all the inhabitants of the world. Can any of its inhabitants either expect or ask to be really higher than that?

II. What is thought of them in heaven.Under this head we are shown, on the one hand, that they are the constant objects of Gods regard. In Genesis 28 we read of the angels of God ascending and descending between heaven and earth. In Eze. 1:14 of the living creatures that ran and returned as the appearance of a flash of lightning. In Zec. 6:5, of spirits which go forth from standing before the Lord of the whole earth. And in Zec. 1:11 of some such bringing in their report of what they have seen on the earth. A like way of speaking seems to be employed in this place. Even Christs little ones are represented as having angels who bring back tidings about them. And of such angels we seem taught that they all have immediate access to the presence of God. Whatever the mysteries and the difficulties and the errors connected with the subject, this much appears plain. What happens to these little ones is of immediate interest to the Great Father of all. Through these higher ones the eye of the Highest of all is for ever bent upon them. Is not this to be great? Next, they are shown to be the special objects of Gods recovering grace. Even when astray and so less than the least, they are not only withinthey are even specially withinthe scope of His thoughts. Almost inexpressible, indeed, is the degree of tenderness with which they are thought of at such times. It is like that which happens, when, in a flock of one hundred sheep, one amongst them is lost. Immediately that one sheep, in the shepherds mind, has a place of its own. Immediately, therefore, he leaves all the rest of them to go in search of that one. And naturally, therefore, if he finds it, he rejoices in finding it more than over the ninety and nine (Mat. 18:12-13). It is a true picture, though an inadequate one, of the will of the Father. His straying little ones are not less precious to Him because they are in danger of perishing. They are ratherif not more precious, which could not very well bemore thought about, and more longed for, and more sought after by Him (Mat. 18:14). Never, it would seem indeed, are His thoughts tenderer than they are to those who need His tenderness most. How great a thing, thereforehow truly greatto be numbered amongst them at all!

1. See, therefore, in conclusion, in the first place, what a secret of contentment is here.What other distinctions are comparable to this of really belonging to Christ? What can they add to us if we possess this? How far can they compensate us, if we do not? And what have we really lost, if possessing this, we only attain them in part? Also, and lastly, can we really miss what is good in them, if this other possession be ours (1Co. 3:22)?

2. See, in the next place, what an incentive to effort is here.Why should those who enjoy this greatness desire to keep it to themselves? Will it not, in reality, be all the greater if they do not? There is no blessing like that of being a blessing. There is no greatness greater than that of sharing greatness with others. The more light we communicate to our fellow-travellers, the more there will be for us all.

HOMILIES ON THE VERSES

Mat. 18:2. The ministry of children.The Evangelists never hesitated to tell the truth about themselves; however humiliating, still it was told; so that if this be not a veritable record, the men who wrote it must, of all men, have been the most singular in their taste. What can be more humiliating than the spectacle of the disciples as it is presented to us in this chapter? The little child is their teacher. We are in a world of children. They are the poetry of life.

I. The little child has something to give us.

1. What an opening of the heart is made by the coming of a little child.It is a great lesson for us in more ways than one. It suggests that there is no power by which we are so likely to move the hearts of an adult generation gone from God as the power of little children.

2. When the world is redeemed the spirit of the little child will be supreme. A little child shall lead them.

II. We have something to give the little child.I speak especially to Sunday-school teachers. Your primary work is to train children for Jesus Christ. Teach them that they are the children of God, that they are not the children of the devil; that they are not meant to do the devils work; that the love of the Father is towards them, that though they may have evil passions and sins and frailties, yet they are Gods children. Surround them from their infancy upwards with an atmosphere of love. Expect them to feel the power of the love of Christ early. Welcome every sign of a gracious, gentle, loving heart towards Jesus.J. G. Rogers, B.A.

A child in the midst (A Sunday-school anniversary sermon).Jesus set a little child in the midst!

I. This is what God did in redeeming the world.By the incarnation there was set in the midst of the prophets, philosophers, armies, governments of the world, a little child. The sign that God has come to redeem the world was not in blare of trumpets, volleys of artillery, edicts of emperors, but in the swaddling-clothes that swathed a Babe in a manger. Among the lessons of the holy manger are:

1. The might of gentleness.

2. The love of God.

II. This is what Jesus did in teaching the disciples.Some have said it was Ignatius, some Peters child. He takes him into His arms. There is a fourfold lesson here.

1. Imitate childhood.

2. Receive childhood.

3. Consider childhood.

4. Care earnestly for childhood.

III. This is what the church does here to-day.The Sunday-school calls us round the cradlesets a child in our midst.

1. It indicates faith in the worth of childhood.

2. Admits the need of childhood.

3. Promotes loyalty to the Saviour of childhood.U. R. Thomas, B.A.

Our Lords object-lesson.The child I suppose to have been a very young child. For such a little child is completely free from folly, and the mania for glory, and from envy, and contentiousness, and all such passions.Chrysostom.

Mat. 18:3-4. The greatest in the kingdom.

I. None but the lowly are in the kingdom (Mat. 18:3).A most heart-searching lesson! What grave doubts and questionings it must have suggested to the disciples! They had faith to follow Christ in an external way; but were they really following Him? Had He not said, If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself? Were they denying self? On the other hand, however, we need not suppose that this selfish rivalry was habitual with them. It was probably one of those surprises which overtake the best of Christians; so that it was not really a proof that they did not belong to the kingdom, but only that, for the time, they were acting inconsistently with it; and therefore, before they could think of occupying any place, even the very lowest in the kingdom, they must repent, and become as little children.

II. The lowliest in the kingdom are the greatest (Mat. 18:4).Though the thought was new to them at the time, it did come home to them; it passed into their nature, and showed itself afterwards in precious fruit, at which the world still wonders. They did not, indeed, get over their selfishness all at once; but how grandly were they cured of it when their training was finished! If there is one thing more characteristic of the Apostles in their after life than any other, it is their self forgetfulnesstheir self-effacement, we may say. Where does Matthew ever say a word about the sayings or doings of Matthew? Even John, who was nearest of all to the heart of the Saviour, and with Him in all His most trying hours, can write a whole Gospel without ever mentioning his own name; and when he has occasion to speak of John the Baptist does it as if there were no other John in existence. So was it with them all.J. M. Gibson, D.D.

Mat. 18:3. Meetness for the kingdom of heaven.What is this conversion concerning which Jesus says that without it entering the kingdom of heaven is impossible for any man?

I. It is aversion from sin.Education, society, natural temperament may lead a man to dislike some sins. But with sin, as sin, the unconverted man lives at peace. Conversion changes all this. What the chill of an iceberg would be to a tropical plant, or the gnawings of an ulcer to a sensitive nerve, sin is to his soul. He fears it, he hates it. And this aversion from sin includes all sinsins of the heart, as well as of the life.

II. It is inclination towards God.Just as the flowers open to the sun; just as the child runs into the parents arms; so does the converted man rise in all his being towards the God who is at once his life and joy. His God-ward tendencies take a practical shape. He loves and delights in all that God lovesGods book, day, people. Now, to such a man the kingdom of heaven is open. He has an eye for its beauty, an ear for its song, a heart for its service. This here on earth. But hereafter the same will be true. Let death come when it may, he is ready for the kingdom.A C. Price, B.A.

Children a parable of the kingdom of heaven.Every reader of the Gospels has marked the sympathy of Jesus with children. How He watched their games. How angry He was with His disciples for belittling them. How He used to warn men, whatever they did, never to hurt a little child. How grateful were childrens praises when all others had turned against Him. One is apt to admire the beautiful sentiment, and to forget that children were more to Jesus than helpless and gentle creatures to be loved and protected. They were His chief parable of the kingdom of heaven. As a type of character the kingdom was like unto a little child, and the greatest in the kingdom would be the most child-like. According to Jesus, a well-conditioned child illustrates better than anything else on earth the distinctive features of Christian character:

1. Because he does not assert nor aggrandise himself.

2. Because he has no memory for injuries, and no room in his heart for a grudge.

3. Because he has no previous opinions, and is not ashamed to confess his ignorance.

4. Because he can imagine; and has the key of another world, entering in through the ivory gate and living amid the things unseen and eternal. The new society of Jesus was a magnificent imagination, and he who entered it must lay aside the world-standards, and ideals of character, and become as a little child.John Watson, M.A.

Mat. 18:4. Receiving the kingdom of God as a little child.There are three senses in which this humility may be understood.

1. As opposed to the pride of intellectual self-sufficiencyin receiving the doctrine of the kingdom in a spirit of docility, without doubting or disputation, as when the child shall receive his fathers word with implicit faith.

2. As opposed to the pride of self-righteousnessin receiving the blessings of the kingdom without any consciousness of desert, as when the child shall expect and take favours at his fathers hand without the faintest sentiment of any merits of his own.

3. As opposed to ambitious pridein receiving the kingdom in a spirit of love for the brethren, without contention for preeminence, as when the noblemans child shall, if permitted, make a companion of the beggars on a footing of the most perfect equality.W. Anderson, LL.D.

Humility.A farmer went with his son into a wheat-field to see if it was ready for harvest. See, father, exclaimed the boy, how straight those stems hold up their heads! They must be the best ones. Those that hang their heads down I am sure cannot be good for much. The farmer plucked a stalk of each kind, and said, See here, foolish child. This stalk that stood so straight is light-headed, and good for nothing, while this that hung down its head so modestly is full of the most beautiful grain.

Mat. 18:6. Injuring others.The atmosphere of carnality and selfishness in which the disciples were moving, as their question showed, would stifle the tender life of any lowly believer who found himself in it; and they were not only injuring themselves, but becoming stumbling-blocks to others by their ambition. How much of the present life of average Christians is condemned on the same ground! It is a good test of our Christian character to askwould it help or hinder a lowly believer to live beside us? How many professing Christians are really, though unconsciously, doing their utmost to pull down their more Christ-like brethren to their own low level! The worldliness and selfish ambitions of the church are responsible for the stumbling of many who would else have been of Christs little ones.A. Maclaren, D.D.

Mat. 18:7. Giving occasions of stumbling.If there is any work in the world which peculiarly deserves the name of the work of the devil, it is the hindrance which men sometimes put in the path in which their fellow-creatures are called by God to walk.

I. The most glaring form of the sin of tempting others is that of persecuting and ridiculing the conscientious.Every one who endeavours to live as God would have him is sure to lay himself open to ridicule, if nothing worse. How easy it is to ridicule the imperfect virtue, because it is imperfect; how easy, and yet how wicked!

II. Are Christians quite safe from doing this great and sinful mischief?I fear not.

1. Christians are not exempt from the common failing of all men, to condemn and dislike everything which is unlike the ordinary fashion of their own lives.

2. Christians are quite as liable as other men to be misled by the customs of their own society, and to confound the laws that have grown up amongst themselves with the law of God.

3. Christians are very often liable, not, perhaps, to put obstacles in the way of efforts to do right, so much as to refuse them the needful help without which they have little chance of succeeding.

4. Christians are quite as liable as any to give wrong things untrue names, and to take away the fear of sin by a sort of good-natured charity towards particular faults.

5. Christians are liable to that which is the common form of tempting among those who are not Christians; not to persecute or ridicule what is right, but to seek for companions in what is wrong. They are tempted, whenever sin is too powerful for their wills, to double it by dragging others with them on the same path.Bishop Temple.

Responsibility for wrong-doing.The words, It must needs be that offences come, but woe unto that man unite in strange contrast the two truths which all the history of human guilt brings before us. Crimes seem to recur with something like the inevitable regularity of a law, and yet in each single instance the will of the offender has been free to choose, and he is therefore rightly held responsible both by Divine and human laws.E. H. Plumptre, D.D.

Mat. 18:8-9. Self-injury.

I. How, and when, and in what, do men thus injure themselves?

1. We may take the hand and eye and foot as symbolical of what belongs closely and intimately to our being and nature; our habits, affections, dispositions, tendencies. Do not these perpetually offend us; harm and obstruct the growth, and mar the beauty and symmetry of the spiritual life? Indolence, pride, lust, passion, selfishness.

2. Under this symbolical language we may include things that we blindly and foolishly turn into means of offence and self-injury, viz., outward relationships and circumstances and duties and pleasures.Anything that makes a man less virtuous, Christlike, less humble and heavenly-minded and self-sacrificing, becomes, in its measure, an offence unto him, a means of self-injury.

II. What is the prevention?A decisive one: cut them off, etc. We may think, as we hear people say of a child with some physical weakness or deformity, in the course of time he will outgrow it. We fear the reverse will be the case with character. Our habits, weaknesses, obstacles, snares, offences, all these would only gather power with time, undermine our character, and do us deeper harm. It must be no momentary self-chastisement or penanceno mere determination to try to represswe must adopt no half-measures whatever. Just as with dross in gold, and speck in fruit, and moth in garment, as with parasite and weed, so with these moral offenders, we must cast them out.

1. For our own sake.

2. For Christs sake.

3. For the sake of others.Theodore Hooke.

Self-regard involves self-sacrifice.There are stringent principles in these vivid words. Lawful things may be occasions of sin. Taste, occupations, the culture of some bodily or mental aptitude, study, art, society, all perfectly innocent in themselves and perfectly permissible for others who are not hurt by them, may damage our religious character. We may be unable to keep them in bounds, and they may be drawing off our interest and work from Christs service. If so, there is but one tiling to do, put your hand on the block, and take the axe in the other, and strike and spare not. It is of no use to try to regulate and moderate; the time for that may come. But, for the present, safety lies only in entire abstinence. Other people may retain the limb, but you cannot. They must judge for themselves, but their experience is not your guide. If the thing hurts your religious life, off with it. Christ bases His command of self-mutilation on the purest principles of self-regard. The plainest common sense says that it is better to live maimed than to die whole. He is a fool who insists on keeping a mortified limb, which kills him.A. Maclaren, D.D.

Complete, yet lost; maimed, yet saved!Note, too, the possibility of a man cultured, full-summed in all his powers, yet, for lack of the one thing needful, perishing, like some tree, rounded, symmetrical, complete, without a branch broken or a leaf withered, which is struck by lightning, and blasted for ever. And, on the other hand, a man may be maimed in many a faculty, and extremely one-sided in his growth, ignorant of much that would have enriched and beautified, but if he have the root of all perfectness in him, then, though he passes into life maimed, he will not continue so there, but every grace which he abjured for Christs sake, will be given him, and then shall the lame man leap as an hart, and the tongue of the dumb shall sing.Ibid.

Mat. 18:10-14. Consolation respecting the little ones.In the Saviours words, there appear three guarantees for the safety of His little ones:

I. The care of the guardian angels (Mat. 18:10).It does not follow from this that each individual has one guardian angel assigned to him as a good genius to watch over him from the cradle to the grave. Of this Scripture reveals nothing. Enough that to the good angels as heavenly servants is committed the care of the heirs of salvation.

II. The love of the Good Shepherd (Mat. 18:11-13).The Son of man, the Lord of angels, has saved those little ones, and He will not suffer them to perish. There is no weakness in His purpose, no negligence in His oversight, no change in His love. In regard to those who are actually children a fine passage occurs in the second part of the Pilgrims Progress. By the riverside in the meadow there are cotes and folds for sheep, and a house built for the nourishing and bringing up of those lambs, the babes of those women that go on pilgrimage. Also there was here One that was intrusted with them, who could have compassion, and could gather the lambs with His arm, and carry them in His bosom. Now to the care of this Man Christiana admonished her four daughters to commit their little ones, that by those waters they might be housed, harboured, succoured, and nourished, and that none of them might be lacking in time to come. This Man, if any of them go astray, will bring them back again. He will also build up that which was broken, and will strengthen them that were sick. This Man will die before one of those committed to His trust shall be lost. So they were content to commit their little ones to Him. In a word, all young children who are committed to the Lord in faith, and all childlike Christians, are safe in the arms of Jesus.

III. The will of the Father in heaven (Mat. 18:14).It is the Fathers will which the Son interprets and fulfils in saving the lost. It is the same supreme will which secures by the providence of the Son, the guidance of the Spirit, and the ministry of good angels, that none of the rescued ones shall perish. Not one of these little ones. The Father has a smile for this child and correction for that; a promise for this one and a warning for that, as each may require; but for every one He has love.D. Fraser, D.D.

Mat. 18:10. Interest in the children (For a Sunday-school anniversary).

I. Christs interest in a little child.Because the thing on earth most like Himself. So much in men and women unlike Christ. So much in child like Him. Because of the mission Christ came to fulfil. Put into word save. Can we clothe the idea in other forms?

1. Christ came to win love. Just what a child can do. Wins his mothers love first.

2. To keep up the sense of beauty. The most beautiful thing on earth is a little child.

3. To raise the idea of innocence. Purity is taught through innocence.

4. To teach dependence on God.

II. Christs revelation of His Fathers interest in a little child.In heaven God keeps the picture, photograph, vision, correspondent, of every child. God has with Him ever our glorified children, and also the picture of the earth-children. Then:

1. He knows all that happens to them on earth.

2. He knows what we do with themhow we treat them; how we neglect them.

3. He knows the children that bear, in bodily, and in home, and social, disabilityand in early deaththe sin-burden of humanity. The pattern, the picture, of every suffering child is always before God. What a precious thought for the children! What a searching thought for those who have to do with the children!

III. Christs command to His disciples to take interest in little children.Our temptation is to despise the little ones. We may fail of our duty in two ways.

1. In active faithfulness to them.

2. In receptivity of influence from them.Weekly Pulpit.

Mat. 18:11. Salvation for the lost condition.Every kind of work supposes something to be done, some ground or condition of fact to be affected by it; education the fact of ignorance, punishment the fact of crime, charity the fact of want. The work of Christ, commonly called a work of salvation, supposes in like manner, the fact of a lost condition, such as makes salvation necessary. Was lost. This work is to be a salvation, not as being a preventive, but as being a remedy after the fact.

I. Clear away some obstructions, or points of misconception.

1. Christ does not mean, when He says was lost, that the lost condition is literally accomplished in the full significance of it, but only that it is begun, with a fixed certainty of being fully accomplished.
2. Total depravity, is no declaration of Christ, and He is not responsible for it.
3. Your want of sensibility to the lost condition Christ assumes, may prove the truth of it. If our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost.
4. God wanted, in the creation of men, free beings like Himself, and capable of common virtues with Himselfnot stones, or trees, or animalsand, being free, and therefore not to be controlled by force, they must of necessity be free to evil. This being true, creatures may be made that perish, or fall into lost conditions.
5. The amiable virtues, high aspirations, and other shining qualities you see in mankind, make the assumed fact of our lost condition seem harsh and extravagant. But, considering how high and beautiful a nature the soul is, it should not surprise you that it shows many traces of dignity, even after it has fallen prostrate, and lies a broken statue on the ground.

II. Look at the evidence of the fact and accept the conclusion it brings.

1. Our blessed Master, in assuming your lost condition, is not doing it harshly, or in any manner of severity.
2. Possibly, He knows you more adequately than you know yourself. What does He in fact say? Notice His parables of the lost sheep and the lost piece of money, etc.
3. Think it not strange if your heart answers, after all, to the heart of Jesus, and reaffirms exactly what He has testified. You live in a world where there is certainly some wrongyou have seen it, suffered from it, and consciously done it. But all wrong, it will be agreed, is something done against the perfect and right will of God, and a shock must of necessity follow it.

III. Speak of the salvationwhat it is, and by what means or methods it is wrought.Manifestly this can be done only by some means or operation that respects the souls free nature, working in, upon, or through consent in us, and so new ordering the soul. Christ works by no fiat of absolute will, as when God said, Let there be light. He moves on your consent, by moving on your convictions, wants, sensibilities, and sympathies. He is the love of God, the beauty of God, the mercy of GodGods whole character brought nigh, through a proper and true Son of man, a nature fellow to your own, thus to renovate and raise your own. The result can never be issued save as we on our part believe.H. Bushnell, D.D.

Was lost.If you see a man topple off the brink of a precipice a thousand feet high, you say inwardly, the moment he passes his centre of gravity, He is gone; you know it as well as when you see him dashed in pieces on the rocks below; for the causes that have gotten hold of him contain the fact of his destruction, and he is just as truly lost before the fact accomplished as after. So if a man has taken some deadly poison, and the stupor has begun to settle upon him already, you say that he is a lost man; for the death-power is in him, and you know as well that he is gone as if he lay dead at your feet. So a soul under evil once begun has taken the poison, and the bad causation at work is fatal; it contains the fact of ruined immortality, in such a sense that we never adequately conceive it, save as we give it past tense, and say, was lost.Ibid.

Mat. 18:12. Seeking the wanderer.I. Look at the figure of the one wanderer.

1. All men are Christs sheep. All men are Christs, because He has been the Agent of Divine creation, and the grand words of the hundredth Psalm are true about Him, It is He that hath made us, and we are His; we are His people, and the sheep of His pasture. They are His because His sacrifice has bought them for His. Erring, straying, lost, they still belong to the Shepherd.

2. Notice next the picture of the sheep as wandering. The straying of the poor half-conscious sheep may seem innocent, but it carries the poor thing away from the shepherd as completely as if it had been wholly intelligent and voluntary. Let us learn the lesson. In a world like this, if a man does not know very clearly where he is going he is sure to go wrong. If you do not exercise a distinct determination to do Gods will, and to follow in His footsteps who has set us an example, and if your main purpose is to get succulent grass to eat and soft places to walk in, you are certain, before long, to wander tragically from all that is right, and noble, and pure.

II. Look at the picture of the Seeker.In the text God leaves the ninety and nine, and goes into the mountains where the wanderer is, and seeks him. And thus, couched in veiled form, is the great mystery of the Divine love, the incarnation and sacrifice of Jesus Christ our Lord. Not because man was so great; not because man was so valuable in comparison with the rest of creationhe was but one amongst ninety and nine unfallen and unsinfulbut because he was so wretched, because he was so small, because he had gone away so far from God, therefore the seeking love came after him, and would draw him to itself.A. Maclaren, D.D.

Mat. 18:14. The love of God for little children.

I. A love of utter unselfishness.

II. A love of delight in them.

III. A love of compassion towards them.

IV. A love of trust in the almost infinite capacities of children.T. Gasquoin.

Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell

Section 46
JESUS TRAINS THE TWELVE IN PERSONAL RELATIONS

(Parallels: Mar. 9:33-50; Luk. 9:46-50)

TEXT: 18:135
A. Humility and True Greatness

1 In that hour came the disciples unto Jesus, saying, Who then is greatest in the kingdom of heaven? 2 And he called to him a little child, and set him in the midst of them, 3 and said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye turn, and become as little children, ye shall in no wise enter into the kingdom of heaven. 4 Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.

B. Responsibility

5 And whoso shall receive one such little child in my name receiveth me; 6 but whoso shall cause one of these little ones that believe on me to stumble, it is profitable for him that a great millstone should be hanged about his neck, and that he should be sunk in the depth of the sea.

C. Self-renunciation

7 Woe unto the world because of occasions of stumbling! for it must needs be that the occasions come; but woe to that man through whom the occasion cometh! 8 And if thy hand or thy foot causeth thee to stumble, cut it off, and cast it from thee: it is good for thee to enter into life maimed or halt, rather than having two hands or two feet to be cast into the eternal fire. 9 And if thine eye causeth thee to stumble, pluck it out, and cast it from thee: it is good for thee to enter into life with one eye, rather than having two eyes to be cast into the hell of fire.

D. Individual Concern

10 See that ye despise not one of these little ones: for I say unto you that in heaven their angels do always behold the face of my Father who is in heaven. (Many authorities, some ancient, insert Mat. 18:11 : for the Son of man came to save that which was lost. See Luk. 19:10) 12 How think ye? If any man have a hundred sheep, and one of them be gone astray, doth he not leave the ninety and nine, and go unto the mountains, and seek that which goeth astray? 13 And if so be that he find it, verily I say unto you, he rejoiceth over it more than over the ninety and nine which have not gone astray. 14 Even so it is not the will of your Father who is in heaven, that one of these little ones should perish.

E. Discipline in the Fellowship of Christ

15 And if thy brother sin against thee, go, show him his fault between thee and him alone: if he hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother. 16 But if he hear thee not, take with thee one or two more, that at the mouth of two witnesses or three every word may be established. 17 And if he refuse to hear them, tell it unto the church: and if he refuse to hear the church also, let him be unto thee as the Gentile and the publican. 18 Verily I say unto you, What things soever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and what things soever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. 19 Again I say unto you, that if two of you shall agree on earth as touching anything that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father who is in heaven. 20 For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.

F. Forgiveness

21 Then came Peter and said to him, Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? until seven times? 22 Jesus saith unto him, I say not unto thee, Until seven times; but, Until seventy times seven. 23 Therefore is the kingdom of heaven likened unto a certain king, who would make a reckoning with his servants. 24 And when he had begun to reckon, one was brought unto him, that owed him ten thousand talents. 25 But forasmuch as he had not wherewith to pay, his lord commanded him to be sold, and his wife, and children, and all that he had, and payment to be made, 26 The servant therefore fell down and worshipped him, saying, Lord, have patience with me, and I will pay thee all. 27 And the lord of that servant, being moved with compassion, released him, and forgave him the debt. 28 But that servant went out, and found one of his fellow-servants, who owed him a hundred shillings: and he laid hold on him, and took him by the throat, saying, Pay what thou owest. 29 So his fellow-servant fell down and besought him, saying, Have patience with me, and I will pay thee. 30 And he would not: but went and cast him into prison, till he should pay that which was due. 31 So when his fellow-servants saw what was done, they were exceeding sorry, and came and told unto their lord all that was done. 32 Then his lord called him unto him, and saith to him, Thou wicked servant, I forgave thee all that debt, because thou besoughtest me: 33 shouldest not thou also have had mercy on thy fellow-servant, even as I had mercy on thee? 34 And his lord was wroth, and delivered him to the tormentors, till he should pay all that was due. 35 So shall also my heavenly Father do unto you, if ye forgive not every one his brother from your hearts.

(Mat. 19:1 And it came to pass when Jesus had finished these words, he departed from Galilee and came into the borders of Judea beyond the Jordan.)

THOUGHT QUESTIONS

Matthew (Mat. 18:1) says the disciples came to Jesus asking, Who is the greatest in the kingdom? whereas Mark (Mar. 9:34) says that when they were asked directly about this very discussion, they were silent. How can both statements be true? Explain this apparent contradiction by showing the proper order in which these took place.

What is the spirit of the Apostles argument? What would their mental concept of the Kingdom have been that caused them to discuss the question of relative greatness?

What is the point of Jesus object lesson: what is there about children that makes them a good illustration of what the disciples must become?

What does it matter what attitude one has who would seek to enter the Kingdom?

How does humility so radically affect a mans life as to produce the desired change Jesus indicates as absolutely essential for entrance into Gods Kingdom? Explain how it is that the most humble are the greatest in the Kingdom.

How do the principles of Jesus conflict with those of the world as to what constitutes true greatness? Who are the truly great in Gods sight?

What are some dangers to avoid in trying to be truly humble?

Does Jesus actually say that it is wrong to want to be great? Did He imply it?

What does receiving little children have to do with humility? Do the great of this world not receive them?

Does Jesus mean that those who operate orphanages serve God perfectly?

Why were the Apostles mistaken to hinder the unaffiliated worker of miracles?

Why do you suppose Jesus permitted the unaffiliated worker to do his work in His name? So that the disciples would have to encounter him and have to decide about him?

How does building a religious denomination with its great agencies, its shows of strength, its big conventions, its fences of separation, its grand institutions, defy the spirit and will of Jesus? Or does it? If not, why not?

What does judging by harsh condemnation do to this spirit of Jesus?

How does the incident involving the unaffiliated worker of miracles relate to His teaching concerning false teachers? Does this passage instruct us to receive all religious teachers regardless of their teaching, simply on the strength of the fact that they follow not with us?

How can you harmonize he that is not against us is for us (Mar. 9:40) with Mat. 12:30 : He who is not with me is against me?

Does Jesus specify what reward may be expected by any who help the disciples? What do you think it is?

If you say that these little ones who believe in me are young Christians, why then does Jesus call them little? What is so little about them?

How or why would death by drowning be better or profitable for the one who causes others to stumble?

Why must occasions of stumbling come? How do they come?

If a Christian, despite his pure life in Christ, unknowingly causes others to sin, is he thereby placed under the condemnation of Jesus? What is a stumbling block anyway? Is it best to look for them in our lives, or to ignore them and let others point them out? Are any of your present habits or attitudes likely to become stumbling blocks? What are you doing about them?

What is the relationship between Jesus dire warnings about ones own hands, eyes or feet, and what precedes as well as what follows them? In other words, what principle is seen in self-discipline and self-mastery that affects the disciples attitude toward others?

What protection against damning selfishness does Jesus afford His disciples in the very words of our text? (Mat. 18:1-35)

How many weak, sinful, stubborn, abusive, hardheaded church-members are included in the command: See that you despise not one of these little ones? How do you know?

How does the illustration about the finding of the lost sheep hold an undisguised threat to status-seeking disciples ambitious to be the greatest in the Kingdom? How does this parable serve as an extremely important context for the teaching on church discipline given later in this same text? (Mat. 18:15-18)

Who is meant by thy brother (who) sins? Should we bring against thee into the discussion? Is our action toward a sinning brother dependent upon whether he has sinned against us or not?

aa.

Even if we admit against thee as having been written in the text by Matthew, does this change anything about the nature and seriousness of the brothers sin? What sin is referred to in this command the Lord obviously intended for us: it is anything listed in the NT lists of sins? What is the law whereby we know when a person sins? How are we going to apply Jesus will as He states it here?

bb.

Must this sin be a public disgrace before we do anything about it? What if it is a failure in ones Christian faith which needs to be strengthened by privately showing him the lack? Are there sins concerning which one should not make a public issue where it is better to forgive than to publish them by initiating disciplinary action? On what basis should this decision be made?

cc.

Since not everyone is gifted with tact and wisdom sufficient to approach the sinning brother in order delicately to remove the cause of his stumbling, would it not be just sufficient merely to be kind and forgiving toward him without going to him about it? Must we go? Why not just pray for him and stay home? Besides, if we lack the necessary abilities to handle the case right, would we not do more harm than good? What does the Lord say?

dd.

Why go to the sinning brother privately at first? Show the wisdom of this course.

ee.

Why, in the case of failure, should one or two others go too? What is their exact function?

ff.

Why tell the matter to the church?

gg.

Who or what exactly is the church here? How could Jesus speak of the church before it even existed?

hh.

Do you think that God has nothing better to do than cooperate with the Church on earth by ratifying in heaven decisions made by the Church? Who is governing this world anyway: God or the Church? How are we to understand the binding and loosing on earth and in heaven?

ii.

Do you think Jesus should require anyone, much less His Church, to call people names like pagan or publican? Why or why not?

jj.

Just because two people agree to ask God for something, does this mean that God is obligated to honor the promise made by Jesus in our text? (Mat. 18:19) Or are there other considerations? If so, what are they?

kk.

In what sense is it true that Jesus is present wherever two disciples meet in His name?

ll.

Do you think an erroneous decision made by the Church, or perhaps one which contravened Gods law, would be binding on anyone? What do you think should be done, if the Church does err in a particular disciplinary case?

mm.

When Peter asked the Lord how often my brother shall sin against me, who does he mean by my brother? only Andrew? What had been said in Jesus previous discussion that would cause Peter to ask this question?

nn.

Do you think Peter was being generous or Pharisaic to try to ascertain the precise limit to which one should go in forgiving a brother? Why?

oo.

Should we forgive an offender who does not seek forgiveness from us? On what basis do you answer as you do?

pp.

Why should Jesus have to tack onto His demand that we forgive the additional expression from the heart? Is there any other kind of forgiveness?

PARAPHRASE AND HARMONY

Returning to Galilee from the tour of Phoenicia, Syria, Decapolis, and, most recently, the Mount of Transfiguration, Jesus and the Twelve arrived in Capernaum. Now an argument had arisen among the disciples as to which of them was the most important. But Jesus knew what they were thinking. So when He was indoors, He faced them with the question, What were you discussing on the way home?
But they would not answer, because on the road they had been disputing with one another about who was the greatest. At that moment some of the disciples came forward to Jesus, blurting out the question, Who then is really the most important in the coming Kingdom of Heaven?
Jesus sat down and, calling the Twelve together, told them, If any one wants to be first, he must put himself last of all and be the servant of everybody!
At this point He called a child to His side and stood him in the center of the group, commenting, Truly I can assure you, unless you change your entire outlook and become like children, you will certainly never get into Gods Kingdom! The most important man in the coming Kingdom is the one who humbles himself till he is like this child.
Then, putting His arms around the child, He continued, Whoever takes care of one little child like this for my sake, is, in effect, welcoming and caring for me. And whoever welcomes and cares for me, is not receiving me only, but also God who sent me. You see, he who seems to be the least important among you all, is really the one who is the most important!
John broke in to say, Master, we encountered somebody invoking your name to drive out demons, so we tried to stop him, because he does not follow you along with us.
But Jesus answer was, You must not hinder him, because no one who uses my name to do a miracle, will immediately thereafter be able to insult or revile me. In fact, anyone who is not actively against us is on our side. I can assure you that, whoever gives you a mere cup of water to drink on the basis of the fact that you belong to Christ,there is no way he can miss his reward.
On the other hand, if someone becomes the means whereby one of these seemingly less important disciples is caused to stumble into sin, it would be better for him to have a millstone tied around his neck and be plunged into the sea and drowned. How terrible for the world that there are things that cause people to stumble into sin! In fact, it is inevitable that such things happen, but woe to the person through whose influence the temptation comes! So, if it is YOUR hand or YOUR foot that proves a snare to YOU, hack it off and fling it away from YOU. By comparison, it is better for YOU to live forever maimed or lame than be thrown with both hands or both feet into the eternal, unquenchable fire of hell! It is the same way with YOUR eye, if this is the cause of YOUR undoing, tear it out and hurl it away from YOU. Entering life half-blind in the Kingdom of God is better for YOU, than with two good eyes to be thrown into a fiery hell, where the maggots never die and the fire is never put out. The salt with which everyone will be salted is fire. But the salt is a good thing only if it has not lost its strength. Otherwise, how will you season it? You must have in yourselves the salt I mean, and keep on living at peace with one another.
Be especially careful not to underesteemmuch less despiseone of these seemingly insignificant followers! I assure you that in heaven their angels have uninterrupted access to my heavenly Father. What is your opinion? Suppose a man had a hundred sheep, and one of them has gone astray. Would not he leave the ninety-nine on the hills and go in search of the one that is straying? Moreover if he manages to find it, it goes without saying that he is happier over it than over the ninety-nine that have not gone astray. So, it is not the will of my heavenly Father that even one of these seemingly insignificant disciples should be lost.
So, if your brother sins against you, go and convince him of his fault privately, just between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have won your brother back. But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, so that every word may be confirmed by the evidence of two or three witnesses. If he refuses to listen to them, present your case to the congregation. And if he refuses to listen even to the community of believers, then consider him like you would a pagan or an outcast. I assure you that whatever action you take on earth will conform to the divine pattern and God will back you up. I intend to underline the fact that, if even two of you agree on earth about anything they pray for, they will receive it from my heavenly Father. This is because, where two or three come together as disciples to meet in my name, I am right there with them.
Then Peter came up with the problem: Lord, how often shall my brother keep on sinning against me and I have to forgive him? As many as seven times?
Jesus disagreed, No, I would not say, seven times, but seventy times seven! This is why Gods Kingdom may be compared to a king who decided to settle accounts with his agents. He had no sooner begun than one man was brought in who owed him an astronomical figure. Since he could not pay it, his Lord ordered him to be sold as a slavehis wife, his children and all his possessionsand payment to be made. At this the agent fell to his knees, imploring him, Lord, give me time, and I will repay you every cent of it! Out of mercy for him, this lord not only released him, but also forgave him the debt. But this same fellow, as he went out, happened to meet one of his co-workers who owed him a paltry sum. Grabbing him by the throat, he began choking him and demanding, Pay me what you owe! At this, his companion prostrated himself, pleading, Just be patient with me, and I will pay you back! But the other refused. Instead, he hauled him off to prison till the debt should be paid. Since other co-workers had witnessed the spectacle, all very upset they went to their master and reported the entire incident. Then the king summoned that agent and addressed him: You wicked ingrate! I cancelled your entire debt because you asked me to. Should you not have been as merciful to your fellow worker, as I was to you? His indignant master then turned him over to the prison torturers, until he should pay the entire amount. This is precisely how my heavenly Father will treat every last one of you, unless you sincerely forgive your brother!
Then, when Jesus had finished this message, He left Galilee and went beyond the Jordan River to Perea which borders on Judea.

NOTES
SITUATION: DISCIPLES DREAMING OF DISTINCTIONS

Mat. 18:1 In that hour came the disciples of Jesus, saying, Who then is greatest in the kingdom of heaven? The opening words link this section with Jesus discussion with Peter about the temple tax, therefore in the house where He regularly stayed during His now less frequent returns to Capernaum. These two events probably occurred the same day, as there is a definite logical connection between them. (See on Mat. 17:24.) This discourse may have occurred upon Peters return from paying the temple tax (Mat. 17:27), although its basis lay in an earlier quarrel. Depending on the emphasis placed on the various details, there are three possible harmonizations of the Gospels approach to this question:

Argument on the road home (Mar. 9:33; Luk. 9:46)

Jesus perceived their thoughts (Luk. 9:47)

Jesus challenged them to admit it (Mar. 9:33)

Ashamed, disciples remain silent (Mar. 9:34)

Jesus statement: First is last and servant. (Mar. 9:35)

Disciples insist: Who, then is greatest? (Mat. 18:1)

Argument on the road home (Mar. 9:33; Luk. 9:46)

Jesus perceived their thoughts (Luk. 9:47)

Jesus challenged them to admit it (Mar. 9:33)

Ashamed, disciples remain silent (Mar. 9:34)

Disciples, unmasked, ask, Who, then, is greatest? (Mat. 18:1)

Jesus statement, First is last and servant. (Mar. 9:35)

Argument on the road home (Mar. 9:33; Luk. 9:46)

Disciples ask innocent general question (Mat. 18:1)

Jesus perceives their real meaning (Luk. 9:47)

Jesus challenged them to admit meaning (Mar. 9:33)

Disciples remain silent, ashamed. (Mar. 9:34)

Jesus statement: First is last and servant. (Mar. 9:35)

Jesus object lesson: Be like children (Mat. 18:2 : Mar. 9:36; Luk. 9:47 b)

This assumes they either did not understand His statement (5) as the true answer, or in light of its ethical implications, stupidly push Him to indicate His prospective hierarchy anyway.

This assumes that, faced with His obvious insight into their squabble, they shamelessly request that He settle their dispute, indicating their relative status.

This assumes they hide their ambition under an innocent, general, hypothetical query, but Jesus reads their thoughts and unmasks their real motive to learn their future status.

Drawn out in these bleak terms, their selfish ambition may seem shocking to the reader who has learned to love and regard these very men highly for their works sake (1Th. 5:13). In fact, the psychological likelihood of this dispute against a backdrop of Passion Predictions may seem slight, but upon closer investigation, is regrettably harmonious. The argument on the road home from Caesarea Philippi (Mat. 16:13) and the Mount of Transfiguration (Mat. 17:1) very likely finds its genesis in certain important details involved in the events that took place there:

The promise of special powers to Peter (Mat. 16:17-19). Did this make him greatest?

The special privileges of Peter, James and Johnwas there any self-exaltation among them because of this?

To witness the resurrection of Jairus daughter. (Mar. 5:37)

To pray with Him on the Mount of Transfiguration. (Mat. 17:1; Luk. 9:28)

The contrasting failure of faith and miracle-working power of the Nine. (Mat. 17:19 f) Did this put them in a bad light with the other three?

Perhaps the fact that the temple tax collectors singled out Peter seemed to increase his prestige as spokesman for the group and especially for Jesus. (Mat. 17:24-27) We are not told how many other Apostles knew about the collectors question, however.

From the standpoint of James and John, Peters impulsiveness and constant rebukes by the Lord might have marked him, not for the highest office, but for some lesser post, a fact that would leave the nicest political plums still on the tree. (Cf. Mat. 16:22 f; Mat. 17:4; Mat. 17:24 f; Mat. 14:28-31; Mat. 15:15 f) Notwithstanding Jesus lesson delivered here, they return later with their own false ambition. (Mat. 20:20-28)

It is not unlikely that Jesus already perceived the harsh spirit of John and the others (cf. Mk. 9;38ff) and the self-righteous bargaining of Peter (Mat. 18:15; Mat. 18:21).

So, Jesus question, What were you discussing on the way? (Mar. 9:33) was not based upon His ignorance, but upon theirs, because He was very much aware, just as He was aware of Peters answer given to the collectors of the temple tax. (Cf. Mat. 17:25) How gently He deals with these children! His question which leads their conscience to accuse them is more effective than a direct rebuke and leaves them psychologically readier to study the question with Him.

There are root causes that made it a psychologically easy matter to begin scrapping over the brightest honors in the Kingdom:

Heart-broken over Jesus insistence that He must die (see on Mat. 17:23), they cling for hope to the Kingdom-idea, but it was THEIR Kingdom-concept that led them astray. As Edersheim (Life, II, 115f) reminds us.

It was the common Jewish view, that there would be distinctions of rank in the Kingdom of Heaven. It can scarcely be necessary to prove this by Rabbinic quotations, since the whole system of Rabbinism and Pharisaism, with its separation from the vulgar and ignorant, rests upon it. But even within the charmed circle of Rabbinism, there would be distinctions, due to learning, merit, and even to favoritism. . . . On the other hand, many passages could be quoted bearing on the duty of humility and self-abasement. But the stress laid on the merit attaching to this shows too clearly, that it was the pride that apes humility.

If they connected the general resurrection with that of Jesus (cf. Mar. 9:10), then they may have imagined the apocalyptic last judgment as following hard on the heels of the general resurrection, and the proclamation of the Messianic Kingdom immediately thereafter.

They presumed without proof that Jesus Kingdom would OF COURSE be hierarchical and that someone among them would very likely occupy the highest posts, dignities and honors. They presumed that greatness and position were political prizes dispensed by the King to His favorites, rather than qualities to be developed through ministry and usefulness to others. Further, they were well aware that Jesus intended to create a community of which they themselves were the founding elements. (Mat. 16:18 f; Joh. 6:68-70; Matthew 10; Mat. 13:10-17)

Since their total concern was who among themselves was greater than the rest of them (see Luk. 9:46 = mezon autn), they evidently could not conceive of anyone outside their group as being trusted with such greatness nor even with miracle-working powers which Jesus entrusted exclusively (so they thought) to them. (Cf. Mar. 9:38-41; Luk. 9:49 f)

From this theorizing and castle-building in which they would all benefit, it was an easy step to begin hypothesizing about who would merit the lions share, because pride and envy are not far apart. Their formal question is, Who then is greatest in the Kingdom? but the question of their heart is: Lord, is it I? They were dividing the spoils before beginning the battle. Scarcely anyone is willing to accept inferiority to others as normal, and considering everyone else as fully ones equal is just as difficult to admit for many, but the vast majority can dream of nothing but unrivaled superiority.

In this confusion of motivations, half based on Jewish expectations and half grounded in their brash expectation of honors and positions as rewards for following Jesus, as Farrar (Life, 389) says.

The one thing which they did seem to realize was that some strange and memorable issue of Christs life, accompanied by some great development of the Messianic kingdom was at hand; and this unhappily produced the only effect in them which it should not have produced. Instead of stimulating their self-denial, it awoke their ambition; instead of confirming their love and humility, it stirred them to jealousy and pride.

While some assert that Matthew plays down the disciples failures and ignorance, this chapter eloquently corrects that view, since it was written in the perspective of the cross and in the hindsight of several years of Church history. For him to report that any one of Jesus disciples posed this shameful question is to paint the humiliating truth about them in its true colors. In fact, this detail guarantees its authenticity, for there are few more embarrassing spectacles of the Apostles unworthy ambitions than that which underlies every syllable of this chapter. If this is not a true, reliable documentation, then to the extent it is self-descriptive, its author must be judged masochistic at worst and possessed of a warped taste at best. In fact, his use of disciples instead of apostles here is not meant to shield the Twelve, but to underline for the reader that these giants of the faith were one day students in Jesus classes and in desperate need of the same instruction the Lord lay before them and requires of all His followers. His goal is not demythologizing the Apostleship, but upgrading the discipleship. He does this by warning every disciple not to be surprised at his own ignorance and failure, as though something strange were happening to him, since even the great Apostles have also walked this lowly path of discipleship too.
The point of their question is its obvious demand for an authoritative, definitive pronouncement on primacy and status in the Kingdom, but especially in the Apostolic group itself. These men want to know precisely what the Catholic Church and all like her have settled for themselves, but it is heresy of the first order to invent human answers and ignore the sort of hierarchy which the Lord actually established by His definite and final answer given in this chapter! It is one of the ironies of Church history that men should so often have deliberately filled in the outline the Twelve had in mind, realizing their ideal of greatness with its high office, its pomp and pageantry, its rod of empire and its submissive subjects, and, in the same motion, robbing Jesus of HIS ideal. Had the Lord ever intended to establish the primacy of Peter or anyone else, this is the time, and this is the chapter. In fact, He could have simply answered their question, settling it for all time and eternity, by saying unequivocally: First, Peter has the keys of the Kingdom: second, James and John shall share equally as prime ministers, then the other nine will form the Apostolic College under the former. Then, having settled the issue, Jesus could then have preached them a message suited to their particular needs while functioning in their newly announced official ranks. But the very fact that He established NO OFFICIAL RANK when formally requested to do so is satisfactory proof that He had no intention of so doing. This conclusion is rendered almost, if not absolutely, certain by the impact and implications of the message He gave. Jesus knew what structured power would do to men. He also knew that He could establish His Kingdom in the world without the organizational power-structure men believe so indispensable to the accomplishment of such a task. He clearly foresaw just how damaging to the spiritual aims of the Kingdom would have been the establishment of an Establishment. Although at this time the Apostles are ignorant and so ask their question, we have the benefit of historical perspective and cannot claim their ignorance, because we are certain that Christs Kingdom is not of this world, and the man or church is in trouble who acts as though it were! How amply and how sadly church history has vindicated His wisdom!

The question itself, although confidently addressed to Jesus as King of the Kingdom and, hence, qualified to furnish a definitive answer, is reprehensible, as the embarrassed silence of the Apostles betrays when He quizzed them about their quarrel. (Mar. 9:34) In fact, as will be obvious from His answer, Jesus saw far more at stake than a simple request for His prospective line-up for preferential treatment in the Kingdom. Because He correctly sensed that much more was involved, He went right to the real heart of their problem, leading the Twelve in quite another direction than they expected when they worded their question. In fact, the very haggling over their own relative importance had not unlikely led to bitterness among them and, consequently, demanded that Jesus answer their question in such a way as to indicate the cure and motivate them to take it. Out of this will come the exhortation to humble efforts to seek reconciliation with a brother and the parable of the unforgiving servant. (Mat. 18:15-35)

What Jesus did at this occasion revealed not only his thorough understanding of the nature of the kingdom and of the way of entering it, but also his tenderness toward the little ones. What he said deserved all the praise that has ever been ascribed to it, and far more than that. But was not the amazing glory of the Mediators soul revealed also in his restraint, that is, in what he did not do and did not say? He did not even scold his disciples for their callousness, their insensibility with respect to this approaching agony, the non-lasting character of their grief, their quickness in turning the mind away from him to themselves, their selfishness. All this he passed by, and addressed himself directly to their question. (Hendriksen, Matthew, 687)

It does, indeed come upon us as a most painful surprise, and as sadly incongruous this constant self-obtrusion, self-assertion, and low, carnal self-seeking; this Judaistic trifling in face of the utter self-abnegation and self-sacrifice of the Son of Man. Surely, the contrast between Christ and His disciples seems at times almost as great as between Him and the other Jews. If we would measure His stature, or comprehend the infinite distance between His aims and teaching and those of His contemporaries, let it be by comparison with even the best of His disciples. It must have been part of His humiliation and self-examination ( = self-emptying, cfr. Php. 2:7) to bear with them. And is it not, in a sense, still so as regards us all? (Edersheim, Life, II, 116)

The task to which He now addressed Himself was at once the most formidable and the most needful He had as yet undertaken in connection with the training of the twelve. Most formidable, for nothing is harder than to train the human will into loyal subjection to universal principles, to bring men to recognize the claims of the law of love in their mutual relations, to expel pride, ambition, vainglory, and jealousy and envy from the hearts even of the good. Men may have made great progress in the art of prayer, in religious liberty, in Christian activity, may have shown themselves faithful in times of temptation, and apt scholars in Christian doctrine, and yet prove signally defective in temper. . . . No wonder then that Jesus from this time forth devoted Himself with peculiar earnestness to the work of casting out from His disciples the devil of self-will, and imparting to them as salt His own spirit of meekness, humility and charity. He knew how much depended on the success in this effort . . . and the whole tone and substance of the discourse before us reveals the depth of His anxiety. (Bruce, Training, 193f)

RESPONSE: JESUS SERMON ON THE IMPORTANCE OF OTHERS

In answer to their question either spoken (Mat. 18:1) or unspoken (Luk. 9:46 f; Mar. 9:33 f) Jesus made certain every single Apostle was present in class before beginning the all-important lesson. (Mar. 9:35) Then, in one pithy, paradoxical proverb He stated His text: If any one would be first, he must be last of all and servant of all. (Mar. 9:35) Everything else He will say will amplify this fundamental idea. Notice how Jesus overthrows earth-bound value judgments by arguing that the last will be first, and the first last, a theme He will take up again in the Parable of the Eleventh Hour Laborers. (Mat. 19:30 to Mat. 20:16)

Who is last of all and servant of all? The wood-choppers and water-haulers of earth! (Jos. 9:27) In short, the lowly burden-bearers in the service of others. Those, therefore, who voluntarily put themselves on this level of ministry to others are the most likely to fulfil the law of the King. (Gal. 6:2) The secret of true greatness is humble, impartial service kindly offered, not on the basis of the worthiness of the recipient or any qualifications other than that of need. This means not merely to serve ones own relatives or friends or social class or religious group, but all, like Christ did. (Mat. 20:25-28; Mat. 23:1 If; Luk. 22:24-27; Luk. 14:11; Luk. 18:14; cf. 2Co. 4:5; contrast Jud. 1:9 f)

True nobility, in Jesus view, is not decided by ones notoriety nor his grip on other men to manipulate them at will. The primary reason for this is that, among men, the power to rule over others does not necessarily imply THE ABILITY TO RULE ONESELF. But the man who can successfully serve others by being happy to make others great is a man who has his own spirit under control also. He rules over the citadel of his own soul. (Pro. 16:32; Pro. 25:28) Only he who governs himself well is fit to suggest to others how to manage their affairs for the greatest common good.

Greatness, in Jesus view, is open only to the free. This is true, because the man who worships greatness, becomes a slave to it, whereas the man who despises this slavery to greatness is above it, hence truly free. But such freedom means the death of personal ambition, personal prestige, personal fame and personal advantage as motivations. But the man who freely chooses to become the servant of others and last in line is truly the greatest, because it requires so much bigness of character to do this.
Greatness is psychologically open only to the modest and unassuming anyway. The way into mens hearts is not opened by a bludgeon, In fact, our acquaintances whom we look up to and gladly acknowledge as better persons than ourselves, are usually the people who pour out their lives for others. Since men tend to resist naked power and willingly bow to loving service, we may say that, from a purely tactical standpoint, Jesus is planning the takeover of the world in the only way that it can successfully be done, by creating battalions of the most loving, unselfish, generous servants of mankind the world has ever seen! By equipping them with these character qualities, He readies them to sweep in conquest. What cities would not open their gates readily to winsome, friendly people who are bent on nothing but good for all its citizens?
Greatness depends upon being last of all, i.e. ridding ourselves of our proud pretenses. In fact, the man who makes no pretenses falls heir to that which the pretenders claim and by their pretenses cannot obtain! Only God can make us great after all, and it is only to the degree that we bring to Him an empty vessel, empty of pride, selfish ambition, self-importance and demands, that He is able to fill us more fully with eternal greatness, wealth and positions of importance.

Jesus does not deny that there may be those who are first. Rather, He simply rectifies every concept of greatness or importance, so that everyone in the new Christian community understands that the first duty and first place is that of the humble servant. This means that every gift we possess that distinguishes us from each other, whether mental endowments, leisure time, strategic position, possessions, or whatever, is entrusted to us for use in loving service of others. Love, that most fundamental rule of Gods Kingdom, abolishes the vulgar distinctions that characterize Satans realm, dividing it into the status-seekers and the down-trodden, the victors and the victims. Jesus proverbial rule here calls for a total unconsciousness of rank, the spontaneous choice of inferiority and the dropping of all claims to consideration and respect, which can be attained only by self-denial. So, He has maintained His hard-line position on the cost of our salvation. (See on Mat. 16:24 ff.) Whereas the Apostles question concerned what PERSON would be declared greatest, Jesus answer defines what CHARACTER ANY PERSON MUST DEVELOP to be considered greatest.

OPENING ILLUSTRATION: THE LITTLE CHILD IN THE MIDST

Mat. 18:2 And he called to him a little child, and set him in the midst of them. Jesus visual demonstration consisted of two separate gestures, each symbolizing a distinct lesson:

He first called the child and set him in the midst of the disciples. In this vivid way He centered everyones attention on the child standing there at His side in the place of honor. If Jesus and the disciples are seated around the room, when the child comes in to stand by Jesus (stesen aut parheat, Luk. 9:47), it would be standing in the midst of them (Matthew and Mark). At this point the child becomes the ideal or standard by which the disciples must judge themselves, a symbol of the disciple honored as great. (Mat. 18:3 f)

Next, He took the child in His arms. (Mar. 9:36 b) This gesture symbolized the truth that When you embrace a child, you embrace me too. (See on Mat. 18:5 = Mar. 9:37 ff = Luk. 9:48 f)

This little child stood in marked antithesis to the dignitaries the self-important Apostles had dreamed of becoming. Jesus is proceeding just as God did when He began the worlds redemption, as Thomas (PHC, XXII, 429) eloquently said it:

By the incarnation there was set in the midst of the prophets, philosophers, armies, governments of the world, a little child. The sign that God has come to redeem the world was not in blare of trumpets, volleys of artillery, edicts of emperors, but in the swaddling-clothes that swatched a Babe in a manger.

Surrounded by His self-seeking disciples, He who Himself is the greatest in the Kingdom turns their eyes to the little child and begins His lesson.

ONE OF THESE LITTLE ONES: LITTLE CHILDREN OR WEAK CHRISTIANS?

That there is a progression in Jesus thought none would care to dispute. The Lord starts with a little child in the midst and then takes it in His arms. This literal example becomes the basis of His entire message. From this child (Mat. 18:4) He will move to discuss one such child (Mat. 18:5), and from there He will progress to one of these little ones who believe in me. (Mat. 18:6) Later, when He argues that though they go astray like sheep (cf. Isa. 53:6; 1Pe. 2:25), they are nonetheless precious to Him, it is clear that He is intentionally referring to both concepts indiscriminately under the same expression.

Interesting evidence that this is Jesus meaning is to be found in the neuter number one (hn) in Mat. 18:14, even though other, later manuscripts miscorrect this to the masculine hes. The Lord is probably not referring to the neuter noun sheep (prbaton = one [sheep] of these little ones), but the neuter noun child (paidon = one [child] of these little ones).

Then, without the slightest indication of a subject change, His argument fades smoothly into the discussion of what to do when your brother sins against you (Mat. 18:15), a note on which He will end the message, (Mat. 18:35) But even in the latter section (Mat. 18:15-35), He keeps developing the little child theme of weakness and apparent insignificance, so characteristic of the first half (Mat. 18:1-14). He does this by underlining the power and importance of just two or three united in Christs name to conduct the business of the Kingdom of God. (Mat. 18:16; Mat. 18:19 f) Again, the brother who, because he sinned, proved himself to be a little one in need of personal, tender care, turns out to be a fellow Christian whom others and even the Church must help when brought in on the question. (Mat. 18:15-17)

Therefore, because Jesus does not always distinguish His intended reference to little ones when molding our attitude toward them, we are obliged to show the same humility and self-sacrificing helpfulness to both, the little children and the weak Christians, and certainly not neglecting all that a child representsthe weak, the insignificant, the helpless. (Bruce, Training, 196)

See Mat. 18:22-35 for Fact Questions.

Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series

XVIII.

(1) Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?St. Mark records more fully that they had disputed about this in the way, that our Lord, knowing their thoughts (Luk. 9:47), asked them what had been the, subject of their debate, and that they were then silent. We may well believe that the promise made to Peter, and the special choice of the Three for closer converse, as in the recent Transfiguration, had given occasion for the rival claims which thus asserted themselves. Those who were less distinguished looked on this preference, it may be, with jealousy, while, within the narrower circle, the ambition of the two sons of Zebedee to sit on their Lords right hand and on His left in His kingdom (Mat. 20:23), was ill-disposed to concede the primacy of Peter.

Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)

Chapter 18

PERSONAL RELATIONSHIPS ( Mat 18:1-35 )

Mat 18:1-35 is a most important chapter for Christian Ethics, because it deals with those qualities which should characterize the personal relationships of the Christian. We shall be dealing in detail with these relationships as we study the chapter section by section; but before we do so, it will be well to look at the chapter as a whole. It singles out seven qualities which should mark the personal relationships of the Christian.

(i) First and foremost, there is the quality of humility ( Mat 18:1-4). Only the person who has the humility of the child is a citizen of the Kingdom of Heaven. Personal ambition, personal prestige, personal publicity, personal profit are motives which can find no place in the life of the Christian. The Christian is the man who forgets self in his devotion to Jesus Christ and in his service of his fellow-men.

(ii) Second, there is the quality of responsibility ( Mat 18:5-7). The greatest of all sins is to teach another to sin, especially if that other should be a weaker, a younger, and a less-experienced brother. God’s sternest judgment is reserved for those who put a stumbing-block in the way of others. The Christian is constantly aware that he is responsible for the effect of his life, his deeds, his words, his example on other people.

(iii) There follows the quality of self-renunciation ( Mat 18:8-10). The Christian is like an athlete for whom no training is too hard, if by it he may win the prize; he is like the student who will sacrifice pleasure and leisure to reach the crown. The Christian is ready surgically to excise from life everything which would keep him from rendering a perfect obedience to God.

(iv) There is individual care ( Mat 18:11-14). The Christian realizes that God cares for him individually, and that he must reflect that individual care in his care for others. He never thinks in terms of crowds; he thinks in terms of persons. For God no man is unimportant and no one is lost in the crowd; for the Christian every man is important and is a child of God, who, if lost, must be found. The individual care of the Christian is in fact the motive and the dynamic of evangelism.

(v) There is the quality of discipline ( Mat 18:15-20). Christian kindness and Christian forgiveness do not mean that a man who is in error is to be allowed to do as he likes. Such a man must be guided and corrected and, if need be, disciplined back into the right way. But that discipline is always to be given in humble love and not in self-righteous condemnation. It is always to be given with the desire for reconciliation and never with the desire for vengeance.

(vi) There is the quality of fellowship ( Mat 18:19-20). It might even be put that Christians are people who pray together. They are people who in fellowship seek the will of God, who in fellowship listen and worship together. Individualism is the reverse of Christianity.

(vii) There is the spirit of forgiveness ( Mat 18:23-35); and the Christian’s forgiveness of his fellow-men is founded on the fact that he himself is a forgiven man. He forgives others even as God, for Christ’s sake, has forgiven him.

The Mind Of A Child ( Mat 18:1-4)

18:1-4 On that day the disciples came to Jesus. “Who, then,” they said, “is the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven?” Jesus called a little child and made him stand in the middle of them, and said, “This is the truth I tell you–unless you turn and become as children, you will not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. Whoever humbles himself as this little child, he is the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven.”

Here is a very revealing question, followed by a very revealing answer. The disciples asked who was the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven. Jesus took a child and said that unless they turned and became as this little child, they would not get into the Kingdom at all.

The question of the disciples was: “Who will be the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven?” and the very fact that they asked that question showed that they had no idea at all what the Kingdom of Heaven was. Jesus said, “Unless you turn.” He was warning them that they were going in completely the wrong direction, away from the Kingdom of Heaven and not towards it. In life it is all a question of what a man is aiming at; if he is aiming at the fulfilment of personal ambition, the acquisition of personal power, the enjoyment of personal prestige, the exaltation of self, he is aiming at precisely the opposite of the Kingdom of Heaven; for to be a citizen of the Kingdom means the complete forgetting of self, the obliteration of self, the spending of self in a life which aims at service and not at power. So long as a man considers his own self as the most important thing in the world, his back is turned to the Kingdom; if he wants ever to reach the Kingdom, he must turn round and face in the opposite direction.

Jesus took a child. There is a tradition that the child grew to be Ignatius of Antioch, who in later days became a great servant of the Church, a great writer, and finally a martyr for Christ. Ignatius was surnamed Theophoros, which means God–carried, and the tradition grew up that he had received that name because Jesus carried him on his knee. It may be so. Maybe it is more likely that it was Peter who asked the question, and that it was Peter’s little boy whom Jesus took and set in the midst, because we know that Peter was married ( Mat 8:14; 1Co 9:5).

So Jesus said that in a child we see the characteristics which should mark the man of the Kingdom. There are many lovely characteristics in a child–the power to wonder, before he has become deadeningly used to the wonder of the world; the power to forgive and to forget, even when adults and parents treat him unjustly as they so often do; the innocence, which, as Richard Glover beautifully says, brings it about that the child has only to learn, not to unlearn; only to do, not to undo. No doubt Jesus was thinking of these things; but wonderful as they are they are not the main things in his mind. The child has three great qualities which make him the symbol of those who are citizens of the Kingdom.

(i) First and foremost, there is the quality which is the keynote of the whole passage, the child’s humility. A child does not wish to push himself forward; rather, he wishes to fade into the background. He does not wish for prominence; he would rather be left in obscurity. It is only as he grows up, and begins to be initiated into a competitive world, with its fierce struggle and scramble for prizes and for first places, that his instinctive humility is left behind.

(ii) There is the child’s dependence. To the child a state of dependence is perfectly natural. He never thinks that he can face life by himself. He is perfectly content to be utterly dependent on those who love him and care for him. If men would accept the fact of their dependence on God, a new strength and a new peace would enter their lives.

(iii) There is the child’s trust. The child is instinctively dependent, and just as instinctively he trusts his parents that his needs will be met. When we are children, we cannot buy our own food or our own clothes, or maintain our own home; yet we never doubt that we will be clothed and fed, and that there will be shelter and warmth and comfort waiting for us when we come home. When we are children we set out on a journey with no means of paying the fare, and with no idea of how to get to our journey’s end, and yet it never enters our heads to doubt that our parents will bring us safely there.

The child’s humility is the pattern of the Christian’s behaviour to his fellow-men, and the child’s dependence and trust are the pattern of the Christian’s attitude towards God, the Father of all.

Christ And The Child ( Mat 18:5-7; Mat 18:10)

18:5-7,10 “Whoever receives one such little child in my name, receives me. But whoever puts a stumbling-block in the way of one of these little ones, who believe in me, it is better for him that a great millstone should be hanged about his neck, and that he should be drowned far out in the open sea. Alas for the world because of stumbling-blocks! Stumbling-blocks are bound to come; but alas for the man by whom the stumbling-block comes!

“See that you do not despise one of these little ones; for, I tell you, their angels in heaven always look upon the face of my Father who is in heaven.”

There is a certain difficulty of interpretation in this passage which must be borne in mind. As we have often seen, it is Matthew’s consistent custom to gather together the teaching of Jesus under certain great heads; he arranges it systematically. In the early part of this chapter he is collecting Jesus’ teaching about children; and we must remember that the Jews used the word child in a double sense. They used it literally of the young child; but regularly a teacher’s disciples were called his sons or his children. Therefore a child also means a beginner in the faith, one who has just begun to believe, one who is not yet mature and established in the faith, one who has just begun on the right way and who may very easily be deflected from it. In this passage very often the child means both the young child and the beginner on the Christian way.

Jesus says that whoever receives one such little child in his name receives himself. The phrase in my name can mean one of two things. (i) It can mean for my sake. The care of children is something which is carried out for the sake of none other than Jesus Christ. To teach a child, to bring up a child in the way he ought to go, is something which is done not only for the sake of the child, but for the sake of Jesus himself. (ii) It can mean with a blessing. It can mean receiving the child, and, as it were, naming the name of Jesus over him. He who brings Jesus and the blessing of Jesus to a child is doing a Christlike work.

To receive the child is also a phrase which is capable of bearing more than one meaning. (i) It can mean, not so much to receive a child, as to receive a person who has this childlike quality of humility. In this highly competitive world it is very easy to pay most attention to the person who is pugnacious and aggressive and self-assertive and full of self-confidence. It is easy to pay most attention to the person who, in the worldly sense of the term, has made a success of life. Jesus may well be saying that the most important people are not the thrusters and those who have climbed to the top of the tree by pushing everyone else out of the way, but the quiet, humble, simple people, who have the heart of a child.

(ii) It can mean simply to welcome the child, to give him the care and the love and the teaching which he requires to make him into a good man. To help a child to live well and to know God better is to help Jesus Christ.

(iii) But this phrase can have another and very wonderful meaning. It can mean to see Christ in the child. To teach unruly, disobedient, restless little children can be a wearing job. To satisfy the physical needs of a child, to wash his clothes and bind his cuts and soothe his bruises and cook his meals may often seem a very unromantic task; the cooker and the sink and the work-basket have not much glamour; but there is no one in all this world who helps Jesus Christ more than the teacher of the little child and the harassed, hard-pressed mother in the home. All such will find a glory in the grey, if in the child they sometimes glimpse none other than Jesus himself.

The Terrible Responsibility ( Mat 18:5-7; Mat 18:10 Continued)

But the great keynote of this passage is the terrible weight of responsibility it leaves upon every one of us.

(i) It stresses the terror of teaching another to sin. It is true to say that no man sins uninvited; and the bearer of the invitation is so often a fellow-man. A man must always be confronted with his first temptation to sin; he must always receive his first encouragement to do the wrong thing; he must always experience his first push along the way to the forbidden things. The Jews took the view that the most unforgivable of all sins is to teach another to sin; and for this reason–a man’s own sins can be forgiven, for in a sense they are limited in their consequences; but if we teach another to sin, he in his turn may teach still another, and a train of sin is set in motion with no foreseeable end.

There is nothing in this world more terrible than to destroy someone’s innocence. And, if a man has any conscience left, there is nothing which will haunt him more. Someone tells of an old man who was dying; he was obviously sorely troubled. At last they got him to tell why. “When we were boys at play,” he said, “one day at a cross-roads we reversed a signpost so that its arms were pointing the opposite way, and I’ve never ceased to wonder how many people were sent in the wrong direction by what we did.” The sin of all sins is to teach another to sin.

(ii) It stresses the terror of the punishment of those who teach another to sin. If a man teaches another to sin, it would be better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck and he were drowned in the depths of the sea.

The millstone in this case is a mulos ( G3458) , onikos ( G3684) . The Jews ground corn by crushing it between two circular stones. This was done at home; and in any cottage such a mill could be seen. The upper stone, which turned round upon the lower was equipped with a handle, and it was commonly of such a size that the housewife could easily turn it, for it was she who did the grinding of the corn for the household needs. But a mulos onikos ( G3684) was a grinding-stone of such a size that it needed an ass pulling it (onos ( G3688) is the Greek for an ass and mulos ( G3458) is the Greek for a millstone) to turn it round at all. The very size of the millstone shows the awfulness of the condemnation.

Further, in the Greek it is said, not so much that the man would be better to be drowned in the depths of the sea, but that it would be better if he were drowned far out in the open sea. The Jew feared the sea; for him Heaven was a place where there would be no more sea ( Rev 21:1). The man who taught another to sin would be better to be drowned far out in the most lonely of all waste places. Moreover, the very picture of drowning had its terror for the Jew. Drowning was sometimes a Roman punishment, but never Jewish. To the Jew it was the symbol of utter destruction. When the Rabbis taught that heathen and Gentile objects were to be utterly destroyed they said that they must be “cast into the salt sea.” Josephus (Antiquities of the Jews 14. 15. 10) has a terrible account of a Galilaean revolt in which the Galilaeans took the supporters of Herod and drowned them in the depths of the Sea of Galilee. The very phrase would paint to the Jew a picture of utter destruction. Jesus’ words are carefully chosen to show the fate that awaits a man who teaches another to sin.

(iii) It has a warning to silence all evasion. This is a sin-stained world and a tempting world; no one can go out into it without meeting seductions to sin. That is specially so if he goes out from a protected home where no evil influence was ever allowed to play upon him. Jesus says, “That is perfectly true; this world is full of temptations; that is inevitable in a world into which sin has entered; but that does not lessen the responsibility of the man who is the cause of a stumbling-block being placed in the way of a younger person or of a beginner in the faith.”

We know that this is a tempting world; it is therefore the Christian’s duty to remove stumbling-blocks, never to be the cause of putting them in another’s way. This means that it is not only a sin to put a stumbling-block in another’s way; it is also a sin even to bring that person into any situation, or circumstance, or environment where he may meet with such a stumbling-block. No Christian can be satisfied to live complacently and lethargically in a civilization where there are conditions of living and housing and life in general where a young person has no chance of escaping the seductions of sin.

(iv) Finally it stresses the supreme importance of the child. “Their angels,” said Jesus, “always behold the face of my Father who is in Heaven.” In the time of Jesus the Jews had a very highly-developed angelology. Every nation had its angel; every natural force, such as the wind and the thunder and the lightning and the rain, had its angel. They even went the length of saying, very beautifully, that every blade of grass had its angel. So, then, they believed that every child had his guardian angel.

To say that these angels behold the face of God in heaven means that they always have the right of direct access to God. The picture is of a great royal court where only the most favoured courtiers and ministers and officials have direct access to the king. In the sight of God the children are so important that their guardian angels always have the right of direct access to the inner presence of God.

For us the great value of a child must always lie in the possibilities which are locked up within him. Everything depends on how he is taught and trained. The possibilities may never be realized; they may be stifled and stunted; that which might be used for good may be deflected to the purposes of evil; or they may be unleashed in such a way that a new tide of power floods the earth.

Away back in the eleventh century Duke Robert of Burgundy was one of the great warrior and knightly figures. He was about to go off on a campaign. He had a baby son who was his heir; and, before he departed, he made his barons and nobles come and swear fealty to the little infant, in the event of anything happening to himself They came with their waving plumes and their clanking armour and knelt before the child. One great baron smiled and Duke Robert asked him why. He said, “The child is so little.” “Yes,” said Duke Robert, “he’s little–but he’ll grow.” Indeed he grew, for that baby became William the Conqueror of England.

In every child there are infinite possibilities for good or ill. It is the supreme responsibility of the parent, of the teacher, of the Christian Church, to see that his dynamic possibilities for good are realized. To stifle them, to leave them untapped, to twist them into evil powers, is sin.

The Surgical Excision ( Mat 18:8-9)

18:8-9 “If your hand or your foot proves a stumbling-block to you, cut it off and throw it away from you. It is the fine thing for you to enter into life maimed or lame, rather than to be cast into everlasting fire with two hands or two feet. And if your eye proves a stumbling-block to you, pluck it out and throw it away from you. It is the fine thing for you to enter into life with one eye, rather than to be cast into the Gehenna of fire with two eyes.”

There are two senses in which this passage may be taken. It may be taken purely personally. It may be saying that it is worth any sacrifice and any self-renunciation to escape the punishment of God.

We have to be clear what that punishment involves. It is here called everlasting and this word everlasting occurs frequently in Jewish ideas of punishment. The word is aionios ( G166) . The Book of Enoch speaks about eternal judgment, about judgment for ever, about punishment and torture for ever, about the fire which burns for ever. Josephus calls hell an everlasting prison. The Book of Jubilees speaks about an eternal curse. The Book of Baruch says that “there will be no opportunity of returning, nor a limit to the times.” There is a Rabbinic tale of Rabbi Jochanan ben Zaccai who wept bitterly at the prospect of death. On being asked why, he answered. “All the more I weep now that they are about to lead me before the King of kings, the Holy One, blessed is He, who lives and abides for ever and for ever and for ever; whose wrath, if he be wrathful, is an eternal wrath; and, if he bind me, his binding is an eternal binding; and if he kills me, his killing is an eternal killing; whom I cannot placate with words, nor bribe with wealth.”

All these passages use the word aionios ( G166) ; but we must be careful to remember what it means. It literally means belonging to the ages; there is only one person to whom the word aionios ( G166) can properly be applied, and that is God. There is far more in aionios ( G166) than simply a description of that which has no end. Punishment which is aionios ( G166) is punishment which it befits God to give and punishment which only God can give. When we think of punishment, we can only say, “Shall not the judge of all the earth do right?” Our human pictures, and our human time-scheme, fail; this is in the hands of God.

But there is one clue which we do have. This passage speaks of the Gehenna ( G1067) of fire. Gehenna ( G1067) was the valley of Hinnom, a valley below the mountain of Jerusalem. It was for ever accursed, because it was the place where, in the days of the kingdom, the renegade Jews had sacrificed their children in the fire to the pagan god Moloch. Josiah had made it a place accursed. In later days it became the refuse dump of Jerusalem; a kind of vast incinerator. Always the refuse was burning there, and a pall of smoke and a glint of smouldering fire surrounded it.

Now, what was this Gehenna ( G1067) , this Valley of Hinnom? It was the place into which everything that was useless was cast and there destroyed. That is to say, God’s punishment is for those who are useless, for those who make no contribution to life, for those who hold life back instead of urging life on, for those who drag life down instead of lifting life up, for those who are the handicaps of others and not their inspirations. It is again and again New Testament teaching that uselessness invites disaster. The man who is useless, the man who is an evil influence on others, the man who cannot justify the simple fact of his existence, is in danger of the punishment of God, unless he excises from his life those things which make him the handicap he is.

But it is just possible that this passage is not to be taken so much personally as in connection with the Church. Matthew has already used this saying of Jesus in a different context in Mat 5:30. Here there may be a difference. The whole passage is about children, and perhaps especially about children in the faith. This passage may be saying, “If in your Church there is someone who is an evil influence, if there is someone who is a bad example to those who are young in the faith, if there is someone whose life and conduct is damaging the body of the Church, he must be rooted out and cast away.” That may well be the meaning. The Church is the Body of Christ; if that body is to be healthy and health-giving, that which has the seeds of cancerous and poisonous infection in it must be even surgically removed.

One thing is certain, in any person and in any Church, whatever is a seduction to sin must be removed, however painful the removal may be, for if we allow it to flourish a worse punishment will follow. In this passage there may well be stressed both the necessity of self-renunciation for the Christian individual and discipline for the Christian Church.

The Shepherd And The Lost Sheep ( Mat 18:12-14)

18:12-14 “What do you think? If a man has a hundred sheep, and one of them wanders away, will he not leave the ninety-nine, and go out to the hills, and will he not seek the wandering one? And if he finds it–this is the truth I tell you–he rejoices more over it than over the ninety-nine who never wandered away. So it is not the will of your Father that one of these little ones should perish.”

This is surely the simplest of all the parables of Jesus, for it is the simple story of a lost sheep and a seeking shepherd. In Judaea it was tragically easy for sheep to go astray. The pasture land is on the hill country which runs like a backbone down the middle of the land. This ridge-like plateau is narrow, only a few miles across. There are no restraining walls. At its best, the pasture is sparse. And, therefore, the sheep are ever liable to wander; and, if they stray from the grass of the plateau into the gullies and the ravines at each side, they have every chance of finishing up on some ledge from which they cannot get up or down, and of being marooned there until they die.

The Palestinian shepherds were experts at tracking down their lost sheep. They could follow their track for miles; and they would brave the cliffs and the precipice to bring them back.

In the time of Jesus the flocks were often communal flocks; they belonged, not to an individual, but to a village. There were, therefore, usually two or three shepherds with them. That is why the shepherd could leave the ninety-nine. If he had left them with no guardian he would have come back to find still more of them gone; but he could leave them in the care of his fellow-shepherds, while he sought the wanderer. The shepherds always made the most strenuous and the most sacrificial efforts to find a lost sheep. It was the rule that, if a sheep could not be brought back alive, then at least, if it was at all possible, its fleece or its bones must be brought back to prove that it was dead.

We can imagine how the other shepherds would return with their flocks to the village fold at evening time, and how they would tell that one shepherd was still out on the mountain-side seeking a wanderer. We can imagine how the eyes of the people would turn ever and again to the hillside watching for the shepherd who had not come home; and we can imagine the shout of joy when they saw him striding along the pathway with the weary wanderer slung across his shoulder, safe at last; and we can imagine how the whole village would welcome him, and gather round with gladness to hear the story of the sheep who was lost and found. Here we have what was Jesus’ favourite picture of God and of God’s love. This parable teaches us many things about that love.

(i) The love of God is an individual love. The ninety-and-nine were not enough; one sheep was out on the hillside and the shepherd could not rest until he had brought it home. However large a family a parent has, he cannot spare even one; there is not one who does not matter. God is like that; God cannot be happy until the last wanderer is gathered in.

(ii) The love of God is a patient love. Sheep are proverbially foolish creatures. The sheep has no one but itself to blame for the danger it had got itself into. Men are apt to have so little patience with the foolish ones. When they get into trouble, we are apt to say, “It’s their own fault; they brought it on themselves; don’t waste any sympathy on fools.” God is not like that. The sheep might be foolish but the shepherd would still risk his life to save it. Men may be fools but God loves even the foolish man who has no one to blame but himself for his sin and his sorrow.

(iii) The love of God is a seeking love. The shepherd was not content to wait for the sheep to come back; he went out to search for it. That is what the Jew could not understand about the Christian idea Of God. The Jew would gladly agree that, if the sinner came crawling wretchedly home, God would forgive. But we know that God is far more wonderful than that, for in Jesus Christ, he came to seek for those who wander away. God is not content to wait until men come home; he goes out to search for them no matter what it costs him.

(iv) The love of God is a rejoicing love. Here there is nothing but joy. There are no recriminations; there is no receiving back with a grudge and a sense of superior contempt; it is all joy. So often we accept a man who is penitent with a moral lecture and a clear indication that he must regard himself as contemptible, and the practical statement that we have no further use for him and do not propose to trust him ever again. It is human never to forget a man’s past and always to remember his sins against him. God puts our sins behind his back; and when we return to him, it is all joy.

(v) The love of God is a protecting love. It is the love which seeks and saves. There can be a love which ruins; there can be a love which softens; but the love of God is a protecting love which saves a man for the service of his fellow-men, a love which makes the wanderer wise, the weak strong, the sinner pure, the captive of sin the free man of holiness, and the vanquished by temptation its conqueror.

Seeking The Stubborn ( Mat 18:15-18)

18:15-18 “If your brother sins against you, go, and try to convince him of his error between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother. If he will not listen to you, take with you one or two more, that the whole matter may be established in the mouth of two or three witnesses. If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the Church. And if he refuses to listen to the Church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax-collector. This is the truth I tell you–all that you bind upon earth will remain bound in heaven; and all that you loose upon earth will remain loosed in heaven.”

In many ways this is one of the most difficult passages to interpret in the whole of Matthew’s gospel. Its difficulty lies in the undoubted fact that it does not ring true; it does not sound like Jesus; it sounds much more like the regulations of an ecclesiastical committee.

We may go further. It is not possible that Jesus said this in its present form. Jesus could not have told his disciples to take things to the Church, for it did not exist; and the passage implies a fully developed and organized Church with a system of ecclesiastical discipline. What is more, it speaks of tax-collectors and Gentiles as irreclaimable outsiders. Yet Jesus was accused of being the friend of tax-gatherers and sinners; and he never spoke of them as hopeless outsiders, but always with sympathy and love, and even with praise (compare Mat 9:10 ff; Mat 11:19; Luk 18:10 ff; and especially Mat 21:31 ff, where it is actually said that the tax-gatherers and harlots will go into the Kingdom before the orthodox religious people of the time). Further, the whole tone of the passage is that there is a limit to forgiveness, that there comes a time when a man may be abandoned as beyond hope, counsel which it is impossible to think of Jesus giving. And the last verse actually seems to give the Church the power to retain and to forgive sins. There are many reasons to make us think that this, as it stands, cannot be a correct report of the words of Jesus, but an adaptation made by the Church in later days, when Church discipline was rather a thing of rules and regulations than of love and forgiveness.

Although this passage is certainly not a correct report of what Jesus said, it is equally certain that it goes back to something he did say. Can we press behind it and come to the actual commandment of Jesus? At its widest what Jesus was saying was, “If anyone sins against you, spare no effort to make that man admit his fault, and to get things right again between you and him.” Basically it means that we must never tolerate any situation in which there is a breach of personal relationships between us and another member of the Christian community.

Suppose something does go wrong, what are we to do to put it right? This passage presents us with a whole scheme of action for the mending of broken relationships within the Christian fellowship.

(i) If we feel that someone has wronged us, we should immediately put our complaint into words. The worst thing that we can do about a wrong is to brood about it. That is fatal. It can poison the whole mind and life, until we can think of nothing else but our sense of personal injury. Any such feeling should be brought out into the open, faced, and stated, and often the very stating of it will show how unimportant and trivial the whole thing is.

(ii) If we feel that someone has wronged us, we should go to see him personally. More trouble has been caused by the writing of letters than by almost anything else. A letter may be misread and misunderstood; it may quite unconsciously convey a tone it was never meant to convey. If we have a difference with someone, there is only one way to settle it–and that is face to face. The spoken word can often settle a difference which the written word would only have exacerbated.

(iii) If a private and personal meeting fails of its purpose, we should take some wise person or persons with us. Deu 19:15 has it: “A single witness shall not prevail against a man for any crime or for any wrong in connection with any offence that he has committed; only on the evidence of two witnesses or of three witnesses, shall a charge be sustained.” That is the saying which Matthew has in mind. But in this case the taking of the witnesses is not meant to be a way of proving to a man that he has committed an offence. It is meant to help the process of reconciliation. A man often hates those whom he has injured most of all; and it may well be that nothing we can say can win him back. But to talk matters over with some wise and kindly and gracious people present is to create a new atmosphere in which there is at least a chance that we should see ourselves “as others see us.” The Rabbis had a wise saying, “Judge not alone, for none may judge alone save One (that is God).”

(iv) If that still fails, we must take our personal troubles to the Christian fellowship. Why? Because troubles are never settled by going to law, or by Christless argument. Legalism merely produces further trouble. It is in an atmosphere of Christian prayer, Christian love and Christian fellowship that personal relationships may be righted. The clear assumption is that the Church fellowship is Christian, and seeks to judge everything, not in the light of a book of practice and procedure, but in the light of love.

(v) It is now we come to the difficult part. Matthew says that, if even that does not succeed, then the man who has wronged us is to be regarded as a Gentile and a tax-collector. The first impression is that the man must be abandoned as hopeless and irreclaimable, but that is precisely what Jesus cannot have meant. He never set limits to human forgiveness. What then did he mean?

We have seen that when he speaks of tax-gatherers and sinners he always does so with sympathy and gentleness and an appreciation of their good qualities. It may be that what Jesus said was something like this: “When you have done all this, when you have given the sinner every chance, and when he remains stubborn and obdurate, you may think that he is no better than a renegade tax-collector, or even a godless Gentile. Well, you may be right. But I have not found the tax-gatherers and the Gentiles hopeless. My experience of them is that they, too, have a heart to be touched; and there are many of them, like Matthew and Zacchaeus, who have become my best friends. Even if the stubborn sinner is like a tax-collector or a Gentile, you may still win him, as I have done.”

This, in fact, is not an injunction to abandon a man; it is a challenge to win him with the love which can touch even the hardest heart. It is not a statement that some men are hopeless; it is a statement that Jesus Christ has found no man hopeless–and neither must we.

(vi) Finally, there is the saying about loosing and binding. It is a difficult saying. It cannot mean that the Church can remit or forgive sins, and so settle a man’s destiny in time or in eternity. What it may well mean is that the relationships which we establish with our fellow-men last not only through time but into eternity–therefore we must get them right.

The Power Of The Presence ( Mat 18:19-20)

18:19-20 “Again, I tell you, that if two of you agree upon earth upon any matter for which you are praying, you will receive it from my Father who is in Heaven. Where two or three are assembled together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.”

Here is one of these sayings of Jesus, whose meaning we need to probe or we will be left with heartbreak and great disappointment. Jesus says that, if two upon earth agree upon any matter for which they are praying, they will receive it from God. If that is to be taken literally, and without any qualification, it is manifestly untrue. Times without number two people have agreed to pray for the physical or the spiritual welfare of a loved one and their prayer has not, in the literal sense, been answered. Times without number God’s people have agreed to pray for the conversion of their own land or the conversion of the heathen and the coming of the Kingdom, and even yet that prayer is far from being fully answered. People agree to pray–and pray desperately–and do not receive that for which they pray. There is no point in refusing to face the facts of the situation, and nothing but harm can result from teaching people to expect what does not happen. But when we come to see what this saying means, there is a precious depth in it.

(i) First and foremost, it means that prayer must never be selfish and that selfish prayer cannot find an answer. We are not meant to pray only for our own needs, thinking of nothing and no one but ourselves; we are meant to pray as members of a fellowship, in agreement, remembering that life and the world are not arranged for us as individuals but for the fellowship as a whole. It would often happen that, if our prayers were answered, the prayers of someone else would be disappointed. Often our prayers for our success would necessarily involve someone else’s failure. Effective prayer must be the prayer of agreement, from which the element of selfish concentration on our own needs and desires has been quite cleansed away.

(ii) When prayer is unselfish, it is always answered. But here as everywhere we must remember the basic law of prayer; that law is that in prayer we receive, not the answer which we desire, but the answer which God in his wisdom and his love knows to be best. Simply because we are human beings, with human hearts and fears and hopes and desires, most of our prayers are prayers for escape. We pray to be saved from some trial, some sorrow, some disappointment, some hurting and difficult situation. And always God’s answer is the offer not of escape, but of victory. God does not give us escape from a human situation; he enables us to accept what we cannot understand; he enables us to endure what without him would be unendurable; he enables us to face what without him would be beyond all facing. The perfect example of all this is Jesus in Gethsemane. He prayed to be released from the dread situation which confronted him, he was not released from it; but he was given power to meet it, to endure it, and to conquer it. When we pray unselfishly, God sends his answer–but the answer is always his answer and not necessarily ours.

(iii) Jesus goes on to say that where two or three are gathered in his name, he is there in the midst of them. The Jews themselves had a saying, “Where two sit and are occupied with the study of the Law, the glory of God is among them.” We may take this great promise of Jesus into two spheres.

(a) We may take it into the sphere of the Church. Jesus is just as much present in the little congregation as in the great mass meeting. He is just as much present at the Prayer Meeting or the Bible Study Circle with their handful of people as in the crowded arena. He is not the slave of numbers. He is there wherever faithful hearts meet, however few they may be, for he gives all of himself to each individual person.

(b) We may take it into the sphere of the home. One of the earliest interpretations of this saying of Jesus was that the two or three are father, mother, and child, and that it means that Jesus is there, the unseen guest in every home.

There are those who never give of their best except on the so-called great occasion; but for Jesus Christ every occasion where even two or three are gathered in his name is a great occasion.

How To Forgive ( Mat 18:21-35)

18:21-35 Then Peter came and said to him, “Lord, how often will my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? Up to seven times?” Jesus said to him, “I tell you not up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven. That is why the Kingdom of Heaven can be likened to what happened when a king wished to make a reckoning with his servants. When he began to make a reckoning one debtor was brought to him who owed him 2,400,000 British pounds. Since he was quite unable to pay, his master ordered him to be sold, together with his wife and children, and all his possessions, and payment to be made. The servant fell on his face and besought him: ‘Sir, have patience with me, and I will pay you in full.’ The master of the servant was moved with compassion, and let him go, and forgave him the debt. When that servant went out, he found one of his fellow-servants, who owed him L5. He caught hold of him and seized him by the throat: ‘Pay what you owe,’ he said. The fellow-servant fell down and besought him, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you in full.’ But he refused. Rather, he went away and flung him into prison, until he should pay what was due. So, when his fellow-servants saw what had happened, they were very distressed; and they went and informed their master of all that had happened. Then the master summoned him, and said to him, ‘You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt when you besought me to do so. Ought you not to have had pity on your fellow-servant, as I had pity on you?’ And his master was angry with him and handed him over to the torturers, until he should pay all that was due.

“Even so shall my heavenly Father do to you, if you do not each one forgive his brother from your hearts.”

We owe a very great deal to the fact that Peter had a quick tongue. Again and again he rushed into speech in such a way that his impetuosity drew from Jesus teaching which is immortal. On this occasion Peter thought that he was being very generous. He asked Jesus how often he ought to forgive his brother, and then answered his own question by suggesting that he should forgive seven times.

Peter was not without warrant for this suggestion. It was Rabbinic teaching that a man must forgive his brother three times. Rabbi Jose ben Hanina said, “He who begs forgiveness from his neighbour must not do so more than three times.” Rabbi Jose ben Jehuda said, “If a man commits an offence once, they forgive him; if he commits an offence a second time, they forgive him; if he commits an offence a third time, they forgive him; the fourth time they do not forgive.” The Biblical proof that this was correct was taken from Amos. In the opening chapters of Amos there is a series of condemnations on the various nations for three transgressions and for four ( Amo 1:3; Amo 1:6; Amo 1:9; Amo 1:11; Amo 1:13; Amo 2:1; Amo 2:4; Amo 2:6). From this it was deduced that God’s forgiveness extends to three offences and that he visits the sinner with punishment at the fourth. It was not to be thought that a man could be more gracious than God, so forgiveness was limited to three times.

Peter thought that he was going very far, for he takes the Rabbinic three times, multiplies it by two for good measure adds one, and suggests, with eager self-satisfaction, that it will be enough if he forgives seven times. Peter expected to be warmly commended; but Jesus’s answer was that the Christian must forgive seventy times seven. In other words there is no reckonable limit to forgiveness.

Jesus then told the story of the servant forgiven a great debt who went out and dealt mercilessly with a fellow-servant who owed him a debt that was an infinitesimal fraction of what he himself had owed; and who for his mercilessness was utterly condemned. This parable teaches certain lessons which Jesus never tired of teaching.

(i) It teaches that lesson which runs through all the New Testament–a man must forgive in order to be forgiven. He who will not forgive his fellow-men cannot hope that God will forgive him. “Blessed are the merciful,” said Jesus, “for they shall obtain mercy” ( Mat 5:7). No sooner had Jesus taught his men his own prayer, than he went on to expand and explain one petition in it: “For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father also will forgive you; but if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses” ( Mat 6:14-15). As James had it, “For judgment is without mercy to one who has shown no mercy” ( Jas 2:13). Divine and human forgiveness go hand in hand.

(ii) Why should that be so? One of the great points in this parable is the contrast between the two debts.

The first servant owed his master 10,000 talents; a talent was the equivalent of 240 British pounds; therefore 10,000 talents is 2,400,000 British pounds. That is an incredible debt. It was more than the total budget of the ordinary province. The total revenue of the province which contained Idumaea, Judaea and Samaria was only 600 talents; the total revenue of even a wealthy province like Galilee was only 300 talents. Here was a debt which was greater than a king’s ransom. It was this that the servant was forgiven.

The debt which a fellow-servant owed him was a trifling thing; it was 100 denarii ( G1220) ; a denarius ( G1220) was worth about 4 pence in value; and therefore the total debt was less than 5 British pounds. It was approximately one five-hundred-thousandth of his own debt.

A. R. S. Kennedy drew this vivid picture to contrast the debts. Suppose they were paid in sixpences. The 100 denarii debt could be carried in one pocket. The ten thousand talent debt would take to carry it an army of about 8,600 carriers, each carrying a sack of sixpences 60 lbs. in weight; and they would form, at a distance of a yard apart, a line five miles long! The contrast between the debts is staggering. The point is that nothing men can do to us can in any way compare with what we have done to God; and if God has forgiven us the debt we owe to him, we must forgive our fellow-men the debts they owe to us. Nothing that we have to forgive can even faintly or remotely compare with what we have been forgiven.

“Not the labours of my hands

Can fulfil thy law’s demands;

Could my zeal no respite know,

Could my tears forever flow,

All for sin could not atone.”

We have been forgiven a debt which is beyond all paying–for the sin of man brought about the death of God’s own Son–and, if that is so, we must forgive others as God has forgiven us, or we can hope to find no mercy.

-Barclay’s Daily Study Bible (NT)

Fuente: Barclay Daily Study Bible

THE EMBLEM OF HUMILITY, Mat 18:1-6.

1. At the same time Literally at that season; namely, at Capernaum, shortly after the miracle of the coin in the fish’s mouth.

Saying, Who is the greatest In regard to the propounding of this question, there is an apparent discrepancy between the evangelists, which we may lay before our readers in full, as an illustrative specimen of the nature of such discrepancies, and the proper modes of dealing with them.

MATTHEW.

Came the disciples unto Jesus, saying, Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven? And Jesus called a little child.

Mar 9:33.

And being in the house, he asked them, What was it that ye disputed among yourselves by the way? But they held their peace: for they had disputed among themselves who should be the greatest. And he sat down, and called the twelve, and saith unto them, etc. And he took a child.

Luk 9:46-47.

Then there arose a reasoning among them, which of them should be greatest. And Jesus perceiving the thought of their heart took a child.

At first glance we should imagine an irreconcilable difference, and error of detail. But a closer inspection will show that each evangelist gives different stages of the same transaction. Luke tells of the first rising of the dispute, which probably took place on the way, from fishing in the lake, to Capernaum; and then he omits the rest until Jesus placed the child before them.

Mark commences after they had come into the house, when Jesus questioned them, and they were silent; he omits what followed until the Lord called all together and placed the child before them.

Matthew tells us what occurred after our Lord questioned them, and they were silent for shame. The disciples on reflecting that our Lord evidently knew their debate, ingenuously come and lay the question before him. Our Lord then procures the child, and furnishes an answer in full, in regard to the discussion for the pre-eminence. Mat 18:1.

From this example the unpracticed reader may easily see how the evangelists supplement each other; and how what at first seems to be irreconcilable difficulty becomes, on farther examination, perfectly consistent proof that fact is the basis of all.

The greatest in the kingdom of heaven The giving of the keys to Peter had not produced the idea in the apostle’s mind that he was thereby nominated head of their body, or prime minister, vizier, or general in the divine kingdom. Among the disciples it was still an unsettled question which should be primate; it might be one of our Lord’s blood relations; it might be the beloved John, or the senior Peter. Our Lord’s discourse decides that it will be neither.

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

‘In that hour the disciples came to Jesus, saying, “Who then is greatest within the Kingly Rule of Heaven?” ’

‘In that hour’ is similar to ‘at that time’ and connects what is now said with what has just gone before. Three of them (Peter, James and John) were probably already feeling a little smug, with ambitions that were growing (Mat 20:20-21). They were no doubt conscious that they had been ‘picked out’ and had experienced His glory in the mountain, although none of the others knew about that yet. How difficult it must have been for the three to keep their mouths shut when the argument was progressing. Yet perhaps it was their very silence about what had happened that had provoked the arguments about greatness. They were possibly seen as getting above themselves.

For none of the disciples seems to have had any doubt about their own coming importance or worthiness for it, and the fact that it was clearly something that they had all been arguing about on the way to where they were (Mar 9:33-34) demonstrates how important it was to them. It could even have been argued (by them) that it was ‘seeking the Kingly Rule of God and His righteousness’, for their success would surely ensure the success of the Kingly Rule of God. But in their hearts they all knew perfectly well that Jesus would see them as being in the wrong, and that somehow this was not in accord with what Jesus had taught them. That is why they had hoped to keep it from Him. And thus at His questioning them as to what they had been talking about they were ashamed. However, in the end one of them obviously owned up to it and they then followed it up by asking, “Who then is greatest within the Kingly Rule of Heaven?”

The implication behind the question was not necessarily as to who was to be their leader, for they probably thought in terms of group leadership, but rather as to who would occupy the highest positions, and what the requirements would be. They wanted a rating and some assurance of their value. They did not want to lose out. (And James and John would shortly attempt to pre-empt them all (Mat 20:20-21) so the lesson given here was not easily learned).

The question refers the readers back in their minds to Mat 5:19 where what it is to be great within the Kingly Rule of Heaven is described. They should therefore have known the answer. It was to love God’s Law and observe and teach it. But the last thing that had been in their minds when they were discussing together was of being humble teachers.

Thus this was a good question with which to open words about relationships and responsibilities under the Kingly Rule of Heaven, for it enabled Jesus to put the emphasis right back where it needed to be, on humility. (A further link back to chapter 5 is found in Mat 18:8-9, see Mat 5:29-30). So the sermon on the mount is to be seen as very much involved with this teaching about the beginnings of the new congregation.

(Two thousand years have passed by and even today Christian leaders have not changed. They still pride themselves on their status, and vie for importance, for the lesson is hard to learn. It is not too difficult to be superficially humble when we know that people regard us with awe. Then we can gently smile and let others tell us how wonderful we are. What is more difficult is being truly humble and genuinely having no regard for position at all. And that is a lesson that few have fully learned. If we still think of our position and grading, and of our own importance, then we have not yet become ‘great’ within the Kingly Rule of Heaven. We are nonentities in God’s eyes, whatever we think of ourselves, and whatever others think of us).

Notice that the question assumes the presence of the Kingly Rule of Heaven among them, otherwise none could be greatest in it, and that was the question that they had been discussing among themselves (Mar 9:34, compare also Mat 18:4; Mat 18:23-35). This can be seen as confirmed in two other places where greatness is connected with the Kingly Rule of Heaven. The first is in Mat 5:18-20 where we were told that ‘those who do and teach His commandments will be called great in the Kingly Rule of Heaven’, whereas those who are more lax about them will be called least in the Kingly Rule of Heaven, and those who are off the mark altogether cannot even enter within the Kingly Rule of Heaven. The second is in Mat 11:11 where we learned that ‘he who is least in the Kingly Rule of Heaven is greater than John the Baptist’, signifying that there was at the time a Kingly Rule of Heaven (otherwise the saying is meaningless, for John would unquestionably be in the future Kingly Rule of Heaven, and ‘great’ within it). It gains its point from the fact that to be within the new Kingly Rule of Heaven now that Jesus was here was to be of higher status than the prophets of old. Thus present greatness of this kind was possible because the Kingly Rule of Heaven was here, it was coming in forcefully (Mat 11:12), it was among them (Luk 17:21), they were sons of the Kingly Rule (Mat 13:38).

But His disciples should have taken the hint from these verses as to what that greatness consists of. It is a greatness of quality. It consists of fully following His commandments, of partaking in the new age because they serve Him. The thought is of living to please God, of doing only the will of His Father in Heaven (Mat 7:21; Mat 12:50). But that was in fact the opposite of what the disciples were now seeking. Their thoughts now were not on doing the will of the Father but on how to make sure that they obtained the best places for themselves. So their failure here is not just to be seen as resulting from ignorance, but as resulting from an unwillingness to recognise and face up to the truth, and to have the right attitude towards it. The truth was that they were still sinners, and often still looking in the wrong direction.

For in this case they were failing to ‘seek the Kingly Rule of God and His righteousness’ (Mat 6:33) and were seeking self-aggrandisement. They had forgotten the lessons so hardly learned and memorised (as we also so easily do). Practicalities had taken over (after all we must be practical). They were soon, however, to learn to their shame that they were looking in the wrong direction. True greatness, they were to find, would be discovered by taking the opposite path to the way that they had in mind. It would be found by eschewing greatness and seeking the way of service and humility (Mat 20:26-28).

Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett

The One Who Is Greatest In The Kingly Rule of Heaven Is The One Who Has Least Desire To Be So And Does Not Even Think About It (18:1-4).

The ‘disciples’ here are the ones who have ‘gathered’ ready to go to Jerusalem with Jesus (Mat 17:22) and included among them little children. But it would be the twelve and their close compatriots who would approach Jesus with their question (as Mark makes very clear). They were the ones most concerned about their own position.

They were becoming more and more aware from what Jesus had said that in some way or other the Kingly Rule of God, which they had experienced in their lives, was soon to become established on a ‘grander’ mode (compare Mat 20:20-23). It was somehow to grow and become widespread (Mat 18:13). And because of their Galilean background they probably thought of it in terms of an eventual military uprising led by Jesus (compare Act 1:6). And they thus recognised from past history, that from being relative nonentities they would become very important, as had happened to the Maccabees in the previous successful uprising.

This must have seemed apparent to them from much of what He had said, (as interpreted by their background, for there was general widespread expectancy of a military Messiah), and although they did not fully understand its ramifications, they sensed by now that it was ‘at the door’ and that they were to have an important part to play in it. And there is little doubt from their attitude here that they were looking forward to being important.

They had no doubt learned from an awed Peter of what had happened with regard to the Temple tax. That in itself was an indication to them that Jesus had in mind soon being freed from earthly obligations when as King and Messiah He took up His rightful position, (as it seemed that He would soon do), and they would then all seemingly be seen as part of ‘the Royal Family’. Then no one would be able to ask them for tax. They would be the ones who would do the taxing! So now they wanted to make sure that they did not miss out in the competition for the highest positions.

Initially they had not intended to approach Jesus about the matter. Somehow they had sensed that He might not approve. But they had certainly been discussing it among themselves (Mar 9:33-34). And the reason that their question came up at this point was because Jesus had asked them what it was they had been talking about on the way. Without realising it they had become like politicians, gathered around a new successful leader, vying for the best posts. So now, while trying not to make it too blatant, they wanted His advice on the best way of going about it. Of course this could be presented as being so that they could be worthy ministers. They would want Him to have the impression that they did not want to let Him down. But there is no doubt that it was also because they wanted to ensure that they did not lose out.

If they had taken in His words about humiliation, death and resurrection at all, it was probably because they were thinking in terms of a coming battle for the establishment of His Kingly Rule during which He would be captured, humiliated and executed, only to rise again and confound His enemies. Then the Lord’s Anointed (‘Christos’) would finally triumph with Israel over the nations (Psalms 2) and they would share His triumph. So the question now was, who was the greatest among them? Or alternately, how could they become the greatest? And the following question then would have been, where did each one of them fit into the picture? How were they doing? Only Jesus’ first answer did not somehow seem to encourage that.

Analysis.

a In that hour the disciples came to Jesus, saying, “Who then is greatest within the Kingly Rule of Heaven?” (Mat 18:1).

b And he called to him a little child, and set him in the midst of them (Mat 18:2).

c And said, “Truly I say to you, Unless you have been turned, and have become as little children, you will in no way have entered into the Kingly Rule of Heaven (Mat 18:3).

b Whoever therefore has humbled himself as this little child (Mat 18:4 a).

a The same is the greatest in the Kingly Rule of Heaven (Mat 18:4 b).

Note that in ‘a’ the question is as to who is the greatest within the Kingly Rule of Heaven and in the parallel the answer is that it is the one with the humble attitude of a little child believer. In ‘b’ the child is set among them, and in the parallel he is the example of the humility required. In ‘c’ it is stressed that only by being made like this can a man even enter the Kingly Rule of Heaven.

Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett

Guidance For The New Congregation (18:1-19:2).

This chapter has been compared with the Manual of Discipline found at Qumran which was intended to regulate a specific community, and has been seen as similarly giving instructions concerning the regulating of the new community of disciples. As a general comparison that may be seen as acceptable, but it is not strictly accurate. For it must be noted that this is not really a Manual of Discipline at all, nor is it set out as such, it is rather a warm and vibrant series of teachings which demonstrate the concern that all His disciples must have for those within their wider group (the ‘congregation’ or open community built on the truth of His Messiahship – Mat 16:18) because they have all been united within the forgiving love and compassion of the Father, and have entered under the Kingly Rule of God.

It commences when the disciples, some having their families with them, are gathered in Galilee, preparatory to going to Jerusalem for what is to be Jesus’ last Passover. At this point Jesus brings two things home to them:

1) That He is shortly to be betrayed and executed, after which He will rise again. This had had a deep impact on them and had filled them with sorrow (Mat 17:22-23).

2) That, as Peter has no doubt passed on to them, Jesus and His disciples (both male and female) are not really under Temple Law but are sons of the Father, even though in the meanwhile they pay the Temple Tax from God provided resources (Mat 17:24-27).

From what follows later we know that the disciples did not see these things as we see them. They had mainly grown up with the idea that although the Jews were at present in bondage to the Romans, one day a Messiah would arise who would sweep the Romans out of the land, and establish the Law and the Temple, finally bringing about the Jews’ worldwide rule and judgment on the wicked. In one way or another this was the common belief of the day in Palestine.

This was in general what John the Baptist had believed (Mat 3:11), which was why he had been puzzled at the fact that Jesus had not demonstrated a desire for a positive move forward, or shown any inclination towards political power (Mat 11:2-6). This was, with embellishments, what the Qumran community believed, although restricting many of its benefits to themselves as the holy seed, and refusing to have anything to do with the present Temple. This was in general what the Pharisees believed, although they anticipated that he would necessarily support their views, and some saw the forward movement as occurring through his powerful teaching of the Law. This was why after the miracle of the loaves some in the crowds had sought to crown Jesus as their king, convinced that if He could do that God was powerfully on His side, so that defeating the Romans should be no problem to Him (Joh 6:14-15).

So to His disciples what Jesus was saying would appear to them to be pointers to the fact that the moment when they must rise up against their enemies was approaching. They were confident that He had come to ‘restore the kingship to Israel’ (Act 1:6). So His talk about coming betrayal and death, followed by resurrection, probably suggested to them that there was shortly to be an uprising, during which Jesus would be betrayed to the enemy and put to death, followed by His vindication as God raised Him up from the dead, no doubt then to reveal His divine power and destroy the enemy. And, as they late revealed, they were ready to fight to this end, whenever called on, whatever the odds might be (Mat 26:51). For they knew from many examples in the Scriptures that God could save by many or by few. His words about their being God’s sons and therefore exempt from Temple tax (as the priests also were) appeared to be a clear indication that they would all then share unique privileges in the new set up as ‘sons’ and not servants.

That this was their view of things is further confirmed by Mat 20:20-21 where James and John sought to pre-empt their fellow disciples by booking the seats of prime authority in the coming period of Kingly Rule. Thus as their anticipation rose at these indicators that He was about to begin His decisive action, so did their expectancy of future privilege. And that as what had caused their recent discussions amongst themselves as to who would be the greatest among them (Mar 9:34). And that was why, when Jesus broached them with it, they came back with the question. ‘Who is the greatest within the Kingly Rule of Heaven?’ It is clear from this that they did not accept that Peter was their leader, or that with James and John he was specially privileged. They still clearly felt that the matter was undecided. But what is important in respect of what follows is that they all had their eyes set on being ‘great’. In spite of all that Jesus had taught them they saw ahead of them a rosy future of privilege and superior status. And that was what they were looking forward to.

Jesus replies by demonstrating that true greatness is found, not in being great or in having an ambition for greatness, but in disregarding the thought of greatness (Mat 18:1-4), in seeking to serve others, in strengthening the lowly so as to prevent them from falling (Mat 18:5-7), in avoiding sin (Mat 18:8-10), in seeking out the erring (Mat 18:12-14), in restoring the fallen (Mat 18:15-17), and in being totally forgiving, as they themselves had been forgiven (Mat 18:21-35). It is found in walking in accordance with the sermon on the mount, for the one who is great within the sphere of the Kingly Rule of Heaven is the one who observes every one of God’s requirements in His Law and teaches men so (Mat 5:19). This is also expressed in his concern to do the will of his Father (Mat 7:23; Mat 12:50). So Jesus is here seeking to alter the whole perspective that governs their thinking. That is why He elsewhere says, ‘The Kingly Rule of God does not come with outward observation, for the Kingly Rule of God is among (or within) you’ (Luk 17:20-21). The Kingly Rule of God was already being built up in those who responded to His teaching, and yet they still could not see it.

During the course of this teaching in Matthew 18 Jesus therefore brings up the question of regulation among themselves as the new congregation of God’s people, as those who are within God’s Kingly Rule. For this will be necessary once He has gone. Following on the need to be concerned for every individual within the ‘congregation’ including themselves (Mat 18:1-14), this includes mutual self-regulation out of concern for each other (Mat 18:15-17), and their responsibility to make clear, as revealed by God, what principles are to bind His people, and what principles can be relaxed (Mat 18:18-20). For His Father will be with them in order to illuminate them (Mat 18:19), and He Himself will be among them to guide them in His ways (Mat 18:20). It is to be a community of love. They are to see themselves as debtors to God for the amazing forgiveness that they have received, and to remember that they are therefore to have that same attitude towards others who ‘owe’ anything to them (Mat 18:21-35). The one who is most conscious of the huge amount of sin for which he has been forgiven, will be the one who is most compassionate and caring and forgiving of others, and who will therefore the better serve Him.

This is the fourth of the so-called sayings sections of Matthew. In the overall pattern of the Gospel it parallels Jesus’ words on sending out the disciples in chapter 10. Having evangelised men and brought them into His new congregation, they must now establish and build it up in a spirit of loving concern and compassion and unity.

Analysis of Mat 18:1 to Mat 19:1

a In that hour the disciples came to Jesus, saying, (Mat 18:1 a).

b Those who have a humility on the same level as that of children are the greatest in the Kingly Rule of Heaven (Mat 18:1-4).

c Those who receive these young believers receive Jesus, but those who cause believers, especially young believers, to stumble will face eternal destruction, for such believers are known in Heaven (Mat 18:5-9).

d The young believers are His Father’s sheep, and if they go astray He will seek them out and restore them, for it is not His will that any of them should perish (Mat 18:10-14).

e How to deal with sin arising in the congregation, individually, at the hands of two or three, or at the hands of the whole congregation (Mat 18:15-17).

f The authority given to the congregation through its leadership to bind and loose, to determine how the new congregation will be regulated and how the Law will be applied (Mat 18:18).

e Where any two agree on earth concerning what shall be asked of the Father it shall be done for them, for two or three meeting together are sure of having Jesus in their midst (Mat 18:19-20).

d Forgiveness to one who expresses repentance is to be offered seventy times sevenfold, because they are in the same position as the servant whose king forgave his servant a huge debt (Mat 18:21-27).

c They are not to be like the one offered full forgiveness who then refused to forgive his fellow servant his comparatively small debt, thus causing him to stumble (Mat 18:28-30).

b Those who are lacking in the humility to forgive will be brought to judgment, for His heavenly Father will severely chasten the unforgiving and require their debt of them (Mat 18:31-33).

a And it came about that when Jesus had finished these words, He departed from Galilee, and came into the borders of Judaea beyond the Jordan, and great crowds followed Him, and He healed them there (Mat 19:1-2).

Note how in ‘a’ the disciples came to Him with questions and in the parallel the crowds follow Him. In ‘b’ those who have the humility of little children are greatest in the Kingly Rule of Heaven, while in the parallel those who are lacking in that humility will be dealt with severely. In ‘c’ those who cause believers to stumble will themselves be destroyed, and in the parallel the servant who made life difficult for his fellow servant will be severely punished. In ‘d’ the straying young believer will be restored by the shepherd, and in the parallel the straying offender must be restored by forgiveness. In ‘e’ a sinning member can be dealt with by two or three, and in the parallel the needs of the congregation can be solved by the prayers of two or three. Centrally in ‘f’ the disciples are given the authority to regulate the worship of the people of God in the new congregation.

Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett

Greatness through Humility in the Kingdom of Heaven – In Mat 18:1-14 Jesus deals with the virtue of humility as a condition of greatness in the Kingdom of Heaven. Jesus demonstrates true humility by calling a child to Himself (Mat 18:1-5). He then warns that offences will surely come among the community of believers and that divine punishment is in store for such offenders (Mat 18:6-9). Jesus next explains to His disciples how valuable each and every member of the Kingdom of Heaven is in the eyes of the Father through the Parable of the Lost Sheep in order to help them understand this spiritual truth by using an earthly illustration (Mat 18:10-14).

Here is a proposed outline:

1. Jesus Describes Who is the Greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven Mat 18:1-5

2. Jesus Explains that Offences Will Come Mat 18:6-9

3. The Parable of the Lost Sheep Mat 18:10-14

Mat 18:1-5 Jesus Describes Who is the Greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven ( Mar 9:33-37 , Luk 9:46-48 ) Jesus opens His fourth major discourse in Mat 18:1-5 by describing to His disciples who is the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven. The theme of this teaching in Mat 18:1-5 is about humility. He tells His disciples that they must become like little children (Mat 18:3). He did not mean that they were to be like children physically, because their bodies are underdeveloped. He did not mean mentally, because children are underdeveloped mentally. However, He explains in the following verse that they must be like children from the aspect of their tender, humble hearts (Mat 18:4). Jesus explains in this passage of Scripture that humility is the key to greatness in the kingdom of Heaven.

Mat 18:1 At the same time came the disciples unto Jesus, saying, Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?

Mat 18:1 “At the same time” Comments The fourth discourse section begins with the phrase (in that hour). David Turner understands this hour to refer to the season of Jesus’ ministry when He began to reveal His passion and resurrection to His closest disciples. This “hour” seems to begin at the time Peter makes his confession of Jesus’ deity at Caesarea Philippi (Mat 16:16), at which time Jesus reveals these impending events (Mat 16:21; Mat 17:22-23).

Mat 18:1 “came the disciples unto Jesus, saying, Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven” – The parallel passages in the Gospels of Mark and Luke say the disciples had been disputing about who would be the greatest when Jesus inaugurated the Kingdom of Heaven in Israel (Mar 9:34, Luk 9:46). While Mark and Luke limit Jesus’ response to a few statements, Matthew records the entire discourse on this topic.

Jesus has just been discussion one aspect of the Kingdom of Heaven with Peter, that of freedom from taxes for the children of the Kingdom. The Scriptures do not record the occasion for a dispute among the disciples regarding greatness in the Kingdom of Heaven. Perhaps Peter’s return with the coin to pay taxes from the preceding passage served as the occasion for the disciples to discuss the issue of leadership and greatness in the Kingdom. Perhaps Peter’s outspokenness and continual attention from Jesus recorded in the fourth narrative section stirred up jealously from some of the disciples. Perhaps Jesus had assembled His disciples in Peter’s house. In light of the freedom of the children of the Kingdom, how is greatness distributed to those children? Which ones will stand out above others? In other words, the question from the disciples seems to be one of inquiry regarding the structure of those members of the Kingdom of Heaven. This structure as it relates to the disciples would have been of great concern for the disciples since they had forsaken everything and followed Jesus. They would be expecting greater honor than less dedicated disciples.

Mat 18:1 Comments (Literary Elements) Some scholars believe that Matthew’s account of Jesus being seated and His disciples (or crowds) coming to Him in the opening verses of three of the five major discourses was intentional, since it describes the traditional setting of the Jewish scribe being surrounded by his pupils (Mat 5:1; Mat 13:1-2; Mat 24:3). [499] The second and fourth discourses begin with one aspect of this formula, either Jesus gathering His disciples (Mat 10:1), or them coming to Him (Mat 18:1). In addition, this rabbinic formula is found in the middle of the third discourse simply because Jesus changes locations before completing this discourse (Mat 13:36).

[499] Christopher R. Smith, “Literary Evidences of a FiveFold Structure in the Gospel of Matthew,” in New Testament Studies 43 (1997): 542.

Mat 5:1, “And seeing the multitudes, he went up into a mountain: and when he was set, his disciples came unto him:”

Mat 10:1, “And when he had called unto him his twelve disciples, he gave them power against unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal all manner of sickness and all manner of disease.”

Mat 13:1-2, “The same day went Jesus out of the house, and sat by the sea side. And great multitudes were gathered together unto him, so that he went into a ship, and sat; and the whole multitude stood on the shore.”

Mat 13:36, “Then Jesus sent the multitude away, and went into the house: and his disciples came unto him, saying, Declare unto us the parable of the tares of the field.”

Mat 18:1, “At the same time came the disciples unto Jesus, saying, Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?”

Mat 24:3, “And as he sat upon the mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him privately, saying, Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world?”

Mat 18:2 And Jesus called a little child unto him, and set him in the midst of them,

Mat 18:3 And said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.

Mat 18:3 Comments – Andreas J. Ksterberger notes that the rabbis of the first century often cited other rabbinical authorities in their teachings. [500] Thus, the rabbis considered those who taught without such rabbinical authorities to lack credibility. [501] They themselves referred back to a long history of traditional interpretation of the Mosaic Law as their authority. Jesus, however, offered Himself as the sole authority in His teachings on twenty-five occasions in John’s Gospel, saying, “Truly, truly, I say to you” (Joh 1:51; Joh 3:3; Joh 3:5; Joh 3:11; Joh 5:19; Joh 5:24-25; Joh 6:26; Joh 6:32; Joh 6:47; Joh 6:53; Joh 8:34; Joh 8:51; Joh 8:58; Joh 10:1; Joh 10:7; Joh 12:24; Joh 13:16; Joh 13:20-21; Joh 13:38; Joh 14:12; Joh 16:20; Joh 16:23; Joh 21:18) Throughout the Synoptic Gospels Jesus says, “Verily I say unto you” When pressed by the Jews for His source of authority, Jesus refers to His Father as the source of His doctrine (Joh 5:17-26; Joh 5:36-37; Joh 6:44-46; Joh 7:16; Joh 8:28; Joh 8:38; Joh 10:18; Joh 10:37-38; Joh 12:49-50; Joh 14:31; Joh 15:15). Jesus’ response of elevating Himself above rabbinic authority angered the Jewish leaders.

[500] Andreas J. Ksterberger, John, in Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Academic, 2004), 232-233.

[501] Scholars cite Sotah 22a from the Babylonian Talmud as an example of the negative rabbinical attitude towards those who do not appeal to other authorities in their teachings, which says, “It has been reported, If one has learnt Scripture and Mishnah but did not attend upon Rabbinical scholars, R. Eleazar says he is an ‘Am ha-arez’ [lit. a people of the land].” (Babylonian Talmud, Sotah 22a) The rabbis equated such teachers to “people of the land,” meaning such teachers were like the common, uneducated person.

In Mat 18:3 Jesus begins the fourth discourse with the phrase, “Verily, I say unto you” He was about to teach a divine truth regarding the principles of the Kingdom of Heaven that even the Jewish rabbis could not explain. Thus, Jesus uses Himself as His authority.

Mat 18:4 Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven.

Mat 18:5 And whoso shall receive one such little child in my name receiveth me.

Mat 18:6-9 Jesus Explains that Offences Will Come ( Mar 9:42-48 , Luk 17:1-2 ) In Mat 18:6-9 Jesus warns that offences will come in the Kingdom of Heaven and that divine punishment is in store for such offenders.

Mat 18:6 But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea.

Mat 18:6 Scripture References – Note:

Pro 18:19, “A brother offended is harder to be won than a strong city: and their contentions are like the bars of a castle.”

Mat 18:7 Woe unto the world because of offences! for it must needs be that offences come; but woe to that man by whom the offence cometh!

Mat 18:8 Wherefore if thy hand or thy foot offend thee, cut them off, and cast them from thee: it is better for thee to enter into life halt or maimed, rather than having two hands or two feet to be cast into everlasting fire.

Mat 18:9 And if thine eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee: it is better for thee to enter into life with one eye, rather than having two eyes to be cast into hell fire.

Mat 18:10-14 Jesus Explains the Value of Each Member of the Kingdom of Heaven (The Parable of the Lost Sheep) ( Luk 15:3-7 ) In Mat 18:10-14 Jesus explains to His disciples how valuable each and every member of the Kingdom of Heaven is in the eyes of the Father. He tells them the Parable of the Lost Sheep to help them understand this spiritual truth by using an earthly illustration.

Mat 18:10 Take heed that ye despise not one of these little ones; for I say unto you, That in heaven their angels do always behold the face of my Father which is in heaven.

Mat 18:10 “Take heed that ye despise not one of these little ones” – Comments Within the context of Jesus teaching on humility as the virtue of greatness in the Kingdom of Heaven, He warns against despising others. Pride is the opposite of humility, and it looks down upon others and despises them.

Mat 18:10 “for I say unto you, That in heaven their angels do always behold the face of my Father which is in heaven” – Comments A child’s prayer is unhindered before the Lord, unlike adults who are more responsible for their sinful behavior (Psa 109:7, Pro 1:28-29; Pro 15:29; Pro 28:9, Isa 1:15, Jer 7:16; Jer 11:14, Joh 9:31, 1Pe 3:7).

Psa 109:7, “When he shall be judged, let him be condemned: and let his prayer become sin.”

Pro 1:28-29, “Then shall they call upon me, but I will not answer; they shall seek me early, but they shall not find me: For that they hated knowledge, and did not choose the fear of the LORD:”

Pro 15:29, “The LORD is far from the wicked: but he heareth the prayer of the righteous.”

Pro 28:9, “He that turneth away his ear from hearing the law, even his prayer shall be abomination.”

Isa 1:15, “And when ye spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you: yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not hear: your hands are full of blood.”

Jer 7:16, “Therefore pray not thou for this people, neither lift up cry nor prayer for them, neither make intercession to me: for I will not hear thee.”

Jer 11:14, “Therefore pray not thou for this people, neither lift up a cry or prayer for them: for I will not hear them in the time that they cry unto me for their trouble.”

Joh 9:31, “Now we know that God heareth not sinners: but if any man be a worshipper of God, and doeth his will, him he heareth.”

1Pe 3:7, “Likewise, ye husbands, dwell with them according to knowledge, giving honour unto the wife, as unto the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together of the grace of life; that your prayers be not hindered.”

Mat 18:11 For the Son of man is come to save that which was lost.

Mat 18:12 How think ye? if a man have an hundred sheep, and one of them be gone astray, doth he not leave the ninety and nine, and goeth into the mountains, and seeketh that which is gone astray?

Mat 18:12 “How think ye” – Comments Jesus then says, “What do you think?” In other words, Jesus is asking them to imagine with Him an illustration of His main point in this teaching. In first-century Palestine, the people were familiar with the events Jesus is able to describe. Thus, Jesus gives them an illustration that was adapted to their environment.

Mat 18:12 “if a man have an hundred sheep, and one of them be gone astray, doth he not leave the ninety and nine, and goeth into the mountains, and seeketh that which is gone astray” – Comments Jesus says that the man leaves his ninety-nine sheep upon the mountain and he seeks the one that has gone astray. In hilly country, the fertile valleys were often used as farm land because the top soil washed down from the hillsides. The livestock were then taken to the hillsides where they grazed upon the grasses that easily grew upon these shallow soils. Thus, the man leaves his sheep on these hillsides to look for the one that is lost.

Mat 18:13 And if so be that he find it, verily I say unto you, he rejoiceth more of that sheep, than of the ninety and nine which went not astray.

Mat 18:14 Even so it is not the will of your Father which is in heaven, that one of these little ones should perish.

Mat 18:14 Comments – Though we love each of our children equally, we are grieved and hurt when one of them is sick or injured. So it is with the Father. He loves all of mankind, but He hurts when one of them is lost.

Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures

The Fourth Discourse: Dealing with Offences Mat 18:1-35 gives us the fourth major discourse in which Jesus deals with offences that occur within the Kingdom of God. The parallel accounts of Mark and Luke record a dispute among the disciples as to who would be the greater in the Kingdom. Jesus opens His fourth major discourse in Mat 18:1-5 by answering the question from His disciples regarding who is the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven. Evidently, the disciples believed that Jesus was about to overthrow the Roman rule, liberating Israel to rule itself, with Jesus as the new king. These disciples had forsaken all to follow Jesus, so they wanted to be one of those who ruled with the Messiah in this new kingdom. Instead of meeting their expected answers, Jesus tries to explain how to manage community relationships and offences in the Kingdom when He is gone. [496] He has demonstrated humility and forgiveness in the previous conflict narratives. For example, He was rejected by His own people in Nazareth (Mat 13:54-58); He responses to the death of John the Baptist without aggression or verbal assault against Herod (Mat 14:1-12); and He response with wisdom to the scribes and Pharisees who were rejecting Him (Mat 15:1-9; Mat 16:1-4). Having demonstrated the greatest virtue in the Kingdom of Heaven, Jesus now teaches His disciples how to practice humility among the community of believers (Mat 18:1-14) and forgiveness (Mat 18:15-35). While the disciples were concerned about themselves regarding their positions in the Kingdom, Jesus was concerned about those weaker believers who would soon join this community of faith.

[496] David Turner says, “Jesus continues here what he began in earnest in Matthew 13:54 the preparation of his disciples to function as his community in his absence.” See David L. Turner, Matthew, in Baker Evangelical Commentary on the New Testament, eds. Robert Yarbrough and Robert H. Stein (Ada, MI: Baker Academic, 2008), 431.

The fourth discourse is popularly divided into two major subsections that deal with humility (Mat 18:1-14) and forgiveness (Mat 18:15-35). David Turner supports this division with literary elements found within this discourse. He says that Mat 19:14; Mat 18:35 both serve as concluding remarks to a parable; these two verses begin with the Greek adverb ; and both verses refer to the Father’s concern for His children. [497]

[497] David L. Turner, Matthew, in Baker Evangelical Commentary on the New Testament, eds. Robert Yarbrough and Robert H. Stein (Ada, MI: Baker Academic, 2008), 432.

Literary Evidence of a Common Theme in the Fourth Discourse There is literary evidence that the fourth discourse carries the motif of a community of believers, a view supported by the frequent use of Greek words that reflect a typical, first-century family unit: child, least of these, brother, father, fellow slave. David Turner lists words (child) (Mat 18:2-5), (brother) (Mat 18:15; Mat 18:21; Mat 18:35), (Mat 18:29; Mat 18:31; Mat 18:33), and the phrase (one of the least of these) (Mat 18:6; Mat 18:10; Mat 18:14). [498] Important to this list is the word (Mat 18:10; Mat 18:14; Mat 18:19; Mat 18:35). These words are found throughout the fourth discourse as they unit it with the common theme of maintaining the unity of faith and love among the community of believers through humility and forgiveness.

[498] David L. Turner, Matthew, in Baker Evangelical Commentary on the New Testament, eds. Robert Yarbrough and Robert H. Stein (Ada, MI: Baker Academic, 2008), 432.

Outline: Here is a proposed outline:

1. Greatness through Humility in the Kingdom of Heaven Mat 18:1-14

2. Forgiveness in the Kingdom of Heaven Mat 18:15-35

The Recipients to the Five Discourses of the Gospel of Matthew The five discourses that Jesus Christ delivered during His earthly ministry were primarily directed to His disciples (Mat 5:1; Mat 10:1; Mat 13:10-11; Mat 13:36-37; Mat 18:1; Mat 24:3). Although the multitudes gathered together to receive miracles and to hear Him, Matthew is accurate to note that Jesus addressed these discourse to His disciples. Thus, the purpose of the five discourses was the training of the Twelve, preparing them for His final command to take the Gospel to the nations, which is traditionally called the Great Commission (Mat 28:18-20).

The Five Major Discourses: Similarities with the Structure of the New Testament Besides the similarities between the Pentateuch and the Gospel of Matthew, we find similarities between the five major discourses and the structure of the New Testament writings. To begin with, we know that the nine Pauline Church Epistles establish the doctrines of the New Testament Church. The three Pastoral Epistles establish the order and ministry of the Church. The three General Epistles of Hebrews, James and 1 Peter establish the perseverance of the saints in regards to persecutions from without the Church. The five General Epistles of 2 Peter , 1, 2, 3 John and Jude establish the perseverance of the saints in regards to persecutions from false doctrines within the church.

In a similar manner, we can compare the Sermon on the Mount to the Church Epistles in that they lay the foundation for the doctrine of the Kingdom of God and of the New Testament Church. The second discourse of Jesus sending out the twelve establishes the ministry and order of the Church, which can be compared to the Pastoral Epistles. The third discourse regarding the parables of the Kingdom of Heaven which reveals the ways in which men reject the preaching of the Gospel can be compared to the General Epistles of Hebrews, James and 1 Peter which deal with persecutions from without. The fourth discourse of dealing with offences and persecutions from the Jewish leaders can be compared with the General Epistles of 2 Peter , 1, 2, 3 John and Jude which discuss persecutions from false doctrine within the Church. The emphasis upon false doctrine in this narrative material is because the theme of this passage is about offences because of false doctrines in the Kingdom of God. These offences are not coming from the multitudes but from those who appear to be within the Kingdom of God, that is, the religious leaders. The fifth Eschatological discourse of the Second Coming of Christ can be compared to the book of Revelation, which deals with the glorification of the Church.

The Five Major Discourses: Similarities With the Six Foundational Doctrines of the New Testament Church – If we compare the foundational doctrines listed in Heb 6:1-2 with the scheme of the five major discourses in Matthew’s Gospel, we can observe some parallels.

Heb 6:1-2, “Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection; not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God, Of the doctrine of baptisms, and of laying on of hands, and of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment.”

The six foundational doctrines found in Heb 6:1-2 were laid down by Jesus Christ. It is these six doctrines upon which the Kingdom of Heaven is established:

1. repentance from dead works

2. faith toward God

3. the doctrine of baptisms

4. laying on of hands

5. resurrection of the dead

6. eternal judgment

Jesus’ first discourse, the Sermon on the Mount, finds its parallel in the third foundational doctrine of the doctrine of baptisms. The second discourse, the Sending out of the Twelve, parallels the laying on of hands for Christian service. The third and fourth discourses emphasize the perseverance of the saints. The last discourse, the Eschatological Discourse, places most of its emphasis upon the resurrection of the dead and eternal judgment.

Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures

Handling Offences and Persecutions in the Kingdom of God Mat 13:54 to Mat 18:35 emphasizes the theme of how God’s children are to handle offences and persecutions over doctrinal issues within the Kingdom of Heaven. [468] The narrative passage of Mat 13:54 to Mat 17:27 emphasizes the many occasions when offences came into Jesus’ ministry from the Jewish leaders and shows us how Jesus responded to offences. This narrative material builds upon the theme of the previous narrative material found in Mat 11:2 to Mat 12:50 regarding man’s reactions to the King. [469] This is because persecutions will come from those who adhere to false doctrines when we preach the Gospel and we must learn how to handle these offences. In this fourth narrative section, Jesus also explains to His disciples the dangers of offending others. Thus, the fourth discourse (Mat 18:1-35) teaches the disciples how to properly deal with these offences within the Church, which Jesus experiences in the preceding narrative passage.

[468] Benjamin Bacon identifies the theme of 13:54 to 18:35 as church government and the problems of church unity. He says, “Because of this unmistakable interest dominating the whole structure of Division B (Matthew 18) we naturally expect from previous experience of our evangelist’s use of his material that Division A will lead up to this Discourse on church government with narrative selections of corresponding character. In reality such is the case” See Benjamin W. Bacon, Studies in Matthew (New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1930), 397, 410.

[469] Craig Blomberg says two major themes are carried over from the previous narrative material, which are the increased intensity of the rejection of Jesus Christ and His message, and the progressive, Christological revelation of His identity to the Twelve. He says the development of these two themes create “sharper lines of demarcation between insiders and outsiders.” See Craig L. Blomberg, Matthew, in The New American Commentary, vol. 22 (Nashville: Broadman Press, 1992), 226. David Turner describes the two leading themes in the fourth narrative section as “increased oppition and conflict” and the works and teachings of Jesus intended to increase the faith of His disciples. See David L. Turner, Matthew, in Baker Evangelical Commentary on the New Testament, eds. Robert Yarbrough and Robert H. Stein (Ada, MI: Baker Academic, 2008), 358.

The one Old Testament prophecy of this division in Matthew’s Gospel is Mat 15:7-9, which quotes Isa 29:13 and simply prophecies how God’s own people would rejected the Gospel, reflecting the theme of this division of Matthew on persecutions from within.

Mat 15:7-9, “Ye hypocrites, well did Esaias prophesy of you, saying, This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips; but their heart is far from me. But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.”

Isa 29:13, “Wherefore the Lord said, Forasmuch as this people draw near me with their mouth, and with their lips do honour me, but have removed their heart far from me, and their fear toward me is taught by the precept of men:”

In the fourth major discourse (Mat 18:1-35) that immediately follows the narrative material Jesus lays down principles for His disciples to follow when dealing with offences. He quotes Deu 19:15 as a guideline for His disciples to use when dealing with offences.

Deu 19:15, “One witness shall not rise up against a man for any iniquity, or for any sin, in any sin that he sinneth: at the mouth of two witnesses, or at the mouth of three witnesses, shall the matter be established.”

We may compares this major division of material to the General Epistles of 2 Peter , 1, 2, 3 John and Jude in that they also emphasize persecutions that come from those who hold fast to false doctrines.

The section of Matthew emphasizing sanctification through perseverance from persecutions within (Mat 13:54 to Mat 18:35) closes with a transitional sentence that concludes each of the five discourses, telling us that Jesus had ended His teaching (Mat 19:1).

Mat 19:1, “And it came to pass, that when Jesus had finished these sayings, he departed from Galilee, and came into the coasts of Judaea beyond Jordan;”

Literary Evidence of a Common Theme between the Fourth Narrative Section and the Discourse that Follows There is literary evidence that connects the third narrative-discourse section with the fourth narrative-discourse section. While these two macro structures share the same theme of perseverance in the faith for the child of God, there is literary evidence to confirm this connection. [470] For example, the fourth narrative section is related in retrospect to the third discourse in the fact that the Greek word is used nine times in the Gospel of Matthew, with six uses in the third discourse (Mat 13:13-15; Mat 13:19; Mat 13:23; Mat 13:51) and three uses in the fourth narrative (Mat 15:10; Mat 16:12; Mat 17:13). This literary evidence reflects the common theme of the servant of God’s need to persevere in the faith in the midst of offenses by hold fast to one’s understanding and confession of faith in God’s eternal Word. In addition, the fourth narrative section shares a common theme with the fourth discourse that follows in the use of the Greek words and , key words Jesus uses four times in the course of the fourth narrative (Mat 13:57; Mat 15:12; Mat 16:23; Mat 17:27), as well as six times during the fourth discourse (Mat 18:6-7 [three], 8, 9). Note that this key word opens and closes the fourth narrative section (Mat 13:57; Mat 17:27).

[470] The thematic scheme of perseverance connects third and fourth narrative-discourse sections. Scholars acknowledge the connection of these sections. For example, A. G. van Aarde says, “ Matthew 13:53-17:27, the fourth micronarrative, in an associative manner relates retrospectively to the third discourse (13:1-52) and prospectively to the fourth discourse (18:1-35), while correlating concentrically with the corresponding third micronarrative (11:2-12:50).” He again says, “the “structural interrelatedness of chapters 13, 14-17 and 18 fits into the concentric and progressive structure of the Gospel of Matthew as a whole.” See A. G. van Aarde, “Matthew’s Portrayal of the Disciples and the Structure of Matthew 13:53 17:27,” Neotestamentica 16 (1982): 21, 22.

Sanctification: Perseverance – Numbers Versus Fourth Discourse which Deals with Persecutions from Within – We see in the book of Numbers the establishment of the journey of perseverance that the children of Israel endured during the forty-year wilderness journey. In a similar way the fourth discourse on church discipline establishes the perseverance of the Church that every believer must endure.

The narrative passage of Mat 13:54 to Mat 17:27 emphasizes the many occasions when offences came into Jesus’ ministry from the Jewish leaders. In this passage, Jesus explained to His disciples the dangers of offending others. Thus, the fourth discourse (Mat 18:1-35) teaches the disciples how to properly deal with these offences within the Church, which Jesus experiences in the preceding narrative passage.

In summary, the fact that Matthew 11-18 deals with obstacles and persecutions along the journey as a servant of the Lord is a clear reminder of how the children of Israel wandered in the desert facing similar challenges in the book of Numbers.

Outline Here is a proposed outline:

1. Narrative: Examples of Offences Mat 13:54 to Mat 17:27

2. The Fourth Discourse: Dealing with Offences Mat 18:1-35

Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures

The Greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven.

A question of rank:

v. 1. At the same time came the disciples unto Jesus, saying, Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?

In the same hour in which the striking miracle with the Temple-tax had taken place. Only a small interval of time had elapsed since their return into the house. And on the way they had quarreled among themselves as to rank and degree in their own circle. Thus early was the devil of pride raising his ugly head in their midst. Although their discussion had been carried on secretly, Jesus knew of the quarrel and questioned them about it, Mar 9:33. They state their supposed difficulty in the form of a query: Who, then, who, in your opinion, ought to be considered the greatest in the kingdom of heaven? Jesus had repeatedly tried to show them that His kingdom, strictly speaking, is not a visible, physical, temporal kingdom, but consists of His reigning in the hearts of His believers. But that idea was still too difficult for them to grasp. They want plain, concrete evidence.

Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann

EXPOSITION

Mat 18:1-35

Discourse concerning the greatest in the kingdom of heaven, and the mutual duties of Christians. (Mar 9:33-50; Luk 9:46-50.)

Mat 18:1-4

The greatest in the kingdom of heaven.

Mat 18:1

At the same time; literally, in that hour. The narrator connects the following important discourse with the circumstances just previously related. Peter had completed the business of the didrachma, and had rejoined the body of disciples. These, according to St. Mark, had disputed about precedency on the way to Capernaum. Fired with the notion that their Master would ere long publicly assert his Messianic claims, which, in their view, implied temporal sovereignty and secular power, they looked forward to becoming dignitaries in this new kingdom. Three of them had been honoured with special marks of favour; one of them had been pre-eminently distinguished: how would it be when the coming empire was established? This had been the subject of conversation, and had given rise to some contention among them. Christ had marked the dispute, but had said nothing at the time. Now he gives them a lesson in humility, and teaches the spiritual nature of his kingdom, in which earthly pride and ambition find no place. From St. Mark we learn that Jesus himself took the initiative in the discourse, asking the disciples concerning their disputation on the road; and, when they were ashamed to answer, he added, “If any man desire to be first, the same shall be last of all, and servant of all.” Our Gospel here takes up the story. The paradox seemed incomprehensible; so they put the question, Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven? The Greek is, …; who then is greater? Vulgate, Quis, putas, major est? The illative particle “then” refers to what is recorded in St. Mark (Mar 9:34), or to some such difficulty in the querists’ mind. They make the inquiry in the present tense, as though Christ had already selected the one who was to preside; and by the kingdom of heaven they mean the Messianic kingdom on earth, concerning which their notions did not yet rise above those of their contemporaries (comp. Act 1:6). The comparative in the original, “greater,” is virtually equivalent to the superlative, as it is translated in the Authorized Version. Such a question as the above could not have been asked had the apostles at this time recognized any absolute pre-eminence in Peter or acknowledged his supremacy.

Mat 18:2

A little child. Our Lord teaches, not only by spoken parables, but by symbolical actions also. This was not a mere infant, as Christ is said to have called him unto him. A tradition, mentioned by Nicephorus (‘Hist. Eccl.,’ 2.35), asserts that this child was the famous martyr Ignatius. Set him in the midst of them. Taking him in his arms, as St. Mark tells. What a picture of Christ’s tenderness and human love! From the boy’s trustfulness and submission he draws a needed lesson for the ambitious apostles.

Mat 18:3

Except ye be converted ); i.e. turned from proud, ambitious thoughts of worldly dignity. There is no question here about what is popularly known as conversionthe change from habitual sin to holiness. The conversion here spoken of is confined to a change in the present state of mindto a new direction given to the thoughts and wishes. The apostles had shown rivalry, jealousy, ambition: they must turn away from such failings, and learn a different lesson. Become as little children. Christ points to little children as the model to which the members of his kingdom must assimilate themselves. The special attributes of children which he would recommend are humility, unworldliness, simplicity, teachableness,the direct contraries of self-seeking, worldliness, distrust, conceit. Ye shall not enter. In the sermon on the mount Christ had said, “Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Mat 5:3). To all who are not such the gate opens not. That virtue which was unknown to pagan antiquity, the opposite character to which was upholden as the acme of excellence, Christ here asserts to be the only passport to his ideal Church on earth or its eternal development in heaven. Not the self-esteeming, proud man () of Aristotle’s worship (‘Eth. Nic.,’ 4.3), but the humble (), the lowly, the self-depreciating, is the man who can realize his position in the spiritual world, and shall be admitted to its blessings and benefits. St. Paul has summarized the ideal character of the members of the kingdom in 1Co 13:1-13, especially 1Co 13:4, 1Co 13:5, and 1Co 13:7.

Mat 18:4

Whosoever therefore. This verse gives a direct application of the principle just enunciated, and supplies an answer to the apostles’ question. Shall humble himself. Not that a child consciously humbles itself, but is humble by nature. The disciple must become that by deliberate choice which the child is by reason of his constitution and natural disposition. The same is greatest; rather, greater (), Christ using the same term as the questioners in Mat 18:1. The more a man annihilates self and casts away pride, conceit, obstinacy, the fitter is he to become a living member of Christ’s kingdom. “Quanto humilior, tanto altior,” says Thomas Aquinas. But this is a joint work. St. Gregory says well, “The good which a man doeth is both the work of God and the work of man: of God, as being the Author, in giving grace; of man, as being actor, in using grace, yet so that he cooperate with grace by grace” (quoted by Ford, in loc.).

Mat 18:5-14

The treatment due to such.

Mat 18:5

Shall receive ( ). The word is pregnant with meaning. It includes not only the showing of tender affection and the giving of material succour, such as hospitality, shelter, etc., but also the bestowal of help and support in spiritual things, encouragement in holiness, instruction in Divine lore. One such little child. Primarily, Jesus refers to children, pure and confiding as the one he had placed in the midst; but his words are applicable to all who have the childlike spirit and character, the graces which he specially loves and rewards. The expressions here and in the next verse must be understood to belong in some cases to the symbol, and in others to the symbolized. In my Name ( ); for the sake of my Name; because he belongs to me; not merely from natural affection and pity, but from a higher motive, because the child has in him somewhat of Christis the child of God, and a member of Christ. Receiveth me. That which is done to his little ones Christ regards as done to himself (comp. Mat 10:40-42). What a blessing waits on those who teach the young, working laboriously in schools, and training souls for heaven! This “receiving” Christ is a far higher and better thing than being “greatest” in an earthly kingdom.

Mat 18:6

There is an opposite side to this picture. Shall offend; cause to stumblegive occasion for a fall, i.e. either in faith or morals. This is done by evil example, by teaching to sin, by sneers at piety, by giving soft names to gross offences. One of these little ones. Whether child or adult, a pure, simple soul, which has a certain faith it be not strong enough to resist all attack. Even the heathen recognized the respect due to the young: “Maxima debetur puero reverentia” (Juvenal, ‘Sat.,’ 14:47); and guilelessness and purity, wherever found, win some regard, even from worthless and careless observers. To wilfully lead one such astray is a deadly sin, which the Lord denounces in solemn terms. Christ affectionately calls his disciples “little ones” (Mat 10:42). Believe in () me. We must always distinguish between “believe in” ( , or : credo in) and “believe” with the simple dative; the former is applied to faith in God alone. Says St. Augustine, “Credimus Paulo, sed non credimus in Paulum.” In the present passage the phrase implies the Divinity of Christ. It were better; literally, it is profitable. The crime specified is so heinous that a man had better incur the most certain death, if by this means he may avoid the sin and save the soul of his possible victim. A millstone; a great millstonesuch a one as required an ass to inure. The upper, or movable, stone is meant, which was usually turned by the hand. Drowned. We do not know that the Jews punished criminals by drowning (), though it is probable that it was practised in some cases; but by other nations this penalty was commonly exacted. Among the Romans, Greeks, and Syrians, it was certainly the practice. Commentators quote Suetonius, ‘Aug.,’ 67.; Diod. Sic., 16.35; Livy, 1.51; Aristophanes, ‘Schol. ad Equit.,’ 1360. The punishment seems to have been reserved for the greatest criminals; and the size of the stone would prevent any chance of the body rising again to the surface and being buried by friendsa consideration which, in the minds of heathens, greatly increased the horror of this kind of death.

Mat 18:7

This and the preceding verse occur in St. Luke (Luk 17:1, Luk 17:2) in an inverted order. Woe unto the world! The Lord thinks of the deadly evil brought into the world by offences given, such as bad example, unholy lives of Christians, persecutions, scoffs, thoughtlessnessthings which lead so many astray. For it must needs be. While men are what they are, such consequences must be expected. This is not an absolute, but a relative, necessity. Man’s heart is evil, his tendencies are evil, temptation is strong. Satan is active; all these forces combine to bring about a fatal result. Thus St. Paul says (1Co 11:19), “There must be heresies among you, that they which are approved may be made manifest among you.” So these offences of which Christ speaks are overruled and permitted for wise purposes, that by them the righteous may be proved and purified, and the chaff separated from the wheat. But woe to that man! Because of this evil principle which is rife in the world, no man is exonerated from the guilt of giving offence. He has free will; he can choose good; he can use the means of grace; he can strengthen his natural weakness, control his perverseness, overcome corruption, by the help of God always ready to be given to them who seek. The first “woe” is a cry of pity for a world in danger; the second “woe” is a denunciation of the sinner as being responsible for the evil which he introduces. We are all in some sort our brothers’ keepers, and are bound to help forward their salvation, and to do nothing which may tend to endanger their souls’ health.

Mat 18:8

Wherefore. The Lord teaches how to avoid this sin of giving offence, repeating the solemn words already delivered in the sermon on the mount, though with some variation and a different context (Mat 5:29, Mat 5:30). The reference on the former occasion was especially to breaches of the seventh commandment; here the Lord speaks of offences in general, of that external corruption among mankind which is the fruitful source of temptation and sin. The only remedy for this is the sternest self-denial, the strictest watchfulness. Or thy foot. Christ did not name this member in his previous discourse. Literally, the hand or foot leads into sin, when it is directed to forbidden objects, moves towards the acquisition of things contrary to the Law of God. Metaphorically, the expression signifies all that is as dear and as necessary as these important members. Such occasions of sin we must at once and absolutely cast aside. It includes also persons as well as things. Friends the dearest must be parted from if their presence, or conversation, or habits cause evil thoughts or encourage evil acts. In the presence of such offences, ties the nearest must be snapped asunder. Loneliness, isolation, is better than companionship in wickedness. It has been well said by Olshausen that the hand and the foot may denote mental powers and dispositions; and the warning is given that their over-cultivation may prove an obstacle to the spiritual life, and must be accordingly checked. We may also descry in the paragraph an admonition against making too much of skill, dexterity, and adroitness in business and occupation. There is a subtle snare in them; they may draw the heart away from God, and must be restrained and modified, so as not to interfere with the cultivation of religion and the care of the soul. Enter into life. This is an addition not found in the sermon on the mount; it refers to the eternal life which, beginning on earth, is consummated in heaven. Everlasting fire ( ). This is the first time that this phrase occurs. Whatever these words may mean, there can be no doubt that they signify, and are intended to signify, some awful kind and extent of punishment, the fear of which may deter from such sins as incur it. It is not morally expedient to minimize the force of such terms by disputing about the exact connotation of “aeonian.” When we remember that the words are spoken by the loving and pitiful Saviour, we must allow that they point to some dreadful reality, the import of which he knew, and which he thus mercifully veiled from us as not able to bear the full revelation (see on Mat 25:46).

Mat 18:9

Hell fire. A synonym for the “everlasting fire” of the previous verse, and the “unquenchable fire” of the Baptist’s warning (Mat 3:12), and to be understood in the same sense. It is good to be saved even with the loss of all that makes earthly life happy and precious.

Mat 18:10

From this verse to the end of the chapter we find no parallel in the other evangelists. The Saviour here returns to the subject of children, whether literally or metaphorically so called, and proclaims the high appreciation which is their due. Take heed (, see) that ye despise not one () of these little ones. God’s care is minute; it extends to each individual of the class. The contempt denounced might arise in various ways and from various considerations. The advanced believer might despise children as hot competent to enter into covenant with God or fit to receive Church privileges, whereas circumcision under the old dispensation and infant baptism under the gospel afford a very different view. Again, to say or do unseemly things in the presence of children is a mode of” despising” which may prove a deadly offence. Or the contempt may be on the side of the ambitious and self-seeking, who cannot understand the simple and childlike spirit which seeketh not its own. The Lord gives two proofs of the high consideration due to his little ones. The first proof is that which follows; the second is given in Mat 18:11-14. Their angels. Not “their spirits after death,” as some commentators erroneously interpret (for the term “angel” is not so used, and Christ speaks in the present tense, do always behold), but the angels especially appointed to watch and protect themtheir guardian angels. This doctrine (which, as of very solemn import, the Lord introduces with his usual formula, I say unto you), that each soul has assigned to it by God a special angel is grounded on this, and supported by many other passages of Scripture (comp. Heb 1:14; Psa 34:7; Psa 91:11; Luk 15:7, Luk 15:10). It has been questioned how angels can be said to succour us on earth, while in heaven they are always looking on the face of the Father. The difficulty has been answered, among others, by St. Gregory, who writes, “They never so go forth apart from the vision of God, as to be deprived of the joys of interior contemplation. They are both sent from him, and stand by him too, since both in that they are circumscribed, they go forth, and in this that they are also entirely present, they never go away. Thus they at the same time always behold the Father’s face, and yet come to us; because they both go forth to us in a spiritual presence, and yet keep themselves there, whence they had gone out, by virtue of interior contemplation” (‘Moral.,’ 2.3). It is probable that the highest order of angels is here signified, such as among the Jews was called, “the angels of the presence, or of the face.” To behold the king’s face means, in Eastern parlance, to be admitted to his immediate presenceto enjoy his special favour and confidence (see 2Ki 25:19; Est 1:14; Jer 52:25). It is to these supreme beings, who draw their knowledge and love directly from Almighty God, and receive their commands from his mouth, that the tender lambs of Christ’s flock are committed. This fact demonstrates their dignity and the great heinousness of setting a stumbling block in their way.

Mat 18:11

This verse is omitted by the Sinaitic and Vatican Manuscripts, and many modern editors, e.g. Lachmann, Tischendort, Tregelles, Westcott and Hort, and the Revised Version; but is retained in many good uncials, nearly all the cursives, the Vulgate, Syriac, etc. It is supposed to be an interpolation from Luk 19:10; but one does not see why, if this is the case, the inter-polater should have left out the striking verb “to seek,” which would naturally have coincided with “seeketh” in Luk 19:12. For expository use, at any rate, we may consider the verse as genuine, and take it as the commencement of the second argument for the dignity of the little onesthe simple and humble, whether children or others. This proof is derived from the action of God towards them. The Son of man is come to save that which was lost ( ). How can ye despise those whom Christ hath so loved and deemed so precious that he emptied himself of his glory and became man in order to save them? The general term, ” that which was lost,” is expressed by the neuter participle, to show that there is no exception to the wide scope of Christ’s mercy. The race of man is lost; infants are born in sin; all need redemption. Everybody, poor, helpless, ignorant, tempted, comes under this category, and to save such Christ came down from heaven. Therefore their souls are very precious in his sight.

Mat 18:12

The parable that follows teaches the same lesson as the preceding verse. It is found in Luk 15:1-7, with some variations, delivered to a different audience and under different circumstances, as Jesus often repeated his instructions and teaching according to the occasion. How think ye? What say ye to the following case? Thus the Lord engages the disciples’ attention. An hundred sheep. A round number, representing a considerable flock. If but one of these stray, the good Shepherd regards only the danger and possible destruction of this wanderer, and puts aside every other care in order to secure its safety. The ninety and nine. These must be left for a time, if he is to conduct the search in person. It may he that some idea of probation is here intended, as when Jesus let the disciples embark on the lake while he himself remained on the shore. Many of the Fathers interpret the ninety-nine as representing the sinless angels, the lost sheep as man, to seek and save whom Christ left heaven, i.e. became incarnate. This, indeed, may be a legitimate application of the parable, but is inexact as an exposition of the passage, which regards the whole flock as figuring the human race. The sheep that remained safe and true to their Master are the righteous; the errant are the sinners, which, however few, are the special care of the merciful Lord. Into the mountains ( ). There is much doubt whether these words are to be joined with goeth (), as in both our versions, or with leave (), as in the Vulgate, Nonne relinquit nonaginta novem in montibus? In the former case we have a picture of the toil of the shepherd traversing the mountains in search of the lost. But this does not seem to be the particular point contemplated, nor is any special emphasis assigned to this part of the transaction. In the parable as recounted by St. Luke (Luk 15:4), we read, “Doth he not leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness, and go?” So here it is best to render, Doth he not leave the ninety and nine upon the mountains? The shepherd is not regardless of the safety and comfort of the flock during his temporary absence; he leaves them where they are sure to find pasture, as they roam over ( with accusative) the hill tops, which, catching clouds and dew, are never without fresh grass. So Psa 147:8, “Who covereth the heaven with clouds, who prepareth rain for the earth, who maketh grass to grow upon the mountains.” Seeketh. The lost sheep would not return of itself. Such erring souls Jesus seeks by the inspiration of his Spirit, by allowing distress and sorrow, by awakening conscience and memory, by ways manifold which may lead the sinner to “come to himself.”

Mat 18:13

If so be that he find it. The quest is not sure to he rewarded. Man’s perversity makes the result uncertain. No one may safely go on sinning, or living in careless unconcern, with the expectation of being finally found and saved. There is a limit to the patience of the Lord. If a man will not open his heart to good inspirations and cooperate with preventing grace, he will not be found and brought home. God forces no one to be saved against his will. Rejoiceth more. A natural feeling. Thus a mother loves better an afflicted child whom she has nursed through a long malady, than the strong and healthy children who have caused her no trouble and anxiety. The joy at the recovery of the strayed sheep is proportional to the sorrow occasioned by its loss and the pains and trouble expended in the search; and this pleasure would at the moment be greater than the satisfaction with which the other members of the flock are regarded.

Mat 18:14

Even so. The teaching of the parable is summed up; the conduct of the earthly shepherd is a figure of that of the heavenly Shepherd. The will of your Father perish. To scandalize one of these little ones, or lead him into sin (which is to cause to perish), is to fight against God’s will, who would have all men to be saved (1Ti 2:4). “When the dignity of the little ones was asserted, it was , ‘my Father;’ now that a motive directly acting on the conscience of the Christian is urged, it is , your Father” (Alford). St. Paul teaches that Christ died for the weak brethren (Rom 14:15; 1Co 8:11). With this text (Mat 18:14) before him, it is inconceivable that any one can hold the doctrine of the eternal reprobation of certain souls. The whole passage is opposed to the theory of irrespective predestination and irresistible grace.

Mat 18:15-20

Correction of an offending brother.

Mat 18:15

Hitherto the discourse has warned against offending the young and weak; it now teaches how to behave when the offence is directed against one’s self. Moreover (, “now,” introducing a new subject) if thy brother shall trespass against thee ( ). The brother is a brother in the faith, a fellow Christian. The words, “against thee,” are omitted in the Sinaitic and Vatican Manuscripts, and by some modern editors, on the ground that it is a gloss derived from Peter’s question (Mat 18:21). The words are retained by the Vulgate and other high authorities. Without them, the passage becomes one of a general nature, applying to all offences. Retaining them, we find a direction how to treat one who offers personal offence to ourselveswhich seems to suit the context best. In the case of private quarrels between individual Christians, with the view of reconciliation, there are four steps to be taken. First, private remonstrance: Go. Do not wait for him to come to you; make the first advances yourself. This, as being the more difficult course, is expressly enjoined on one who is learning the lesson of humility. Tell him his fault; ,: corripe eum. Put the fault plainly before him, show him how he has wronged you, and how he has offended God. This must be done in private, gently, mercifully. Such treatment may win the heart, while public rebuke, open denunciation, might only incense and harden. Plainly, the Lord primarily contemplates quarrels between individual Christians; though, indeed, the advice here and in the sequel is applicable to a wider sphere and to more important occasions. Thou hast gained thy brother. If he shall own his fault, and ask for pardon, thou hast won him for God and thyself. A quarrel is a loss to both parties; a reconciliation is a gain for both. The verb “to gain” () is used elsewhere in this high sense (see 1Co 9:19; 1Pe 3:1).

Mat 18:16

This gives the second step or stage in discipline. Take with thee one or two more. If the offender is obdurate to secret remonstrance, do not yet resort to public measures, but make a fresh effort accompanied by a friend or two, who will support your view and confirm your expostulation, which might otherwise be considered partial or self-interested. In the mouth of two or three witnesses. The idea is derived from the requirement of the Jewish Law in a case of litigation (see Deu 19:15; Joh 8:17; 2Co 13:1). By the testimony of these witnesses, every word that has passed between you may be fully certified. There will be forthcoming, if necessary, the regular legal evidence, should the matter come to other ears.

Mat 18:17

Tell it unto the Church ( ). This is the third step to take. Our Lord is contemplating a visible society, possessed of certain powers of discipline and correction, such as we find in the history of the apostolic Church (see 1Co 5:1, etc.; 1Co 6:1, etc.; 1Ti 1:20). Christ had already spoken of his Ecclesia in his commendation of Peter’s great confession (Mat 16:18); so the twelve were prepared for this use of the word, and would not confound the body here signified with the Jewish synagogue. To the latter the expressions in Mat 18:18-20 could not apply. The custom and order of procedure in the synagogue would afford an idea of what the Lord meant; but the congregation intended was to be composed of Christians. the followers of Christ, who were delivered from the narrowness of rabbinical rules and definitions. The institution of ecclesiastical tribunals has been referred to this passage, but, as understood by the apostles, it would denote, not so much ecclesiastical rulers as the particular congregation to which the delinquent belonged; and the offence for which he is denounced is some private scandal or quarrel. The course of proceeding enjoined would be impracticable in a large and widely extended community, and could not be applied under our present circumstances. If he neglect to hear the Church. Now comes the final stage in corrective discipline. An heathen man (, the Gentile) and a publican (, the publican). The class, not the individual, is meant. If he turns a deaf ear to the authoritative reproof of the Church, let him be regarded no longer as a brother, but as a heathen and an outcast. Christ, without endorsing the Jews’ treatment of Gentiles and publicans, acknowledges the fact, and uses it as an illustration. The obdurate offender must be deprived of Church membership, and treated as those without the Jewish pale were commonly treated. The traditional law enjoined that a Hebrew might not associate, eat, or travel with a heathen, and that if any Jew took the office of publicans, he was to be virtually excommunicated. In later times, there naturally arose in the Christian Church the punishment of offenders by means of exclusion from holy communion, and excommunication. But even in this extreme case charity will not regard the sinner as hopelessly lost; it will seek his salvation by prayer and entreaty.

Mat 18:18

The following words are addressed, not, as the preceding verse, to the offended Christian, but to the apostles, as possessed of some superior powers above those of any individual congregation. Verily I say unto you. The Lord solemnly confers the grant made to Peter (Mat 16:19) on the whole apostolate. The binding and loosing, in a restricted sense, and in logical connection with what precedes, refer to the confirmation and authorization of the sentence of the Ecclesia, which is not valid, so to speak, in the heavenly court till endorsed by Christ’s representativesthe apostles. Whether the verdict was the excommunication of the offender (“bind”) or his pardon and restoration (“loose”), the ratification of the apostles was required, and would be made good in heaven. The treatment of the incestuous Christian by St. Paul is a practical comment on this passage. The congregation decides on the man’s guilt, but St. Paul “binds” him, retains his sins, and delivers him to Satan (1Co 5:1-5); and when on his repentance he is forgiven, it is the apostle who “looses” him, acting as the representative of Christ (2Co 2:10). In a general sense, the judicial and disciplinary powers of the Christian priesthood have been founded on this passage, which from early times has been used in the service of ordination. Each body of Christians has its own way of interpreting the promise. While some opine that, speaking in Christ’s name and with his authority, the priest can pronounce or withhold pardon; others believe that external discipline is all that is intended; others again think that the terms are satisfied by the ministration of the Word and sacraments, as a physician gives health by prescribing remedies.

Mat 18:19

Again I say unto you. The following paragraph has been thought by many to be addressed especially to the apostles in confirmation of the powers conferred on them above; but from Mat 18:20 we should judge the promise to be general. Herein is set forth the privilege of united prayer. God confirms the sentence of his authorized ambassadors; he gives special heed to the joint intercessions of all Christians. Two of you. Two of my followers, even the smallest number that could form an association. Shall agree (). Be in complete accord, like the notes of a perfect strain of music. Here one man’s infirmity is upheld by another’s strength; one man’s short-sightedness compensated by another’s wider view; this man’s little faith overpowered by that man’s firm confidence. Anything. Of course, this is to be understood with some restriction. The thing asked must be reasonable, good in itself, expedient for the petitioner; the prayer must be earnest, faithful, persevering. If such conditions are satisfied, the desire will be granted in some form, though, perhaps, not in the way or at the time expected. Thus the Lord sanctions guilds or bodies of Christians united together to offer up supplications for special objects or with some definite intention in which all ere agreed.

Mat 18:20

The promise is applied to the public prayer of the congregation, as we see in what is called “the prayer of St. Chrysostom” in the English Prayer book. Are gathered together. For the purpose of worship. It is a simpler form of the word used in Heb 10:25, “Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together.” In my Name ( ); literally, into my Name; i.e. with love to me, yearning for union with me, and acting for my glory. This would imply decent and orderly meeting for the highest ends. There am I in the midst of them. Christ promises a real, actual presence, though invisible, as true as when he appeared to his disciples after his resurrection, as true as when the Shechinah shone in tabernacle or temple. The rabbis had a saying that if two sat at table and conversed about the Law of God, the Shechinah rested upon them. The promise in the text, of course, implies Christ’s omnipresence and omniscience. This is his blessing on united, congregational prayer.

Mat 18:21-35

The pardon of injuries, and the parable of the unmerciful servant.

Mat 18:21

Peter was greatly struck with what Christ had just said about reconciliation of enemies; and he wanted to know what limits were to be imposed on his generosity, especially, it might be, if the offender made no reparation for his offence, and acknowledged not his wrong doing. My brother. As Mat 18:15, fellow disciple, neighbour. Till seven times? Peter doubtless thought that he was unusually liberal and generous in proposing such a measure of forgiveness. Seven is the number of completeness and plurality, and our Lord had used it in giving his sentence about forgiveness: “If he trespass against thee seven times in a day, and seven times in a day turn to thee again,” etc. (Luk 17:4). Some rabbis had fixed this limit from an erroneous interpretation of Amo 1:3; Amo 2:1. “For three transgressions, and for four,” etc.; but the usual precept enjoined forgiveness of three offences only, drawing the line here, and having no pity for a fourth offence. Ben-Sira bids a man admonish an offending neighbour twice, but is silent as to any further forgiveness (Ecclesiasticus 19:13-17). The Jews were very fond of defining and limiting moral obligations, as if they could be accurately prescribed by number. Christ demolishes this attempt to define by law the measure of grace.

Mat 18:22

I say not unto thee. Jesus gives the full weight of his authority to his precept, in distinction from Peter’s suggestion and rabbinical glosses. Seventy times seven. No specific number, but practically unlimited. There is no measure to forgiveness; it must be practised whenever occasion arises. Some translate, “seventy-seven times,” making an allusion to the retribution exacted from Lamech: “If Cain shall be avenged sevenfold, truly Lamech seventy and sevenfold” (Gen 4:24). Christian forgiveness must be extended as far as old-world vengeance. Mercy rejoices against judgment. But the genius of the language supports the rendering of the Authorized Version. St. Paul has caught the spirit of his Master when he writes, “Forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you” (Eph 4:32). In the Mosaic dispensation there was some foreshadowing of the doctrine of forgiveness in the enactments which enjoined tender treatment of debtors, and in the terms of the jubilee law; but there were no rules concerning the pardon of personal injuries; the tendency of many prominent injunctions was to encourage retaliation. Herein is seen an important distinction between the Law and the gospel, the institutions antecedent to the death and atonement of Christ, and those subsequent thereto.

Mat 18:23-35

Christ illustrates his precept by the parable of the unmerciful servant, and the stern lesson which he himself enunciates at its close.

Mat 18:23

Therefore; i.e. because such is the infinite nature of the pardon to be meted out to an offending brother. The kingdom of heaven. The rule observed in the government of Christ’s kingdom with regard to forgiveness is represented by the procedure of a certain earthly king. The picture supposes some great Oriental potentate, with numerous viceroys or satraps, who have to render to him an account of revenues received. These are called servants in the sense that, though they are high officials, they are the monarch’s subordinates and dependents. Both Herodotus and Xenophon apply the term “slave” () to the great officers of state. Immense sums of money would pass through their hands. This accounts for the enormous debt of the officer in the parable. Webster and Wilkinson compare the East India Company’s collectors, who are high civil servants of the company, that is, now, of the government. If we regard the parable in a general light, as illustrating God’s dealings with sinful man, we must see in the “taking account of his servants,” not the judgment of the last day, but those many occasions when God makes a man turn his eyes inward and learn how he stands in the sight of his Lord. Such occasions are sickness, misfortune, great change of circumstances, a new year, reproach of conscience, however aroused,these and such like incidents awaken a man to his true position, show him his delinquencies and misery.

Mat 18:24

When he had begun to reckon. This is the same word which is rendered “take account” in the previous verse, and means to compare receipts, expenditure, and balance. One was brought unto him. The defaulter did not come of himself and own his delinquency, but was brought into his lord’s presence, probably by some who had discovered his defalcations, and desired to see him punished. Otherwise the phrase may refer merely to Oriental etiquette, according to which no one can cuter the royal presence without being formally allowed the interview, and ceremoniously introduced. Ten thousand talents. It is uncertain what is here meant by a talent, whether of silver or gold, of Jewish, or Attic, or Syriac standard; and, of course, the amount intended is variously understood. We must refer to the Bible dictionaries for an explanation of the term “talent,” merely remarking here that the highest estimate would give six millions of our pounds, and the lowest more than half that amount. This huge stun must represent the total revenues of a province, and the debtor must have been a high and much-trusted official. It is used by our Lord to signify the infinite debt the sinner owes to God. Thus in the Lord’s Prayer we have, “Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors” (Mat 6:12).

Mat 18:25

He had not to pay. He was absolutely bankrupt, and had no means whatever of meeting the deficit. To be sold. The Jewish Law ordered such process in the case of an impecunious debtor (see Exo 22:3; Le Exo 25:39, 41; and the concrete case in 2Ki 4:1; comp. also Isa 50:1; Psa 44:12). But this law was mitigated by the enactment of the jubilee, which in the course of time restored the bondman to liberty. The instance in the parable appertains rather to Oriental depotism than to the proceedings under Mosaic legislation (see Mat 18:34, which is not in accordance with Jewish practice). The king, by this severity, may have desired to make the defaulter feel the weight of his debt, and to bring him to repentance, as we see that he was ready to accept the submission of the debtor, and to grant him forgiveness (St. Chrysostom). Payment to be made. The verb is put impersonally. Of course, the sale of himself, wife, family, possessions, would not produce enough to satisfy the debt; but the command is to the effect that the proceeds should be taken on account of the debt. The parable; must not be pressed in all its details; a false impression is often produced by fixing spiritual or allegorical meaning upon the unimportant accessories, which, in fact, merely give vividness to the offered picture. The sale of wife and children is of this character, though it may be said generally and experimentally that a man’s sins react on his family in some sort, lowering position and reputation, and reducing to poverty etc.; but this result has no bearing on the lessening of the original debt.

Mat 18:26

Worshipped him. Prostrated himself before the monarch, and in this abject attitude sued for mercy. Have patience with me. Be long suffering in my case; give me time. And I will pay thee all. In his terror and anguish, he promises impossible things; even the revenues of a province would not in any convenient time supply this deficiency. The scene is very true to life. To save himself from a present difficulty, a debtor will make any promise that occurs to him, without considering whether he will ever be in a position to fulfil it. The defaulter in the parable must have thought well of the king’s generosity and tenderheartedness to make such a proposition at this extreme moment. If we take the spiritual sense of the parable, we see that no sinner could offer to pay, much less pay, the debt due from him to his Lord, “so that must be let alone forever” (Psa 49:8).

Mat 18:27

Was moved with compassion. The earthly circumstance has its counterpart in God’s dealings with sinners. Humility, confession, prayer, are accepted by him as payment of the debt. Loosed him from arrest, from being sold as a slave. This was the first favour accorded. The second was even greater. Forgave him the debt. The servant had asked only for time; he receives acquittance of the enormous sum which he owed. The king’s severity had brought home to the debtor his full guilt did its consequences; when he realizes these, and throws himself on his lord’s mercy, he receives more than he had asked or hoped for. But (to revert to the spiritual interpretation) the pardoned sinner must not forget the past; he must live as one forgiven. Says the penitent psalmist, “I acknowledge my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me” (Psa 51:3).

Mat 18:28

Went outstraightway from his lord’s presence, where he had been so mercifully treated, while the remembrance of his free and undeserved forgiveness must have been still fresh. Found. Lighted upon by chance, as it were. Here, rather, was providentially offered an opportunity of showing that his lord’s goodness was not thrown away, but had entered his heart and controlled his conduct towards others. One of his fellow servants. An official of the king, but probably in an inferior position to that which he himself occupied. Seeing this man, he is reminded of a paltry debt which this person owed him. He remembers this fact; he forgets his late experience. An hundred pence (denarii; see on Mat 20:2); equivalent to some 3 of our money, and a sum not a millionth part of his own debt to his master; the proportion, as some say, may be stated more accurately as 1 to 1,250,000. The enormous difference between these two amounts represents the disproportion between the offences of our neighbours against us and those of which we are guilty towards God; and how small is the forgiveness on our side compared with that which God freely accords to our infinite debt to him! We must consider also the parties to whom these debts are owingon one side, the worm man; on the other, Almighty God. Took him by the throat (); was throttling him. Thus precluding all prayer and remonstrance. Such brutal treatment was not what he himself had experienced. Pay me that thou owest; : quod debes. Many manuscripts and late editors (e.g. Lachmann, Tregelles, Tischendorf, Alford, Westcott and Hort) soften the demand by reading , si quid debes, “if thou owest aught,” as though the creditor were ashamed of mentioning the paltry sum due; or else it is simply a fashion of speaking, not to be pressed as if any doubt was intimated concerning the debt. It might almost be rendered, “Pay, since thou owest something.” Not thus had his lord addressed him in the first instance.

Mat 18:29

Fell down at his feet. The fellow servant repeated the action and the very plea which he himself had but now used so successfully. Besought. Not “worshipped,” as in the former case, where the superiority was more marked.

Mat 18:30

And he would not. The piteous appeal made no impression on his hard heart. “He did not even regard the words by which he himself had been saved (for on saying these same words he had been delivered from the ten thousand talents), nor recognize the port by which he had escaped shipwreck; neither did the attitude of supplication remind him of his master’s kindness; but putting aside all such considerations by reason of covetousness, cruelty, and revenge, he was fiercer than any wild beast” (St. Chrysostom, in loc.). He went and cast him into prison. He either himself dragged the wretched debtor to prison, or was not satisfied till he had seen the door of the gaol close upon him. Far from forgiving the debt, he would not even grant an extension of time; he must have payment immediately, or he will exact the utmost punishment till the debt is fully discharged.

Mat 18:31

Fellow servants. Those in the same condition of life as the incarcerated debtor. Mystically, they would be the angels, who, like those in the parable of the tares, tell the Lord what was done; or the saints who plead with God against oppression and injustice. They were very sorry. It is well remarked that anger against sin is God’s attribute (Mat 18:34), sorrow appertains to men. These have a fellow feeling for the sinner, in that they are conscious that in their own heart there are germs of evil which, unchecked, may develop into similar wickedness. Told (); told clearly. They took the part of their comrade, and, not in revenge or malice, but as an act of justice, gave their lord full information of what had happened. The just cannot hold their peace at the sight of oppression and wrong, and God confirms their judgment.

Mat 18:32

After that he had called him. A second time he is brought before his lord, not now to receive forgiveness, but to have the enormity of his guilt exhibited to him, and to suffer well deserved punishment. In a mystical sense this call is the summons of death, which is virtually judgment. O thou wicked servant. The lord had not so addressed him when he had come cringing into his presence on the former occasion; he had spoken no words of reproach, but simply left him in the hands of justice. Now he calls him “wicked,” because he is unmerciful; he deserves the epithet, because he has been guilty of a crime as heinous as theft or murder. Then the lord places in strong contrast the mercy which he had received and the unmercifulness which he had shown. All that debt. Great as it was. Thou desiredst me (); besoughtest me; calledst on me for aid. The debtor had not asked or hoped for remission of his debt, and had been largely and most unexpectedly blessed.

Mat 18:33

Compassion…pity. The same verb is used in both places. Shouldest not thou also have had mercy on thy fellow servant, even as I had mercy on thee? (Revised Version). The man’s guilt lies in his unmercifulness in the face of mercy received. The fact is patent; it stands for itself; it needs no amplification or enforcement. The king says no more, and the delinquent is equally silent; he has no excuse to offer. Convicted by his own conscience, he knows it is useless to sue for pardon or to expect further leniency. So in the day of judgment no excuse can be admitted; it is too late to plead or argue when the sentence is past.

Mat 18:34

Was wroth. This, as we said above, is the prerogative of God. Man is pained and grieved at sin; God is angry. Tormentors; : tortoribus. These are not the gaolers, prison keepers, but persons who put prisoners to the torture. Neither Jewish nor Roman law at that time recognized any such officials; neither were those in confinement treated thus in either community. The idea is taken from the practice of Oriental despotism, which might thus punish an offence considered supremely detestable. In a mystical sense these are the ministers of Divine vengeance who carry out the behests of the King. Till he should pay; until he should have paid ( ). Some editors omit or bracket , but the sense is the same with or without the relative. The debt never could be paid, so practically the punishment would last forever. Commentators, mediaeval and modern, see here an argument for the eternity of future punishment; others see in the clause an intimation that sin may be forgiven in the other world, though not repented of or pardoned in this present life. The words give no support to the latter interpretation. Until, etc., does not necessarily signify that the condition specified is certain to be fulfilled. As Bengel says, on Mat 1:25, “Non sequitur ergo post.” And in the present case there could be no possibility of payment. A criminal delivered to the tormentors would have no opportunity or means of raising the necessary funds. If this is a picture of the final judgment, it is parallel to our Lord’s statement in Mat 5:26, “Thou shalt by no means come out thence till thou hast paid the uttermost farthing;” for, as the Preacher says, “There is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave whither thou goest” (Ecc 9:10). All that was due [unto him] ( ). Modern editors reject : Vulgate, universum debitum. This is more general than “all that debt” in Mat 5:32. It is usually taken to refer to the old debt now redemanded. But a difficulty has been found in the fact that this old debt had been freely forgiven and utterly done away, and therefore could not, in equity, be again exacted. Hence some commentators have explained the clause as referring not at all to the former debt, but to a new debt incurred by a new offence, viz. ingratitude and unmercifulness. But the spiritual truth seems to be that, although sins once absolutely forgiven are not again imputed, they make subsequent sins more heinous, as in a human law court previous conviction increases the penalty of a fresh transgression. Falling from grace, a man passes into enmity with God, and so far cancels his pardon, and is in a state of condemnation (see Eze 18:24, Eze 18:26).

Mat 18:35

So likewise. This points to the moral of the parable intended by Christ. It is not a lesson against ingratitude, but against unmercifulness. “Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy.” But want of charity makes a man incapable of retaining God’s pardon; the Holy Spirit cannot abide in an unforgiving soul. My heavenly Father. He says, not “your” (Mat 6:14, Mat 6:26), nor “our,” but “my heavenly Father,” the Father of Christ, the God of all mercies. He cannot join himself in mention with such as are not children of God. From your hearts. Forgiveness must be real, sincere, not pretended, nor merely outward. There must not only be no outward act of revenge, but no malice in tile heart, no storing up of evil passions for future outlet, as occasion may arise. The heart must be in harmony with the conduct, and both must evidence a true spirit of charity. This alone enables one to continue in a state of grace and in reconciliation with God; this alone makes prayer acceptable; and we are assured that, as our heavenly Father requires us to forgive without limit, so his mercy is infinite and will be extended to us in measure unbounded. Their trespasses. These words are omitted by many manuscripts, the Vulgate, and most modern editors; and they are not required by the sense. They have been, perhaps, added to obviate a certain abruptness in the conclusion of the parable.

HOMILETICS

Mat 18:1-14

The little ones.

I. THEIR EXAMPLE.

1. The question of the apostles. They had not yet learned the great lesson of humility. Perhaps the favour shown to Peter, James, and John had excited jealousies among them. On their way to Capernaum they had disputed who should be the greatest. After all the Lord’s teaching they did not yet understand the spiritual nature of his kingdom. There are rivalries and animosities in earthly states; there should be none in that kingdom where the lowliest are the highest. But this is a hard lesson to learn, and the apostles were long in learning it. At Capernaum they asked Christ, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” Who should be greater (the words literally mean) than others? Who should stand above others in the hierarchy of the Church that should be built upon the Rock? Who should be nearer than others to the King in the kingdom which Christ had come to establish?

2. The little child. The Lord’s estimate of greatness differed wholly from that current among men. He had said once before that of all that had been born of women there had never risen a greater than John the Baptist. He put the holy martyr above all the monarchs, warriors, and statesmen of ancient times. But he had then said, “He that is the least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.” And now, in answer to the question who should be greater than others in that kingdom, he called a little child unto him. The little one came willingly, drawn by the gentle words, the loving looks, of the Master. The Lord set him in the midst, in the place of honour; he took him in his arms, St. Mark tells us. The Lord always loved the little children; he bade them come to him; he watched their innocent play with kindly interest, and drew spiritual lessons from it (Mat 11:16, Mat 11:17). Now the little one lay, restful and happy, in the Lord’s embrace, Thither we would lead our childrento the Lord, to share his love and tenderness. And, ah! if he should call them away from our sight, we must learn to trust them in faith, though it cannot be without tears, to those everlasting arms. “He shall gather the lambs with his arm, and carry them in his bosom.” Happy child! we know not whether he grew up, as a late and doubtful tradition says, to be the famous Bishop Ignatius. That holy martyr bore God in his heart, as the name Theophorus imports; doubtless he was borne up in his sufferings by the gracious help of God. We know not whether in his infancy he was borne in the arms of Christ. That child was greatly blessed. He would never forget, one thinks, the encircling arms of Christ. But doth not the Scripture say to us, “The eternal God is thy Refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms”? and, alas! how often we forget the gracious presence of God in our unbelief and selfish fears! Now, the Lord called the attention of the apostles to the little one.

3. The Lord‘s answer: the lowliest are the greatest.

(1) The necessity of conversion. The deep and awful question which we ought to put, each one to his own soul, is notWho is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven? butAre we ourselves true loyal members of that kingdom? We cannot be in the kingdom at all except in the sense in which the withered fruitless branches still for a short time hang on to the vine; we cannot be in the kingdom in any holy and blessed sense unless we are converted; we cannot enter into the kingdom of glory at the last unless we are converted. The word “conversion” occurs only once in the New Testament; the verb, in its various forms, nine times; but four of those passages are quotations of Isa 6:10. Sometimes the passive form of the verb is used, sometimes the active. And it is to be noted that in the four quotations of Isa 6:10, the active is used three times, the passive once. God sometimes commands his people, “Turn ye even to me with all your hearts;” and sometimes we pray to God, “Turn thou us unto thee, O Lord, and we shall be turned.” There are two aspects of the great changethe human and the Divine. Both are real and true; neither excludes the other. What we need is the actual knowledge of that blessed change from our own inward experience; if we have that, we need not distress ourselves about the deep things of God, the relations between the human and the Divine, between the sovereignty of God and the free will of man. We must turn with all our hearts unto the Lord, praying earnestly and humbly, “Turn thou us, O Lord.” The apostles must turn, the Lord said, from their earthly ambition, from their rivalries and jealousies. We must turn, each one, from his besetting sin, or we cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven. We must all turn away from the world to God, away from self to Christ. We must look, not to the things which are seen, but to the things which are not seen; the line of vision, so to speak, must be changed; the eye of the soul must be directed, not to the earth, but to heaven. The circumstances of this great change vary in different individuals; in some it is sudden, in others slow and gradual. Some, like St. Paul, can point to a great startling crisis in their spiritual life; some few, like Samuel, have lived from childhood in the felt presence of God, growing continually in grace,not without many sins, not without continual repentance, but without any strong boundary line marking the decisive change from evil to good. But in some form or other, in some way or other, that change must take place in every true Christian life. We may not be able to describe it exactly, to fix its exact moment, its circumstances. “The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth.” But the change must be felt in its results (“thou hearest the sound thereof”), if we cannot define its action. We must be conscious that our heart is turned towards God, that our thoughts, desires, motives, hopes, point towards heavenly things. If we have that happy consciousness, we may humbly hope that he which hath begun a good work in us will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ. If we have it not, let us not rest until by God’s grace we gain it; for, except we be converted, we cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven; and oh! what must be the misery of those who lose that great reward!

(2) The necessity of childlike humility. There is no true conversion without humility; a man whose thoughts are filled with self cannot turn to Christ. Pride concentrates the regards of the soul on self; and while the soul is occupied with self it cannot see the surpassing beauty of the Lord, it cannot turn to him. Those who would follow Christ must become as little children; they must be like the little ones in their simplicity, their trustfulness, their humility. The little child is simple; it shows its true nature; it has no hypocrisy, no desire to seem other than it is; it is humble and modest; it does not aim at display and show; it is full of affectionate trustfulness in those whom it loves. And, the Lord Jesus says, they shall be greater than others, they shall have the higher places in the kingdom of heaven, who humble themselves as that little child who then lay in his arms was humble; that is, with an unaffected humility, with a simple and genuine lowliness. Then the Christian must not set his heart upon gaining the high places of life; if God puts him there he must do his duty simply and humbly; if others are set above him he must be willing to take the lowest place, content and happy, remembering the blessed Master’s words.

II. THE DIGNITY OF CHRIST‘S LITTLE ONES.

1. The blessing of receiving them. Christ loved the little children; he proposes their character to his followers as a model for imitation. His words shed a new dignity, a new glory, on innocent childhood. He was thinking probably not only of children in years, but also of the childlike in heart and mind. He deigns to regard such as, in some sense, representatives of himself. Those who care for little children because Christ cared for them, in his name and for his sake, care for Christ. These words give a very holy meaning to single-hearted work in Sunday schools; they shed a blessing upon orphanages, upon all Christian work done for children’s sake, all Christian love and thought for little children. And they pronounce a blessing upon all those who in Christ’s name receive into their affections or into their homes true Christian men who have learned of Christ the childlike simplicity and lowliness which he exalts so highly. These who receive such receive Christ, as Abraham received angels unawares. Let us love and cherish Christian-minded friends; they bring a precious blessing to our houses, for they bring the gracious presence of Christ.

2. The guilt of causing them to stumble. A heathen poet tells us that the greatest reverence is due to childhood; he bids us exclude carefully from the sight of children everything that is coarse and evil. The Lord enforces the same duty under more awful sanctions. The simplicity, the receptivity, of little children expose them to evil influences. In Christian homes they are taught to believe in Christ. Among their companions, in their schools, they are sometimes exposed to manifold temptations. But woe to those who purposely set stumbling blocks in their way! Woe to those, schoolfellows or others, who try to entrap the innocent and simple hearted into profanity and neglect of their souls! Such are acting the part of the devil; they are doing his work; they are the enemies of Christ, the murderers of souls for which Christ died. Better that they had died before they came to this pitch of guilt. For souls are very precious in the sight of Christ; he shed his precious blood for them. How must he regard those who entice them to ruin and death?

3. There must be offences. Human nature being what it is, the power of the devil being what it is, there must be always in the world men who set an evil example, who are as stumbling blocks, as snares. It is a necessity, part of the great mystery of the existence of evil. This necessity is not absolute; it follows from the existence of sin; and sin is voluntary, or it would not be sin. Sin is voluntary in individuals; but while the world remains as it is, there must, as a fact, be sin in the world, as there must be heresies (1Co 11:19); and where there is sin there must be offences. But woe to that man by whom the offence cometh! The guilt of sin is increased by its contagious character. The sinner sins against his own soul; he sins also against the souls of others; for his sin becomes a centre of evil influence, spreading its foul attractions among hearts rendered only too susceptible by the inherited corruption of human nature. None can tell the mass of moral disease which may spring from one source of infection. Then woe to that man by whom the offence cometh! He knows not what fearful mischief may follow from his wicked or thoughtless act. He may repent, thank God; but his repentance must be deep, his sorrow great; he may be saved, yet so as by fire. “The blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth from all sin.”

4. They must be avoided at all costs. Those who ensnare others, who cause them to stumble, have first been ensnared, have stumbled themselves. The first occasion of stumbling must be avoided. The danger is great, the consequences are fearful; better any sacrifice, any self-denial. Self-denial leads to heaven, self-indulgence to hell. We must cut off the causes, the occasions of sin, though they be as closely bound up with our life as the hand, or foot, or eye. The Lord repeats the lesson which he had already given in the sermon on the mount (Mat 5:29, Mat 5:30). There are some cautions which must be given again and againenforced with all manner of illustrations, “precept upon precept, line upon line.” And surely this warning of the deep necessity of real self-denial is one which needs the most constant repetition, one which must be urged again and again, even unto weariness. And it must be urged very strongly and forcibly. The hand, the foot, the eye, are very valuable to us. The loss of one such member would be very serious. To cut it off or to pluck it out would be a great sacrifice, involving much pain, requiring very stern self-denial. But any self-denial, the Lord himself tells us, is better than the risk of suffering that eternal fire which must be the end of sin and self-indulgence. Eternal fire! soften the awful words as far as you dare; say that there is a possibility, a bare possibility, that the word “eternal” may not necessarily involve that endlessness which is the proper meaning of the less correct rendering “everlasting;” say that the word “fire” is figurative, that the Lord did not mean a material fire, corporeal torments;after all, there remains enough of most fearful meaning in the words of Christ (and let us remember that it was Christ, the most genie, the most loving Saviour, who used those words) to make us feel what must he the dreadful danger of those who entice others into sin, to make thoughtful, believing Christians willing to deny themselves in every way, if so be they may escape from the wrath to come, and save their souls alive in the great day of God.

5. Offences come from contempt; contempt of the little ones is a grievous sin. To despise others was characteristic of the Pharisees; it is very sinful in Christians. The Lord is loving unto every man; the Saviour died for all. Christians may not dare to despise those whom the Lord loved, for whom he gave himself to die. To speak contemptuously of those whom we think beneath us in rank, in riches, in intellect, in refinement, is sinful in the sight of God. “Honour all men,” is the lesson of Holy Scripture; for all were made by God the Father; all were redeemed by God the Son; all may, if they will, come to God in faith and prayer, be sanctified by God the Holy Ghost. Men think that there is no harm in contemptuous thoughts and words; but these things are sins against the law of love, sins against God, who bids us love our neighbour as ourselves; they greatly injure the soul. Then honour all men; especially take heed that ye despise not one of the little ones, the little children whom the Lord loves, or the childlike in heart whom he commends. Despise them not, for they are dear to Almighty God; he cares for them; he giveth his angels charge over them; he assigns to them their angel guardians; “their angels,” the Lord says, the angels appointed to watch over them, whose special duty it is to keep them in all their ways, who are sent forth to minister for their sake. Men may despise these little ones; but holy angels tend themangels great in power and might, angels who are near to the throne, who stand in the presence of God, who in heaven do always behold the face of God. The Lord’s words, “I say unto you,” give an emphatic sanction to this sweet and blessed doctrine of the ministry of angels. As the angel Gabriel watched by God’s appointment over the holy Child Jesus, so surely do the angels of God watch over the little children now; so surely do they watch over us, if we are childlike in heart, if we are among those little ones who believe in Christ. To the believer this world is still a Bethel, the house of God, the gate of heaven. The ladder which Jacob saw in the vision of the night is still set on the earth, and the top reacheth to heaven; and still do the angels of God ascend and descend, bringing help and strength, messages of peace and love to the little ones of Christ, bearing the prayers of the saints into the Divine presence, carrying the souls of the holy dead into the paradise of God.

6. The little ones are precious in the sight of God. They must be so, for the Son of man came to save them. None are so small, so insignificant, as to be left out of the Lord’s loving care; for it was to save the lost that he cameto save that which seemed utterly lost, lost beyond the power of saving ( ). (See Luk 19:10, where the words are certainly genuine; they are of doubtful authority in this place.) It was an evil time when the Saviour came into the world. All flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth; the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the pride of life were everywhere dominant. The world seemed lost to all that was gooda mass of corruption. But to save that lost world the Son of God came down from heaven and became the Son of man. His incarnation, his sacrifice of himself upon the cross, has given a new value, a higher dignity, to human nature. None may dare to despise those souls of men which the Lord Jesus loved so dearly. The blessed angels care for Christ’s little ones; they encamp around them to protect them, because they are his angels, his messengers (Mat 13:41), and they must care for those who are so very precious in the sight of their blessed Lord.

7. Parable of the hundred sheep. One is gone astray. The shepherd leaves the ninety and nine upon the mountains, and seeketh that which is gone astray. Does it mean that the Lord leaves the countless host of angels on the heavenly heights, and goeth after the one lost sheep of humanity (comp. Hebrew Isa 2:16)? So many have understood it. But it seems more natural to interpret the parable as intended mainly to teach the deep love of God for each individual soul. “The Son of man came to save that which was lost.” His great love was not merely a general love for sinful humanity as a mass; it was an individual love for each perishing soul. If all but one had been gathered in, be would have gone after that one lost sheep, seeking on and on until he found it. Human love is limited in its range. We cannot love all mankind as we love one who is very dear to us. It is not so with the infinite Love. The love of God is all-embracing in its extent and fulness, perfect and complete in its individual affection. He loves all and each. “God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” The shepherd if so be that he finds the lost sheep, rejoiceth more of that one than of the ninety and nine which went not astray. The ninety and nine are precious to the shepherd; in some sense they must be more precious than one. But they are safe. They do not awaken the same emotion, the same intense longing, as the one that went astray. The joy of recovery is proportioned to the sorrow of the loss. Such would be the feelings of a human shepherd. It is an illustration (as far as Divine truths can be shadowed by human things) of the love of God for each separate human soul. It is not his will that one should perish; he willeth that all men should be saved. Then let not any Christian man dare to despise one of those whom God so greatly loved. The Lord repeats this precious parable in Luk 15:1-32. under different circumstances, with a somewhat different application. It cannot be repeated too often or studied too deeply.

LESSONS.

1. Even apostles had their rivalries: how earnestly we ought to strive against envy and jealousy!

2. A true conversion is of all blessings the greatest; seek it with all your might.

3. There is no true conversion without a humble, childlike spirit.

4. An evil example involves fearful guilt; avoid it at any cost.

5. Honour all men, especially believers; each one is precious in the sight of God.

Mat 18:15-20

The method of dealing with offences.

I. THE DUTY OF PRIVATE CHRISTIANS.

1. Secret admonition. The Lord had warned the apostles that offences must come; he had urged the necessity of exceeding carefulness against giving offence to others; now he tells us how to act when others put a stumbling block in our way by their trespasses. Go and tell thy brother his fault, he says; speak to him secretly, do not publish his transgression, do not make a talk of it; charity endureth all things, charity hideth a multitude of sins. Speak to him; it is better to tell him his fault than to brood over it. But speak to him gently for his own soul’s sake. If he shall hear thee, thou hast gained thy brothergained him to Christ, gained his soul; for he which converteth the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins. And oh! what is the exceeding great privilege of gaining a soul which Christ loved, for which he came down from heaven that he might seek it!

2. The second step, admonition before two or three witnesses. If the first attempt fails, still publicity should be avoided as far as possible; a second should be made with the help of one or two Christian friends. They may bring the erring brother to a sense of his own guilt, of the offence which he is causing to others, of the, wrong which he is doing to the Church of which he is a member by his wilfulness and obstinacy.

II. THE OFFICE OF THE CHURCH.

1. Its discipline. If the sinful brother again and again refuses to listen to Christian reproof in private, the sin which is causing offence to the brethren must be brought before the Church. By the word “Church” the Lord must mean the Christian Church, that Church of which he had spoken for the first time at Caesarea Philippi, which he was building upon the Rock. He was speaking prophetically, looking forward to the growth and increase of the Church. “Tell it unto the Church.” This is the last resort; if he neglect to heal the Church he must be regarded as a heathen man and a publican, no longer a brother in the full Christian sense of the word. But we must remember that the Lord’s mercy extended to heathen and publicans. He came to call sinners to repentance. The sinful brother may repent, he may be forgiven and saved. The censure itself is inflicted not only for example’s sake, not only that the cause of offence may be removed, but also for the sake of the offender, “that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus” (1Co 5:5).

2. Its authority. The Lord here confers upon all the apostles as representatives of the Church that authority which he had already (Mat 16:19) given to St. Peter as the representative of the apostolic college. The Church, then, hath authority in controversies of faithauthority to declare what is of faith and what is not, what is of obligation and what is indifferent, what is allowed and what is forbidden. Christians are bound to regard the decisions of the Church with respect and reverence, for if rightly made they are ratified in heaven. Yet St. Peter certainly erred (Gal 2:11); Churches may err, and alas! have erred. It is only while the Church stands firm upon the Rock, which is Christ; only when the two or three are gathered together in the name of Christ, and he himself according to his promise is in the midst of them; when those two or three are men who have turned to God in the simplicity and lowliness of little children; it is only then that the conditions are fulfilled on which this promise depends. What a tremendous responsibility rests upon those who are called to guide and rule the Church of God! All Christian men should feel for them in the many difficulties of their arduous work, should pray for them constantly and earnestly.

3. The strength of the Church. That strength lies in prayer. The power of united prayer is such that if any two true believers agree as touching anything that they shall ask, it shall be done for them. They pray on earth, our Father hears in heaven. United prayer brings to their help the almighty power of God. That union of human wills into concordance with the holy will of God must be the work of the Holy Spirit in the hearts of the suppliants; and when the Holy Spirit prompts the prayer, the prayer is always heard, the petition is always granted. Only let us not misunderstand the Lord’s promise, as perhaps the sons of Zebedee did at the time. Instructed Christians will ask for spiritual blessings, which alone are blessings always and under all conditions; or, if they sometimes ask for earthly things (and they are encouraged to do so in the Lord’s Prayer itself), it will always be with the Lord’s own condition, “Nevertheless, not my will, but thine be done.” The strength of the Church lies in prayer, and the strength of prayer lies in the presence of Christ. The union of only two Christians in real earnest prayer represents the Church. For Christ himself is present wherever two or three are gathered together in his name, or rather, as the literal rendering is, into his Name. Christians are united by the one Spirit into one body, into that spiritual unity which is called by the one name (1Co 12:12). Believers are gathered together into that name, into that spiritual fellowship which can only be realized by those who walk in the light as he is in the light (1Jn 1:7). And wherever that fellowship is, there is Christ the Lord manifesting himself to those who meet in his name and are gathered together into his name. He is in the midst of that little gathering, for he is God, omnipresent, ready to hear his servants in whatever corner of the world they lift up their prayers to him, ready to grant their petitions, to guide their counsels, to ratify the decisions, to give effect to the sentence issued in his name by those who met together in his name in the simple earnestness of childlike Christians, in the energy of that faith which has turned wholly to the Lord.

LESSONS.

1. It is a difficult task to reprove a sinful brother; it is sometimes our duty; it must be done with gentleness and wisdom.

2. To gain a brother’s soul is an exceeding great reward; it is worth much prayer, much thought, much time.

3. The Lord bids us hear the Church; the Christian must respect the authority of the Church.

Mat 18:21-35

The law of forgiveness.

I. THE CONVERSATION WITH ST. PETER.

1. Peter‘s question. The Lord had intimated the duty of gentleness in dealing with offences. Every effort was to be used to reconcile the offending brother; he was to be approached with all gentleness, with all Christian tact, if so be that he might be won back to Christ and to the Church. Peter wished for a definite rule to guide him in carrying out the Lord’s directions. According to the rabbis, an erring brother should be forgiven three times. Peter suggested a larger number, the sacred number seven, as the limit of Christian forgiveness.

2. The Lord‘s answer. “I say not unto thee, Until seven times: but, Until seventy times seven.” There seems to be a reference to the words of Lamech (Gen 4:24). Lamech desired a seventy and sevenfold vengeance. The Lord commands a seventy and sevenfold forgiveness. There is some doubt as to the numerical value of the words. But it is of little importance which rendering we adopt, “seventy times seven,” or “seventy-seven times,” for the Lord certainly means that acts of forgiveness are not to be counted. It is a question not to be settled by arithmetic, but by Christian love and by the grace of God. “Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive them that trespass against us.”

II. THE PARABLE OF THE KING AND THE UNMERCIFUL SERVANT.

1. The account. The Lord illustrates the duty of forgiveness by the parable of a human king and his servants. The king would take account of his servants. God takes account from time to time. There are preliminary reckonings preparatory for the great day of account. In the visitations of his providence, in dangerous sickness, in the hour of deep and heartfelt penitence, the Lord brings home to our hearts the exceeding guilt of our sins, the greatness of our debt. A servant was brought who owed ten thousand talents. The reckoning had only just begun; there may have been other even greater debts to come. It was a terrible beginning. The servant was brought; he would not have come of his own will. The sinner shrinks in terror from the awful presence of the Judge. Adam and Eve hid themselves when first the King came to take account. But he was brought. We cannot escape, we must come, when he requires our presence. The debt was enormous, far more than we can even represent to our imagination. Such is the awful debt of sin; we may well say every day, and many times every day, “Forgive us our debts.”

2. The mercy of the king. The servant was to be sold, he and his family, and all that he had. In his agony he fell down before his lord and worshipped him; “Lord,” he said, “have patience with me, and I will pay thee all.” He could not pay, he never could have paid, that vast debt. But in his presumption, or in his deceitfulness, or, it may be, in the frenzy of his abject terror, he promised the impossible. The king was moved with compassion; he loosed him, and forgave him the debt. It is a parable of the infinite compassion of the heavenly King; “he pardoneth and absolveth all them that truly repent.” “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

3. The cruelty of the servant. He went out from the king’s presence. We are only safe while we abide in union with the Lord. He is the Source and Fountain of love, and apart from him there is no true and holy love. When men go out from his presence, from the sphere of his influence, they cease to love; they become selfish, hard, unfeeling. That forgiven servant found a fellow servant who owed him a hundred pence, a trifling sum compared with his own enormous debt. He caught him by the throat; he would not listen to his prayer (though the prayer was that very same prayer which he himself had just before poured forth in the bitterness of his soul); he cast him into prison till he should pay the debt. So now men forget their own guilt, their own danger; they are hard and unforgiving to others, forgetting their own deep need of mercy and forgiveness.

4. The condemnation. His fellow servants were very sorry. The sins of others will cause real sorrow to the true Christian; he will grieve over the hard hearted and impenitent, as the Lord wept over Jerusalem. “Rivers of waters run down mine eyes,” said the psalmist, “because men keep not thy Law.” They told their lord. The all-seeing God needs no information from men or angels; yet in their prayers his saints lay before him the oppression and sufferings of his people, as Hezekiah laid the letter of Sennacherib before the Lord, as the disciples “went and told Jesus” of the death of the holy Baptist. The king was wroth: “O thou wicked servant,” he said. He had not called him wicked because he owed the ten thousand talents; he pitied him then; now he upbraids him. His want of mercy showed the utter hardness and selfishness of his heart; it showed that his own cry for mercy implied no sense of the greatness of his debt, but only fear of punishment. The king was wroth; he delivered him to the tormentors till he should pay all that was due to him. His cruelty cancelled the forgiveness which had been granted him. His last state was worse than the first. Those who, having been once enlightened, fall away from grace are in awful danger. “It had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than, after they have known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them.” The unhappy man could never pay that tremendous debt; he could not had he remained free, how much less when he was in the hands of the tormentors! Those words are very awful; they represent awful possibilities; they sound in our ears in tones of awful warning. “So likewise shall my heavenly Father do also unto you, if ye from your hearts forgive not every one his brother their trespasses.” The unloving cannot abide in Christ, who is Love; the hardhearted and unmerciful cannot continue in union with him who, though he was rich, yet for our sakes became poor; the unforgiving cannot dare to use the prayer which the Lord himself hath taught us, “Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive them that trespass against us.” “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.” There is no mercy for the merciless. We may repeat again and again the words of prayer, “Lord, have mercy upon us!” but countless repetitions will not win mercy for those who have not mercy in their hearts. And oh! we shall need mercy in the great day. Then let us be merciful now: “Be ye kind one to another, tender hearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you.”

LESSONS.

1. Let us always remember the great account; God has given us work to do, let us work out our own salvation in fear and trembling.

2. Our debt is immense; let the remembrance of our sins keep us humble.

3. God’s mercy is infinite; let us trust in his forgiving love.

4. He is wroth with the unforgiving; let us learn mercy of the most Merciful.

5. We say the Lord’s Prayer daily; let us ever strive by God’s grace to translate that prayer into practice, to live as we pray, to forgive, as we hope for forgiveness.

HOMILIES BY W.F. ADENEY

Mat 18:1-3

The kingdom of type childlike.

Jesus Christ not only resorted to parables in order to make his teaching vivid; sometimes he made use of object lessons. Thus he answered the question as to who was greatest in the kingdom of heaven by pointing to the little child whom he had called to himself, and set up in the midst of his disciples. The child himself was a visible embodiment of the reply our Lord wished his questioners to receive.

I. THE TYPE OF THE KINGDOM. The kingdom of heaven is the kingdom of the childlike. When we look on a little child we see a typical citizen of that glorious kingdom. Let us consider what there is in childlikeness to be thus representative. We must approach this subject from the ground from which Christ and his disciples came to it. The question of primacy being in the minds of the disciples some contrast to their feelings and dispositions is vividly suggested by the sight of the simple, unconscious, unworldly child.

1. Unambitious simplicity. This would be the first impression produced by the sight of the child, when suddenly he was called by Jesus to confront self-seeking ambition. Even if we may believe that there was no self-seeking in the minds of the disciples, and that their inquiry was general, not personal, still the spirit of ambition was roused by it. But the little child does not possess ambition. The subtle calculations by which men scheme for pre-eminence are all unknown to him. He is pre-eminent without knowing it They are the least of their own sanctity

2. Unworldliness highest saints who think The little child is quite unconventional. He knows nothing of the ways of the world. Of course, it is not desirable to imitate his defects, to go back to childish ignorance. But knowledge is dearly bought when it is acquired at the cost of spirituality. Wordsworth tells us that heaven lies about us in our childhood.

3. Trustfulness. The child came to Jesus as soon as he was called. A look of the Saviour was enough to dispel fear. We need the innocent confidence of the child to come into right relations with Christ.

II. THE DOOR TO THE KINGDOM.

1. The entrance. The disciples had forgotten this. Busying themselves about the rank of those who were in the kingdom, they neglected to consider how to enter it. Yet this is the first question, and all else is unpractical till this step has been taken. But when it has been taken, all else becomes unimportant. It is everything to be privileged to enter the kingdom, even though in its lowest region. Moreover, the true citizen of the kingdom will have lost the ambition that busies itself about questions of pre-eminence.

2. The turning. We are all selfish and self-seeking until we learn to repent and take a better course. No one can enter the kingdom of lleaven while he remains worldly and ambitious. The very spirit which seeks a first place in the kingdom excludes from the kingdom. We need grace to turn back to childlikeness. We must be converted into little children. The greed and ambition must be taken out of our hearts, and the simplicity, unworldliness, and trust of the child received in place of those ugly attributes.W.F.A.

Mat 18:8, Mat 18:9

The offending member.

A moment’s reflection will convince us that these stern sentences of Christ’s are unanswerable. If the alternative lay between losing a limb and losing his life, who would hesitate with his decision? “All that a man hath will he give for his life.”

I. IT IS POSSIBLE FOR WHAT IS VERY NEAR TO US TO BE FATALLY HURTFUL TO US. It would be a mistake to suppose that our Lord meant that under any circumstances self-mutilation would be a duty. The causes of stumbling are not bodily, although the body may be the instrument of temptation; they are in the thoughts and desires of the heart (Jas 1:14, Jas 1:15). But there may be things precious as parts of our very selves, or friends dear as the apple of the eye, or useful as the right hand, and yet spiritually hurtful to us. Our own daily occupation, to which we have grown until it has become as a part of ourselves, may be a source of temptation and danger. Our habits, which are our second nature, may be a very bad second nature.

II. IT IS IMPORTANT NOT TO LET LOWER INTERESTS BLIND US TO OUR HIGHEST GOOD. Eyes, hands, and feet are good and useful things in themselves. A maimed creature who has lost any of these valuable organs and limbs is certainly a pitiable object. Naturally and rightly we desire to keep our body sound and whole. Many possessions, though less intimately connected with our persons, are still justly valued when considered by themselves. But this valuation only touches a part of life, and that the lower part. If the enemy can seize the outworks and turn them against the citadel, it is desirable to demolish them, excellent as they may be in form and structure, because the principal object is to keep the citadel. The great necessity in spiritual things is to guard the very life of God within. If anything threatens this it threatens our highest interest. Selfish people are their own worst enemies, because, while pandering to the outer self, they starve and poison the true self.

III. IT IS WISE TO MAKE ANY SACRIFICE TO SAVE THE TRUE LIFE. We admit this in bodily disease. The shattered limb must be amputated to preserve the patient’s life. The same principle applies in spiritual regions. The pain of losing what is very near and dear to us may be great. But we dare not be cowardly. A greater evil is the alternative. We may spare our friendship, our wealth, our pleasure, and yet destroy our souls. Then at best these things can but decorate the tomb of the dead spiritual nature. We have to rise to the stern severity of life. Sin is so terrible that it cannot be laid aside as one would put off a superfluous garment. It has eaten its way like a cancer into our very being. We shrink from the knife, but we must submit to it if we would live. Desperate efforts are neededor rather a patient submission to the great Deliverer of souls who sometimes saves by terrible means. Yet he does save!W.F.A.

Mat 18:12, Mat 18:13

The lost sheep and the good shepherd.

This parable is here associated with Christ’s care for little children (see Mat 18:10-14). But in St. Luke it is applied to the recovery of publicans and sinners (Luk 15:1, Luk 15:4-7). There can be no doubt that St. Luke connects it with its most evident and general lesson. Still, there is an a fortiori argument in the use of the parable in St. Matthew. If Christ cares for the most abandoned sinners, much more will he save little children when they begin to wander, especially as this is too often the case just because the negligence or evil example of older people causes them “to stumble.”

I. THE SHEEP.

1. The hundred. We start with the picture of a complete flock. All men belong by nature to God. We begin life with God. If we sin we fall. Sin is losing our first estate, wandering from the fold.

2. The ninety and nine. Many are here represented as faithful. We might think of many worlds of angelic beings in contrast of our own fallen world, or of many members of a Church or family when contrasted with a single defaulter. A parable cannot be pressed in all its details in order to extort from it the exact statistics of a religious census. It is enough that under certain circumstances one is seen to fall away from the fidelity preserved by his companions. Now the ninety and nine are left. Absolutely Christ does not leave his true sheep. But a special care is needed to find the lost one. There is a common selfishness in religious people who would enjoy the luxuries of devotion in such a way as to hinder the work of saving the lost. Churches are filled with worshippers, who in some eases hold their pews as private possessions, so that the wayfaring man and the stranger feel that they are not welcome. Yet if the gospel is for any one, it is for them.

3. The lost sheep. There is but one. Yet it is a great trouble that one should go astray.

(1) This shows the value of an individual soul.

(2) It reveals the awful evil of sin. The lapse of but one man into so fearful a fall is enough to disarrange the whole order of the community.

II. THE SHEPHERD.

1. His departure. He leaves the flock; but they are safe; for they are in the fold. Moreover, the sight of his departure to save the lost is a warning to those left at home of the evil of straying.

2. His journey. He must travel far in a waste and difficult country. Sin leads its votaries into hungry solitudes and among fearful dangers. Christ follows the wandering soul. His advent to this world was his following, and his hard life and death his journeying over wild mountains, he follows each one now. He will not leave the lost to their fate.

3. His success. He finds the lost sheep. He is a good Shepherdenergetic, persevering, self-sacrificing. Therefore he succeeds. Christ brings back souls who have wandered into the lowest abysses of sin.

4. His joy. This is proportionate

(1) to his love for the lost sheep;

(2) to its distress, danger, evil condition;

(3) to the toil and difficulty involved in finding it. The joy of Christ is the joy of saving the lost.W.F.A.

Mat 18:15-18

The offending brother.

The wise advice which our Lord here gives is rarely followed, and yet it is not at all impracticable, and if obeyed it would prevent an immense amount of distress and ill feeling. Let us consider, first the general principles of his advice, and then its special details.

I. GENERAL PRINCIPLES.

1. The fact of the brother‘s offence is admitted. This is very important. Too often men quarrel and accuse one another without justly apportioning the faults. The innocent man is blamed by his guilty brother. We must not put in force the process indicated by Christ until we have discovered that our brother is really in the wrong.

2. The aim must be to recover the offending brother. It is not to crush and humiliate him. It is not to have our revenge on him. It is to restore him to a better condition of mind, and to bring about a reconciliation.

3. The method must be kind and generous. The slowly advancing stages show a reluctance to proceed to extreme measures. Inasmuch as our end is not to vindicate our own rights, but to recover our brother, our method must be tender and considerate.

II. SPECIAL DETAILS. It is important to observe that Christ is treating of the relation of true Christian people to one another. If either party does not recognize the claims of Christian brotherhood, the process must be different, although the generous spirit of Christ’s method must be observed with all men. Let us now note the successive steps.

1. We are to see the offending brother alone. This is just the very last thing some people will do. In pride or fear they shun the very person they should seek. They refuse to speak to him, when it is their duty to be frank with him. Yet too often they spread the tale of their wrong among their neighbours. Thus a train of idle gossip is started, and vast mischief originated. He who so behaves reveals himself in an unchristian light; he becomes an offending brother, and gives the man who has offended him a just cause of complaint. Immense mischief would be stayed if Christ s method were pursued. We have to seek out the person who has wronged us, and be simple and frank with him; then very often a little quiet talk will bring us to a mutual understanding and end the quarrel.

2. If the first step fails, we are to call in the help of two or three other Christians. This is also to be private. The calm impartiality of outsiders may settle the dispute. The gravity of their advice may convince the offending brother that he is in the wrong.

3. If this process fails, we are to appeal to the Church. Christ assumes the exercise of Church discipline. With us this has fallen very much into abeyance. It can only be restored in a Christ-like spirit.

4. Finally, if all these processes fail, we must cease to regard the offender as a Christian brother. He has excommunicated himself. God does not forgive the impenitent, and he does not expect us to do so. Yet we should never hate the offender, but always desire to restore himas we should desire to convert “the Gentile and the publican.”W.F.A.

Mat 18:19, Mat 18:20

The power of united prayer.

The point of this verse is in the idea of the association of two people in prayer. Elsewhere we often read of the value of prayer in general. Here a special efficacy is ascribed to the united prayer of two Christian people. Let us consider the meaning of this. Why is Christ most present to help in united prayer?

I. IT IS UNSELFISH. Two people might be plotting together for some mutual advantage of a low order. But we cannot conceive of their having a prayer meeting about it. Many of our personal prayers are shamefully selfish. They do not seek that God’s will may be done; they simply demand a concession to our own will. The same fatal evil may be found in a united prayer, but it is less likely there.

II. IT IS BROTHERLY. We must be on friendly, even on brotherly terms before we can really pray together. The union of two alone in prayer implies very deep mutual confidence. They must agree together. The reason why earth is so cut off from heaven is that earth is too often a scene of discord. When there is agreement on earth, earth is more like heaven, and the wish expressed on earth may be granted in heaven.

III. IT IS DELIBERATE. The conference and agreement of the two imply a careful consideration of the subject of the prayer. Many prayers are too hasty and inconsiderate to deserve any attention. But the grave conference in prayer here described by our Lord would give the weight of deliberation to the petition. Probably it would be less foolish than many private prayers.

IV. IT HONORS THE IDEA OF THE CHURCH. Christ encouraged secret prayer in private devotion (Mat 6:6). This should be a daily practice. But there are reasons when more is required, viz. in general public worship and in prayer for special objects. Now, while Christ deals with individual souls in the first instance, he is also interested in social religion. He did not found an order of hermits, he founded a Church. He is present in his Church in a peculiar way. This is the real secret of the answer to united prayer. It is difficult to break through the reserve which too often keeps us back from the prayer which our Lord here encourages. But it is our duty to do so.

V. IT SHOWS THE POWER OF THE PEW. We are not heard for our much speaking, our many words; neither are we heard on account of our numerical strength. In listening to prayer God does not count heads; he weighs hearts. One Elijah stands for more in prayer than a cathedral full of listless worshippers. The ideal Church is not the large Church, but the Christ-like Church. Religious statistics encourage a most unspiritual way of valuing Christian work and estimating Church progress. The Church of but two members cannot be a weak Church, if those two members are united in prayer. Further, it is to be noted that the value of a prayer meeting cannot be measured by the numbers that attend it. A small meeting may be a very real one, and if it is truly united it must have power with God. It is foolish, therefore, to despair of such a meeting because it is sparsely attended. The prayer meeting of but two is here commended by Christ. If it be a meeting at all, though reduced to the numerical minimum, it may issue in incalculable results.W.F.A.

Mat 18:21, Mat 18:22

The duty of unlimited forgiveness.

Jesus once required forgiveness to be repeated seven times (Luk 17:4). St. Peter now asks what is to be done when these seven times of pardon are passed. Our Lord simply multiplies them by seventy. There is to be no arithmetic in the matter; there is to be no limit to forgiveness.

I. IT IS A MISTAKE TO SEARCH FOR THE MINIMUM OF DUTY. Why should St. Peter want to know what to do when he had forgiven seven times? Was there any law which he might transgress if he went too far in the generosity of pardon? His question was one that should never have been asked. It savours of rabbinical casuistry. Now, one of the great defects of casuistry is that it is too often pursued in the interest of those who wish to do no more good than is absolutely required of them. But the spirit of such a desire is immoral. He who seeks a limit to forgiveness has not really a forgiving spirit at all. He only forgives under compulsion, that is to say, he does not really forgive in his heart. So it is with all other duties. When we ask how far must we go, with how little will God be satisfied, we betray a spirit out of sympathy with our duty. If we loved it we should not anxiously search for the line of obligation, we should rather press on to the utmost with an enthusiastic desire to do our best.

II. FORGIVENESS CANNOT HAVE A LIMIT. Some duties are limited, although we are free to exceed the limit. This is the case with honesty. We have simply to pay what we owe, to give a just price for what we buy, to refrain from stealing, and we have discharged the whole of our obligation in this direction. Thus, at all events in the pecuniary world, it is possible to be absolutely honest, and hosts of people have reached the stage of absoluteness in regard to this duty. But there are other duties that run out to the infinite; we can never entirely compress them. All our spiritual education only enables us to reach towards a little more of their boundless possibilities. Of such a nature is forgiveness. We may be called at any moment to carry this further than we have yet gone.

III. THE LIMITLESS CHARACTER OF FORGIVENESS SPRINGS FROM ITS DIVINE ORIGIN. Forgiveness is God-like. It belongs to the ethics of heaven. It cannot be enforced in the law courts of earth, where Shylock is awarded his pound of flesh. In strict right and law, forgiveness cannot be enacted. Forgiveness is above law, as the sovereign who pardons in clemency is above the judge who is compelled to condemn in justice. God forgives without limit. He requires the condition of repentance, and this we have a right to demand also (see Luk 17:3). But when that is present he forgives hardened old offenders, who have grieved his Spirit many and many a time before. It is only the limitless forgiveness of God that makes it possible for us to be pardoned by him. Then it is incumbent on us to show the same spirit towards our fellow men.W.F.A.

Mat 18:23-35

The hard debtor.

This parable follows our Lord’s answer to St. Peter’s question about the limits of forgiveness. The great reason why we should forgive freely is that we have been freely forgiven much more than any men owe to us.

I. THE GREAT DEBT. This represents what the sinner owes to God. We pray that God will forgive us our debts (Mat 6:12). Deficiencies of duty are like debts considered as arrears of payments. Positive transgressions are like debts, through our having wilfully appropriated what was not our own without paying for it. The accumulated omissions and offences make up the one consolidated debt of guilt.

1. Its immense size. Christ names a fabulous sum. There is no counting the accumulated sins of a lifetime.

2. Its full exposure. The miserable debtor had been postponing the evil day. Perhaps, as he had been left long to himself, he had begun to hope that he would never be called to account. But the day of reckoning came. That day will come forevery soul. Long delay means an aggravated debt.

II. THE DREADFUL PUNISHMENT. It was according to the stern legislation of antiquity, and Christ bases his parables on familiar aspects of life without thereby justifying the facts and usages that he describes. In the spiritual world great punishment is the due of great sin. A reaction against the physical horrors of the mediaeval hell has blinded our age to this fearful truth. Yet Christ frequently affirms it in calm, terrible language.

III. THE GENEROUS FORGIVENESS. In his dismay the debtor grovels at the feet of his lord, and foolishly offers to repay all if only the king will be patient and give him time. That is impossible, and the king knows it. We can never repay what we owe to God. If his mercy only took the form of staying execution, at best it would only lead to a postponement of our doom. But the king forgave the debtorforgave him completely. God forgives freely and fully. He acts royally. He does not spoil his gift by making it hut half a pardon. The great debt is completely cancelled to the penitent soul.

IV. THE SUBSEQUENT CRUELTY. The debtor’s conduct was doubly odious. He had just been forgiven himself, and his debt was vastly greater than his fellow servant’s. Yet he treated the poor man with brutal insistence, with cruel harshness. Nothing could be more odious than this conduct. But is it not just the conduct of every Christian who will not forgive his brother? The Christian should be melted by the sight of God’s boundless clemency, by his own reception of it, and by the knowledge that God has forgiven him far more than anything he can ever have to forgive his brother.

V. THE FINAL DOOM. The king is justly angry. He recalls the pardon. He even has his wretched debtor put to torture. There are degrees of punishment in the future world, and the worse torment is reserved for those who, having accepted the mercy of God for themselves, have had no mercy on their brother-men.W.F.A.

HOMILIES BY MARCUS DODS

Mat 18:1-14

Necessity of becoming like little children.

To discuss in the abstract the question who shall be greatest in the kingdom of heaven, is a profitable employment. But when discussed with personal reference, and in view of present competing claims, there must inevitably be jealousies and rivalries, vanity and hatred. That his reply might lodge in their minds, and be audible to all generations, our Lord gives it dramatically. He calls a little child to him, perhaps one of Peter’s children. “Here,” says he, “is the one excellence on which my kingdom is founded, and by which alone it can be extendedthe excellence of not knowing you have any excellence at all.” It was, in short, a true humilityan humility that did not know itself to be humility, and. was thereby humble. To become humble is a change that must be wrought upon you while yourself unconscious; it is like a new birth. A man feels that of all things this is beyond him. We cannot humble ourselves to serve a purpose; if we do so our humility cannot be genuine. Look at one or two instructive features of childhood.

1. What delights us in children is very much their inability to conceal their thoughts, their artless love, their general simplicity. “They are naked, and not ashamed;” assume no disguise, because they are unconscious of the need of any.

2. Their ready belief in everything they are told. The child hears of the world and its wonders with a reverential awe. As we grow older we clothe ourselves in scepticism, and guard ourselves against deception, till, as the climax of wisdom and safety, we believe nothing, and are like the heavy-mailed knights of old, stifled in our own armour. We train our spirits to believe in nothing but the most obvious commonplace physical things, which by their own nature are destined to decay. And the end is, we cannot, if we would, believe in the most tremendous realities. Well may we pray that God would dip us in the waters of his regeneration, that so the hard, foul crust in which this world encases us may drop off, and our flesh become soft and fresh as a child’s again.

3. Their readiness to receive instruction, information, gifts. The whole life of a child is reception. He takes gifts naturally, and without distressing himself as to his right to them. He is to be fed because he is hungry, made happy because his nature craves it. Whereas we must ever be trying to give to God what will satisfy him. But God sells nothing. The highest and best things he has to give we must accept at his hand, simply because we need them, and he is willing to give. In Christ’s own life we see this childlike dependence beautifully exemplified. Clearly apprehending his own position and work, he was yet as one under age. Carrying into manhood the faith of the child, he lived as one who was well cared for, and on whom the care of providing for himself did not rest.

4. It is, above all, the child’s unconsciousness that he has anything to commend him that makes him our model. The production of this humility is an invariable and essential accompaniment of conversion. Formerly a man lived on his own strength and for himself. Now he feels he is not his own, but God’s; born of God, kept by God, for God’s uses, beginning from God and ending in God. In presence of that Being, glorious in holiness and love, he abhors his own sensual and selfish life, and abases himself utterly. He has no claims to urge, no promises to make, no pretensions, nothing at all to show. What this child seemed to say to these helpless disciples, he says to allYou must turn, you must strive with your whole souls, you must pray, but convert yourselves you cannot; it is God only can give you a new heart. Have you been brought to a true dependence on God, so feeling the guilt of your past life and the evil of your natural character that you can but leave yourself in the hand of God and his grace for pardon and renewal?D.

Mat 18:21-35

The unmerciful servant.

The form of Peter’s question shows that he still considered that to forgive was not the law of the kingdom, but a tentative measure which might at any moment be revoked, that underneath the forgiveness there lies the right to revenge. We also know this feeling of Peter’s, that in forgiving we are doing something more than could be demanded of us. And this feeling, wherever it exists, shows that we are living with retaliation for the law, forgiveness for the exception. It is to mark with reprobation the unforgiving and self seeking spirit that our Lord utters this parable.

I. The first result of this spirit is that IT LEADS TO DISHONOURABLE OUTLAY UPON OURSELVES OF WHAT GOD HAS GIVEN US FOR BETTER USES. The man whose great motive in life is the desire to get all the good out of it he can for himself will contract debt to God, that is, will contract real guilt, exactly in proportion to his opportunities of doing good and playing a high part in life. Whether the power be great or little, the guilt contracted is the same, if we lay out on ourselves what should in simple honesty have been laid out on God, if we habitually divert from God the revenues which truly belong to him.

II. But still more strongly does the parable point to THE HATEFULNESS OF AN UNFORGIVING SPIRIT. The man was not softened by the remission of his own great debt. So it often is with the sinner deadened by long sin. There is no deep contrition in his cry for pardon, only a desire to escape, as selfish as the desire to sin was. If the forgiving love of God does not humble, it hardens us. If we take it as a mere trifle, and are not thoroughly humbled by it, we are only too apt to show our zeal in exposing and reproving the faults of other men, or by violent and unrelenting condemnation of those who offend us. The hatefulness of this spirit is signalized by one or two added particulars.

1. The petty amount of the debt he exacts as set over against the enormity of that which had been remitted to himself. There is something almost incredibly mean as well as savage in this man’s quick remembrance of the pence that are due to himself, while he so easily puts from his mind the ten thousand talents he owes. But our incredulity gives way when we think of the debt we owe God and the trifles committed against us which we find it so hard to forget. What are the causes of quarrel among men? Often a word, a look, an expression unwittingly dropped. Or measure even the deepest injury that has ever been done to you; the wrong that has darkened or obstructed your whole life with that for which you yourself need to ask forgiveness of God, and say whether you ought still to be implacable. No doubt you may detect in the injuries done to you more malice and intention to wound than in your own sins against God; but you will certainly not find more dishonoring neglect, more culpable repudiation of what was due. And what was the harm done in comparison with giving false impressions about God or counterworking his will? Is our shame for sin against God as intense and as real as our indignation at injuries done to ourselves?

2. But the chief aggravation of this man’s conduct lay in the tact that he had just been forgives. He thought mercy a good thing so long as he was the object of it, but in the presence of a debtor he is deaf to the reasons that filled his own mouth immediately before. And how hard do we all find it to deal with others as God has dealt with us! We go from his presence, where we have felt it is mercy, which is the most needful gift in a world like thisit is mercy which gives us hope at alland we go straight to our fellow servant and exact all our due. Here, then, our Lord enounces the law of unlimited forgiveness as one of the essential laws of his kingdom. Men are to be held together, not by external compulsion, but by the inward disposition of each member of the society to forgive and be on terms of brotherly kindness with every other member. We lose much of the power and practical benefit of Christ’s teaching by refusing to listen to what he says about his kingdom as cordially as to what he says about individuals. We are not, perhaps, too much, but too exclusively taken up with the saving of our own souls, neglecting to consider that the Bible throughout takes to do with the Church and people of God, with the kingdom; and with the individual only as a member of the kingdom of God. And so it is not for the individual Christ legislates. To unite us individually to God he recgonizes as only half his work. Our salvation consists, not only in being brought into reconciliation with God, but in our becoming reconciled to men. The man who is content if he is sure his own soul is safe has great cause to believe it in danger, for in Christ we are knit one to another. But how are we to get into a right state of feeling towards other men; to find it natural to forgive always, not to stand on our rights and exact our dues, but to be moved by the desire to promote the interests of others? The true way to a forgiving spirit is to be forgiven, to go back again and again to God, and count over our debt to him, though the man, whose mind is filled with a true view of his own wrong doing, always feels how much more he has been forgiven than he can ever be called on to forgive. We must begin, therefore, with the truth about ourselves.D.

HOMILIES BY J.A. MACDONALD

Mat 18:1-5

Heavenly greatness.

As they journeyed to Capernaum the disciples of Jesus, like their countrymen, ever disposed to regard the kingdom of Messiah as secular, reasoned and disputed together as to which of them should be the greater in that kingdom. The knowledge of this contention probably influenced the conduct of Jesus in the matter of the tribute, in which he astonished them with an exemplification of supreme greatness in submission (see Mat 17:22-27). A similar lesson is embodied in the discourse now before us. Note

I. THE DISCIPLES KNEW THAT THERE ARE GRADES OF HEAVENLY GREATNESS.

1. This was assumed in their reasoning.

(1) It was the basis of that reasoning and the stimulus of the ambition which prompted it.

(2) It was itself based upon the analogy of secular kingdoms in general, in which there are princes and nobles, ministers of state and civic magnates.

2. The fact was not disputed by the Lord.

(1) He did not say they were mistaken, much less assert that all saints in light stand upon an equal platform.

(2) The arguments urged in favour of this view are far from being satisfactory. There is no relevancy in the inference from the fact that every Hebrew gathered an omer of manna, neither more nor less. Every labourer receiving exactly a penny, whether he had worked one hour or had borne the burden and heat of the day, looks more like an argument; yet this element was introduced into the parable for another purpose, viz. to evince the absolute sovereignty of God.

3. On the contrary, he recognized it.

(1) For he asserted it, though in a sense very different from that in which the disciples had conceived of it.

(2) It is the very doctrine of the parable of the talents. Christ, like David, his type, has worthies of various grades of merit.

(3) The anticipations of the great judgment make this very clear (cf. Dan 12:3; 1Co 15:41, 1Co 15:42).

II. THEY HAD TO LEARN THAT THE HIGHER GRADES OF GREATNESS ARE REWARDS OF CHILDLIKENESS.

1. They were influenced by secular ideas, in which goodness has little to do with greatness.

(1) In the kingdoms of this world some are born to greatness. So Simon and Jude may have based their hopes of future distinction upon their near relationship to Christ.

(2) Some have promotion through length of service. So Andrew, the first called to the discipleship of the kingdom, might have hoped for precedency on the ground of that priority.

(3) Some have greatness thrust upon them. So the natural covetousness of Judas may have led him to exaggerate the importance of his money trust, as keeper of the bag. Much of the greatness of this world is imaginary. Peter had the keys, and may have rested his contention for greatness upon that distinction. His fellows, however, were unwilling to accept that as conferring permanent dignity, much less supremacy.

(4) James and John sought the chief place in the kingdom by petition and influence, after the custom of the world. The ten were displeased with them, probably because they cherished the same desire to be superior (see Mat 20:20-24). It is unworthy in those to contend for privileges who shrink from work and suffering.

2. Jesus humbled them before the greatness of a little child.

(1) Jesus taught, like the ancient prophets, impressively by signs. His lesson here was the greatness of humility. The lesson was difficult, for the world sees no greatness in lowliness. The teaching must be impressive.

(2) The great Teacher sought not his symbol of greatness in the warrior, like Caesar, to make whom great millions of men must die. His sign was not the statesman, the philosopher, the poet, or even the theologian. It was the infant. How original was his teaching!

(3) Great men should not disdain the company of children. They may receive instruction from infants. Whenever we look upon a little child we may remember the teaching of Jesus.

3. He preached an impressive sermon from his text.

(1) He insisted upon the necessity of conversion: “Except ye turn,” etc. (verse 3). Note: Conversion makes men like little children.

(a) Not foolish, nor fickle, nor sportive, but

(b) innocent, humble, and docile.

(2) To become like little children, sinners must be born anew. The love of dominion, which led the disciples to contend for the higher places in the kingdom, unfitted them even for the lower. The new man is exalted upon the humiliation of the old.

(3) Heaven most intimately dwells in innocency. All heavenly virtues crystallize round innocency.. The Lord so dwells in innocency that whoever receives a little child receives him.

(4) As innocency is the essence, so is humility the soil of every grace. True humility is the only way to advancement in the kingdom of Christ (cf. Luk 14:11). “Climbing is performed in the same posture as creeping” (Swift).

(5) As the world sees no greatness in lowliness, so are those who do see it greater than the world. The humble are therefore fittingly honoured with the rewards of greatness.

(6) They have the special care of Christ. The best men have often the worst treatment from the world. But Christ promises recompense to those who show kindness to him in his humble followers, and retribution to those who refuse it.J.A.M.

Mat 18:6-9

Occasions of stumbling.

To stumble is so to trip as to be hindered in faith or to be turned out of the way (cf. Mat 5:29, Mat 5:30; Mat 11:6; Mat 13:21; Mat 15:12; Mat 24:10; Mat 26:31, Mat 26:33; Joh 6:61, Joh 6:62, Joh 6:66; Joh 16:1). Occasions of stumbling are evil influencesallurements, persuasions, temptations, bad example, calumnies, insults, persecutions. The text teaches

I. THAT CHRIST HOLDS THE WICKED RESPONSIBLE FOR THE INJURY THEY MAY OCCASION TO THE GOOD. The addition of the words, “which believe on me,” shows that Christ is here speaking, not of “little ones” in age. but of his disciples, who are of a humble spirit. Observe:

1. There is no infallible final perseverance of the saints.

(1) The recognition of this truth is the very inspiration of this pathetic discourse. These woes would never have been denounced upon men for the doing of what, otherwise, would be impossible.

(2) Let not the believer in Christ be high-minded. Let him fear. Let him watch. Let him pray.

2. “It must needs be that the occasions come.”

(1) They are permitted as part of the necessary discipline of our probation. They come from the abuse of free agency.

(2) To the faithful they prove blessed means of grace. They educate passive virtues. The habit of resisting temptation makes a strong character.

3. The instigator to evil is still responsible.

(1) Where he succeeds in causing the saint to stumble he will have to answer for the soul damaged or ruined. There is no impunity for those who turn the simple from their integrity by teaching them to imbibe sentiments subversive of the doctrines of genuine truth, or to indulge in evil practices which destroy or injure the capacity for receiving the graces of the kingdom.

(2) Where the tempter fails he is still responsible for his wickedness.

4. These things need to be emphasized.

(1) Because the wicked are too apt to transfer the blame of their irreligion to the account of the good, by accusing them of apathy and negligence. The good are undoubtedly responsible for the faithfulness of their testimony. They are not, however, beyond this, responsible for results. Noah’s testimony was at once his own justification and the condemnation of the world.

(2) Because the wicked are too slow to recognize their responsibility, not only for their own non-reception of Christ, but for the injury they do in hindering others, and especially for damaging the good. To offend the innocent is to offend innocence.

II. THAT SUCH OFFENDERS ARE WARNED BY THE TERROR OF FORMIDABLE PUNISHMENT.

1. The sufferings of antichristian nations are admonitory. “Woe unto the world because of occasions of stumbling!”

(1) The Jews filled up the measure of their iniquity in crucifying Christ and persecuting his disciples, and wrath came upon them to the uttermost.

(2) Degradation and ruin have overtaken or are pursuing those nations which have persecuted the witnesses for Christ. The atheism of France, with its horrors and the decadence of that nation, are the reaction of the superstition and wickedness of earlier persecutions. Prosperity smiles upon the nations that have accepted the Reformation. They have been enriched by industries brought to them by Protestant refugees.

(3) All antichristian nations are doomed in the anticipations of prophecy. “Woe” hangs over “the world” in the larger sense.

2. Individuals also are admonished. “Woe to that man through whom the occasion cometh!”

(1) The retribution upon those who offend the disciples of Christ is worse than death. Jerome says that Christ here speaks according to the custom of the province in punishing the greatest criminals with drowning. The woe here denounced is worse (Mat 18:6).

(2) The retribution is as crushing as it is sudden. The culprit had no strength to release himself from the weight of the “great millstone,” to turn which, supported in position, required the strength of an ass. “It seems to have grown into a proverb with the Jews for total ruin” (Doddridge).

(3) The more terrible punishment is described as a “Gehenna of fire,” in allusion to the sufferings of the victims of Moloch (cf. 2Ch 33:6). Burning there is more dreadful than drowning in the Lake of Galilee hard by (cf. Rev 19:20). Those who play the devil in tempting saints may tremble with the devils.

3. But there is yet space for repentance.

(1) The offending hand must be cut off. Wrong doing must cease. However useful as the right hand. However dear.

(2) The offending foot must be cut off. Wrong going must cease. However natural it may have become through habit as the use of the right foot.

(3) The offending eye must be plucked out. Illicit desire must cease, whether instigated by covetousness, envy, pride, or passion.

(4) These must be cast away. The hand or foot or eye refer to those sins of honour, interest, or pleasure, which men are prone to spare. The godly in this world are lame, deaf, dumb, blind, both to themselves and to others (see Psa 38:14). The members most mortified here will shine with the greater lustre hereafter.J.A.M.

Mat 18:10-14

Warning for the contemptuous.

The “little ones” here are childlike followers of Christ (cf. Mat 18:6). Reference to the infants to whom humble Christians are likened is not excluded. The infant seed of the faithful are of the family of Jesus. Neither the disciple nor the infant must be despised.

I. THEY ARE THE REVERSE OF DESPICABLE WHO ARE THE SPECIAL CHARGE OF HOLY ANGELS.

1. The universe is dual, having material and spiritual complements.

(1) Matter has characteristic properties. The properties of spirit are no less characteristic and distinct.

(2) Between the complements subsist mutual relations and interactions. The conflicts of the moral and invisible are propagated outward into the physical and visible. So contrariwise.

2. In this system holy angels have special relations to good men.

(1) Angels have a commission of guardianship (cf. Psa 34:7; Psa 91:11; Heb 1:14). Probably they see the countenance of the Father in the countenance of the children. Note: Evil angels sustain corresponding relations to bad men.

(2) The ancient notion may have countenance here, viz. that each individual has a peculiar guardian angel. Corresponding to the holy guardian is the “familiar spirit” of the wicked.

3. They cannot with impunity be despised whose guardians are so influential.

(1) Special favourites only, according to Oriental custom, came into a monarch’s presence (cf. 1Ki 10:8; 1Ki 12:6; Est 1:14; Psa 103:21; Jer 2:15; Tobit 12:15; Luk 1:19).

(2) It is perilous to be at enmity with those who are so attended. “Angels that excel in strength.” The stronger angels have charge of the weaker saints. Those who would not offend the holy angels should imitate them in their care of little ones.

II. THEY ARE THE REVERSE OF DESPICABLE WHO ENJOY THE SPECIAL FAVOUR OF GOD.

1. Those who have the angels of God for their angels have the God of angels for their God. This honour is superlative.

2. Some interpret the “angels” of the “little ones“ to be the disembodied spirits of the sailors, which “do always behold the face of the Father which is in heaven.”

(1) They argue that guardian angels cannot” always” be “in heaven” and yet ministering to their charge on earth.

(2) What the disciples in John Mark’s prayer meeting thought to be Peter’s spirit, they called “his angel” (Act 12:15).

(3) The reason why we should not despise the little ones, viz. that their angels see God, reminds us that the pure in heart alone can see God.

(4) In this view the” angels of God,” in whose presence” there is joy over one sinner that repenteth” (Luk 15:10), will be “the spirits of just men made perfect.” For the context in Luke shows that this is a parallel case.

3. Those whose disembodied spirits would be honoured with the vision of God cannot be despised with impunity.

(1) The little ones of Christ are despised by corrupting them. By failing to edify them. They are despised when innocency and simplicity are treated as weaknesses.

(2) Those guilty of despising them will encounter the resistance of the will of God. “It is not the will,” etc. (cf. verse 14; Eze 18:23). If there be joy in heaven for the finding of one of the little ones turned out of the way, there is wrath in heaven for the offending of them.

(3) “As God wilt be displeased with the enemies of his Church if they wrong any of the members of it, so he is displeased with the great ones of the Church if they despise the little ones” (Henry).

III. THEY ARE THE REVERSE OF DESPICABLE WHO ARE THE SPECIAL SOLICITUDE OF CHRIST. In the parable of the sheep we have:

1. The flock.

(1) Holy angels are included in its unity (cf. Heb 12:22). These are by some accounted to be the “ninety and nine who went not astray.”

(2) The ministration of angels is founded on the mediation of Christ. This is expressed in the words, “For the Son of man,” etc., relegated, however, to the margin in the Revised Version. So in the vision of Jacob’s ladder (cf. Gen 28:12; Joh 1:51). Through Christ the holy angels are reconciled to us.

(3) The ninety and nine who went not astray may be such as the scribes and Pharisees of the better sort; not the hypocrites, but those who, like the elder brother, never left their Father’s housethose whose respect for the Law kept them from committing gross offences.

2. The wanderer.

(1) The sheep sees better herbage at a distance, and wanders after it; then discovers more yet farther off; wanders by degrees further and further; mistakes the way back, and is lost in the wilderness. So the soul wanders from pleasure to pleasure, and gets lost.

(2) Now the sheep is exposed to the dangers of the lion or the wolf, the ditch or the precipice, and is in wretchedness and terror.

3. The Shepherd.

(1) He cares for those in the fold. They have his care in the provision of food, as well as shelter and protection. We should sympathize with Christ in striving to keep his sheep (see Rom 14:15; 1Co 8:11, 1Co 8:12). As he is the great Shepherd, having many sheep, so is he the good Shepherd, knowing each lamb.

(2) He cares especially for the wanderer. It is the shepherd’s duty to look more particularly after the stray sheep than after those abiding in the fold. Jesus, who came to save a world, makes special efforts to save even one. The whole flock suffers when one sheep wanders.

(3) “if so be that he find it.” The finding of a sinner is a contingent event. Grace is not irresistible. Yet the wanderer should know that the Shepherd is very near him. Are we as anxiously seeking Jesus as he is seeking us?

(4) The tender sheep is not driven, but carried by Christ. “And when he hath found it, he layeth it on his shoulders” (see Luk 15:5). He carries us and our sins.

(5) Jesus rejoices over the conversion of a sinner, as a shepherd over a recovered sheep; as a woman over a recovered piece of silver; as a father over a recovered son. The rejoicing affects heaven as well as the Church on earth. It is natural to feel uncommon joy at the fortunate accomplishment of an unexpected event.

4. The enemy. Those who would injure the sheep of Christ are special objects of his displeasure.

(1) The nations that injured Israel of old were severely reckoned with.

(2) The antichristian nations who persecuted his people are doomed to a fearful retribution.

(3) Every contemptuous son of pride will be confronted at the judgment of the last day.J.A.M.

Mat 18:15-20

Christian judgment.

From dealing with the offended, our Lord here passes on to the offending, and he shows us how we should deal with a guilty brother, for our own sake, for his sake, for the sake of the Church, and ultimately for the sake of the world. Christian judgment should be faithful, loving, spiritual.

I. FAITHFUL.

1. The Christian will tell his brother his fault.

(1) “If thy brother sin against thee.” By fraud, defamation, affront, contempt (see Le Mat 6:1-7).

(2) “If thy brother sin.” Some ancient authorities omit “against thee”.

(3) “Tell him his fault.” This is fidelity to thyself, also to thy brother. How salutary to David was the reproof of Nathan!

2. He will tell it him before witnesses.

(1) Not in the first case. But he will not consider his soul clear it the offending brother be not gained by the private reproof without proceeding further.

(2) The witnesses chosen should be persons of credit and reputation. True men will not refuse to serve as witnesses in the interests of justice.

(3) This precaution is due to the Church. The courts of the Church should not be trifled with by moving them with cases which are not ripe.

3. He will tell it to the Church. This when the minor means have been tried and failed.

(1) But what is the Church? Amongst the Jews ten men were deemed sufficient to constitute a synagogue. Any number of persons met in the name or by the authority of Christ will constitute a Christian Church (see Mat 18:20). Tell it to the wise among the Church. Paul speaks ironically when he says, “Set them to judge who are]east esteemed in the Church.”

(2) Tell it to the Church in justice to the Church, that its purity may be preserved. Scandalous persons must be separated from the Church on earth, which is the type of the purer Church in heaven.

(3) Tell it to the Church in justice to the obstinate offender, that he may be reproved before many and repent.

(4) That if he be excommunicated he may be treated as a heathen and publican. Those cast out of the kingdom of Christ belong to the kingdom of Satan. Church discipline is for Church members. The Christian is not forbidden to use civil courts against outsiders.

II. LOVING.

1. Love‘s reason for telling a brother his fault is to gain him.

(1) This is love’s reason for going to the offender rather than waiting for him to come. “Go and tell him.” It will give him opportunity for explanation. The sense of injury is often the result of sensitive self-love.

(2) This is love’s reason for going to him privately. It will save him the exasperation of an unnecessary public reproach.

(3) The manner will accord with the object. The truth is told in love. The fault is not unduly magnified. There is no resentment.

2. Love‘s reason for calling witnesses is still to gain the brother.

(1) “Take with thee one or two more.” To avoid unnecessary publicity, the smallest number required to attest evidence is called in (cf. Deu 19:15; Joh 8:17; 2Co 13:1).

(2) The witnesses may add persuasion. The offender may listen to the pleadings of disinterested persons.

(3) The witnesses have the double function of seeing that the reproof is administered without malignity, and that, in rejecting it, the reproved is incorrigible.

3. Love also has reasons for then telling it to the Church.

(1) The offender may hear the Church and be gained.

(2) Church courts are preferred to those of the world, as more competent to deal with offences against Christian law. The more so when civil rulers were notoriously enemies of the saints.

(3) The purity of the Christian brotherhood must be preserved, The Church that condones things scandalous transgresses the reason for its existence.

(4) A scandalous Church can be of little service to the world.

III. SPIRITUAL.

1. It recognizes the presence of God.

(1) The sanctuary of God is the assembly of his saints (cf. Exo 40:24; 2Ch 5:14; Psa 132:14; Mat 28:20; Rev 2:1).

(2) That presence is here promised in relation to maintenance of discipline. God is with his Church to quicken prayer, to answer petition, to guide in counsel.

(3) “If two of you shall agree,” etc. “God sometimes stands upon a number of voices for the carrying of some public mercy, because he delighteth in the harmony of many praying souls, and also because he loves to gratify and oblige many in the answer” (Flavel).

2. It recognizes his ratification.

(1) “Binding and loosing.” When the Jews set apart any to be a preacher, they said, “Take thou liberty to teach what is bound and what is loose,” i.e. what is binding or obligatory and what is not.

(2) Here the question has relation to discipline rather than to doctrine. It is concerned also with things rather than persons. “Whatsoever,” etc. “In the primitive Church absolution meant no more than a discharge from Church censure” (Wesley, in loc.).

(3) The ratification in heaven of the decisions of the Church, in the strict sense, applied to apostolic times when plenary inspiration was with it (see Joh 16:24-26; Act 9:29-31).

(4) In a qualified sense it still holds good, viz. when the rules laid down in Scripture are observed.

(5) If through error or envy any be east out of the Church, Christ will find that soul in mercy (cf. Joh 9:34, Joh 9:35). The instructions of the text come to us with the force of law. We have no option to pursue any different course with an offender, or any different order to that here prescribed. In the whole compass of pagan ethics there is no rule at once so manly, so benevolent, so wise, so practical.J.A.M.

Mat 18:21-35

The limits of mercy.

Peter’s question here was suggested by his Lord’s doctrine concerning Christian judgment (Mat 18:15-20). “Then came Peter,” etc. The form of Peter’s question may have been suggested by the custom of the rabbins who from Amo 1:3“For three transgressions, and for four, I will not turn away wrath”held that three offences were to be forgiven, and not the fourth; or, uniting the two numbers, made “seven times” the extreme limit of their forgiveness. The Lord’s reply teaches us

I. THAT THE CLAIMS OF BROTHERHOOD ARE THE LIMITS OF MERCY.

1. Forgiveness should never be refused when sought with repentance.

(1) That repentance is understood here is evident from the illustrative parable of the two debtors (verses 26, 29). Also from the parallel place (see Luk 17:4).

(2) To gain a brother is more noble than to ruin him. Mercy is nobler than sacrifice.

(3) The gaining of a brother is greater than the recovery of property. Life is more than meat. How much is a man better than a sheep?

2. Forgiveness is no mercy to the impenitent.

(1) It leaves his evil nature still unchanged.

(2) It encourages and hardens him in his perversity.

(3) It offends public justice. The fellow servants of the oppressor were “exceeding sorry.” They looked to their lord for his judgment upon the tyrant.

II. THAT THE MERCIFULNESS OF THE LORD IS OUR INCITANT TO MERCY.

1. God‘s mercy is boundless.

(1) Offences against God, as compared with offences against our fellows, are as “ten thousand talents” to “one hundred pence.” We should regard ourselves as debtors to God in all we have and all we are.

(2) It is folly in us to say to him, “I will pay thee all.” He that goes about to establish his own righteousness is guilty of this folly of attempting with nothing to pay all (cf. verse 25; Rom 10:3).

(3) The parable teaches that the only way to forgiveness is to acknowledge our debt and appeal only to mercy. The promise to pay may express the desire of the contrite heart to make amends.

(4) The Lord does not exact; he forgives (cf. Psa 78:38, Psa 78:40). His mercy is limited neither to “seven times” nor to “seventy times seven.”

2. We must forgive as we are forgiven.

(1) This is required. It was at the close of the great Day of Atonement that the jubilee trumpet sounded a release from debts (see Le 25:9).

(2) To the merciless God will show no mercy. A claim pushed to an extremity becomes a wrong. Mercilessness is great wickedness. “Thou wicked servant!” “To be beggars to God and tyrants to our brethren is the height of depravity” (Helfrich).

3. Forgiveness must be “from the heart.”

(1) God’s reasons of mercy are from himself. “He will have mercy upon whom he will have mercy;” “He was moved with compassion.”

(2) So the wisdom which is from above, true religion, is “easy to be entreated.” The returning prodigal child will find a relenting heart. The insolvent debtor, a compassionate creditor. The distressed tenant, a lenient landlord. Gratitude to God will make it so. “I am thy servant; for thou hast loosed my bonds.”

(3) This is a forgiveness which leaves no pique behind, no refusal of friendship. We should keep no account of the offences of a brother, but pass them over, and so forgive and forget until it becomes a habit to do so.

III. THAT THE MAGNITUDE OF GOD‘S MERCY IS ALSO THE MEASURE OF HIS WRATH,

1. There is a time for reckoning with the King.

(1) The King reckons with his servants when their regeneration commences. Then they reflect upon their spiritual state, and upon their liability to ruin.

(2) There are retributions and rewards in the order of God’s providence in this world.

(3) The grand reckoning will be in the day of judgment at the end of the age. To this end God keeps account (see Deu 32:34). Every sin we commit is a debt to God. The aggregate is the “ten thousand talents”

2. His pardons will be retracted from the unmerciful.

(1) The same servant went out and throttled his fellow servant. “Went out.” How different may be our conduct when we go out into the world from what it is when we go into our closet! Went out; not immediately, perhaps, but when by degrees the spirit of the world replaced the grateful emotion.

(2) Those who have experienced God’s mercy have the greater reason to deprecate his wrath. They will find the “seventy times seven” of the mercy transformed into wrath (cf. Gen 4:24). How serious, then, may be the consequences of the difference between the attitude of the closet and that of the world!

3. How fearful are the treasures of wrath!

(1) There are the sufferings of loss. The debtor is sold up. He forfeits wife, children, property. All ennobling excellences of his nature are removed. His talents, his trusts, are taken away (cf. Mat 25:15, Mat 25:28). “Those who sell themselves to work wickedness must be sold to make satisfaction” (Henry).

(2) The sufferings of reproach. “Thou wicked servant.” This expresses a perception which God will give to the sinner of the enormity of his conduct. “I forgave thee all that debt.” It is terrible to be upbraided with the mercy we have abused. “Shouldst not thou also,” etc.? What a contrast is here with the mercy that is given liberally without upbraiding (Jas 1:5)!

(3) Torment. Eastern prisons were places of torment (cf. Mat 25:46; 2Pe 2:4, 2Pe 2:17; Jud 2Pe 1:6). The prison keepers are the tormentors (cf. Rev 14:10-12). The tortures are the worm that dieth not and the fire that is not quenched.

(4) The sufferer has no voice to reply.J.A.M.

HOMILIES BY R. TUCK

Mat 18:3

Christ’s type of the truly great.

We treat this as an abstract question. What is true greatness? Who is the truly great man? But the disciples asked a practical question, bearing immediate relation to their temporal expectations. They, and their conversations, can never be understood unless we keep in mind their earthly ideas of their Lord’s mission. Judas, with the grasping disposition, was anticipating his chances in the new kingdom; and even James and John were scheming to secure a promise of the right and left hand places in the new court. Over the expected offices in the new kingdom those disciples quarrelled, until at last they brought their dispute to Jesus, for him to decide it by his authority. When they asked, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” they meant, “Who is to have the principal office in the new Davidic kingdom which thou art about to set up?” Their question was childish; it would have been framed very differently if it had been childlike. As Christ corrected false notions, we h)ok at those false notions first.

I. MEN‘S IDEAS OF GREATNESS. “The things that men deem glorious were of no account with Christ. He did not measure a man’s eminence by the height of the pedestal on which he stood, nor by the stars that shone on his breast; he had no admiration for purple and gold, for the flash of jewels, for lofty titles, or any of the thousand things that dazzle the eye and impose on the carnal heart.” “Does true greatness belong to the lion hearted, to the righteous, to the martyr, to the ascetic, to the saint? Is Thomas on the way to it, with his strong, logical intellect that will take nothing on credit without evidence and his sturdy fidelity of purpose?;’ Greatness must associate either with

(1) class;

(2) office;

(3) wealth;

(4) intellect;

(5) genius; or

(6) success, in order to be appreciated by men.

II. CHRIST‘S IDEA OF GREATNESS. Here our Lord is not dealing with all greatness; only with that greatness which is relative to the ideas then in the minds of disciples. Their greatness meant “being served,” guilefully watching for the attention conceived to be their due; self-assertion. His greatness meant “serving”, guilelessly watching for the opportunity of doing something kind; meekness that is the opposite of self-assertion. Of this a chill is the type. A man ought not to be in everything like a child. Experience of life makes it impossible for hint to be a child. What was needed by the disciples, and what is needed by us, is that “they should turn from their self-seeking ambition, and regain, in this respect, the relative blamelessness of children.”R.T.

Mat 18:4

True dignity gained by humbling the stiff

“As this little child.” “We shall miss Christ’s meaning if we set about thinking of children in generalof their trustfulness, teachableness, humility, unassuming disposition, ‘sweet simplicity,’ and kindred things. The truth is, there is human nature (and a good deal of it too) in children as well as in men and women. Winsome as childhood is, and often rarely beautiful, with many a wile and witchery, even the fondest mother cannot help seeing in the child she loves best some tokens of waywardness, self-will, temper, caprice, and other things prophetic of ill. Jesus did not mean the disciples to think of children in general; it was not any child, taken indiscriminately and at random, that would have suited his purpose.” It is this child, one who left his play, and came forward at once when Jesus called, this child who could put self aside, who illustrates the true dignity.

I. HUMBLING THE SELF IS NOT MAKING FALSE ESTIMATES OF OUR CHARACTER. Good people often think that it is. Saying, thinking, and writing bitter things against themselves, that are untrue and unfelt, is often confounded with humility. True “humility” always goes hand in hand with “truth;” and demands expression which precisely represents feeling. Two schools of religion are in special peril of failing into this mistake.

1. Those who make much of “experiences.” There is always a tendency towards the manufacture of experiences.

2. Those who make much of “confessions.” There is always the peril of getting credit for humility by exaggerating the confession. What is true of false estimates is in measure true of all imperfect estimates.

II. HUMBLING THE SELF IS REFUSING TO ALLOW OUR LIFE TO BE GUIDED BY SELF–PLEASING CONSIDERATIONS. This is the point in our text. The disciples were scheming to advance their self-interests. The little child promptly and cheerfully gave up his self-interests when Jesus called him. Those disciples had been called by Jesus, but they could not put away the self. In this sense, “humbling the self” will include

(1) giving up your personal opinion in order to accept Christ’s revealed truth;

(2) putting aside your own preferences when they conflict with Christ’s will;

(3) giving up what may mean your own profit or advantage, when you are called to engage in Christ’s work. Self-humbling means Christ-exalting.R.T.

Mat 18:8

The severity of spiritual discipline.

Cutting off a right hand and plucking out a right eye are extreme measures, types of the severest dealing with one’s self. They bring into thought those cases of disease in which signs of mortification are shown, and the limb must be promptly surrendered or the life will be lost. Our Lord’s counsel rests upon the recognized fact that bodily organs are the agents of sin. The palate is the agency of drunkenness and gluttony, the eye of sensuality, and the hand of dishonesty. We do not really cure a moral evil by merely removing the agency through which, it gains expression, but resolute dealing with the organ that is the agent shows that we are dealing with the inner evil, weakening it by taking away its food and exercise. See some of the things which account for spiritual discipline taking such severe forms.

I. BIAS TO SPECIAL EVILS IN NATURAL DISPOSITIONS. This bias belongs to the mystery of hereditary influences. Through a deteriorated bodily organization, a man is born with a bias in favour of drink, cheating, pride, sensuality. The members of one royal family are all born gluttons. Possibly, some bias to evil is found in every disposition, and the life problem isWhat will the man do with just that tendency influencing all relations? Acquired evils may be effectually dealt with. Evils that belong to our bodily constitution make the moral struggle of a whole life.

II. WEAKNESS OF WILL IN NATURAL DISPOSITIONS. This is the real cause of the necessary severity of spiritual discipline. The man is not strong enough to get and to hold the mastery over his evil self, and so he is worried and worn by a struggle which has to be continually kept up, because he is not strong enough to make any victory decisive. The hardest moral lives are lived by the weak willed.

III. INDULGENCE OF THE EVIL BIAS UNTIL IT GROWS MASTERFUL. This may be illustrated by the difference in the tone of the moral struggle in the case of a man converted in youth, and of a man converted in advanced life. In the one case the bias is a mere tendency, and can be easily checked; in the other it has become a fixed habit, and must be dug out. When a man in middle life has vigorously taken in hand his conduct and relations, and wisely reshaped them, he often has the bitter lesson to learn that the evil in him remains untouched.R.T.

Mat 18:10

Despising the little ones.

We may well assume that our Lord included in his term “little ones,” both children and childlike disciples. “Looking to the frequency with which our Lord’s words were addressed to the thoughts of his hearers, it seems likely that the faces of some at least of the disciples betrayed, as they looked on the child, some touch of half-contemptuous wonder, that called for this prompt rebuke.” Limiting the reference of the expression to the children, we may notice some of the ways in which we may come to despise them.

I. WE MAY UNDERESTIMATE THEIR VARIED INFLUENCE FOR GOOD. It is a small, almost silent, influence; one that cannot be put in common earth scales and measured, or laid out on a bank counter and checked. Man is interested in big things and noisy things; but the really great forces are pervasive gravitation and silent light.

1. The child exerts a high moral and educational influence on its father and mother. Every child is a Divine testing of parental character; and may be a Divine culture of it.

2. The child is a moral power in a home. Illustrate from times of strain and sorrow.

3. The child often proves to be a minister of Christ in a neighbourhood. Illustrate from Norman McLeod’s “Wee Davie;” or the more recent clever tale entitled “Bootle’s Baby.”

II. WE MAY FAIL TO RECOGNIZE WHAT TRAINING THEM DOES FOR US. No man who is resolutely set upon soul culture will ever make the mistake of “despising the little ones.” Think of the self-restraints which training children demands. Think of the examples that must be set. Think of the practical wisdom that must be gained. Think of the perseverance that may be called for. Many a man and many a woman have been ennobled by having family life and claims grow up around them.

III. WE MAY, ONLY TOO EASILY, DO INJUSTICE TO THE LITTLE ONES. If we “despise them” we shall fail to observe or meet their peculiarities. We shall repress their strange thoughts and questionings. We shall overestimate their failings. We shall be out of sympathy with their play. Injustice to the little ones means spoiling the chances of their manhood and womanhood. It is bad if the despising takes the form of “neglect;” it is far worse if it is “moral hindering.”

IV. WE MAY PUT OFF, UNTIL THE BY AND BY THAT NEVER COMES, THE INFLUENCE ON THE CHILDREN WHICH IS THE NEED OF THEIR CHILD TIME. That kind of despising the little ones is perhaps one of the grave sins of the family life of the day.R.T.

Mat 18:13

The joy of recovering lost things.

Dr. M. Dods, writing on the parable of Luk 15:1-32., has the following suggestive passage. Each of the three parables “illustrates the fact that a more active interest in any possession is aroused by the very circumstance that it is lost. The sheep that is lost is not on that account disregarded by the shepherd, but receives for the time greater attention than those which remain in the fold. The piece of money that has gone amissing becomes on that very account of greater immediate importance to the woman than all she has safe in her jar in the cupboard. If one of a family turns out ill, it is a small mitigation that all the rest turn out well; it is after the lost the parent’s heart persistently goes. So is it with God. The very circumstance that men have strayed from him evokes in him a more manifest and active solicitude in their behalf. The attitude of God and of Christ towards sinners is reduced to the great principle that anything which is lost and may be regained exercises our thought more, and calls out a more solicitous regard than a thing of equal value which rests securely in our possession.”

I. MAN AS LOST. The word as applied to men is a figure. A lost sheep is one beyond the shepherd’s control. A lost piece of money is one that has got out of the woman’s reach. This suggests that a lost man is one who has got himself out of the Divine hands, and has taken the ordering of life into his own hands. As the sheep is the shepherd’s; as the coin is the woman’s; so man is God’s. The sheep is lost through animal perversity; the coin is lost through accident; man is lost through moral wilfulness.

II. MAN AS RECOVERABLE. There would be no effort of shepherd, or woman, if they had no reasonable hope of regaining their lost things. And we may never conceive of men as lost in any sense that puts them beyond moral reach. There is a hardening through wilfulness; but we must never think of that save as a process. In the case of no brother-man may it be thought of as complete. The man beyond recovery does not exist.

III. MAN AS RECOVERED. That is the work of God in Christ; it is accomplished for the race, and it is an infinite joy to the Recoverer. That is the work of the Christ-man and of the Christian Church. They should prove what joy is found in saving the lost.R.T.

Mat 18:15

Christian ways with trespassers.

This counsel seems to indicate that the dispute among the disciples as to who should be the greatest had gone a considerable length, had led to hard words, and even heart divisions. Our Lord made this the occasion for advice in relation to misunderstandings among Christians. It should be distinctly seen that his advice concerns cases of Christians, each party professing strict loyalty to Christ.

I. TALK TOGETHER. Not just at once, while there is heat of feeling; but presently, when both have had time to grow calm, and give room to those regretful feelings which are sure to come when the more difficult passages of life are reviewed. When offence is given, the evil to dread is the disposition of each to stand aloof from the other. This can soon widen into hopeless separation. In common life it is the work of friends to bring such separated ones together; in the Christian life we find Christ expects both the offended and the offender to be seeking each other. Talk in a Christian spirit will often correct misunderstandings, smooth difficulties, and put things straight. But Christ puts the chief burden of seeking reconciliation on the injured one. The one against whom the trespass is committed is to act.

II. BRING PRIVATE CHRISTIAN FRIENDS IN. There arise cases in which the judgment of one party may be blinded; and the correction may be beyond the power of the other party interested. Then it is wise to bring in independent and unprejudiced persons, who may help to unite the disputing parties. This will lead on to a consideration of the principle of “arbitration,” and its possible adaptation, not only to Christian, but also to social and national disputes. For such arbitration the men of character and weight are sought. They gain power, in all phases of life, who culture character.

III. LET THE CHURCH DEAL WITH THE MATTER. The point is thisdo not make a public thing of private disputes save as a last extremity. There will be different opinions as to what is referred to by the term “Church.” Most probably our Lord was thinking of the recognized officials of the synagogue, who formed an “ecclesia,” or Church, and acted, on consultation, representatively and authoritatively. Christ says, “Do everything by brotherliness; bring in the officials only as a last resort.”R.T.

Mat 18:19

Power gained by agreement in prayer.

This verse is part of a digression from our Lord’s point. Perhaps it is suggested by the disunion occasioned by the disputing of the disciples, and our Lord takes the opportunity of pressing the importance and value of preserving mutual agreement. The disunited feeling spoils everything in Christian life; it spoils even prayer. Harmony, unity, mutual trustfulness, make up the atmosphere in which everything Christian can thrive. Our Lord. makes prayer a representative of every phase of Christian life and relation. This text is, with Mat 18:20, a very familiar promise, often used in acts of public prayer, but almost always misquoted. (It is remarkable how many scriptural texts have non-scriptural ideas attached to them, through misquotation.) It is always right, and always best, to take God’s Word as it precisely is. Mat 18:19 appears to be an unconditional promise, but it is not. What we ask shall be done for us, but only if two of you, my disciples, join to ask; and only if you two are really agreed in the matter about which you ask. It will at once be seen that, simple as these conditions sound, they really are searching conditions, and were especially searching to those disputatious disciples.

I. THE AGREEMENT OF CHRISTIAN DISCIPLES. This suggests what is the primary foundation principle of Christ’s Church. We know what it has developed to; it is well to see what it has sprung from. it is the voluntary union, for worship, fellowship, and prayer, of two or three. They must be disciples; they must meet together; then we may apply the term “Church” to them. They must agree on some special points of interest, if they allow large liberty of opinion in other matters. The real uniting bond must be their common love to Christ, and purpose to secure the honour of his Name. And the Divine seal set upon their fellowship will be the spiritual presence of Jesus, and all that for them, and by means of them, which his spiritual presence involves.

II. THE PRAYER POWER WHICH COMES OUT OF SUCH AGREEMENTS. It is a meeting of necessary conditions. It is a persuasion with God. Such agreement differs from personal prayer in two things:

1. It represents interest in others.

2. It indicates thoughtful consideration. Many a private prayer cannot be answered because it is only the utterance of a passing impulse, and had better not be answered. What we consult; over becomes intelligent. Well-considered prayer cannot fail to gain the Divine regard.R.T.

Mat 18:20

The conditions of Christ’s sensible presence.

“There am I in the midst of them.” Familiarity with this sentence, and a circle of fixed associations gathering round it, prevent our observing what a striking and revealing sentence it is. He who spoke the words was standing in the midst of the disciples, in the necessary limitations of a human body. And vet he says to them that wherever two or three are gathered together in his name, he is actually with them; in the midst of them; and this seems to imply that his presence might actually be realized and felt by them. This was a hopelessly extravagant declaration for any mere limited man to make. Already Christ could present himself as he really was, and soon manifestly would bean unlimited spiritual presence.

I. THE FIRST CONDITION IS SINCERITY. The two or three must meet in Christ’s name, distinctly as his disciples, to whom his honour is the supreme interest. The one thing that our Lord most severely rebuked was “hypocrisy.” The one thing from which he turned away was “insincerity.” Poverty of means or mind was no hindrance to him; but he could only show himself to the true hearted. It is the ever-working law of Christ. He comes only to the sincere.

II. THE NEXT CONDITION IS CULTURE. Precisely, the culture of the spiritual faculties and susceptibilities. This is not adequately apprehended. Our Lord put it very strongly to his select disciples, when he said to them, “The world shall not see me, but ye see me.” Their spiritual culture enabled them to see. The higher faculties of the soul are quickened by personal relation to Christ “who is our Life;” but those quickened faculties need culture, then the soul breathes in a spiritual atmosphere, sees spiritual things, handles spiritual realities, and recognizes the presence of the spiritual Lord. It is suggested that the gathering together of the disciples involves their helping one another to secure this spiritual culture; those of the fuller and higher attainments inspiring and aiding their brethren.

III. THE NEXT CONDITION IS UNITY. It might seem as if unity in request were all that was necessary; but the true unity lies in the soul conditions of which the request is but an expression and illustration. And it will be found that the true unity lies in the spiritual growth and culture of each one; just as the health of a tree is found by the growth and enterprise of all the branches.R.T.

Mat 18:22

The Christian limit of forgiveness,

“Until seventy times seven.” This is no fixed number. It is a figurative way of saying that there is, and there can be, no limit to Christian forgiveness. To understand the point and force of St. Peter’s question, it is necessary to know the rabbinical rules of forgiveness with which he would be familiar. It was a settled rule of the rabbis that forgiveness should not be extended more than three times. Edersheim says, “It was a principle of rabbinism that, even if the wrong doer had made full restoration, he would not obtain forgiveness till he had asked it of him whom he had wronged, but that it was cruelty in such circumstances to refuse pardon.” It says much for St. Peter’s apprehension of his Master that he was sure he would not limit forgiveness to the rabbinical “three times.” From his point of view, making the three times into seven times was a splendid piece of liberality. But he could not measure the generosity and nobility of his Lord, who took the “three times” and made it “seventy times seven.” “It did not occur to St. Peter that the very act of numbering offences marked an externalism which had never entered into, nor comprehended, the spirit of Christ. He had yet to learn, what we, alas! too often forget, that as Christ’s forgiveness, so that of the Christian, must not be computed by numbers. It is qualitative, not quantitative. Christ forgives sin, not sins; and he who has experienced it follows in his footsteps.”

I. THE ULTIMATE LIMIT IS THE DIVINE EXAMPLE OF FORGIVENESS. “As Christ forgave you, so also do ye.” What do we expect from God? Can we conceive of a limit to the times when we may hope for the mercy of God? What would life be worth if we could? The fear of outstretching the limit would fill us with misery. Man can never lose the hope in God. If he does he becomes fixed in sin. “There is forgiveness with thee;” a man must be able to say that in full view of the provocations of a long life, when he comes to his dying day. To the Divine forgiveness there is no qualification of degrees or numbers.

II. THE PRACTICAL LIMIT IS OUR CHRISTLY LOVE FOR OUR BROTHER. If we are Christly, we want to do him good. It does not matter about ourselves, and injury done to us. It does matter to a Christly man that a brother has done a wrong. The Christly man is set upon his recovery from the wrong; and if that means his forgiveness over and over again, until patience is tried unto the uttermost, the Christly man will forgive and bear, if only he may win back his erring brother at last.R.T.

Mat 18:35

Moral fitness for receiving Divine forgiveness.

Upon his earnest petition, the man gains a full and free forgiveness; but the question arisesDid he deserve it? Was he in a state of mind fit to receive it? Was the forgiveness any real moral good to him? This is soon answered. The man, fresh from his great forgiveness, finds a fellow servant who owes him but a trifling sum, and his severity with him shows clearly enough that his heart was untouched. The unforgiving manifest that they are unfitted to receive God‘s forgiveness. The Christian limit of forgiveness isForgive your fellow men as freely and as fully as God has forgiven you. The Christian law of forgiveness isExpect God to forgive you only when you are in such a penitent, humble, and sympathetic frame of mind that you can easily forgive your fellows.

I. SEE WHAT A MARVEL OF GRACE THAT DIVINE FORGIVENESS IS. Estimate it aright, and you will feel that there must be some preparedness for receiving such a blessing.

1. Think of the greatness of the sin to be forgiven us. Take Christ’s figure of the immense debt. See sin as ingratitude; and as disobedience.

2. Think of the aggravations of sin. The witfulness of many sins. They are sins against light and knowledge. They are even committed after forgiveness.

3. Think what love is shown in the conditions of forgiveness. The objective ground of remission is the gift and sacrifice of God’s well beloved Son.

4. Think of the freeness and fulness of God’s forgiveness. There is no possibility of purchasing it; it must come to us as a gift of infinite love. It is no limited blessing. God blots out the record utterly, as a cloud is blotted from the sky, and flings our sins away into the depths of the sea.

II. SEE WHAT IS THE STATE OF MIND BEFITTING THE RECIPIENTS OF THE DIVINE FORGIVENESS. We can see plainly enough that the man introduced by our Lord was wholly unworthy of the forgiveness of that debt. It did him no sort of moral good. He was in no sense ready for the forgiveness. So there are many who cannot be forgiven because they are not in such moral states as would make forgiveness any blessing to them. A humbled, regretful, gracious spirit is necessary. Such a spirit would be tested at once by an opportunity of showing a forgiving mind. Tender, melted, kind. The feeling of being undeserving, unworthy. Christ’s teaching on this point has even a severe sideeven his forgiveness may be revoked, if he finds, by our behaviour after forgiveness, that we were morally unfitted to receive it.R.T.

Fuente: The Complete Pulpit Commentary

Mat 18:1. At the same time came the disciples This chapter is connected with the two preceding; for after Christ had delivered the keys of the kingdom of heaven to Peter, and had taken him up into the mountain with James and John, leaving the rest of his Apostles, these three seem to have exalted themselves above their colleagues, and to have been envied by them. In consequence of their ambition, they began to inquire which of them should holdthe highest dignities under the Messiah? who should be his general, his privy counsellor, and his steward? (ch. Mat 20:21.) he who first embraced his doctrine? or he who is the nearest in blood to him? or he to whom he has been the most frequent guest? or he who is the eldest? And as St. Matthew treats more largely of this contention of the Apostles than the other Evangelists, he seems to insinuate that he was aimed at by the inquiry of his colleagues, and in some measure despised for the infamy of his former life; but that he was happily and fully vindicated and comforted by our Lord’s answer. Wetstein.

Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke

Mat 18:1 . ] the account of Matthew, which is throughout more original in essential matters than Mar 9:33 ff. and Luk 9:46 ff., bears this impress no less in this definite note of time: in that hour , namely, when Jesus was holding the above conversation with Peter.

] quis igitur (see Klotz, ad Devar . p. 176). The question, according to Matthew (in Mark otherwise), is suggested by the consideration of the circumstances : Who, as things stand , is, etc.; for one of them had just been peculiarly honoured, and that for the second time, by the part he was called upon to take in a special miracle. Euthymius Zigabenus says well: .

] greater than the other disciples in rank and power.

] they speak as though the approaching Messianic kingdom were already present . Comp. Mat 20:21 .

Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary

SECOND SECTION
THE PRIESTLY ORDER IN THE CHURCH OF CHRIST

Mat 18:1-35.

Contents:This section furnishes a sketch of the Church in its priestly, or in its strictly ecclesiastical, relations. The basis of these is the hierarchy of the service of love (Mat 18:1-14). Rising on this foundation, the Church is to display, on the one hand, spiritual earnestness by its discipline (Mat 18:15-20), and, on the other, spiritual gentleness by its absolution (Mat 18:21-35). This delineation of the priestly character of the Church is continued in the next section, which treats of marriage in the Church, of children in the Church, and of property in the Church.

Historical Succession.The scene is still in Galilee, and in all likelihood at Capernaum. Once more had the hopes of the disciples been raised, probably in connection with the late miracles of Jesus in Judea and Galilee, and from a misunderstanding of His calmness and of the declaration which He had made when providing the tribute-money. Friends now gather around the Lord, preparatory to going up to Jerusalem. The disciples discuss the question of the primacy in the kingdom of heaven. This dispute (to Mat 18:5) was no doubt occasioned, if not by the confession, yet by the general position, of Peter. According to Mar 9:38, John now gave occasion to the saying of Christ about offences ( Mat 18:6 sqq.). Lastly, the question of Peter again evoked the teaching of Christ concerning absolution, and the parable connected with it. On comparing the corresponding passages in Matthew, Mark, and Luke, we conclude that the sayings and events recorded in chap. 18 belong to the period of Christs stay at Capernaum. Of course, in holding this view, we imply at the same time that the Lord uttered on two different occasions the parable concerning the hundred sheep. These transactions were followed by the commencement of the journey to Jerusalem.

A. The Hierarchy of the service of Love. Mat 18:1-14

(The Gospel for St. Michael, Mat 18:1-11.Parallels: Mar 9:33-50; Luk 15:4-7; Luk 17:1-2.)

1At the same time [At that time, ]1 came the disciples unto Jesus, saying, Who [then, ] is the greatest2 in the kingdom of heaven? 2And Jesus called a little child unto him, and set him in the midst of them, 3And said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted [Unless ye turn],3 and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. 4Whosoever therefore shall humble himself4 as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven. 5And whoso shall receive one such child in my name receiveth me. 6But whoso shall offend [give offence to, ] one of these little ones which [that] believe in me, it were better for him 21[it profiteth him, yea for this]5 that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned [plunged] in the depth6 of the sea. 7Woe unto the world because of offences [ ]! for it must needs be that offences come;7 but woe to 8that [the]8 man by whom the offence cometh! Wherefore if [But if, ] thy hand or thy foot offend thee, cut them [it]9 off, and cast them from thee: it is better for thee to enter into life halt or maimed, rather than having two hands or two feet to be cast into everlasting fire. 9And if thine eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee: it is better for thee to enter into life with one eye, rather than having two eyes to be cast into hell fire. 10Take heed that ye despise no one of these little ones; for I say unto you, That in heaven their angels [their angels in heaven]10 do always behold the face of my Father which [who] is in heaven. 11For the Son of man is come to save that which was lost.11 How [What] think ye? if a man have a hundred sheep, and one of them be gone astray, doth he not leave the ninety and nine, and goeth into the mountains, and seeketh [doth he not leave the ninety-nine upon the mountains, and go and seek]12 that which is gone astray? 13And if so be [if it be, ] that he find it, verily I say unto you, he rejoiceth more of that sheep [more over it, ], than of [over] the ninety and nine which [that] went not astray. 14Even so it is not the will of your Father which [who] is in heaven, that one of these little ones should perish [that perish, ].

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL

Mat 18:1. At that hour.Referring to the hour in which the transaction about the tribute-money took place. The Messianic hopes of the disciples had been greatly raised, both by that miracle, and by the explanation of Jesus as to His relation to the theocracy.

Who then is the greatest? .The inference implied in seems to allude to Peter, who had apparently again been honored by an extraordinary distinction.The greater (major), in relation to all others, is the first. The Major Domus, or the Primus. Who is? in the present tense. From the statement of the Lord, that, as Son of the King, He was free from the legal obligations of the theocracy, they inferred that the kingdom of the Messiah was already founded. Besides, the question was evidently also intended for the purpose of eliciting a distinct statement on that subject.

Mat 18:2. A little child.A little boy. According to [a late and unreliable] tradition, the martyr Ignatius; according to Paulus, an orphan; according to Bolten, one of the young ministering disciples. Each of these views appears to us strained. The main point was, that He set before them a little child.

Mat 18:3. Except ye be converted,13 etc.The use of the aorist tenses deserves special notice. Jesus presupposes that all this had already taken place in His disciplesthat they were converted, had become like children, and entered into the kingdom of heaven. Hence He refers only to the necessity of self-examination and probation, not to that of a new conversion. We note the antithesis in the expressions, the greatest in the kingdom of heaven, and entering into the kingdom of heaven. The meaning is: The first question which you should put, is about your having entered into the kingdom of heaven. If they had entered it, they had become like the child before them; in which case their question could only have been caused by temporary surprise. Hence, if any one should display hierarchical tendencies, or give vent to such feelings, the question would naturally arise, whether he was really converted at all. More than that, the statement implies that in a certain sense all hierarchism is opposed to, and incompatible with, the kingdom of heaven. In Joh 3:3; Joh 3:5, this condition of entering the kingdom of heaven is put in the present tense, and more strongly expressed, as being born again. Conversion, being a complete turning in moral respects, implies a new birth so far as its divine cause and the totality of the change are concerned; while, so far as its moral aspects and its claims to acknowledgment are concerned, it may be described as becoming children.

Mat 18:4. Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child.Whoso will appear humble and small, like this child; not, humble himself like this child. Valla: iste parvulus non se humiliat, sed humilis est. The use of the future tense shows that something of this kind was now again to take place in the disciples as the condition of their future greatness. The expressions of the Saviour prove that the point of the comparison lay in the modesty of the child, in its want of pretension, which enabled it to enjoy whatever came before it, without seeking or claiming more as its due. The real greatness of the child consists in its perfect contentment with its littleness and dependence. By our outward demands and our claims upon the future, we only lose the present, and with it, both life and reality; while the want of pretension and care in the child secures to it, with each passing moment, the enjoyment of life. And this constitutes also the condition of its future greatness. If the child aimed at anything beyond the limits of its capacity, such a claim would of itself ensure disappointment. This absence of pretension in the disciple of Christ constitutes true humility, to which, even after our conversion, we must ever and again revert. Only by thus reverting to our littleness before God and the brethren, can we hope to realize the life of the kingdom of God, or to enter upon the path of development and future greatness. The use of the simple future () seems to indicate that this conversion would take place at a later period in the history of the disciples, and especially in that of Peter. In this connection, the reader will also recall the last hours of Jesus.The greatest.According to the measure of humility, and each one according to his own idiosyncrasy.

Mat 18:5. And whoso shall receive [even or only] one such little child.The consequence and evidence of humility is, to receive one such little child. The question has been raised, Whether we are to understand the terms in a literal or in a spiritual sense, in other words, of a child in years, or of a child in spirit, as just described. The former view is adopted by Bengel, Paulus, Neander, and de Wette; the latter, by Erasmus, Beza, Calvin, Grotius, and Meyer. But it could scarcely be regarded as a special evidence of humility, to receive in the name of Jesus a Christian of such marked humility. Besides, the context and Matthew 25 are in favor of the former view. It is the most honorable office in the kingdom of heaven to receive the King Himself; hence our Lord says: This distinguished office commences even when you receive a child in My name (comp. Joh 21:15, and the end of Gersons life14). But this does not imply that the Saviour here referred to a natural, in opposition to a spiritual, child. Even a poor negro, who is desirous of being admitted into the school of Christ, may be such a child. In general, the expression applies to those who are apparently small, as contrasted with those who are apparently great, in the kingdom of heaven; hence, to catechumens and Sunday-school scholars, or to those who receive instruction, in opposition to those who impart itto the Church under guidance, in opposition to that part of it which guides. The real glory of office, and the real primacy of the Apostles, was to appear in their spiritual service and in their condescension to those who were small, in the care of the Lamb of Christ in the school and the catechetical class. And this promise applied in all its fulness to such service of love, even in a single case.Shall receive, i.e., into spiritual fellowship.

In My name.Properly, on the ground of My name; the fellowship of faith combining and uniting the teacher and the taught in the name of Christ. Hence, neither referring exclusively to the faith of him who was to receive (de Wette), nor to that of those who were to be received.

Mat 18:6. But whoso shall give offence.Whoso shall give him occasion for relapsing into unbelief, as was done by hierarchical arrogance. This was the offence with which the Church was at that moment threatened. There the hearts of the fathers were turned from their children, giving occasion for the hearts of the children turning from the fathers (see Mal 4:6, the concluding utterance of the Old Testament, and Luk 1:17). These later generations were led into unbelief by the hierarchical pretensions of the fathers, with their traditions.

One of these little ones (a single one).Those of whom this child was a type. As formerly, the little ones being the beginners in the faith, or occupying a lower place in the Church; hence those who were naturally or spiritually little. But evidently those who had become little, in the sense of being thoroughly humbled, are not so easily shaken in their faith by hierarchical pretensions.

It were better for him, or literally: it profiteth him for this (u ) that a millstone were hanged, etc.Meyer deems it imperative to take the , in the expression , in the proper sense. He explains, though not very clearly, that the text implies that his conduct would subserve that special purpose. Following the trace here indicated, we infer that the offence given arose from a desire after spiritual domination. This motive, then, of his offence (domination over the conscience) is ironically characterized in the text as profiting him (badly), for the purpose of having a millstone hanged, etc. We may illustrate this by quoting an analogous saying of Luther, addressed to the Elector John: A forced Christian is a very pleasant and agreeable guest in the kingdom of heaven, in whom God takes special delight, and whom He will certainly set highest up among the angelsin the deepest bottom of hell. Of course, the statement applies much more fully to hierarchical pretensions. His arrogance and his domination profiteth himyes, for this purpose, that a millstone shall be hanged, etc.We are now prepared to understand the symbolical expressions, millstone and sea. From other passages we learn that hierarchism is destined to perish in the angry waves of the sea of nations, or in the midst of revolutions (Mat 7:6; Rev 13:1, etc.). The expression millstone is, in the first instance, intended to designate a very large stone (Rev 18:21), more especially the large upper millstone which was driven round by asses.15 However, the term is not merely intended to refer to the weight of the stone, but also to the object which it serves in the mill. The latter is a figure of life, in its means of support (Mat 24:41; Rev 18:22), while the millstone refers to the motive power. But the possessions of the temple were the load by which a corrupt hierarchy was ultimately drawn into the depths of the sea of perdition (Jam 5:1). To the Jews generally, the temple became in the end a millstone hung round their neck, which drew them into the depth of the sea of nations. But this was not the end of offences. The was a mode of punishment common among the Greeks, Romans, Syrians, and Phnicians, but not among the Jews. Hence it may be regarded as a dramatic and strong expression of the idea: he shall be deprived of life. (Meyer.) But even this heathen form of punishment deserves notice. The Jewish hierarchy was to be swept away by heathens.

Mat 18:7. Woe unto the world because of offences.The world as such does not give, but receive offences from false disciples; and that in what may be designated its border land, where it is represented by the little ones. The offence of these little ones would accumulate to such an amount as to bring a woe upon the whole world (comp. Mat 23:15; Rev 17:5).

For it must needs be.Not referring to fate, or to a metaphysical, but to a historical , or the necessary connection between guilt and judgment; and in this sense not merely allowed by God, but ultimately traceable to the divine counsel. (Meyer.)

But woe to the man by whom the offence cometh.The offence ( ) is the guilt of an individual, giving rise to offences (), which themselves are sent by way of judgment. And if woe descends on the world on account of these offences, how much more does it hold true of the man who is the cause or the occasion of them! Instances of individuals who gave such offences will readily occur to the reader; as, for example, Judas, Caiaphas, etc. (On the other aspect of historical necessity, comp. the word of Paul, 1Co 11:19.)

Mat 18:8. Wherefore, if thy hand or thy foot offend thee.Comp. Mat 5:29. De Wette and others regard this as a mere repetition not suitable in this connection, as referring to seduction by our own senses and not by the instrumentality of others. But it should be noted, that in the former passage the expression is used in connection with marriage offences; and here, in regard to ecclesiastical offences,the link of connection being the mystical idea of marriage. Hence it means, If thine hand, or thy foot, or thine eye, threaten to sever the union between thy heart and Christ The ministers of Christ are themselves offended by their hand, their foot, or their eye, before they become an offence to others. The text aptly adds, the foot, to the other emblems mentioned in Mat 5:29, which in this connection have a different meaning from the earlier passage. The hand here designates special aptitude and inclination for ecclesiastical government; the foot, for ecclesiastical exertion and missionary undertakings; the eye, for ecclesiastical perception and knowledge. All these gifts should remain in subjection to the Spirit of Christ, and serve for the advancement and edification of the little ones, instead of inducing pride or contempt of inferiors.

It will loch fairer, (it is better for thee).The Hebrews combined the two ideas of goodness and, beauty under the term good, while the Greeks comprehended them under that of fair. Both views may equally be expressed in Christian language. In the present instance, the idea of beauty is brought prominently forward, with special reference to the maiming caused by moral necessity. Philologically we note, that the positive degree is here combined with the comparative , on account of the attractive combination of the two constructions. (Comp. Meyer.)

Halt.The loss of one foot causes the other to halt. The expression maimed, refers more particularly to the arms.

Mat 18:10. Take heed.Our Lord again addresses Himself to the disciples, who were not to give offence. He mentions the cause of such offence as consisting in contempt, more especially of these little ones. Accordingly, He now points out the high value which God sets upon them.

Their angels in heaven do always behold.De Wette: In the Old Testament we only read of guardian angels of empires (Dan 10:13; Dan 10:20). But at a later period the Jews believed also in the existence of guardian angels for individuals (Targ. Jonathan; Gen 33:10; Gen 35:10; Gen 48:16. Eisenmenger, Neuentdecktes Judenthum, i. 389). Similarly also the New Testament (Act 12:7?) The expression, that the guardian angels of these children always behold the face of God, or are near unto Him (as the servants of a king, 2Ki 25:19), implies, that God specially cares for them. But as Jesus cannot ascribe any partiality to God, even for innocent children, the whole statement must be regarded as a figurative expression, indicating the high value attaching to these children, and the importance of their spiritual welfare. Meyer, in opposition to de Wette, justly remarks: The belief in guardian angels is here clearly admitted by Christ. Critics should simply acknowledge the fact, without adopting the idea that it applies to patron saints enjoying peculiar bliss in heaven. Grotius takes the Roman Catholic view of this passage, which of course most Protestant divines controvert. Grotius appeals to Origen (Homil. viii. in Genesin), to Tertullian (de Baptismo), and to Clement, who speaks of the protecting demon in which the Platonists believed. Still, Clement does not maintain in so many words that every one had his patron angel. Origen, and after him Gregory of Nyssa, held that every person was accompanied both by a good and by an evil angel. The view of Grotius is somewhat different. He believes in the general guardianship of angels, rather than in the attendance of individual messengers of mercy. Olshausen applies the passage to the pre-existent ideal of men. But it deserves notice, that while Jesus evidently admits the doctrine concerning guardian angels, which had been fully developed during the period of the Apocrypha, He lays special emphasis not so much on that subject, as on the fact, that the angels of these little ones always behold the face of God. Not only are they highly placed, but they do not seem to be actively employedas if God were through them always Himself looking upon these little ones. There is a most special Providence watching over the little ones, of which the angels are the medium, and in which the angelic life of these children is combined with the highest guardianship in heaven and on earth. The fundamental idea is, that the highest angels of God in heaven represent the smallest subjects of His kingdom on earth, Psa 115:8; Psa 115:6. The eye of God rests in special protection on the young seed in His kingdom (Matthew 19.). But as Christ is the Angel of His presence in a unique sense, while here we read of angels of the presence in the plural (the idea being formed after the analogy of the ministers of eastern kings, 2Ki 25:19, comp. with 1Ki 10:8), it follows, that Christ Himself, as the great Advocate and Intercessor, is Himself the central-point of this angelic guardianship.

Mat 18:11. That which is lost.A strong general expression, designating those who are lost. Meyer: those who had incurred eternal damnation. But the succeeding parable shows that our Lord rather refers to those who had strayed and were in misery. The conduct of Christ forms a direct contrast to that of the men giving offence. He came to save that which was lost; while they, in their pride, repelled those who had lately given hope of escaping from their lost state. Hence also, as the Angel of the presence, and as Saviour of the lost, Christ Himself is surety to us that these little ones are represented in the presence of His Father by Himself and His associates.

[Stier: Here is Jacobs ladder planted before our eyes: beneath are the little ones [the children of age and of grace];then their angels;then the Son of Man in heaven, in whom alone man is exalted above the angels, who, as the great Angel of the Covenant, cometh from the presence and bosom of the Father to save those that were lost; and above Him again ( Mat 18:14) the Father Himself, and His good pleasure.P. S.]

Mat 18:12. What think ye?In Mat 15:4, this parable is again introduced in a different context. But we readily trace an internal connection between these two occasions, both in reference to the circumstances in which they were uttered, and to the state of feeling prevailing at the time. The difference, that in the one case the ninety-nine sheep are represented as left in the mountains, and in the other in the wilderness, is unimportant. Of greater moment is the fact, that in the Gospel of Matthew the parable is addressed to the Pharisees, who themselves represent the ninety-nine sheep, while in the Gospel of Luke it is spoken to the New Testament shepherds, who, after the example of the Master, were to take special charge of the lost.

Mat 18:14. Even so it is not the will of your Father.He has no fixed purpose that one of these little ones perish. We regard this as a decisive statement against the doctrine of actual predestination to condemnation. This negation implies, in the first instance, a denial of all those assumptions according to which hierarchical minds attempt judicially to fix the state of souls. For this they have no authority whatever in the gospel; on the contrary, their human traditions are in direct opposition to the will of God. The statement of Christ, also, evidently implies an affirmation, that God willeth that all should be saved (1Ti 2:4). He would secure for Himself the full number of His flock; and hence calleth sinners, and more particularly the lost. On this very ground, then, His great care is on behalf of that which is lost; His is saving grace. To such an extent is His administration directed by grace, that, in view of it, one lost sheep may exceed in importance ninety-nine who are not lost. These ninety-nine sheep either feed themselves (according to the passage in the text), or else deem themselves independent of special help (according to the passage in Luke). At all events, the case is quite different with the lost sheep, whether the idea of lost be taken in the objective, as in the text, or in the subjective sense, as in Luke. To all such the blessed decree of grace applies, and for such the Son and the Spirit are waiting.

DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL

1. It scarcely requires any argument to show that this statement of the Lord concerning the little child affords no evidence against the doctrine of original sin. When Jesus called Peter blessed, He referred to his faith as Peter, not to his individuality as Simon. Similarly, when setting the child in the midst, it is its childlikeness, and not the mere fact of its youth, far less that of its innocence, which is intended as an emblem and model. Children are here a symbol of humility, just as natural birth is a symbol of regeneration. Hence we also infer that the Lord here alluded to the natural humility of the child, to its dependence, need of affection, and consequent want of pretension, as well as to its enjoyment of the passing moment.
2. Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?Who has the primacy? It might almost seem as if the disciples were relapsing into their old Jewish views of a carnal kingdom, with political offices, ranks, and dignities attaching to it. But this was not the case. They knew that their was destined to form a contrast to the ancient theocracy, and to the kingdoms of this world. Still, they had as yet no adequate conception of a spiritual order of things, and accordingly transferred to the Church their political and hierarchical associations. If a Church was to be founded, a hierarchy must, in their opinion, be instituted along with it. This idea seems to have been further confirmed in their minds after the transaction about the tribute-money, in which they seem to have noted rather the distinction conferred on Peter, than the humiliation which he had experienced.

3. As the inquiry of the disciples bore so distinctly upon the establishment of a hierarchy, the symbolical action of the Master, in placing a child in the midst of them, formed the most complete refutation of their theory. Still, this transaction does not in the least invalidate the institution of the apostolical and ecclesiastical office ( Matthew 16). Hence the passage must be regarded as only more clearly defining the ecclesiastical office, as a ministry of love (a ministerial office for the sacerdotium of the whole congregation, according to the principles of the gospel),a ministry of humility, in opposition to hierarchical claims; of condescension to little ones, in opposition to that of ascending grades; and of pastoral watchfulness, in opposition to hierarchical pride and domination, which is here characterized and condemned both as the grand offence of New Testament times, and as the greatest temptation and corruption of the Christian world. From this explanation of the Lord, we are enabled to gather the great outlines of New Testament Church order: 1. Its leading principles (in our section); again, 2. the rules of Christian discipline; 3. those of Christian and ecclesiastical absolution. The leading principles are as follows:

a. First principle: Except ye be converted.Conversion is the primary condition, not only of being leaders in the kingdom of heaven, but even of being members of it. This conversion must be more particularly characterized by a childlike want of pretension,i.e., by spiritual humility, which may be described as repentance in a permanent form. Hence the imperious hierarch excludes himself, both by his spirit and by his conduct, not only from office, but even from the kingdom of heaven itself. He ceases not merely to be a servant of Christ, but even a Christian. All such desires after primacy must be removed by conversion and regeneration. Luther: Who has ever seen an animal living after its head was dead?

b. Second principle: Whosoever therefore shall humble himself.Rank or dignity in the kingdom of heaven is to be proportionate to humility and to the ministry of love. In other words, real condescension (not merely by such phrases as the papal servus servorum) is to be the measure of our real exaltation. The general basis underlying all is, that all are equal and one in Christ. The desires after primacy are to give place to an opposite desire after fraternal service of love.

c. Third principle: Whoso shall receive one such little child.Christ would have us recognize and receive Himself in these little ones, or in beginners in the faith. Our evangelical ministry is to be characterized by respect and veneration for the life that is of God, or for Christ in His little ones. Thus the pastoral office is to combine the qualities of freedom on the one, and of love on the other, hand; while it is at the same time made the means of training the young and the weak in faith to the manhood and full stature in Christ.

Thus there are three degrees of evangelical primacyhumble faith, condescension to the little ones, and the training and elevating themin opposition to the three stages of hierarchical primacy. The latter are1. Progressive symbolical conversion to hierarchism; 2. hierarchical gradations; 3. contempt of the congregation of the little ones. Accordingly, the triple crown of the true minister of Christ consists in conversion and humility, fraternal service of love, and veneration for the priestly character of the congregation (Christ in the little ones).
4. But whoso shall offend.We have now a delineation of the opposite conduct.

a. From the context we gather that the passage applies exclusively to offences arising from hierarchical pride, self-exaltation and contempt of these little ones. The Lord first refers to the sin, and then to the punishment.

b. Jesus announces that great danger and corruption would accrue to the world from these offences. Woe unto the world because of offences!

c. The Lord shows how His servants may come to give offence to others, having been first tempted and seduced themselves (being offended by their hand, their foot, or their eye). From the context we gather that in this connection the term hand refers to ecclesiastical despotism (Mat 23:13-14), foot to activity in proselytizing (Mat 23:15), and eye to pride of knowledge which would seek to exalt patristic, gnostic, theosophic, or mystical lore and fellowship above the Church, Rom 12:3. The Apostle John, who was the occasion of this saying, himself afforded a signal instance of the manner in which a right hand was to be cut off (see the authors Leben Jesu, ii 2, p. 1021). Stier (Joh 3:26) seems to overlook the necessity of Johns special training for the high place which he was to occupy in the kingdom of God.

d. The source of these offences: contempt of the little ones. This is to give place to a proper acknowledgment of their character, of their mysterious proximity to God, of their calling and object in the kingdom of heaven, and of their glorious and blessed representatives and guardians, viz., the angels and Christ Himself.

5. Both the above antitheses are now explained and illustrated by the fundamental idea and characteristic feature of the kingdom of heaven, which is compassion. For the Son of Man is come to save that which was lost. Christ primarily came to seek that which was lost, and not merely the little ones. In this economy of sovereign pity, where the Saviour descends to the lowest depth of misery, there to display in ail its fulness His character as Redeemer, it is impossible that His subordinate servants should enter upon an opposite course. The watchfulness of the faithful shepherd in the mountains serves as an emblem of the faithfulness of our heavenly Shepherd. But the root and spring of their life must ultimately be traced to the gracious purpose of our Father in heaven, who willeth not that one of these little ones perish.

6. The fact, that in Matthew 18 the disciples are introduced as asking the Lord who was the greatest hi the kingdom of heaven, incontestably proves that He could not have meant His statement in Matthew 16 to imply that Peter was to enjoy any primacy in the Church.

7. We may here remark, that for educational purposes it is well, wisely to set before children the two great dangersof excessive childishness, on the one hand, and, on the other, of an unchildlike spirit.

HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL

The Lord Himself must settle the question about primacy.Primacy in the kingdom of heaven belongs to obscure children.The solemn declaration of the Lord against any human primacy in His Church.Let us take the little ones, and not the great of this world, as our model for the offices and dignities in the Church.The little child a warning lesson set before the Apostles.How the Lord has made children a perpetual and living condemnation of spiritual and ecclesiastical pretensions.The child a twofold emblem: 1. A model to those who deem themselves great, how they are to become little, and thereby really great; 2. a symbol of those who are little in a spiritual sense, and who are not to be offended by spiritual domination.Personal regeneration the condition of ecclesiastical greatness.It is altogether vain to contend for a position in the kingdom of God, if there is any question as to our having entered into it.Except ye be converted; or, aims after worldly greatness in the Church, are in reality aims after going beyond its pale.A perversion of the office of minister into ruler, as raising the question of the genuineness of our first conversion.In what respect may children serve as models to the ministers of Christ?To Christians generally?Self-abasement the only road to exaltation in the kingdom of heaven.How the little ones grow, just because they are little.How the want of pretension in children secures their enjoyment of life and their pre-eminence.The threefold sermon of the Lord on the subject of the little ones: 1. Become as little children, in order to become Christians; 2. Receive these little children for Christs sake; 3. Offend not these little children, who enjoy the guardianship of the angels and of the Father who is in heaven.Whoso shall receive one such little child.Only he who can feed the lambs can feed the sheep; see Joh 20:15.Honorable distinction of the office of teacher.Sacredness of the catechetical office.Solemn judgment resting on those who give offence to the little ones.To what offences did the Lord specially refer in the text?Offences are unavoidable, yet their authors are chargeable with them.If we are to avoid giving offence to the members of Christ, let us beware of taking offence in our own members.How a Christian may become an offence in the Church: 1. By the domination of his hand; 2. by the spurious proselytizing zeal of his foot; 3. by the fanatical and distorted perceptions of his eye.How a Christian is to make sure of his fellowship with the Church, even at the cost of the most painful sacrifices, Rom 12:3; in the same manner also to secure his own salvation.The abuse of Gods gifts for selfish purposes will ensure our ruin.Christ condescending to seek that which was lost a model to His servants.How the ways of the Lord, and of those who would assume the mastery in the Church, are opposed: 1. Christ descended, and then ascended; 2. they ascend, and then descend, as if a millstone were hanged round their necks, and they drawn into the depths of the sea.The ministry of the gospel not priestly domination, but pastoral service.The faithfulness of earthly shepherds a symbol of that of the Great Shepherd.Why the Shepherd cherishes so much the lost sheep: 1. Because it is a lost life, and not a dead possession; 2. because He is a faithful Shepherd, full of compassion, not one who reckons closely.One lost sheep may be of greater importance to the Good Shepherd than ninety and nine who have not gone astray; or, the infinite glory of the kingdom of grace.It is not the will of your Father, etc. Lessons to be derived from this by the Church: 1. In respect of doctrine; 2. in respect of rule; 3. in respect of the mission of the Church.The threefold will: to save that which was lost. The will, 1. in heaven above; 2. on Golgotha; 3. in the heart of the Church.

Starke:Hedinger: What a shame that the disciples of Christ should be engrossed with pride and ambition, when their Head has become their servant, and for their sake humbled Himself even unto death!Zeisius: It is the wicked way of man that each one seeks to become high, not lowlyto rule, not to serve.It is not said, Become little children, but, Become as little children.Langii opus bibl.: The innocence of children appears especially in their simplicity, humility, love, kindliness, and obedience, viewing these qualities alone, and irrespective of their faults.Zeisius: He who is lowest in his own eyes, and in those of the world, is greatest before God.Think not how you may become great, but rather how ye may be made small.What a blessed work, and what glorious reward, to become the patron and friend of children, of orphans, and of the weak!Canstein: To build orphanages is a great work.What precious treasure have parents in their children, since for their sakes the holy angels and Christ Himself lodge with them! Bibl. Wurt.Quesnel: If to offend one soul is to incur the wrath of God, how awful must be the judgment of those who offend a whole town or country!Offences are the source of fearful evil to the world; but they are made to work together for good to them that love God.

Lisco:The main point consists in that sense of weakness and dependence which is characteristic of children.

Gerlach:On account of their weakness, children require the special protection of angels; but they are so precious in the sight of God, that He selects for that purpose His most exalted messengers.

Heubner:The human heart is naturally inclined to self-exaltation, and both ambition and pride find their way even into the kingdom of Christ.How Christ answered the inquiry, what constituted true and what spurious greatness.Each one of us requires a thorough conversion of the heart.A child like spirit, the basis of true religion.A childlike spirit: humility, guilelessness, forgetfulness of self, teachableness, faith.Goltz (from Spangenberg and Luther): The child the living symbol of the destiny of man.The more willing thou art to become a child, the more fully wilt thou experience that God is thy Father.The time will come when God will acknowledge quiet, humble, and retiring souls.Those who seduce simple and unsuspecting minds incur the heaviest guilt.The world the scene of offences.Every other evil is as nothing compared with the number of seductions in the world.Children and childlike persons the special favorites of Heaven.To train children is to give joy to the angels.Brentius, Prfatio catechismi: In medio puerorum versari est esse in medio angelorum.On the whole section:The conversion to childlikeness of spirit which the Lord here requires: 1. Its character; 2. its importance.How Christ, the Friend of children, recommends children to our care.Christ is that faithful Shepherd who has left His thousands on the heavenly mountains (the angelic hosts, as Cyril of Jerusalem has it, Cat. 15) to comedown and seek the lost sheep of humanity.Rieger (Five Sermon, Leipzig, 1766): The gracious care of our Father in heaven and of Christ even for a single soul.

Bachmann:The high value attaching to children in the kingdom of God.

Footnotes:

[1] Mat 18:1.Lachmann reads (day) for (hour), according to certain authorities of Origen. Less attested. [Origen leaves the matter undecided, saying simply: , . Cod Sinait. with the great majority of witnesses read , which has been retained by Tischendorf and Alford.P. S.]

[2] Mat 18:1.[Literally: greater (than others, or the rest), major; Lange: der Grssere. It is a superlative in effect, though not in form. The English idiom requires here the superlative, as in Mat 11:11 is correctly rendered in the Authorized Version: he that is least, etc. Comp. my notes on pp. 205 and 206.P. S.]

[3] Mat 18:3.[ , equivalent as to sense to . The older English trsls., Tyndale, Coverdale, Cranmer, Rogers, the Genevan N. T. of 1557, the Bishops Bible, also Conant, the N. T. of the A. B. U. (1864) unanimously render: except ye turn; Luther: es sei denn, dass ihr umkehret (Luther, however, inserts euch, which is omitted in some modern editions); Lange: wenn ihr nicht umgekehrt seid. The Authorized Version: except ye be converted, is derived from the ed. of the Genevan Bible of 1560. Similarly the Rheims New Test. of Matt 1582: unless ye be converted. Campbell and Norton translate: unless ye be changed. , to turn oneself, is here evidently used as term a for conversion under the figure of turning back from a path previously pursued, or a return to our proper and normal relation to God, as His obedient and confiding children. It is thus equivalent to , to change the mind, which implies repentance and faith. Lange presses the aorist (unless ye shall have turned), as implying that the disciples were already converted and needed only to be confirmed, See his Exeg. Notes. But the Saviour refers here more particularly to a return of His disciples from the path of ambitious rivalry, which is Implied in the question of Mat 18:1, to a spirit of childlike simplicity and humility. Conversion may be repeated and should be repeated after every fall, but regeneration cannot be repeated any more than natural birth. Conversion is the act of man (under the influence of the Holy Spirit), regeneration is the act of God.P. S.]

[4] Mat 18:4.Lachmann and Tischendorf [and Alford] adopt the future [for the lect. rec. ], after Codd. B., D. Z., etc.

[5] Mat 18:6.[This is a more literal translation of , and corresponds with Dr. Langes Version: es ntzt ihmja dazu. Comp. his Exeg. Note below. But for popular use I would prefer the Authorized Version: it were better for him, and Luthers Version: dem ware es besser, which Ewald retained, while de Wette renders: ihm frommete es.P. S.]

[6] Mat 18:6.[, literally: the high, the open, the deep sea, as distinct from the shallows near the shore. Lange: auf der Hhe (in die Tiefe) des Meeres. The drowning is a necessary consequence of being plunged in the high sea with a mill-stone around the neck, but is not necessarily implied in , to cast or sink down in the sea ()P. S.]

[7] Mat 18:7.[Dr. Lange inserts here in the text in smaller type: gewordenhistorisches Gerichtsverhngniss, i.e., scandals have become (are not originally) necessary, as a judgment of history.P. S.]

[8] Mat 18:7.[Lachmann and Tregelles with some of the oldest authorities, to which must now be added also the Codex from Mt. Sinai, omit after . Lange translates accordingly: wehe dem Menschen, but does not notice the difference of reading. Tischendorf and Alford, however, retain .P. S.]

[9] Mat 18:8.B., D., L., and many other Codd., read (it) for , which looks like an emendation. [The former conforms in gender to the nearest noun, but as to sense refers to both.

[10] Mat 18:10.[The order in the Greek: . The order of the E. V. misleads, as if in heaven belonged to the verb.P. S.]

[11] Mat 18:11.[ ] is omitted by Lachmann and Tischendorf, on the authority of Codd. B., L., I., [Cod. Sinait. likewise omits it], and in some ancient versions. But it is found in Cod. G., al., and required by the connection. It was perhaps omitted, as de Wette suggests, to avoid the appearance of numbering the children with the lost. [It is generally supposed that Mat 18:11 is an insertion from Luk 19:10, but there is no good reason for such insertion, and it is made improbable by the omission of the verb of Luke before (to seek and save), which would have suited the of Mat 18:12. See Alford, who retains the received text.P. S.]

[12] Mat 18:12.[This is the proper construction, connecting with . So the Vulgate (nonne relinquit nonagintanovem in montibus, et vadit, etc.), the Peschito, Luther, Bengel, de Wette, Ewald, Lange, Wiclif, Tyndale (doeth he not leave ninety nine in the mountains, and go and seek), Cranmer, Genevan, Rheims Verss., Campbell, Conant, etc. The error in the Authorized Version seems to be derived from the Bishops Bible, where I find it. with the accusative suits the verb and the idea of a flock of sheep scattered over a mountain. Lachmann reads , will he not leaveand going seek, etc. (instead of ). Dr. Lange, following this reading, stops the question with . Objectionable.P. S.]

[13][In Germ.: Wenn ihr nicht umgekehrt seid, unless ye shall have turned. Comp. the Critical Note, No. 3, p. 322.P. S.]

[14][Dr. Lange refers here to the celebrated John Charlier Gerson, who was chancellor of the university of Paris and the theological leader of the reformatory councils of Pisa (1409) and Constance (1415). After taking a prominent part in all the great questions of his age, he retired to a convent at Lyons, and found his chief delight in the instruction of little children. As he felt the approach of death, he called once more the children that they might pray with him; Lord of mercy, have mercy upon Thy poor servant! He appears greater in this humility, than when he swayed by his eloquence the council of bishops. He died A. D. 1429, 6[illegible] years old.P. S.]

[15][Hence de Wette and Meyer translate literally: Eselsmhlstein, in distinction from the smaller hand-millstones, P. S.]

Fuente: A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical by Lange

DISCOURSE: 1380
A LITTLE CHILD

Mat 18:1-4. At the same time came the disciples unto Jesus, saying, Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven? And Jesus called a little child unto him, and set him in the midst of them, and said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven.

DISPUTES of any kind among the children of God are most unbecoming their holy character, more especially when they originate in a competition for pre-eminence. Yet such is the depravity of our nature, that we are prone to affect superiority and distinction even after we have seen the vanity of earthly things. The Disciples of Christ, as well from their condition in the world as from the example set before their eyes, seemed least exposed to such a temptation; yet even they repeatedly manifested an ambitious desire of worldly honours. They had been disputing who among them should be the greatest in that earthly kingdom which they supposed their Master was about to establish. Our Lord, knowing all which had passed in their hearts, interrogated them with respect to the subject of their conversation. But they, ashamed of it (as well they might be) held their peace. Finding however that all attempts to conceal it from him were in vain, they referred the matter to his decision. But their disingenuousness sadly appears, in that they propose the question to him only in a general way, as if they had felt no personal interest in it [Note: Compare St. Marks account, chap. 9:3335. with ver. 1. of the text.]. Our Lord did decide it; but in a way they little expected. He exhibited before their eyes an emblem of true greatness, and shewed them,

The nature of conversion

The conversion here spoken of means either a deliverance from that sin of which they were guilty, or a turning from sin in general [Note: Our Lords words may be understood either as a particular admonition to them, or as a general declaration grounded on this particular occurrence.]. Taking it in the more enlarged sense, it imports the becoming like a little child,

In humility of mind

[A little child is not filled with notions of his own greatness and self-sufficiency, but feels his dependence on others for support. Happy would it be for us if such were the habit of our minds towards God. But fallen nature is far removed from such a state as this. We universally think of ourselves more highly than we ought to think, and imagine ourselves possessed of whatever is necessary for our salvation. But in conversion our views are greatly changed. We are brought to acknowledge our extreme guilt and helplessness, and are made willing to depend on Christ alone for righteousness and strength [Note: See St. Pauls views of these things before and after his conversion, Rom 7:9 and Php 3:6-7.].]

In teachableness of disposition

[Man in his natural state is as prone to lean to his own understanding as to trust in an arm of flesh. Almost every one thinks he knows his duty; nor do they who confess their need of human instruction, feel any want of the teachings of Gods Spirit. But in this respect also their views are altered as soon as they partake of converting grace. As a little child is sensible of his ignorance, and ready to receive, without gainsaytug, the instructions given him, so the converted person, conscious that he knows nothing as he ought to know, desires to have the eyes of his understanding enlightened. He no longer disputes against the declarations of Scripture, but receives them implicitly, and looks up to God for that spiritual discernment whereby alone he can discover their truth and importance [Note: Job 34:32. Psa 119:18.].]

In indifference to the world

[The world is the idol which man in his unconverted state adores; its riches and honours are the great objects of his affection and pursuit. In this he is the very reverse of a little child. An infant has no solicitude about earthly distinctions: satisfied with the one object of his desire, he leaves others to contend for power and pre-eminence. Thus it is with the Christian that is truly converted to God. He has one great concern which occupies his mind, one great prize which he is seeking to obtain. Whether he have much or little of this world he judges to be a matter of little consequence. He does indeed covet riches and honour; but it is the honour that cometh of God, and the unsearchable riches of Christ: and excessive cares about earthly honours or wealth he leaves to those who have no inheritance beyond the grave [Note: Gal 6:14. , by which.].]

Having shewn his Disciples by this emblematical representation what conversion was, our Lord proceeded to declare,

II.

The importance of it

This he suggests in two different points of view:

Without such conversion no man can be partaker of the kingdom of grace on earth, or the kingdom of glory in heaven

[Conversion is necessary before we can be truly admitted into the kingdom of grace on earth. We are indeed received into covenant with God in baptism; but it is regeneration that really makes us his children. We can never come to Christ as a Saviour, till we feel our need of him; we cannot learn of him, till we be willing to be taught; nor can we ever glorify him, till we be dead to the things of time and sense. The gate is too strait for us; the way of admission is too humiliating. The laws of his kingdom are such that our carnal minds neither will, nor can, obey them [Note: Rom 8:7.]. Nor can we ever partake of his kingdom of glory unless we experience this change. What could we do in heaven even if we were admitted there? We should have no meetness for it, no dispositions suited to the enjoyment of it. The glorified saints all cast their crowns before the feet of Jesus, and prostrate themselves in deep humility, ascribing all their salvation to him. How could we unite with them when we have never deigned to glorify him thus on earth? As for our worldly desires, what should we find to gratify them there? Heaven could be no heaven to us, if our affections were not set on the things that are there, and our employments suited to the exercises of that blessed state.]

In proportion as we experience such conversion will be our exaltation here and hereafter

[Our Lord now plainly answers the question put to him. Let any one point out to us the person that most eminently resembles a little child, and we will immediately point out to him the greatest person in the world. It is not worldly grandeur that constitutes a person great, but moral excellence. The righteous is more excellent than his neighbour, whatever other advantages his neighbour may possess. Even the ungodly cannot but admire those most, who are most truly humble. At the very time that they revile and persecute them, they reverence them in their hearts, and have a secret wish that they themselves were like them. And the godly invariably admire those most who are the greatest proficients in this grace. The exaltation of such persons hereafter will certainly also be proportionably great. Perhaps there is not one in heaven nearer the throne of God than he, who, when on earth, called himself less than the least of all saints [Note: Eph 3:8.]. Indeed God has repeatedly assured us that he who humbleth himself shall be exalted.]

We may improve this subject,
1.

For conviction

[How few are there who truly resemble a little child! By the generality such a disposition would be considered as mean, abject, enthusiastic. But let it be remembered that it is absolutely necessary for the salvation of our souls. If a conversion from one particular sin was necessary in order to the salvation of the Apostles, notwithstanding all they had experienced, how much more must conversion be necessary for us, whose sins are so multiplied, and whose attainments are so small! Let us receive this declaration then as from the lips of him who shall judge the world. Let us apply to ourselves that solemn word, Ye must be born again [Note: Joh 3:3; Joh 3:5; Joh 3:7.]. And let us instantly seek that change which is so difficult in its attainment, and so important in its consequences.]

For instruction in righteousness

[Have we been renewed in the spirit of our minds? Let us seek to be renewed more and more. The Apostles had forsaken all for Christ, and yet relapsed into the sin of worldliness and ambition. We never can become so childlike but that there may be room for farther advancement. Let the presence then of a little child be always a source of instruction to us. Let parents in particular, and all who have the care of children, learn from them; yea, let them never look upon a child without learning from him what they are to be in the hands of God. Let every one of us observe his simplicity of mind, and unity of desire; and let us regard him as a pattern for imitation. This was the very mind of Christ himself, who, being in the form of God, humbled himself, and took upon him the form of a servant. Let the same mind therefore be in us that was in him [Note: Php 2:5-6.]. Seekest thou great things unto thyself? seek them not [Note: Jer 45:5.]: Mind not high things, but condescend to low things [Note: Rom 12:16. in the Greek.]. Whosoever would become the greatest of all, let him make himself the least of all, and the servant of all.]

Fuente: Charles Simeon’s Horae Homileticae (Old and New Testaments)

CONTENTS

The Lord Jesus is here teaching his disciples humbleness, He speaks of his own, and his Father’s good pleasure, for the salvation of everyone of his little ones. The Chapter is closed in a parable.

Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

“At the same time came the disciples unto Jesus, saying, Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven? (2) And Jesus called a little child unto him, and set him in the midst of them, (3) And said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. (4) Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven. (5) And whoso shall receive one such little child in my name receiveth me. (6) But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea.”

It is more than probable, the disciples, looking forward to a temporal kingdom, of their Master, (for it is most certain at this time and long after, they thought of no other; see Act 1:6 .) had often been parcelling out for themselves, some of the highest departments in it. Mar 9:33-34 . Hence the method our Lord took to correct their error, was as gentle and affectionate, as it was wise and conclusive. Among the old writers, it was conjectured that this little child, was Ignatius. But there is no warrant for the conclusion. This ancient father hath indeed, in his Latin Epistle to the Church at Smyrna, said, that “he saw Christ in the flesh, after his resurrection:” but this doth by no means warrant the former account of his being the child, which the Lord set in the midst of his disciples. But it is very blessed, (and the Reader I hope will not lose sight of it,) on what the Lord places the truest qualification for an entrance into his kingdom; namely, the conversion of the heart to God. For this proves an union with Christ, in the regeneration of the soul by God the Holy Ghost and to offend one of Christ’s little ones so regenerated; by despising them as Christ’s, and to make light of the Spirit’s work in their heart, subjects the despiser to everlasting misery. Joh 3:3 ; Gal 4:6 ; Mat 10:40-42 .

Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

Spiritual Sins

Mat 18:1

I. Spiritual Envy. Our text relates to the first occasion. Our Lord has just taken St. Peter, St. James and St. John away from the other disciples into the Mount of Transfiguration. The other disciples had doubtless plied them with questions, but they could get no information from them as to what had happened. We can understand their thought how on the part of the nine disciples there may have been envy at this time, envy of the other three because of the greater privilege which they enjoyed. There is, I am afraid, a disposition on the part of very many to envy those to whom Heaven has given blessings it has withheld from ourselves. We imagine that others are the favourites of Heaven. How does our Lord rebuke this spirit in the disciples? He takes a little child and sets that little child in the midst of them, as much as to say, ‘God has no favourites. God loves all, even this little child.’ You must receive this little child, and you must not imagine for a single moment that though God gives certain privileges to certain men which He denies to other men, these men therefore are the special favourites of Heaven. He has denied them to you because for your work they are not necessary. So it seemed good to the Father for the working out of His own great purposes in the world.’ On the other hand there may have been on the part of the other three a creeping in of pride that they had been thus singled out by the Master, that they had been admitted, as it were, into a great secret, and there was a temptation, it may be, to be proud towards the others. If there is anything of that kind, how the great Master scorns it. He tells these very men, that if there is one thing they are to beware of it is of this pride. Christ would teach both those who envy others and those who may be tempted to be proud of their gifts. He wants them to remember that these gifts are given for the building up of the Church, and not on account of their own merit.

II. Spiritual Ambition. In St. Mat 20:20 the circumstances are quite different. Our Lord has just foretold His coming death, and St. James and St. John are able to look through this announcement of the coming Cross and see the Kingdom beyond, and so they came to him and asked Him that they might sit one on His right hand and the other on His left in His kingdom. The other disciples are moved with envy of these two, and so our Lord speaks to the other ten. ‘Whosoever will be great among you, let him be your minister.’ There is an ambition which our Lord Jesus Christ does not blame. He does not blame this ambition of St. James and St. John. It was splendid faith, which was able to believe that even though there was to be the Cross there was certain to be the Crown. It was splendid faith which, just at that moment, when He foretold His Cross, was able to keep its eye fixed upon the Throne; and there was courage which enabled them to endure everything for the sake of that Throne. And Jesus Christ tells us how it is to be obtained. God helping, it is to be obtained by resignation, by submission, by drinking of the cup, by being ready to be baptized with the death. There must be a perfect submission of your life to God. The only man who really commands the homage of other men is the man who is willing to serve.

III. Spiritual Pride. The third occasion upon which there is this strife as to who shall be the greatest is in St. Luk 22:24 . They have now entered the upper chamber, and our Lord has told them, ‘One of you shall betray Me’. And we read in the twenty-fourth verse, ‘There was also a strife amongst them, which of them should be accounted the greatest’. Now it is more difficult to see exactly what led to strife on this third occasion, but I think, putting all the verses together, this strife, seems to have arisen after our Lord said, ‘One of you shall betray Me’. They seem to have looked one upon the other, doubting to whom He spoke. No doubt afterwards they began to ask, ‘Lord, is it I?’ I do not think they asked that question first. At first they began to think it must be one of the others who was going to betray Him. I fancy then one and the other began to think, ‘At any rate I will never betray Him’; and I fancy that this strife as to who was the greatest may be accounted for by that attitude at that moment. Our Lord rises from supper, takes a towel and girds Himself, and then goes round and washes all their feet, and then He comes and takes His garments and sits down again. Then they had learnt the lesson, and I venture to think that this third is an occasion of spiritual pride, looking down upon others because of some fancied superiority in spiritual things. How does our Lord deal with it? He teaches them that all need cleansing St. Peter as well as all the rest and He will go round and wash all their feet; and then they learn the lesson. Then, instead, of looking one upon another, doubting of whom He speaks, they begin to ask, crestfallen, ‘Lord, is it I?’ They begin to imagine there are signs of sin in themselves which could produce even such a dastardly deed as that.

References. XVIII. 1. J. A. Bain, Questions Answered by Christ, p. 40. James Denney, Gospel Questions and Answers, p. 98. XVIII. 1-3. H. Scott Holland, Christian World Pulpit, vol. lxxii. 1907, p. 267. J. H. Thom, A Spiritual Faith, p. 199. J. Martineau, Hours of Thought, vol. ii. p. 304. XVIII. 1-4. H. Scott Holland, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xlvi. 1894, p. 161. XVIII. 1-6 Stopford A. Brooke, ibid. vol. xli. 1892, p. 393. XVIII. 1-6, 10-14. D. Fraser, Metaphors in the Gospels, p. 158. XVIII. 1-14. A. Maclaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture St. Matthew XVIII.-XXVIII. p. 1.

A Child in the Midst ( christmas )

Mat 18:2

I. At Christmas time, especially, we bethink ourselves of those words of His. Whatever other meanings this sacred festival may have, this perhaps is the most prominent thought of it. Once a year a Divine child is set in the midst of us. Incarnate God and yet a little child. One who grew up to a perfect man and to possess all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, yet never left behind, as we do, the things which make childhood attractive. One who was called by His disciples to the last, ‘Thy holy child Jesus’.

II. All grown-up people at some time or other have longed for or dreamed of a return to childhood, and sighed as they realized the impossibility of it. Truly the lessons which we most need to learn are just those which are breathed forth from the artless lips and shouted in the innocent delights of a happy, hopeful child. And so at Christmas time, the child Jesus seats Himself in the midst and speaks to us. He bids the doctors depart, and the sages be silent, and the world’s science hold its lips, and the din of politics hush itself, and the clamours of prejudice and passion be still, that we may take in His heavenly teaching of faith, and innocence, and joy.

III. There are times when we get a little weary of all the grand talk about knowledge, and genius, and brilliant statesmanship, and the march of science and invention, and the cleverness of human foresight, and the omniscience of intellect, and the victories won over material forces, and the triumphs of civilization, and the cunning of worldly men. We have a suspicion that it is not doing for us all that the boasters say, that civilization does not quite mean paradise, and that grasp of mind is not the same thing as rest of soul. And therefore we will sit down at the feet of the child Jesus, and pray together that science may learn His humility, that intellect may have His reverence, that commerce may drink from His wells of purity and justice, that riches may clothe themselves with His simplicity and be filled with His self-denying spirit, that education and enlightenment may have their cold, freezing light made warm and gentle with His love, and that the nations as they ring the bells in honour of His nativity may bethink themselves of the spirit of the Divine child whom they worship, and gather from His simple innocence lessons of sublimest wisdom.

J. G. Greenhough, Christian Festivals and Anniversaries, p. 220.

The Child in the Midst (For Holy Innocents’ Day)

Mat 18:2

Today’s festival reminds us of the majesty with which childhood is invested in the Gospel.

I. Characteristics of Little Children. Fresh from the waters of baptism they are worthy to be companions to the holy angels. Theirs is the life spiritual, unsullied as yet by the life natural. Then, as intelligence begins to dawn, we notice their guilelessness and simplicity; their trustfulness and confiding faith; their truthfulness. They forgive most readily and forget right soon. They are ever hopeful. The memory of past sorrow passes from them with incredible swiftness; and straightway the mirror is as bright as ever. Is it fanciful to note the very slender hold they have on the things of earth? Their hold upon the things of earth is, at all events, speedily relaxed; while possessions, infancy has none.

II. There seems to be much Tender Beauty and fine catholic instinct and Gospel grace in this Feast of the Holy Innocents this day kept in honour of the babes of Bethlehem, whereby God caused infants to glorify Him by their deaths.

III. There was the Further Design of administering a yearly word of consolation, in this way, to parents. Scarcely a family is there in which some blossoms of hope have not been snatched away before they opened into flowers of promise, or ripened into fruits of joy. A balm has been provided in this day’s commemoration for the heart of many a parent whose child has been taken home. The Lord Jesus has called the child and set him in the midst, for of such is the kingdom of heaven.

References. XVIII. 2. E. A. Draper, The Gift of Strength, p. 60. E. Fowle, Plain Preaching to Poor People (7th Series), p. 49. T. E. Ruth, Christian World Pulpit, vol. lxxiv. 1908, p. 97. XVIII. 2, 3. H. Jones, ibid. vol. xxxvii. 1890, p. 86. W. H. Brookfield, Sermons, p. 47.

Conversion

Mat 18:3

What is there about little children which must also be found in those of a ripe age who would be citizens of the kingdom of God?

I. Pure Affection. In childhood, affection is spring-water. It just bubbles up most naturally, and is pure and delicious. In manhood, affection is too often tap-water. It has flowed through pipes of expediency, prudence, and calculation, and it has lost its sparkle and limpidity. ‘Master, who shall be greatest in the kingdom of heaven?’ There you have affection which is losing its purity, affection with a selfish aim, affection yoked to personal ambition. The Lord wants us to have the pure, uncalculating love of little children. He wants us to live so much with Him that to love Him shall be our highest bliss.

II. Fine Sensitiveness A child’s spirit is like a photographer’s sensitive plate, exceedingly impressionable, responding to the daintiest touch of the softest light. The joys and sorrows of the world find in children a most ready and sympathetic response. This fine sensitiveness is apt to be lost as childhood is left behind. Our impressionableness is prone to lose its delicacy. The grief and happiness of the world do not move us with the same facility as of old. Our character is inclined to harden in one of two directions towards a gloomy pessimism or towards a glaring worldliness. The child disposition may be symbolized by the month of April. April weather easily breaks into sunshine, and quite as easily melts into rain. We pass either into the dull heavy, pessimistic gloom of November, and it is difficult to move us into smiles, or into the hard, worldly glare of June, when it is difficult to melt us into tears.

III. Open-Mindedness. Childhood is an age of eager questionings, and not of dogmatic conclusions. It is a season of keen receptiveness, of intense love of the sweet light. Now that open-mindedness is apt to be lost with the growth of our years. Revelation is regarded as closed; the volume as ended; all light as given; so that our knowledge can now be arranged in final forms. That was certainly the condition of the people among whom Christ’s earthly ministry was passed. Their minds were closed, shut up tight against the reception of any new revelation from God. There were two forces actively at work closing their minds, and they are quite as active Today, the forces of pride and prejudice. When these abound in a life, every door and window is closed, and the ‘Light of the World’ will seek admission in vain.

J. H. Jowett, Meditations for Quiet Moments, p. 35.

Little Children

Mat 18:3

The call to be children is Christ’s supreme call. Failure to meet it was the cardinal sin of the respectable religious people of that day.

I. We must repent, and be like children. How easy and simple it is for a child to repent how bitter for us! The truth is we are afraid afraid to repent lest love and faith should carry us we know not where. We cover ourselves with many wrappings of position, calling, philosophy, just because we are cowards, and dare not face ourselves. Half the problems we think so dark, half the difficulties we multiply so proudly, take their origin in this. We dare not be alone. ‘I was afraid and hid myself, because I was naked.’

And yet the natural line is that of Christ to feel sorry like a child, humble like a small schoolboy who knows he is at the bottom. This is all we can do, when the facts stream in upon us. This, above all else, divides us from the world. We do, they do not, think repentance and humility a duty. Our enemies tell us that we are not better than they are, and often worse. Alas! we know it. It is because we are bad that we want to touch the hem of His garment, not because we are good.

II. But though it begins with humbled grief, repentance does not end there. The child who says he is sorry always adds, I’ll try and never do it again. That faith in the future, even more than the grief, is the note of the Christian. He believes, the world does not believe, that with God’s help he may become better.

III. For the child’s repentance, and the child’s amendment we need the inexhaustible faith of childhood, its infinite and inalienable romance. That which springs up naturally in human childhood is for us the supreme gift, a grace to be sought with prayer this faith, that is at the root of the careless gladness of children, and of the ease and buoyancy of saints like St. Francis this faith so uplifting, so hard to win, yet so essential. For without it where are we? Whether we look at the prospects of the Church or our own life, probability, rational calculation, common sense are all ranged on the cynic’s side.

People talk of the Church in danger the Church is always in danger; the miracle is not in her weakness, but in her existence. It is only as we throw ourselves on God that we shall certainly conquer for ‘of ourselves we have no power to help ourselves’. Yet with that aid victory is not merely likely, but certain.

J. Neville Figgis, The Gospel and Human Needs, p. 155.

Becoming As Little Children

Mat 18:3

What did our Lord mean by bidding us become as little children? Let us recall the circumstances in which our Lord spoke about the children; and we shall at once see.

I. The most striking of His references to children comes in that very solemn warning against despising them. ‘Take heed that ye despise not one of these little ones, for I say unto you that their angels in heaven do always behold the face of My Father in heaven.’ The imagery is drawn from the court of a king. Those who see the king’s face are they who stand immediately in his presence and are especially in his confidence. It is the privilege of innocent children to be very sure of God, to speak to Him familiarly in prayer, to rest in the assurance of His protection.

II. A second childlike quality which if we lose we must recover before we can be of the kingdom, is sincerity. The prayer, ‘I thank Thee, O Father,’ etc., was uttered after the rejection of His Gospel by the elders of the Jews and its acceptance by the band of Apostles; and to that it must refer. And, I would ask you, is not one of the most characteristic qualities of children this habit of theirs of looking straight at things and people and judging them to the best of their power without either prejudice or fear of consequences? This is the characteristic recognized in Hans Andersen’s delightful story of the Emperor’s Robe, which everybody pretended to see and admire, until a child cried out that there was no robe at all to see. Plainly it was this childlike sincerity in the Apostles what our Lord called ‘the single eye’ that distinguished them from the Pharisees and enabled them to receive a new revelation.

III. There is a third childlike quality to which our Lord calls attention, which also, if we have unhappily lost, we must labour to win back again un-pretentiousness, the absence of self-importance.

How can this temper be recovered? Clearly we cannot recover the unconscious unpretentiousness of childhood. But there are two or three things we can do. (1) We can aim at taking a real and unaffected interest in others, looking for their good qualities and valuing them. (2) We can make ourselves give exact reasons for any dislikes we feel. (3) We can at anyrate apply the check at the point where the unchristian feeling passes into word or deed.

H. C. Beeching, Church Family Newspaper, 3 April, 1908, p. 302.

Mat 18:3

You have the child’s character in these four things Humility, Faith, Charity, and Cheerfulness. That’s what you have got to be converted to. ‘Except ye be converted, and become as little children.’ You hear much of conversion nowadays; but people always seem to think they have got to be made wretched by conversion, to be converted to long faces. No, friends, you have got to be converted to short ones; you have to repent into childhood, to repent into delight and delightsomeness.

Ruskin, Crown of Wild Olive.

Wordsworth has told us the law of his own mind, the fulfilment of which has enabled him to reveal a new world of poetry: Wisdom is ofttimes nearer when we stoop, Than when we soar. That it is so likewise in religion, we are assured by those most comfortable words, Except ye become as little children, ye shall not enter the kingdom of heaven. The same truth is well expressed in the aphorism, which Charles the First, when he entered his name on the books at Oxford, in 1616, subjoined to it: Si vis omnia subjicere, subjice te rationi . Happy would it have been for him, if that which flowed thus readily from his pen had also been graven upon his heart. He would not then have had to write it on the history of his country with characters more glaring and terrible than those of ink.

Julius Hare.

References. XVIII. 3. M. Dods, Christ and Man, p. 226. Henry Alford, Quebec Chapel Sermons, vol. iii. pp. 67, 116. F. B. Woodward, Sermons (2nd Series), p. 1; see also Selected Sermons, p. 58. XVIII. 3, 4. S. H. Kellogg, The Past a Prophecy of the Future, p. 157. XVIII. 4. Stopford A. Brooke, Short Sermons, pp. 152, 158. XVIII. 4, 5. A. Murray, The Children for Christ, p. 233. XVIII. 5. J. B. Mozley, Sermons Parochial and Occasional, p. 297. XVIII. 6, 7. H. Ward Beecher, Sermons (1st Series), p. 511.

Causing Others to Sin

Mat 18:7

These is a sin which very many people think little about, the sin of making others sin. It is a real sin, a common sin, and a very dreadful sin. It was the first sin committed in the world, for it was the sin of the tempter who tempted the woman to disobey God; and it was the first fruit of the Fall of man, for the first thing which the woman did when she had sinned herself was to make the man sin also. It has ever been the great means of keeping sin alive and strong in the world; one generation has taught the next, and handed on its fatal tradition of evil.

I. Besides all sins, then, that we may commit ourselves for our own pleasure or advantage, out of the wickedness and folly of our own hearts, there is yet this burden, the sin of making others sin. And this may be in two ways. It may be in the way of direct temptation. I am not speaking of those who tempt others, as the devil tempts men, for the sake of making them do wrong. I am speaking of people who, when they are doing wrong themselves, do not care about, or see the additional harm and sin, of dragging others into it with them.

II. But the sin of making others sin comes in yet another way than that of direct temptation to others. It comes more subtly and secretly, and in a sense more awfully, because less under our direct control, in the example which others see in us and follow. We forget what we are doing merely by our example. We forget what wrong things we are sanctioning, not by trying to make others do them, but by letting them see that we do them without check or fear. We forget that the sins which we thus, often from mere thoughtlessness, encourage, are apt to increase tenfold in those who quote us for their warrant and pattern.

III. And is this a sin to think little about the sin of making others to sin? Surely it is one which we ought to take account of when we are trying to realize to ourselves what will be the strict and just judgment of God on our heart and life.

R. W. Church, Village Sermons (2nd Series), p. 255.

References. XVIII. 7. J. B. Lightfoot, Cambridge Sermons, p. 248. W. G. Rutherford, The Key of Knowledge, p. 134. A. G. Mortimer, The Church’s Lessons for the Christian Year, part iii. p. 178.

Self-mutilation for Self-preservation

Mat 18:8

We mark these three points. First, the case supposed, ‘If thy hand or thy foot cause thee to stumble’. Then the sharp, prompt remedy enjoined, ‘cut them off and cast them from thee’. Then the solemn motive by which it is enforced, ‘It is better for thee to enter into life maimed than, being a whole man, to be cast into hell-fire ‘. I. ‘The case supposed.’

1. Hand and foot and eye are, of course, regarded as organs of the inward self, and symbols of its tastes and capacities. Our Lord takes an extreme case. If members of the body are to be amputated and plucked out should they cause us to stumble, much more are associations to be abandoned and occupations to be relinquished and pleasures to be forsaken if they draw us away. But it is to be noticed that the whole stringency of the commandment rests upon that if. ‘If they cause thee to stumble,’ then, and not else, amputate. The powers are natural, the operation of them is perfectly innocent, but a man may be ruined by innocent things. And, says Christ, if that process is begun, then, and only then, does My exhortation come into force.

2. Then there is another point to be observed in this case supposed, and that is that the whole matter is left to the determination of personal experience. Nobody else has a right to decide for you what it is safe and wise for you to do in regard of things which are not in themselves wrong. Do not let your Christian liberty be interfered with by other people’s dictation in regard of this matter.

3. But, on the other hand, do not you be led away into things that damage you because some other man does them, as he supposes, without injury. There are some Christian people who are simply very unscrupulous and think themselves very strong; and whose consciences are not more enlightened, but less sensitive than the ‘narrow-minded brethren’ upon whom they look.

4. It does not mean that we are to abandon all things that are susceptible of abuse, for everything is so; and if we are to regulate our conduct by such a rule, it is not the amputation of a hand that will be sufficient.

5. Nor does the injunction mean that unconditionally we are to abandon all occupations in which there is danger. It can never be a duty to shirk a duty because it is dangerous.

II. ‘Cut it off and cast it from thee.’

Entire excision is the only safety. I myself am to be the agent of that. That is to say, we are to suppress capacities, to abandon pursuits, to break with associates when we find that they are damaging our spiritual life and hindering our likeness to Jesus Christ. We have to empty our hands of earth’s trivialities if we would grasp Christ with them. We have to turn away our eyes from earth if we would behold the Master; and rigidly to apply this principle of excision in order that we may advance in the Divine life.

Then it is not to be forgotten that this commandment, stringent and necessary as it is, is second best. The man is maimed, although it was for Christ’s sake that he cut off his hand, or put out his eye. His hand was given him that with it he might serve God, and the highest thing would have been that in hand and foot and eye he should have been anointed, like the priests of old, for the service of His Master. But until he is strong enough to use the faculty for God, the wisest thing is not to use it at all.

III. Christ rests His command of self-denial and self-mutilation upon the highest ground of self-interest. ‘It is better for thee.’

The maimed man may enter into life, and the complete man may perish. The maimed man may touch Christ with his stump, and so receive life, and the complete man may lay hold of the world and the flesh and the devil with his hands, and so share in their destruction.

A. Maclaren, Christ in the Heart, p. 293.

References. XVIII. 8. A. Maclaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture St. Matthew XVIII.-XXVIII. p. 9. F. B. Woodward, Sermons (1st Series), p. 47; see also Selected Sermons, p. 9. XVIII. 8, 9. P. N. Waggett, Christian World Pulpit, vol. lxxiii. 1908, p. 205.

Dying to Live

Mat 18:9

There is and there can be (according to our Lord) for all men but one supreme end and aim to ‘enter into life’. To ‘enter into life’ means (if we may attempt to define the expression) to enter into conscious and purposeful fellowship with God: first, here; and then, hereafter. This is the supreme aim; and all that interferes with it even though it be good in itself, as it often is must be ruthlessly sacrificed.

I. It is clear that this conception of our Lord’s is opposed to two widely contrasted ideals.

1. It is opposed to asceticism, in the more common use of that word. For it is evident that while our Lord regards the possession of ‘two eyes’ or ‘two feet’ as good in itself, and only counsels their sacrifice for the sake of something better, asceticism regards the sacrifice as in itself desirable and praiseworthy. Our Lord would prefer that we should use and enjoy all our faculties; that the world should be full of men with keen eyes and strong arms; asceticism would regard the one-eyed or the one-armed man as superior to normal and healthy human beings; it would exult in a maimed and mutilated humanity.

2. It is equally opposed to what is sometimes called stheticism. stheticism proclaims that the main object of man is to see and to feel. It declares that art is free, and must be free, from all moral considerations. It professes to worship the beautiful the eye must see, both eyes must see, all that is to be seen, whether they ‘offend,’ ’cause one to stumble,’ or no. Its aim preserved at all costs was to have two eyes and two hands to enjoy what it would call a ‘full and complete life’.

II. Now let us be quite sure that the religion of Christ is no enemy to art or culture. But while the religion of Christ finds full scope in its teaching and in its practice: in architecture, in stained-glass windows, in the music of the Church for the love of beauty to find its expression even in worship, it has never been forgetful of the awful danger which may beset, and often has beset, those who make the pleasure of the senses, even in their most refined forms, the great end of life.

This, at any rate, is what the Christian religion says. It says that a full life is a good thing, but a sound life is a better; and that to have a sound life a healthy life to ‘see salvation’ we must, if necessary, be prepared to sacrifice some of the fullness.

III. It is better ‘to enter into life’. For notice that whatever the sacrifice required in the present, the end is to be a fuller, not an emptier existence. If the lower is to go, it is only that the higher may be preserved. ‘Whosoever will lose his life shall save it.’

H. R. Gamble, Christianity and Common Life, p. 105.

Illustration. All parts of our nature were made by God. The best thing is that we should be able fully to exercise all our faculties; but we must be safe at the centre before we can be free at the circumference. Whatever exposes us to temptation that is too strong for us must at any cost be abandoned.

Bishop Gore.

Mat 18:10

What is Contempt, George Meredith asks in his Essay on Comedy, ‘but an excuse to be idly minded, or personally lofty, or comfortably narrow, not perfectly humane?… Anger is not much less foolish than disdain.’

He who despises mankind will never get the best out of either others or himself.’

De Tocqueville.

References. XVIII. 10. G. H. Morrison, Sunrise, p. 62. Morgan Dix, Sermons Doctrinal and Practical, p. 40. H. Varley, Spiritual Light and Life, p. 161. H. P. Liddon, Penny Pulpit, No. 467. F. E. Paget, Sermons for the Saints’ Days, p. 89. W. Boyd Carpenter, The Burning Bush, p. 21. J. S. Maver, Christian World Pulpit, vol. lxii. 1902, p. 438. A. J. Forson, ibid. vol. lxxii. 1907, p. 313. XVIII. 10, 11. J. M. Neale, Sermons Preached in Sackville College Chapel, vol. ii. p. 315; see also Readings for the Aged (3rd Series), p. 227. XVIII. 11. R. Davidson, Christian World Pulpit, vol. liv. 1898, p. 26. Horace Bushnell, Christ and His Salvation, p. 57. XVIII. 12. A. Maclaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture St. Matthew XVIII.-XXVIII. p. 19. XVIII. 12, 13. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxxv. No. 2083. XVIII. 12, 14. Cosmo Gordon Lang, Thoughts on Some of the Parables of Jesus, p. 263. XVIII. 13. A. Maclaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture St. Matthew XVIII.-XXVIII. p. 29. XVIII. 14. C. Vince, The Unchanging Saviour, p. 103. H. Montagu Butler, Harrow School Sermons, p. 230. Henry Alford, Quebec Chapel Sermons, vol. iv. p. 257.

Mat 18:15

With a little more patience and a little less temper, a gentler and wiser method might be found in almost every case; and the knot that we cut by some fine heady quarrel-scene in private life, or, in public affairs, by some denunciatory act against what we are pleased to call our neighbour’s vices, might yet have been unwoven by the hand of sympathy. R. L. Stevenson, Across the Plains, p. 314.

Mat 18:15

When a man is to be amended, it becomes the office of a friend to urge his faults and vices with all the energy of enlightened affection, to paint them in their most vivid colours, and to bring the moral patient to a better habit.

Burke.

You reprove me like a friend, and nothing comes so welcome to me as to be told of my faults.

Walpole to Mason.

Professor York Powell describes Richard Shute, the Oxford scholar, as a man ‘who had devotion enough for his friends to tell them when he thought they had got on the wrong path, and he would manage this with singular tact, so that a man, however young and vain, could hardly feel his raw self-respect hurt, even though Shute spoke plainly enough to show him his full folly. Not many men of his years have courage to help their friends in spite of themselves.’

References. XVIII. 15-17. E. Griffith Jones, The Cross and the Dice-Box, pp. 53, 69. Lyman Abbott, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xlix. p. 156. XVIII. 15-27. G. Jackson, ibid. vol. lviii. 1900, p. 284. XVIII. 17. W. Binnie, Sermons, p. 202. W. Farquhar Hook, Hear the Church, p. 3. XVIII. 18. C. Silvester Home, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xliii. 1893, p. 35. XVIII. 18-20. J. Laidlaw, Studies in the Parables, p. 283. XVIII. 19. R. W. Church, Village Sermons (2nd Series), p. 274. K. Lahusen, Christian World Pulpit, vol. lxxiii. 1908, p. 363. XVIII. 19, 20. ‘Plain Sermons’ by contributors to the Tracts for the Times, vol. ii. p. 206.

Social Worship

Mat 18:20

This text has no special reference to meetings for worship, but includes these as well as all others. Christ’s own definition of a Church is independence of all times and places.

I. Social Worship its Grounds.

(1) The necessity of worship as the expression of religion. (2) The necessity of private worship from the individuality of man and the tensely individual character of the acts of religion. (3) Necessity of social worship from the equally obvious destination of man for society.

II. Social Worship its Nature.

(1) ‘In My name.’ That is, He, Christ, is the bond of union. It must be in conscious obedience to Him, as opposed to a mere formal meeting. (2) It should be as far as possible the engagement of the whole man. (3) It should be common prayer involving the participation of all, possibly formal. (4) It should have the two parts, speaking to God and to man.

III. The Blessings of Social Worship.

(1) The help to deeper devotion in the outward associations of fixed times and places. These material helps are like reservoirs which hold supplies that feed a town. (2) The expression and help to highest unity. A counterbalance to personal cares and peculiarities. Our prayers are apt to take one special form; selfish wishes, personal peculiarities. (3) Revelation of the oneness beneath all social and intellectual distinctions. (4) That the Gospel alone has preaching thus embedded in its services. The living voice will always be the most potent instrument for the conversion of men.

A. Maclaren.

Mat 18:20

The devout meditation of the isolated man, which flitted through his soul, like a transient tone of Love and Awe from unknown lands, acquires certainty, continuance, when it is shared by his brother men. Where two or three are gathered together in the name of the Highest, then first does the Highest, as it is written, appear among them to bless them; then first does an Altar and act of united Worship open a way from Earth to Heaven; whereas, were it but a single Jacob’s ladder, the heavenly Messengers will travel, with glad tidings and unspeakable gifts for men.

Carlyle.

References. XVIII. 20. A. A. Bonar, British Weekly Pulpit, vol. ii. p. 237. B. F. Westcott, The Historic Faith, p. 115. C. C. Collins, Public Worship in the City Churches, Sermons, 1895-99. F. S. Webster, In Remembrance of Me, p. 11. J. Wright, The Guarded Gate, p. 171. Lyman Abbott, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxxix. 1891, p. 156. H. Scott Holland, ibid. vol. xlvii. 1895, p. 385; see also vol. lvii. 1900, p. 393. F. Temple, ibid. vol. lii. 1897, p. 216. J. G. Stevenson, ibid. vol. lxv. 1904, p. 17. E. Cornwall-Jones, ibid. vol. lxxi. 1907, p. 245. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxx. No. 1761. XVIII. 21. J. A. Bain, Questions Answered by Christ, p. 46. C. Parsons Reichel, Sermons, p. 362. XVIII. 21, 22. G. Jackson, Christian World Pulpit, vol. lxiv. 1903, p. 38.

Mat 18:21-22

When thou turn’st away from ill,

Christ is this side of thy hill.

When thy heart says, ‘Father, pardon,’

Then the Lord is in thy garden.

When to love is all thy wit,

Christ doth at thy table sit.

George Macdonald.

‘If you are exchanging measurable maxims for immeasurable principles,’ wrote F. W. Robertson in a letter, ‘you are surely rising from the mason to the architect. “Seven times?” no no no Seventy times seven. No maxim a heart principle. I wonder whether St. Peter wholly understood that, or got a very clear conception from it.’

References. XVIII. 22. C. S. Robinson, Simon Peter, p. 310. A. Maclaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture St. Matthew XVIII.-XXVIII. p. 37. XVIII. 23-25. A. Brown, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xli. 1892, p. 68. R. Winterbotham, The Kingdom of Heaven, p. 111. T. Guthrie, Parables of Our Lord, p. 242. XVIII. 25. S. Baring-Gould, Village Preaching for a Year (2nd Series), vol. ii. p. 184. XVIII. 27-34, 35. J. H. Jellett, The Elder Son, p. 55. XVIII. 28. A. R. Buckland, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xliv. 1893, p. 316. XVIII. 32, 33. W. H. Hutchings, Sermon-Sketches (2nd Series), p. 221. A. G. Mortimer, Life and Its Problems, p. 71.

Mat 18:33

The correcting, hallowing, consoling rush of pity.

Pater.

‘Nothing,’ says Charlotte Bront, of her sister Emily, ‘nothing moved her more than any insinuation that the faithfulness and clemency, the long-suffering and loving-kindness which are esteemed virtues in the daughters of Eve become foibles in the sons of Adam. She held that mercy and forgiveness are the Divinest attributes of the Great Being who made both man and woman, and that what clothes the Godhead in glory can disgrace no form of feeble humanity.’

References. XVIII. 33. F. E. Paget, Faculties and Difficulties for Belief and Unbelief, p. 201. Henry Alford, Quebec Chapel Sermons, vol. v. p. 184. A. MacLeod, Days of Heaven Upon Earth, p. 100.

The Unjust Steward

Mat 18:35

This parable does not deal with the limits of human mercifulness, but with its ground and pattern. If we understand these, we shall not need to ask, as St. Peter asked, ‘How often?’ for the question will answer itself.

I take the whole parable for consideration, and I think we shall find that it yields us great thoughts about our relations to God and men.

I. The King and his Debtor. The analogy between sin and debt is imperfect, and we are not to look for correspondence between the details of the parable and the realities of men’s relation to God.

The one point is the immense sum owing. The debt is stated in talents each talent represents a large sum. So each sin against God is great.

II. The Debtor’s Prayer. Here again the imperfect analogy, for no future righteousness can wipe out past sin. ‘I will pay thee all.’ How long would it take a penniless bankrupt to amass 10,000 talents?

III. The King’s Mercy. This is as great as his severity had been. He is moved with compassion. He goes far beyond the debtor’s petition. What seems all but incredible in men and rarely found in them represents God’s mercy.

IV. The Contrast between the Treatment Shown to the Forgiven Debtor and his Treatment to his Debtor. He had just been the object of mercy which should have made his heart glow. He had come through the agonies of an experience which should have made him very tender and very ready to do as he had been done by. The hands which were wrung in agony and entreaty are now throttling his ‘fellow-servant’. Such inconsistency excites the notice of his fellow-servants, who tell it to the Lord. The world will be quick to notice if Christians show malice and unmercifulness. Note that ‘wrath’ comes in here for the first time. Unmercifulness in a recipient of God’s mercy is a worse sin than many which are more recognized. The cancelled debt is revived. It is a solemn thought that if we cherish any feelings but those of merciful readiness to forgive, our possession of the sense of God’s pardon is dimmed. No man can at the same moment feel God’s mercy lapping him in its warm folds, and give way to the emotions which are naturally excited by another man’s faults to us. Observe that the parable lays down the principle that the personal reception of God’s mercy in Christ precedes our showing mercy to others. And, with equal clearness, that showing mercy is the proper result of having received that Divine mercy, and the condition of retaining it.

So the two lessons are: (1) Recognize your debt to God and seek forgiveness by Christ. (2) See that you imitate what you hope in, and keep the grace received by letting it shape your lives and characters.

A. Maclaren.

Mat 18:35

In a letter to James Boswell, Dr. Johnson observes: ‘I had great pleasure in hearing that you are at last on good terms with your father. Cultivate his kindness by all honest and manly means. Life is but short; no time can be afforded but for the indulgence of real sorrow or contests upon questions seriously momentous. Let us not throw away any of our days upon useless resentment, or contend who shall hold out longest in stubborn malignity. It is best not to be angry; and best, in the next place, to be quickly reconciled.’

References. XVIII. 35. G. W. Herbert, Notes of Sermons, p. 195. Canon Wilberforce, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xlvi. 1894, p. 280. W. R. Huntington, ibid. vol. lxxiii. 1908, p. 141. XIX. 4-6. E. W. Langmore, The Divine Law in Relation to Marriage with a Deceased Wife’s Sister, Sermons, 1818-83. XIX. 5. Canon R. E. Sanderson, Church Times, vol. xxxvi. 1896, p. 110. D. M. Ross, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxxviii. 1890, p. 301.

Fuente: Expositor’s Dictionary of Text by Robertson

Chapter 72

Prayer

Almighty God, we have come at the appointed time to the appointed place, and we know that thou wilt be more gracious to hear than we can be expressive in prayer; thine answer is greater than our request, as thy grace is greater than our sin. Thou art able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think: as the heaven is high above the earth, so is thy thought high above our thought. In thy presence we see our littleness, and before the unsearchable riches of Christ we see our poverty; but those riches were gathered for us he who was rich for our sakes became poor, that we through his poverty might become rich. Through death we have life, through blood we have cleansing and forgiveness, yea, thou hast made the wrath of man to praise thee, and out of evil hast thou brought infinite good.

Behold, thou dost work by thine own way, and none can search thee: we cannot find thee out unto perfection, nor can we understand the mind of the Lord and express it in words of men. We will therefore trust thee, resting in thee with unquestioning love, casting all our care, as we have cast all our sin, upon him who is mighty to save. We will not question thee, nor set up our reason against thee, nor endeavor to clear away the cloud by our own feeble breath. Whilst we are in the cloud do thou speak to us, and thy voice shall give us security and joy.

Through all the week thou hast kept us; thou hast beset us behind and before, and laid thine hand upon us. Thou hast measured out unto us our food, and thou hast kept for us a place of rest, and thou hast not withheld the blessing of sleep. The light has been the brighter for thy presence, and the darkness has rested upon us, not as a fear, but as a benediction, because of thy tender care. Gathered together in thine house our hearts glow with ardent love, and our mouth is opened in sweet and holy hymn, which we breathe unto the heavens because we must praise the hand from which our blessings come.

As for our sin, it is our daily distress; we loathe it and repeat it; we pray for its forgiveness and then commit it again. Yet the blood of Jesus Christ thy Son cleanseth from all sin. If our daily sin be upon us, so is the daily sacrifice near at hand the eternal cross, the tree of life, the way to pardon. “God forbid that we should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.” We would be crucified with Christ we would know the fellowship of his sufferings that we may also know the power of his resurrection. We would be fellow-sufferers with Christ, he atoning, we repenting: he the one propitiation, and we the receivers of the atonement which he made. Grant unto us sweet answers to this our prayer, then shall all other prayers be answered in this infinite reply, “He that spared not his own Son, but freely delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?” Grant us this unity with Christ, this identity with the Son of God, this tender, gracious, growing oneness with the very heart of thy grace; then shall all our life be within the ministry of thy care, and we shall lack no good thing.

We put our life into thine hands: it was thine before it was ours, it will be thine again. We brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. Our days are swifter than a post; yea, swifter than a weaver’s shuttle; yea, swifter than a flying shadow, and there is none that abideth. Help us whilst it is called today to call upon thee with our whole heart and to serve thee with our whole strength.

We have come to bless thee for blessings at home: for the care of the little ones, for all the light that has made the house glad, for all the success with which thou hast blessed the week. Hear us when we praise thee for special revelations of thy grace for close and tender presences of thyself amid distraction and darkness and manifold vexation. Keep our hearts and minds in the love of Christ, save us from all bitterness of feeling, spare us from the distress of wrath, clamour, and uncharitableness, help us to forgive our enemies as we ourselves are forgiven of God. May we live the noble life and breathe the ever-enlarging prayer, and realize the ever-gracious blessing of our Father’s presence. Amen.

Mat 18:1-14

1. At the same time came the disciples unto Jesus, saying, Who is the greatest (superior) in the kingdom of heaven?

2. And Jesus called a little child (probably one of Peter’s) unto him, and set him in the midst of them.

3. And said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.

4. Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven.

5. And whoso shall receive one such little child in (on account of) my name receiveth me.

6. But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea.

7. Woe (an interjection of sorrow) unto the world because of offences! for it must needs be that offences come; but woe to that man by whom the offence cometh!

8. Wherefore if thy hand or thy foot offend thee (cause thee to sin) cut them off, and cast them from thee: it is better for thee to enter into life halt or maimed, rather than having two hands or two feet to be cast into everlasting fire.

9. And if thine eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee: it is better for thee to enter into life with one eye, rather than having two eyes to be cast into hell fire.

10. Take heed that ye despise not one of these little ones; for I say unto you, That in heaven their angels do always behold the face of my Father which is in heaven.

11. For the Son of man is come to save that which was lost.

12. How think ye? If a man have an hundred sheep, and one of them be gone astray, doth he not leave the ninety and nine, and goeth into the mountains, and seeketh that which is gone astray?

13. And if so be that he find it, verily I say unto you, he rejoiceth more of (over) that sheep, than of the ninety and nine which went not astray.

14. Even so it is not the will of your Father which is in heaven, that one of these little ones should perish.

Greatness In the Kingdom

AT the same time came the disciples unto Jesus, saying, Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” So blatantly can we debase the sublimest subjects! See how they put their words together, and learn from the wild incoherence how possible it is for us to commit the same impious ironies. “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” as if there could be any greatness there of our making, as if our stature could outshoulder the great dignities, as if we could be somebody in the infinite kingdom of light and purity and grace. These men were not struck by the grandeur of the idea of the heavenly kingdom, they were plagued with the vexatious question as to which of them should cut a figure in it!

Is it not so now, to some extent? Are we overwhelmed by the occasion, or do we lift our heads above it and wave our hand over it as if we were bigger after all? In the church, for instance, in holy psalm, in tender prayer, in the reading of the revealed word, how do we deport ourselves? Do we shrink away into an all but invisible perspective, being nothing when such light shines and such music thrills the air, or do we come forward in bold, plain self-assertiveness? The subject when that subject is the kingdom of heaven should always be greater than the men who approach its consideration. In that sense the altar should be greater than the suppliant; for the altar stands for God and the suppliant but a piping, whining sinner that may hardly let his voice be heard lest his very prayer should become an impiety and his intercession aggravate the guilt which he deplores.

One would have thought that men having had given to them the phrase, “the kingdom of heaven,” would have been so dazzled by its glory and so impressed by its tender graciousness, that they would never have thought of themselves at all, and especially never have thought of their gradation, or their status within its infinite circumference. I tell you we all have learned the wicked trick of spoiling everything God gives to us! We would pollute the stars if we could clutch them. We have spoiled the earth, ripped it up into millions of graves, and made it an Aceldama, and if we could only get at the stars we should disfigure and mar their symmetry and music.

Yet how keen we are in blaming the ancients for all these things. We sing about the wicked Jews, and relieve ourselves by historical psalmody. We reproach the past, not knowing that we ourselves crucified the Lord of Glory, we made the cross, stretched the sufferer upon it, drove the nails, and crushed the thorns into the throbbing temples. Do not let us put away such events as if they were historical only; that is a subtle device of the enemy. Men write books now against Christ or against the Christian theology, and they only succeed in so far as they can dig a great historical chasm between the facts and the critics. My Christ is crucified today: there is no space of time between me and him. If I could scatter eighteen centuries between us I should gain so much relief from self-torment. But he is the same yesterday, today, and for ever, and whilst we are in this world we must be partakers of its greatest tragedy. We cannot separate between the cross and ourselves any number of years that may mitigate our personal heinousness in the matter of this infinite responsibility.

So, then, we are asking the old questions now, repeating the old deeds today, and at this very moment there may be uppermost in some men’s thoughts the inquiry “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” We are not appalled by the subject: contrariwise, we are familiar with every sacred phrase yea, we have taken God’s whole revelation and gone over it in words so frequently that now we repeat them almost mechanically. Could we think ourselves back to the time of Matthew the Apostle, who gives us the expressive phrase, “the kingdom of heaven” could we think and feel ourselves back until the phrase came to us for the first time, what throb of feeling, what high and sacred animation, what marvellous challenges of the imagination should we feel! Yet that phrase may be repeated so often that we may begin ourselves to map it out into greater, smaller greater, lesser higher, lower superior and inferior, and allot men to its various occupancy. Familiarity may destroy reverence: we may repeat our sacred phrases so often as to lose their lustre or their bloom.

Jesus Christ now answers the question with a great but most unexpected reply: “And Jesus called a little child unto him, and sat him in the midst of them, and said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.” As if he should say, “You are asking who is greatest in the kingdom of heaven, forgetting the earlier question, how to get into the kingdom of heaven. Pause before you begin to take your seat in the kingdom of heaven: be sure you are in the kingdom itself.” The question takes upon itself a thousand wrong accents, and smites like a great wind from every corner of heaven. “Before you preach the truth, be sure you feel its power; before you theologise be sure you can pray; before you hold high controversy on things literary and theological, be sure your hearts have been cleft in twain, and all your self-righteousness has been expelled from you like the poison of hell. “Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.” “You are asking me who is greatest in the kingdom of heaven I draw your minds to an earlier question: Are we in heaven’s kingdom have we mistaken the vestibule for the temple have we mistaken the gate for the inner fire, and the gentle, infinite hospitality of God?” Let us first consider whether we are in the kingdom, and in proportion as we feel ourselves to be in the kingdom of heaven shall we have little concern as to our particular place within the glowing sphere.

Speeches like these of Christ’s go right down to the very core and root of things, and make us fundamental in our questioning, vital, anxious even to agony in the inquiries which we address to him. A small thing to settle gradation, if we have not entered into the mystery of participation.

Jesus Christ was always fundamental in his teaching. Who but himself dare have represented the kingdom of heaven and his greatness by a little child? Who but himself had the sublime audacity, the infinite tranquillity of power, which enabled him to say, “The kingdom of heaven is like a grain of mustard seed?” Christ lifted up the little into grand typology; Christ came to seek and to save that which was lost; Christ lighted the candle and swept the house diligently till he found the tenth piece; Christ wandered over the mountains to seek the strayed one; Christ gave commandment to gather up the fragments that nothing be lost. He is great walking upon the sea, great when standing at the grave of Lazarus, and, with a loud voice that sent its resurrectional resonance through all the chambers of the dead, says, “Lazarus, come forth;” but, oh, to me in my tenderest moments, when my heart is all tears and my life is lifted up into one crying prayer, he is greatest when he calls a child and reveals the kingdom of heaven under the infinite simplicity of a child’s trustful, loving, gentle heart.

It was a great day in the Church when that little child stood there and all unconsciously represented the kingdom of heaven. Dear little child! so little that the Saviour took him up into his arms: a hand all dimples, a cheek so fair, made for the kiss of love and trust and blessing, and eyes that had no speculation in them, still a gentle wonder of dreamy love, looking round itself wondering at the scene. And yet that child was made that day to set forth to all the ages the kingdom of heaven! Where, then, are the great, the noble, the wise, the rich? Where are the ingenious, the intellectual, the learned, the men of mighty brain and mind? Where are they? There is folly in that question. I have always found that in proportion as a man is truly learned is he truly modest; in proportion as a man is really great is he really childlike. Herein I would repeat my own experience as a preacher: if I have to preach one sermon upon which my whole future depends, and if I have to choose my audience, I shall fill the church with the greatest preachers, the greatest scholars, the greatest men they will have more pity for me, more sympathy with me, keener insight into any faculty I may possess, than inferior men can have. As it is better to fall into the hands of God than into the hands of men, so it is better to fall into the hands of the higher class of men than into the hands of those who are inferior in conception, insight, and range of sympathy.

Jesus Christ in this discourse, as in every other, was himself ‘ the sermon. He humbled himself and took upon him the form of a servant; he was rich yet for our sakes became poor; he took a towel and girded himself and washed the feet of his disciples, and said, “Ye call me Master and Lord: so I am; if I therefore have washed your feet, ye ought also to wash one another’s feet. Learn of me, for I am meek and lowly of heart, and ye shall find rest unto your souls.” He shall not strive, nor cry, nor cause his voice to be heard in the streets. We are called not only, therefore, to see the child in his arms, but to see the still younger, purer child that held the typical one. They are both children: the child represents the Christ, the Christ represents the Father: “He that receiveth me receiveth not me, but him that sent me.”

Herein, then, is a practical inquiry: have we the child-heart? We might pause here to rebuke those who found denominations upon isolated texts. In ancient times there was a denomination actually built upon this one expression about the little child; people who mistook childishness for childlikeness built a denomination upon the illustration here given by Jesus Christ. They thought the more childish they were the more like Christ they would be. I will not recite to you the enormities they perpetrated in the name of childhood. I only dwell upon the point to show you how possible it is so to strain the letter as to miss the spirit, and how mischievous it is to pervert the sweetest and grandest sayings of the Lord. Childlikeness does not mean ignorance: childlikeness does not mean pretended modesty; childlikeness does not mean that a man who is conscious of his power should tell a lie, saying that he is not at all conscious of spiritual strength and insight. Childlikeness is simplicity, trustfulness, utter unconsciousness in the sense of vain boasting and glory, gentleness, love, sincerity of heart and motive. Do not strain the letter, but endeavour to penetrate the meaning of the spirit. Few words are so misunderstood as childlikeness, modesty, amiability, simplicity. Whenever I hear of a preacher who is so simple, so very simple, I feel no particular warming of heart towards him; it may be that he is only inane, wanting in vigour, jejune, sapless, fireless. Simplicity do not abuse the word simplicity is the last result of wisdom, energy, robustness, and intellectual industry. Simplicity is an outcome, a result, as rest is. The worlds that fly around their centres are at rest because of their velocity. This childlikeness is not an ostentation, not a strenuous endeavour to become a child outwardly and literally; it is wholly different, and can be only understood in its deeper senses and finer applications by those who have passed through the great spiritual process of crucifixion, having had all boasting taken out of them by the cross of Christ.

So Jesus proceeds to say that if the hand offend, or the foot offend, or the eye offend, there must be cutting off and plucking out. Whatever stands in the way of that grand spiritual reduction which ends in childlikeness must be taken away. Where then are we? Where are the children, the little children? We are theological are we Christian? We are clever are we good? We talk about Christ do we live Christ? We defend the Gospel do we exemplify it? We speak with the tongues of men and of angels have we charity? How do we take rebukes, slights, rebuffs, misconceptions, misrepresentations? There is an ostentation of childlikeness, and I know of no outrage much greater upon the spirit of the sanctuary than to appear to be children when we have not in reality the child’s heart.

This course of reasoning would be attended were it carried out legitimately by many practical results. Many would be first who are now last, some might be last who are now first. At all events, the great vital question would be put by every man to his own heart am I in the kingdom? Jesus Christ will not have the child spirit slighted, insulted, or neglected: “Whoso shall offend one of these little ones that believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depths of the sea.” It was the custom in Syria and in Greece so to treat criminals. It was an ancient custom to encase criminals in lead and to throw them into the sea furthest from the shore. Jesus Christ is not now inventing a new method of punishment: he is not speaking vindictively, he is adapting his conversation to what was well known to the people to whom he addressed himself. “Whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me.” Why, what harm can there be in that? It is the pastime of the church, it is one of the chief recreations of the world, to snub the Christian, to contemn the praying man, to give the suppliant a nudge as you pass him, and to laugh at the fool who speaks into vacuity. The Master takes another view of the case. We shall have to account for our contempt. The idle words we speak against sacred exercises and spiritual relationships will gather themselves up into a severe accusation against us one day. These children, men of the child heart, keep the world sweet. Ten righteous men saved the city, the child-heart saves the world from the decrepitude and ghastliness of old age.

When this doctrine is realized, we shall live more in grace than in genius; our life will be simple because deeply rooted in God and in truth. Instead of vexing ourselves with ten thousand questions which never can be settled, we shall nestle ourselves in the heart of the Father. Recall the case of Abraham. In his case one of the greatest words in human speech or human history had its beginning. The Lord took him out one night and showed him all that was visible of the host of heaven, and said to the childless wanderer, “Look up even SO shall thy seed be.” What followed? And Abraham, no longer the mighty chief and audacious explorer of lands unknown, no longer the owner of countless flocks and riches of an Eastern kind, became himself ‘a little child: and Abraham BELIEVED God the first time the word “believed” occurs in the Bible in that instance and Abraham believed God: said to Sight, “Stand back!” said to the laws of Nature, “Hold your peace!” said to a misgiving heart, “Silence, thou lying tempter!” And he believed God.

How much there is in that word believe as it was first written! Abraham nestled in the heart of God, nurtured and fed himself upon the Divine vitality such is the meaning of the word “believed.” Abraham as a little child nestled in the very heart of God, so he became the father of the faithful, the head of all the children. He exemplified the child heart, relinquishing his own grandeur, his own ability, his own social status, his own will. Impoverishing himself of all that the world would have counted characteristic as to grandeur and force, he became a little child, and went into the warm heart and fed himself upon the Divine life and love.

May we thus know by manifold discipline, by anxious experience, even by painful suffering, what we can never be taught by the mere letter how wondrous, how restful is the child-heart!

Fuente: The People’s Bible by Joseph Parker

SEASON OF RETIREMENT PART IV THE CLOSING INCIDENTS

Harmony, pages 94-103 and Mat 17:14-18:35 ; Mat 8:19-22 ; Mar 9:9-50 ; Luk 9:37-62 ; Joh 7:2-10 .

When Christ and the three disciples who were with him at the transfiguration returned from the Mount they saw a great multitude gathered about the nine and the scribes questioning with them. Then follows the story of the failure of the nine to cast out the evil spirit of a demoniac boy and Jesus’ rebuke of their little faith, upon which our Lord healed the boy and restored him to his father. This story is interesting from several points of view. First, the case was an exceptional One and so difficult that the nine were unable to cast the Evil spirit out. Second, this is the only case of demonical epilepsy in the New Testament, the description of which by Mark is very vivid and much more in detail than that of either of the other evangelists. Third, Christ’s momentary impatience at dwelling amid such an environment is nowhere else so expressed, perhaps the more distressing from the contrast with the scene of the transfiguration, a few hours before. Fourth, the rebuke of the boy’s father is a fine lesson. He said, “If thou canst do anything, have compassion on us, and help us.” Jesus answered, “If thou canst!” We see here the point of the rebuke. Herefore we have found the form of faith that said, “If thou wilt, thou canst,” but this man reversed it: “If thou canst do anything, help us.” But the rebuke of Jesus set him right in his faith and then healed the boy. What a lesson for us! So often the Lord has to set us right in our faith before he can consistently give us the blessing. Fifth, the explanation which Jesus gave of their failure and the possibilities of God through the children of faith are a most helpful encouragement to the Christian of today. All difficulties may be removed by the power of faith. Sixth, the prescription of prayer as a means to the strengthen- ing of faith is a valuable suggestion as to the mans of our overcoming. Prayer is the hour of victory for the child of God. This is the winning point for every worker in the kingdom. All victories for God are won in the closet before the day of battle. Let us heed the lesson.

While on the way from Caesarea Philippi Jesus revealed again to his disciples that he must suffer and die and rise again, but they did not understand and were afraid to ask him. They were very slow to comprehend the idea of a suffering Messiah. This they did not understand fully until after his resurrection. This thought is more fully developed in connection with his submitted test of his messiahship which is discussed elsewhere in this INTERPRETATION OF THE GOSPELS.

When they came to Capernaum an event occurred which made a lasting impression on Peter. This was the incident of the half-shekel for the Temple. When asked if his Lord was accustomed to pay the Temple tax, Peter said, “Yes.” But Peter did not have the money to pay it with, and our Lord, after showing Peter that he (Jesus) was exempt, told him to go to the sea and take the piece of money from the mouth of a fish and pay the Temple tax for Peter and himself, in order that there might be left to the Jews no occasion of stumbling with reference to him as the Messiah.

In section 70 (Mat 18:1-14 ; Mar 9:33-50 ; Luk 9:46-50 ) we have the lesson on how to be great, which arose from their dispute as to who among them should be the greatest. To this Jesus replied that the greatest one of all was to be servant of all, and illustrated it by the example of a little child. The characteristic of the little child to be found in the subjects of his kingdom is humility.. Then he goes on to show that to receive one of such little children was to receive him. Here John, one of the “sons of thunder,” interrupted him with a question about one whom he saw casting out demons, yet he was not following with them. Then Jesus, after setting John right, went on with his illustration of the little child, showing the awful sin of causing a little one who believes on him to stumble, and pronounces a woe unto the world because of the occasion of stumbling, saying that these occasions must come, but the woe is to the man through whom they come. The occasions of stumbling arise from the sin of man and the domination of the devil, but that does not excuse the man through whom they come.

Now follows a pointed address in the second person singular, showing the cases in which we become stumbling blocks, in which he also shows the remedy, indeed a desperate remedy for a desperate case. This passage needs to be treated more particularly. Then, briefly, what the meaning of the word “offend”? If thy hand offend thee, if thine eye offend thee, if thy foot offend thee; what is the meaning of this word? We find it in the English in the word “scandal,” that is, “scandal” is the Anglicized form of the Greek word here used. But the word “scandalize,” as used in the English, does not express the thought contained in this text, since that is a modern derived meaning of the word. Originally it meant the trigger of a trap, that trigger which being touched caused the trap to fall and catch one, and from that of its original signification it came to have four well-known Bible meanings. An instance of each one of the four meanings, fairly applicable to this passage here, will be cited. First, it means a stumbling block, that which causes any one to fall, and in its spiritual signification, that which causes any one to fall into a sin. If thy hand causeth thee to fall into a sin, if thine eye causeth thee to fall into a sin, if thy foot causeth thee to fall into a sin, cut it off, pluck it out. It is more profitable to enter heaven maimed than to have the whole body cast into hell. The thought is as we see it in connection with a stumbling block, that we fall unexpectedly into the sin, as if we were going along not looking down and should suddenly stumble over something in our regular path, where we usually walk. Now, “if thine eye causeth thee, in the regular walk of life, to put something in that pathway that, when you were not particularly watching, will cause you to stumble and fall into a sin” that is the first thought of it.

Its second meaning is an obstacle or obstruction that causes one to stop. He does not fall over this obstacle, but it blocks his way and he stops. He does not fall, but he does not go on. To illustrate this use of the word, John the Baptist, in prison, finding the progress of his faith stopped by a doubt, sent word to Christ to know, “Art thou he that should come, or do we look for another?” Evidently showing that some unbelief had crept into his heart that had caused him to stop. He was not going on in the direction that he had been going, and hence, when Jesus sent word to John of the demonstrations of his divinity, He added this expression, using this very word, “Blessed is the man who is not offended in me.” “Blessed is the man who in me does not find an obstacle that stops him.” Anything that is an occasion of unbelief fulfils this meaning of the word. If thine eye causes something to be put in thy path that suggests a doubt as to the Christian religion, and by that doubt causeth thee that had been going steadily forward, to stop, pluck it out. Let me give another illustration: In the parable of the sower, our Saviour, in expounding why it was that the grain that had fallen upon the rock and came up and seemed to promise well for awhile, afterward, under the hot sun, withered away and perished, says, “There are some people that hear the word of God and, for awhile, seem to accept it, but when tribulation or persecution cometh they are offended they are stopped.” That is the meaning of the word strictly. Persecution and tribulation cometh and an obstacle is put in their path that causes them to stop. Now, if thine eye causes an obstacle to be put in thy Christian path, that causeth thee to stop and not go forward, pluck it out. Yet another illustration: Our Saviour, who had announced a great many doctrines that people could easily understand and accept, suddenly, on one occasion, announced a hard doctrine, very hard, and from that time it is said that many of his disciples followed him no more. They stopped. Now, there was something in them, in the eye or the hand or the foot, that found an occasion of unbelief in the doctrine he announced, and they stopped. I remember a very notable instance, where a man, deeply impressed in a meeting, and giving fair promise of having passed from death to life, happened to be present when the scriptural law of the use of money was expounded, and he stopped. Some obstacle stretched clear across his path. It was the love of money in his heart. He couldn’t recognize God’s sovereignty over money. As if he had said, “If you want me to cry; if you want me to say I am sorry, I will say it; if you want me to join the church, I will join it; if you want me to be baptized, I will be baptized; but if you want me to honor God with my money, I stop.”

Now, the third use of the word. It is sometimes used to indicate, not something over which one stumbles and falls into a sin, and not an obstacle that blocks up his pathway, but in the sense of something that he runs up against and hurts himself and so becomes foolishly angry. As when one, at night, trying to pass out of a dark room, strikes his head against the door, and in a moment flies into a passion. “Now, if thine eye causeth thee to run up against an object that when you strike it offends you, makes you mad, pluck it out and cast it from thee.”

These three senses of this word have abundant verifications in the classical Greek and a vast number of instances in the Bible, in the Old and New Testaments. But there is a fourth use of the word. That is where the eye has caused a man to turn aside from the right path and to reject the wise counsel of God, and to indulge in sin until God has given him up; then God sets a trap for him right in the path of his besetting sin. In Rom 11:9 we find that use of the word: “Let their table be made a trap for them.” That is to say, God, after trying to lead a man to do right, if he persists in doing wrong, the particular sin, whatever hat may be, whether it be of pride, or lust, or pleasure, whatever it may be, that particular, besetting sin which has caused him to reject God, will make the occasion of his ruin, and in the track of it God will set the trap, and the man is certain to fall into it and be lost. Now, these are the four Bible uses of this term “offend.” Greek: Scandalon , the noun, and skandalizo, the verb. “If thine eye causeth thee to offend,” that is, “If your eye causeth you to put something in your path over which you will unexpectedly fall into a sin; if thine eye causeth thee to put an obstacle clear across your path, so that you stop; if thine eye causeth thee to put some object against which you will unthoughtedly run and hurt yourself and become incensed; if thine eye causeth thee to go into a sin that shall completely alienate you from God, and in the far distant track of which God sets a trap that will be sure to catch your soul pluck it out.”

The next thing needing explanation: People who look only at the shell of a thing may understand this passage to mean mutilation of the body. They forget that the mutilation of the body is simply an illustration of spiritual things. Take a case: One of the most beautiful and sweet-spirited girls I ever knew, before whom there seemed to stretch a long and bright and happy future, was taken sick, and the illness, whatever the doctors may call it, was in the foot, and the blood would not circulate. The doctors could not bring about the circulation and that foot finally threatened the whole body. Then the doctors said, “This foot must be amputated.” And they did amputate it. They amputated it to save her life. They cut off that member because it offered the only possible means of saving the other foot and both hands and the whole body and her life. It was sternness of love, resoluteness of affection, courage of wisdom that sacrificed a limb to save the body. Now using that necessity of amputation, as an illustration, our Saviour says, “If thy hand offend thee, cut it off; if thy foot offend thee, cut it off. If thine eye offend thee, pluck it out.” But that he does not mean bodily mutilation is self-evident from this: that if we were to cut off our hand we could not stop the spiritual offense; if we were to pluck out the eye we could not stop the spiritual offense on the inside, in the soul; no lopping off to external branches would reach that. But what our Saviour means to teach is this: That as a wise physician, who discovers, seated in one member of the body, a disease that if allowed to spread will destroy the whole body, in the interest of mercy cuts off that diseased limb, so, applying this to spiritual things, whatever causes us to fall into sin, we should cut loose from it at every cost.

One other word needs to be explained, the word “Gehenna.” It is a little valley next to Jerusalem that once belonged to the sons of Hinnom. It came to pass that in that valley was instituted an idol worship, and there the kings caused their children to pass through the fire to Moloch, and because of this iniquity a good king of Israel defiled that valley, made it the dumping ground of all refuse matter from the city. The excrement, the dead things, the foul and corrupt matter was all carried out and put in that valley. And because of the corruption heaped there, worms were always there, and because of the burning that had been appointed as a sanitary measure, the fire was always there. Now that was used as an illustration to indicate the spiritual condition of a lost soul; of a soul that had become as refuse matter; of a soul that had become entirely cut loose from God and given up to its own devices; that had become bad through and through; that had become such a slave to passion, or lust or crime, that it was incorrigible, and the very nature of the sin which possessed it was like a worm that never dies. There was a gnawing, a ceaseless gnawing going on, referring to conscience, and there was a burning and a thirst going on. Now those images our Saviour selected were to represent the thought of hell.

Having explained its words, look now at the passage itself: “If thine eye offend thee, pluck it out.” What is the principle involved in that exhortation? First, that it is a man’s chief concern to see that he does not miss the mark; that he does not make shipwreck; that he does not ruin himself. That is the chief concern of every boy, of every girl, of every man and woman, to see to it that he does not miss the mark of his being; that he does not make shipwreck; that he does not go to utter ruin.

The next thought involved in it is that in case we do miss the mark; in case we do make shipwreck; in case our soul is lost, then there is no profit and no compensation to us in any thing we ever had. “For what shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world and lose his own soul?” If he misses the main thing, if he makes shipwreck of his own soul, then wherein does the compensation come to him that in his life he had this or that treasure, this pleasure or that; that he was able to attain to this ambition or that; that he for such a while, no matter how long, was on top in society or fashion in the world? What has it profited him if the main thing worthy of supreme concern, is lost?

The next thought is this: Whatever sacrifice is necessary to the securing of the main thing, that we must make. That is what this passage means, and no matter how dear a treasure may be to us; no matter how much we esteem it, if it be necessary that we should give it up or that our soul should be lost, this passage calls on us to give it up. A man may have in a ship a vast amount of money which he idolizes, but in the night he is alarmed by the cry of fire; he rushes upon the deck and he finds that the ship is hopelessly in flames and that the only way of escape is to swim to the shore. Now he stands there for a moment and meditates: “I have here a vast amount of money, in gold. If I try to take this gold with me in this issue in which the main thing, my life, is involved, it will sink me. My life is more than this money. O glittering gold, I leave you. I strike out, stripped of every weight and swim for my life.” It means that he ought to leave behind everything that would jeopardize his gaining the shore. A ship has a valuable cargo. It has been acquired by toil and anxiety and industry. It may be that the cargo in itself is perfectly innocent, but in a stress of weather, with a storm raging and with a leak in the vessel and the water rising, it becomes necessary to lighten that ship. Now whatever is necessary to make it float, to keep it above water, that must be done. If there be anything which, if permitted to remain in that ship, will sink it, throw it out. They that do business in great waters know the wisdom of this. Why? It is a question of sacrificing the inferior to the greater and better.

The next thought involved is this: Whenever it says, “If thine eye offend thee, pluck it out,” I venture to say that it is a demonstration, by the exhortation addressed to us personally, that if ruin comes to us it comes by our own consent. I mean to say that no matter what is the stress of outside seduction, nor how cunningly the devil may attempt to seduce and beguile us, all the devils in hell and all the extraneous temptations that may environ a man can never work his shipwreck if he does not consent.

The next point involved is, that whenever one does consent to temptation, whenever the ruin comes to him, it comes on account of some internal moral delinquency. Out of the heart are the issues of life. Out of the heart proceed murder, lust, blasphemy, and every crime which men commit. I mean to say that as the Bible declares that no murderer shall inherit eternal life, that external incentives to murder amount to nothing unless in him, in the man, in the soul, there be a susceptibility or a liability or moral weakness that shall open the door to the tempter and let in the destroyer.

Now if that be true we come naturally to the next thought in this text, that is, God saves a man, and if God can save a man, he must save him in accordance with the laws of his own nature. That is to say, that God must, in order to the salvation of that man, require truth in the inward part; that nothing external will touch the case; that God’s requirements must take hold, not of the long delayed overt act, but of the lust in the heart which preceded the act and made the act. And therefore, while a human court can take jurisdiction only of murder actually committed, God goes inside of the man and says, “Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer.” From hate comes murder. If God saves you he must save you from the internal hate. Human law takes hold of a case of adultery. God’s law goes to the eye: “Whosoever looketh upon a woman to lust after her hath already committed adultery with her in his heart.” God requireth truth in the inward part. And if one is saved he must be saved internally; he must be saved, not only from the guilt and penalty of sin, but he must be saved from the love of it and from the dominion of it.

The next point: With that law looking inside, looking at our thoughts, looking at the springs of action, the question comes up, “How shall one save his soul? How shall one so attain to the end of his being as that in the main thing he shall not miss the mark?” He has to look at it as an exceedingly sober question. There is no child’s play about it. He must not rely upon the quack remedies of philosophers and impostors, or rely upon any external rite, upon joining the church or being baptized, or partaking of the Lord’s Supper. The awful blasphemy of calling that the way to heaven! God requireth truth in the inward part, and if we are saved, we must be saved inside. As a wise man, having my chief business to save my soul, I must scrupulously look at everything with which I come in contact. Some men’s weaknesses are in one direction and some in another, but the chief thing for me is to find out my weakness, what is my besetting sin, where is the weak point in my line of defense, where am I most susceptible to danger, where do I yield most readily? And if I find that the ties of blood are making me lose my soul, I must move out of my own family, and therefore in the Mosaic law it is expressly said, “If thine own son, if the wife of thy bosom, shall cause thee to worship idols and turn away from the true God, thou shalt put thine own hand on the head as the first witness, that they may be stoned. Thou shalt not spare.” It is a question of our life, and if our family ties are such that they are dragging us down to death, we must strike out for our life. And that is why marriage is the most solemn and far-reaching question that ever came up for human decision. More souls are lost right there, more women go into hopeless bondage, more men are shipwrecked by that awful tie, than by anything else.

Then he goes on to show that these little believers must not be despised, because their angels are always before their heavenly Father, just as the angels of more highly honored Christians. This thought he illustrates with the parable of the ninety and nine, the interpretation of which might be considered as follows: (1) If there are many worlds and but one is lost, (2) if there are many creatures and only man is lost, (3) if there were many just persons, and only one is lost, then we find the lost world, the lost race, the one lost man is near the heart of the Saviour, the principle being that the weakest, the most needy, the most miserable are nearest the Shepherd’s heart. “Even so it is not the will of your Father which is in heaven, that one of these little ones should perish,” is the conclusion of the Saviour.

In section 71 (Mat 18:15-35 ) we have our Lord’s great discussion on forgiveness, i.e., man’s forgiveness of man. This subject is amply treated in volume 1, chapter xvi of this INTERPRETATION and also in my sermon on “Man’s Forgiveness of Man.” (I refer the reader to these discussions for a full exposition of this great passage.)

In section 72 (Mat 8:19-22 ; Luk 9:57-62 ) we have a very plain word on the sacrifices of discipleship. Here three different ones approached Christ asking permission to be his disciples. The first one that came proposed to go with him anywhere. Jesus told him that he had no abiding place; that he was a wanderer without any home, which meant there were many hardships in connection with discipleship. The second one that came to him wanted to wait till he could bury his father, which according to Oriental customs, might have been several years, or at least, thirty days, if his father was dead when he made the request, including the time of mourning. Luke tells of one who wanted first to bid farewell to them of his own house. But Jesus said, “No man, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.” The import of all this is that Christ will not permit his disciples to allow anything to come between them and him. He must have the first place in their affections. The expression, “No man, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God,” means that the man who is pretending to follow Christ and is looking back to the things he left behind is not fit for his kingdom. This is a strict test, but it is our Lord’s own test.

Then, following the Harmony, we have, in the next section, the counsel of the unbelieving brothers that Jesus go into Judea and exhibit himself there. But he declined to follow their counsel and remained in Galilee. This incident shows that the brothers of Jesus had not at this time accepted him, which was about six months before his death and thus disproves the theory that the brothers of Jesus were apostles.

We now come to the close of this division of the Harmony in section 74 (Luk 9:51-56 ; Joh 7:10 ), which tells of Jesus setting his face toward Jerusalem in view of the approach of the end of his earthly career. This going up to Jerusalem, John says, was after his brothers had gone, and it was not public, but as it were in secret. He sent James and John, the “sons of thunder,” ahead to Samaria to make ready for him, but the Samaritans rejected him because he was going toward Jerusalem, which exemplifies the old, deep-seated hatred between the Jews and the Samaritans. This section closes with a rebuke to James and John for wanting to call down fire upon these Samaritans. The next chapter of this INTERPRETATION connects with this section and gives the results of this trip to Jerusalem and his ministry in all parts of the Holy Land.

QUESTIONS

1. What was the incident immediately following the transfiguration?

2. What are the points of interest in the story of the epileptic boy?

3. What revelation did Jesus again make to his disciples while on the way from Caesarea Philippi, how did the disciples receive it and why?

4. Tell the story of Peter and the Temple tax and give its lesson.

5. What was the lesson on “greatness” here and what its occasion?

6. What was the point in the illustration of the little child?

7. What is the lesson from John’s interruption of our Lord here?

8. How does Jesus show the awfulness of the sin of causing a little child who believes on him to stumble?

9. From what do the occasions of stumbling arise and upon whom rests the responsibility for them?

10. What would you give as the theme of Mat 18:8-9 ; and Mar 9:43 ; Mar 9:45 ; Mar 9:47-50 ?

11. What are the several meanings of the word “offend” in these passages? Illustrate each.

12. What is the application of all these meanings? Illustrate.

13. Explain the word “Gehenna” as used here.

14. Looking at the passage as a whole, what is principle involved the exhortation? Give details.

15. What reason does Christ assign for the command not to despise one of these little ones and what does it mean?

16. How does he illustrate this

17. In a word what is the author’s position on the subject of man’s forgiveness of man?

18. What is Christ’s teaching here on discipleship and what is the meaning of his language addressed to each of the three, respectively, who approached him here on the subject?

19. What advice here given Jesus by his brothers, how did Jesus regard it, and what the lesson of this incident?

20. What are the closing incidents of this division of our Lord’s ministry and what are their lessons?

Fuente: B.H. Carroll’s An Interpretation of the English Bible

1 At the same time came the disciples unto Jesus, saying, Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?

Ver. 1. At the same time ] When he by paying tribute had been teaching them humility and modesty, they most unseasonably discover their folly and ambition: so another time, after he had been washing their feet, and giving them the sacrament, Luk 22:15-20 See in them the depravity, the canker of our natures, and what cause God had to complain,Hos 7:1Hos 7:1 ; “When I would have healed Israel, then the iniquity of Ephraim was discovered,” as if it had been on purpose to spite me, and spit venom in my face.

Came the disciples ] Peter also with the rest, Mat 18:21 , though Bellarmine will needs have it otherwise (as if he were now at sea), because he shall bear no part of the blame: take heed of that that were sin,Hos 12:8Hos 12:8 .

Who is the greatest ] Quaerunt non quaerenda, saith Aretius: they should rather have inquired how to get into heaven than who should be highest in heaven. Ridiculum illud est, initia ignorare, et ultima rimari. But they dreamed of a distribution of honours and offices (as once in the days of David and Solomon), a worldly monarchy, like the kingdoms of the earth; as afterwards the Church was, and still is, transformed by antichrist into the image of the beast, that is, of the Roman Empire: yet they call it the kingdom of heaven, because they had heard Christ many times call it so.

In the kingdom of heaven ] i.e. In the state and condition of the Church Christian. So to this day among the Jews the kingdom of the Messiah is called Malcuth hashamajim, the kingdom of heaven; and rightly so: for, 1. The King is heavenly. 2. He hath heaven for his throne, whence he puts forth his power. 3. His subjects are heavenly minded, and trade for heavenly commodities. 4. Their country is heaven though their commoration be a while upon earth, where they are pilgrims and strangers. 5. The government of this kingdom is wholly heavenly and spiritual. (Cameron.)

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

1 35. ] DISCOURSE RESPECTING THE GREATEST IN THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. Mar 9:33-50 . Luk 9:46-50 .

Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament

1. ] In Mark we learn that this discourse arose out of a dispute among the disciples who should be the greatest . It took place soon after the last incident. Peter had returned from his fishing: see Mat 18:21 . The dispute had taken place before, on the way to Capernaum. It had probably been caused by the mention of the Kingdom of God as at hand in ch. Mat 16:19 ; Mat 16:28 , and the preference given by the Lord to the Three. In Mark it is our Lord who asks them what they were disputing about , and they are silent.

need not necessarily refer to the incident last related. As De Wette remarks, it may equally well be understood as indicating the presence in the mind of the querist of something that had passed in the preceding dispute.

Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament

Mat 18:1-14 . Ambition rebuked (Mar 9:33-50 ; Luk 9:46-50 ; Luk 15:3-7 ; Luk 17:1-4 ).

Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson

Mat 18:1 . . . , in that hour; the expression connects what follows very closely with the tax incident, and shows that the two things were intimately associated in the mind of the evangelist. : who then is greater, etc.? The may be taken as pointing back to the tax incident as suggesting the question, but not to it alone, rather to it as the last of a series of circumstances tending to force the question to the front: address to Peter at Caesarea Philippi; three disciples selected to be with the Master on the Hill of Transfiguration. From Mk. we learn that they had been discussing it on the way home. . . . ., in the Kingdom of Heaven; this is wanting in Mk., where the question is a purely personal one; who is the greater (among us, now, in your esteem)? In Mk. the question, though referring to the present, who is , etc., points to the future, and presents a more general aspect, but though it wears an abstract look it too is personal in reality = which of us now is the greater for you, and shall therefore have the higher place in the kingdom when it comes? It is not necessary to conceive every one of the Twelve fancying it possible he might be the first man. The question for the majority may have been one as to the respective claims of the more prominent men, Peter, James, John, each of whom may have had his partisans in the little band.

Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson

Matthew Chapter 18

In Mat 16 we had two subjects connected with the revelation of the Lord’s person to Simon Peter: one of them, the Church, entirely new, or for the first time divulged; the other, the familiar subject of the kingdom of heaven. We shall find in the chapter before us these two things again brought together – not confounded or identified. We are called to see the kingdom and the Church in their practical bearing. We have already learned that the Lord was to build the Church. “Upon this rock” (the confession of His person) “I will build My Church.” Afterward, He promised to give the keys of the kingdom of heaven to Peter.

Now we find (connected, I think, with the principle which actuated Himself) the consciousness of glory, and of the absolute command of all that He had made. He was the Lord of heaven and earth – if, in grace, He paid the tribute of the temple; for grace gives up its rights; at least, it does not seek to claim and exercise them for the present. And in the very consciousness of the possession of all glory, it can bow in this evil world. But, then, carefully observe that the soul is never to yield God’s rights, but our own. We must be as unbending as a flint wherever God is in question. Grace never surrenders the true holiness, the claim, or will, of God; in fact, it is what strengthens the soul to value them and walk in them. There is often a practical difficulty that people do not understand. While we are called upon to walk in grace, it is a misuse of grace to suppose it to be an allowance of evil or indifference to it in our relations with God. Grace, while it meets us in our ruin, imparts a power we had not before, because it reveals Christ, strengthens the soul, gives a new life, and acts upon that life so as to carry us forward in the obedience as well as in the enjoyment of Christ. Our Lord shows that this ought to govern everything.

But first we have the spirit that befits us. “At the same time came the disciples unto Jesus, saying, Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” This furnishes opportunity for our Lord to indicate the spirit that becomes the kingdom of heaven: “Jesus called a little child unto Him, and set him in the midst of them, and said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven” (ver. 3). Now this is what is wrought in a soul when it is converted: there is a new life given, even Christ. Hence there is much more than a change. That would be very far short of the truth as to a Christian. Of course the Christian is a changed man; but then the change is because of something still deeper. A Christian is a man born again, possessing a life now that he possessed not before. I do not mean merely that he lives after a new sort, but that he has a, new life given to him which he had not before. It is in this way that he becomes a little child. Then this new life has to be cultivated and strengthened. Our natural life as men develops, or it may be checked and hindered by various circumstances. So it is with the spiritual life.

Our Lord shows here what is the characteristic moral feature that suits the kingdom of heaven; and this in opposition to Jewish thoughts of greatness. They were still thinking of the kingdom according to certain Old Testament delineations of it. When David came to the kingdom, his followers that had been faithful before were exalted according to their previous worth. You have the three great chiefs, and then thirty other warriors, and so on; all of them having their place determined by the way in which they had carried themselves in the day of trial. The disciples came with similar thoughts to our Lord, full of what they had done and suffered. The same spirit broke out on many occasions, even at the last supper. Our Lord here uses it to show that the spirit He loves in His disciples is to be nothing – to be without a thought of self, in a spirit of lowliness, dependence, and trust, that does not think about itself. This is the natural feeling of a little one. In the spiritual child this self-forgetfulness is exactly the right feeling. The little child is the standing witness of true greatness in the kingdom of heaven. In our Lord Himself this was shown, fully. The wonder was that He who knew everything, who had all power and might, could take the place of a little child; yet He did. And, indeed, you may be sure that the lowliness of a child is in no wise incompatible with a person being deeply taught in the things of God. It is not a lowliness that shows itself in phrases or forms, but the reality of meekness that confides not in itself, but in the living God; and this has the respect which God Himself loves there should be toward those around it. Perfect humility was just as much a feature of our Lord Jesus as the consciousness of His glory. The two things may go well together; and you cannot have becoming Christian humility unless there be the consciousness of glory. To behave ourselves lowlily, as children of God, is the beautiful thing the Lord is here putting before us.

“Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven” (ver. 4). It is not merely the becoming like little children as begotten of God, but there, is the practical humbling of ourselves. And not only the humbling of ourselves, but how we feel toward others: “Whosoever shall receive one such little child in My name receiveth Me.” Whatever may be the lowliness of the Christian, he should be viewed with all the glory of Christ, which is meant by receiving him in the name of Christ. It is a person that does not defend his rights, nor assert his own glory, but is willing to bend and make way for any one, while conscious of the glory that rests upon him. There may be the very opposite of this – “Whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in Me.” What is meant by this? Anything calculated 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. “Whoso shall offend one of these little ones that believe in Me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea.” These things are constantly occurring in the world. Therefore, says the Lord, “Woe unto the world because of offenses; for it must needs be that offenses come; but woe to that man by whom the offense cometh.” What is to be done? The Lord shows in two forms the way to guard against these stumbling-blocks. The first is this – I must begin with myself. This is the most important means of not stumbling another. “Wherefore, if thy hand or thy foot offend thee, cut them off and cast them from thee.” It may be in one’s service, or in one’s walk; but if thy hand or foot become the occasion of stumbling (something in which the enemy takes advantage against God), deal resolutely at once with the evil thing. “It is better for thee to enter into life halt or maimed, rather than having two hands or two feet to be cast into everlasting fire” (vers. 6-8).

The Lord always puts the full result of evil before the soul. In speaking of the kingdom of heaven, He takes into account that there may be persons in it false as well as true. He therefore speaks generally. He does not pronounce upon them; for some may be truly born of God and others not. The Lord solemnly puts before them that such as are indifferent about sin are not of God. It is impossible for a soul to be regenerate and habitually careless about that which grieves the Holy Ghost. Therefore He puts before them the certainty of such being cast into everlasting fire. Of no one who is born of God could this be said. But as there may be in the kingdom of heaven a false profession as well as a true, the believer is to look well to it, that he do not allow sin in any of his members. “And if thine eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee: it is better for thee to enter into life with one eye, rather than having two eyes to be cast into hell-fire.” It may cost ever so much, but God is not a hard Master; none is so tender and loving. And yet it is God giving us His mind by the Lord Jesus, showing us that this is the only way of dealing with that which may become an occasion of sin. (Compare Eph 5:5 , Eph 5:6 ).

The first great source of offense to others, and which must be first removed, is that which is a stumbling-block to our own souls. We must begin with self-judgment. But there is also the despising the little ones that belong to God. “Take heed,” says our Lord, “that ye despise not one of these little ones: for I say unto you, that in heaven their angels do always behold the face of My Father which is in heaven.* For the Son of Man is come to save that which was lost” (vers. 10, 11). A beautiful word, especially as it is so broadly stated by our Lord as to take in literally a little child as well as the little ones that believe in Him. I believe this chapter was meant to give encouragement touching little ones. The plea on which our Lord goes is, not that they were innocent (which is the way in which they are so often spoken of among men), but that the Son of Man came to save that which was lost. It supposes the taint of sin, but that the Son of Man came to meet it: so that we are entitled to have confidence in the Lord, not for our own souls only, but for the little ones too.

* What our Lord calls here “their angels” seem to be the spirits of children now in heaven – the spirit representing the person in the present state until the resurrection. Compare Act 12:15 ; Heb 12:23 , and Rev 1:20 – this last representing the assembly. A “guardian angel,” of which some speak as the meaning here, does not seem to give a good reason for the Lord’s warning; nor is it anywhere mentioned in Scripture. Ed.

But our Lord goes further. “How think ye? If a man have a hundred sheep, and one of them be gone astray, doth he not leave the ninety and nine, and goeth into the mountains and seeketh that which is gone astray? And if so be that he find it; verily I say unto you, he rejoiceth more of that sheep than of the ninety and nine which went not astray. Even so it is not the will of your Father which is in heaven, that one of these little ones should perish” (vers. 12-14). No doubt we can embrace all those that are saved on the same principle. The Gospel of Luke shows us (Luk 15 ) this very parable applied to any sinner. But here the Lord is taking it up in connection with the foregoing, namely, right feelings for one who belongs to the kingdom of heaven. Starting from’ a little child whom He sets in the midst, He carries the thought of the little one all through this part of His discourse. And now He closes with the proof, in His own mission, of the interest which the Father takes in these little ones.

Then the Lord applies it to our practical conduct. Supposing your brother does you wrong; an evil word, perhaps, or an unkind action done against you – something that you feel deeply as a real personal trespass against you; it is a sin, of course. Nobody knows it, probably, but himself and you. What are you to do? At once this great principle is applied: When you were ruined and far from God, what met your case? Did God wait till you put away your sin? He sent His own Son to seek you, to save you. “The Son of Man came to seek and to save that which was lost.” This is the principle for you to act upon. You belong to God; you are a child of God. Your brother has wronged you? Go you to him, and seek to set him right., It is the activity of love which the Lord Jesus presses upon His disciples. We are to seek the deliverance, in the power of divine love, of those who have wandered from God. The flesh feels and resents wrong done against itself. But grace does not shroud itself up in its own dignity, waiting for the offender to come and humble himself and own his wrong. The Son of Man came to seek the lost. I want you, He says, to be walking after the same principle, to be vessels of the same love – to be characterized by grace, going out after that which has sinned against God. This is a great difficulty, unless the soul is fresh in the love of God, and enjoying what God is for him. How does God feel about the child that has done wrong? His loving desire is to have him right. When the child is near enough to know the Father’s heart he goes out to do the Father’s will. A wrong may have been done against him, but he does not think about that. It is his brother who has slipped into evil, and the desire of his heart is to have the brother righted who had gone astray – not to vindicate self, but that his soul may be restored to the Lord.

“Moreover, if thy brother shall trespass against thee, go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone” (ver. 15). It is not here the case of a sin known to a great many, but some personal trespass only known to you two. Go, then, to him, and tell him his fault between you and him alone. “If he shall hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother.” Love is bent on gaining the brother. So it is to him that understands and feels with Christ. It is not the offender, but thy brother that is the thought before the heart: “Thou hast gained thy brother.”*

*Forgiveness is necessarily based on the “hearing,” – “if he shall hear thee” – which shows the heart is not continuing in the wrong. Ed.

“But if he will not hear thee, then take with thee one or two more, that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established.” Is it possible he may resist one or two who come to him, witnesses of the love of Christ? He has refused Christ pleading by one; can he refuse Christ now that He pleads by more? It may be, alas, that he will. “And if he shall neglect to hear them, tell it unto the Church.” The Church means the assembly of God in the place to which these all belong. “If he shall neglect to hear them, tell it unto the Church; but if he neglect to hear the Church, let him be unto thee as a heathen man and a publican” (ver. 17). The assembly, then, is told of the guilty person’s fault. The thing has been investigated and pressed home. The Church warns and entreats this man, but he refuses to hear; and the consequence is – “Let him be unto thee as a heathen man and a publican.” A most solemn issue! A man who is called a brother in the verse before is to me as a heathen man and a publican now. We are not to suppose the man to be a drunkard or a thief; but showing the hardness of self-will and a spirit of self-justification. It may arise out of small circumstances; but this unbending pride about himself and his own fault is that on which he may, according to the Lord, be regarded as a heathen man and a publican – no more to acknowledge him in his impenitent state. And yet it may spring mainly from the spirit of justifying oneself. In the case of open sin or wickedness, the duty of the Church is clear: the person is put away. Nor would there be reason in such a case for going one at a time, and then one or two more. But the Lord shows here how the end of this personal trespass might be that the Church has finally to hear it – and it may lead to something more.

“Verily I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven.” It is not a mere question of agreement, but of what is done in the name of the Lord. (See 1Co 5:4 .) “Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Again I say to you, That if two of you shall agree on the earth as touching anything that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of My Father which is in heaven. For where two or three are gathered together unto My name, there am I in the midst of them.” Whether for discipline or for making requests of God, the Lord lays down this great principle, that where two or three are gathered together unto His name, He is in the midst of them. Nothing could be more sweet and encouraging. And I am persuaded that the Lord had in view the present ruin of the Church, when there might be ever so few gathered aright, assembled in obedience to the word of God, and carrying it out according to the will of the Lord Jesus Christ.

But a person may ask, Are any upon that ground? I can only say that the Christians who fall back on Scripture, owning the faithful presence of the Spirit in the assembly on earth, are taking an immense deal of trouble for a delusion if they are not. They are very foolish in acting as they do unless they are sure that it is according to the mind of God. Ought you to have more doubt how Christians should meet together for worship or mutual edification than about any other directions in the word of God? If we are not restrained by human rules, if the word of God alone is followed, there is entire liberty to carry out its directions. But while speaking thus confidently, on the other hand ought we not to take a very low place? When members of Christ’s body are scattered here and there, humiliation alone becomes us; not only because of others’ ways, but our own. For what have we been to Christ and the Church? It would be very wrong to call ourselves the Church; but if we were only two or three meeting in the name of Christ, we should have the same sanction and Christ’s presence as if we had the twelve apostles with us. If through unbelief and weakness the Church at large were broken up and scattered, and if, in all this confusion, there were only two or three who had faith to act upon the Lord’s will, for them the word would still be true, “Where two or three are gathered together unto My name, there am I in the midst of them.” It is the presence of Christ and obedience to Him that give sanction to their acts. If the Church has fallen into ruin, the business of those who feel this is to depart from known evil – “Cease to do evil; learn to do well.” We always have to come back to first principles when things get astray. This is the obligation of a Christian man.

Peter then asks our Lord, “How oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? till seven times?” (ver. 21.) We had instruction how we were to act in the case of a personal trespass. But Peter raises another question. Supposing my brother sins against me over and over, how often am I to forgive him? The answer is, “I say not unto thee, Until seven times; but, Until seventy times seven.” In the kingdom of heaven – not under the law, but under the rule of the rejected Christ – forgiveness is unlimited. How wonderful – the deeper holiness revealed in Christianity, is at the same time, that which feels with deepest love, and goes out with it to others! So we find here, “I say not unto thee, Until seven times,” which was Peter’s idea of the largest grace, “but, Until seventy times seven.” Our Lord insists that there really was no end to forgiveness. It is always to be in the heart of the Christian.

“Therefore is the kingdom of heaven likened unto a certain king which would take account of his servants” (ver. 23). And then we have two servants brought before us. The king forgives one of them who had been very guilty (who owed him ten thousand talents – practically, a debt that never could be paid by a servant). On his entreaty, the king forgives him. The servant then goes out and meets a fellow-servant who owes him a hundred pence – a small sum indeed in comparison with that which had just been forgiven to himself. Yet he seizes his fellow-servant by the throat, saying, “Pay me that thou owest.” And the king hearing it summons the guilty man before him. What is taught by this? It is a comparison of the kingdom of heaven, and refers to a state of things established here below by God’s will. While we may, and must, take the principle to ourselves, much more is taught than this.* Taken in the large way, the servant that owes the ten thousand talents represents the Jew, peculiarly favoured of God, who yet had contracted the enormous debt that he never could pay. When they had completed this debt by the death of their Messiah, a message of forgiveness was sent them – “Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out.” They had only to do so, and their sins would be blotted out: God would send the Messiah again, and bring in the times of refreshing. The Holy Ghost, answering the prayer of our Lord upon the cross, uses Peter to tell them, “I wot, brethren, that through ignorance ye did it, as did also your rulers. . . . Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out,” even as the Lord had said, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” Thus the servant had heard the sound of forgiveness to himself, yet with no real apprehension of it. He goes out and casts a fellow-servant into prison for a very small debt. This is the way in which the Jews acted toward the Gentiles. And thus all the debt that God had forgiven them became fastened upon them. The master says to the servant, “O thou wicked servant, I forgave thee all that debt, because thou desiredst me: shouldest not thou also have had compassion on thy fellow-servant, even as I had pity on thee? And his lord was wroth, and delivered him to the tormentors, till he should pay all that was due unto him” (vers. 32-34).

* While forgiveness or retension of guilt governmentally is the subject of this kingdom parable, an unforgiving, relentless spirit would show a heart untouched by God’s mercy, with eternal consequences attaching. – [Ed.

I do not doubt that you may apply this to an individual who has heard the gospel, and who does not act according to it. The principle of it is true now of any mere professor of the gospel in these days, who acts like a worldly man. But taking it on the broader scale, you must bring in the dealings of God with the Jews. The day is coming when the Lord will say that Jerusalem has received of His hand double for all her sins. He will apply to them the blood of Christ, which can outweigh the ten thousand talents, and more. But the unbelieving generation of Israel are cast into prison, and will never come out: the remnant will, by the grace of God; and the Lord will make of the remnant a strong nation.

Meanwhile, for us the great principle of forgiveness is what we have need to remember. We have specially to remind our souls in the case of anything that is against ourselves. May we at once look steadfastly at what our God and Father has done for us! If we can, in the presence of such grace, be hard for some trifling thing done against ourselves, let us bethink ourselves how the Lord judges here.

May the Lord grant that His words may not be in vain for us, that we may seek to remember the exceeding grace that has abounded towards our souls, and what God looks for from us!

Fuente: William Kelly Major Works (New Testament)

NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Mat 18:1-6

1At that time the disciples came to Jesus and said, “Who then is greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” 2And he called a child to Himself and set him before them, 3and said, “Truly I say to you, unless you are converted and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven. 4Whoever then humbles himself as this child, he is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. 5And whoever receives one such child in My name receives Me; 6but whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to stumble, it would be better for him to have a heavy millstone hung around his neck, and to be drowned in the depth of the sea.

Mat 18:1 “the disciples came to Jesus” This shows that Jesus was speaking to believers, not unbelievers!

“Who then is greatest in the kingdom of heaven” This question set the stage for all that followed. See Mar 9:33-34; Luk 9:46-48. The question showed that the disciples still radically misunderstood the nature of the kingdom. It also shows that the disciples did not consider Peter as greatest!

Mat 18:2 “a child” Mar 9:33 suggests that this was Peter’s child.

Mat 18:3 “Truly” See Special Topic at Mat 5:18.

“unless you are converted” “Convert” denotes a conversion experience whereby an inner repentance is expressed in a change of lifestyle (NRSV, NJB). In Joh 12:40 this word is used to translate Isa 6:10, where it refers to “repentance” (Hebrew shub, BDB 996). Notice that in Mat 18:4 “humility” is parallel with “convert.” Children innocently trust and depend on others. They are readily teachable and obedient to authority (here divine authority).

This is an aorist passive subjunctive. The aorist tense implied a decisive act, while the subjunctive mood showed there was an element of contingency and choice involved. The passive voice implied God’s initiative (cf. Joh 6:44; Joh 6:65).

“you will not enter the kingdom of heaven” This is a STRONG DOUBLE negative meaning, “never, no never under any circumstances.” Also note that entrance into the Kingdom is immediate! Trusting Jesus and His message is tantamount to entering to new age! The Kingdom was available to all who heard and responded to Jesus.

Mat 18:3-4; Mat 18:6 “and become like children. . .child. . .one of these little ones” These statements all relate to new, innocent, immature believing adults, and not to children. However, the trusting dependence of children is the proper attitude for adults.

18:,34 “you will not enter into the kingdom. . .of heaven” In context this referred to (1) how someone comes to Christ and (2) how one continues in Christ.

Mat 18:5 This is similar to the emphasis of Mat 10:40. Also notice Mat 25:35-45; Luk 10:16; Act 9:4; and 1Co 8:12. Jesus is fully identified with His followers!

Mat 18:6 “it would be better” Death, though traumatic, is a one-time event, but judgment has eternal consequences (cf. Mat 25:31-46).

Another “it would have been better” statement is found in 2Pe 2:20-22.

“a heavy millstone” This referred to the large top stone pulled by animals for grinding grain.

“to be drowned in the depth of the sea” The Jews were fearful of water, as are many desert people. Therefore, this phrase related to a terrible physical death which was better than leading new believers to sin (cf. Mat 18:8-10; Romans 14). See SPECIAL TOPIC: DEGREES OF REWARDS AND PUNISHMENT s at Mat 5:12.

Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley

At =

In. Greek. en. App-104.

time = hour.

Who = Who, then.

greatest = greater. Put by Figure of speech Heterosis (of Degree) for greatest. See App-6.

the kingdom of heaven. See App-114.

heaven = the heavens (plural) See note on Mat 6:9, Mat 6:10.

Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics

1-35.] DISCOURSE RESPECTING THE GREATEST IN THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. Mar 9:33-50. Luk 9:46-50.

Fuente: The Greek Testament

Now at the same time there came disciples to Jesus, saying, Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven? ( Mat 18:1 )

Oh, boy how they longed for this. You’re talking about motivation, and the disciples were not pure in their motivations. They were always wrangling about well, I am going to be bigger than you. I’ll be better then you. I have a better place than you, and their motivations were not always the purest. And they, many times, were arguing about these things, the greatest. In fact, even the mothers of the disciples sometimes got in on this. They said, “Lord when you come into your kingdom, would you let one of my sons be on your right hand?”( Mat 20:21 ). Little Jewish mothers wanting to set up their boys. And that’s very typical. God bless them.

And so the disciples came and said, “Who is going to be the greatest in the kingdom?”

And Jesus called a little child unto him, and he sat the child in the middle of them, and he said, Verily I say unto you, Except you be converted, and become as little children, you shall not even enter the kingdom of heaven. Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven ( Mat 18:2-4 ).

The true path to greatness is always the path of humility. “He that exalteth himself shall be abased. He that humbles himself shall be exalted”( Luk 14:11 ). Humble thyself in the eyes of the Lord, and He shall lift you up.

And Jesus takes a child and says, “look, you’ve got to become like a little child, even you, even going to enter the kingdom of heaven. And so if you humble yourself as a little child, that person will be the greatest”. The path to greatness is the path of servanthood. How important that we learn to serve, that we not be looking for ourselves, but we only be looking for our Lord and to exalt Him.

And whoso shall receive one such little child in my name receives me ( Mat 18:5 ).

Oh how the Lord loves the little children. How he loves their beautiful little faces. How He loves that simple faith and trust that is in the heart of a child. There is something about their innocence and simplicity that is absolutely glorious. I love it.

But He said,

Whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and he were drowned in the depth of the sea ( Mat 18:6 ).

I love Jesus; He is a man’s man. Sounds like the Mafia here, but I am all for it. I mean, He is straight. I think that the most heinous sin anyone can commit is to seek to destroy the faith of a child in God. That is one of the worst sins that anyone could ever commit. To take this pure little child with his simplicity and trust in God, and deliberately seek to destroy that child’s faith in God, in Jesus Christ.

Jesus said, “look, it’d be better for a man if he just took a millstone”, and these millstones weigh about three to four hundred pounds, “tie it around his neck, and toss him into the sea. Better that that happen to him than he offend, destroy the faith of one of these little ones who believe in Me”.

Woe unto the world because of offences! for it must needs be that offences come; but woe to that man by whom the offence cometh! ( Mat 18:7 )

Be careful, offenses are going to come. But be careful that you’re not the cause of the offenses.

Wherefore if your hand offends you, then cut it off, cast it from you: it is better for you to enter into life halt or maimed, rather than having two hands or two feet and to be cast into the everlasting fire. If thy eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee: it is better for thee to enter into life with one eye, rather than having two eyes to be cast into hell fire. So take heed that you despise not one of these little ones; for I say unto you, That in heaven [and I love this] their angels do always behold the face of my Father which is in heaven ( Mat 18:8-10 ).

The angels that have been given charge over us to keep us in all of our ways. The angels, who are watching over our little children, their faces are before the Father continually there in heaven, beseeching the Father for these precious little ones.

This business of, if thy hand offend thee and all, is something that Jesus meant to be repugnant. He means it to be shocking. To maim my own body, to me is a very repugnant idea. To lose a hand, to lose an eye by my own doing is just a horribly repugnant thought. And Jesus wanted it to be. He did not literally mean that we are to cut off our hand or to pluck out our eye, but He is only illustrating how vital it is that we enter the kingdom of heaven. It is worth more than having a whole body.

As we were talking to you last Sunday about the trapping of muskrats, how that if you catch them by their paws, they turn around and gnaw their leg off and leave the paw in the trap. Again, that’s a thought that gives us a — we react mentally to that, as uh, horrible, but yet how wise as far as the muskrat is concerned. For he figures it’s better to be a free muskrat with three paws, than having four paws be tacked on a fur board.

So Jesus is saying much the same thing here. If there is something in your life that is causing you to stumble, if there is something in your life that is creating an offense, cut it out, get rid of it.

Sometimes when a person comes into the office and sits down and begins to pour out their story, and they say, “Well, Chuck I am really in a mess. I never thought it would happen to me. I can’t understand it, but, man I am involved in an affair, and I don’t know what to do. It’s just ripping me apart; it’s tearing me up. My wife doesn’t know it, and I just don’t know what to do about it, and all.” I say to them point blank, “cut it off, not tomorrow, right now, cut it off, “Oh, but I”- don’t, cut it off.

I said, “If I were a surgeon and you came to me, and you said, “Oh, I am having these lumps under my arm, and they are sore, and they really bother me.” If I didn’t bother to take the biopsies and determine whether or not you had cancer of the lymph nodes, but I just said, “Oh, probably you’ve got cancer in your lymph nodes. You –that’s a painful operation. We don’t want to go through the pain of it. Why don’t we just sort of take aspirin, so you won’t feel the pain and forget about it.” Well you file a malpractice suit against me for quackery for saying, “We’ll, just let it go and see what happens”.

And I said, “You’re coming to me with a spiritual malady that is more deadly then cancer. I am the surgeon and I am telling you, we’ve got to operate immediately. Your life depends on it, you got to cut it out.” And if there is some sin that you are tolerating, allowing, playing with, and messing around with, you cannot do it. Jesus is saying, ” cut it off. Better to go through life maimed, than into hell whole.”

Then Jesus in verse eleven says so beautifully,

For the Son of man is come to save that which was lost ( Mat 18:11 ).

I love that. We get to that when we get to Luke’s gospel. It amplifies it a little further.

Now Jesus said,

What do you think? if a man has a hundred sheep, and one of them has gone astray, will he not leave the ninety-nine and go into the mountains, and seek the one which has gone astray? And if it so happens that he finds it, verily I say unto you, he rejoices more for the one sheep, than for the ninety-nine which never went astray. Even so it is not the will of the Father which is in heaven, that one of these little ones should perish ( Mat 18:12-14 ).

Your Father is watching over them. Their angels hold their faces before the Father continually, and He isn’t willing that any perish. Be careful that you do not offend one of those little ones, who believes and trusts in Him.

Moreover [Jesus said] if your brother trespasses against you, go and tell him the fault between you and him alone: and if he hears you, then you’ve gained your brother ( Mat 18:15 ).

This is the way differences are to be resolved and settled within the church.

Now if he does not hear you, then take with you one or two witnesses, so that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established ( Mat 18:16 ).

Take another person with you or another two people with you, and face him with the issue again.

And if he neglects to hear them, then take him before the church: but if he neglects to hear the church, then let him be as a heathen, a publican [a sinner, a rank sinner]. Verily I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Again I say unto you, that if two of you shall agree on earth as touching any thing, that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven ( Mat 18:17-19 ).

So here Jesus is speaking about loosening and binding, loosening the work of God, binding the work of Satan, and then declaring that if two of us agree, so the value of prayer together, in agreement in prayer. Now most of our prayer is done in private, but there are times when agreement in prayer is extremely valuable. And I encourage every one of you to have a prayer partner. Someone that when something really is troubling you, you have someone who can pray with you, and bear that burden with you. “For if two of you shall agree on earth as touching anything that they shall ask, it will be done for them by my Father which is in heaven.” The power of agreement in prayer.

Then Jesus goes on with His two or three concepts. He said,

For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them ( Mat 18:20 ).

So the simplest form of the church is just two or three people getting together to worship the Lord, to pray together. And whenever there are two, there are always three, wherever there are three visibly present, there is always four. Jesus said, “I am in the midst of them”. I think that it is important that we have, and somehow can conceptionalize this. Jesus isn’t like some today who say, “Well, the crowd’s too small. I am not going to go out tonight.” He said, “if two or three are gathered, I’ll be there.” Now what you need to conceptionalize and to realize is the fact that Jesus is here tonight.

Now if you have a real need and you knew Jesus was there, what would you do? You say,” Lord, problems.” And don’t you know that if you could see Him, if He actually stood here visible, if you could reach out and touch Him, you know that the problems would all go away. He could do it, you know He can do it. So many times you probably wish, “Oh, if I could only be at Capernaum, and Jesus was there, and if I could only have Him lay His hands on me.”

Hey, He is here. The fact that you cannot see Him is of no import at all. Because He said He would be here in the midst of us, and you can reach out by faith and touch Him tonight. And He will reach out and touch you. All you have to do is to make that contact of faith with Him. He is here. Realize that; bring before Him your needs. Believe Him and trust Him and He will work in you.

Then came Peter to him, and said, Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? Seven times? ( Mat 18:21 )

Now I imagine that Peter at this point thought I am really setting a great example here. I am sure that he was stretching in his own mind his knowledge of his own ability to forgive. I am sure when he said “seven times”, he was going far beyond what he knew he could do. I am sure Peter was thinking, “Well, I might be able to forgive a guy a couple of times, but it sounds good to the other disciples if I say ‘seven'”. And Jesus will probably say, “Look, here is a guy that’s really getting a lesson. Listen to it, fellows. Peter has really got it here: “Lord how often shall I forgive my brother the very same offense, he is doing the very same thing seven times?”

Jesus said unto him, I say not unto thee, Until seven times: but, Until seventy times seven ( Mat 18:22 ).

Now what Jesus is pointing out basically is that forgiveness is not a matter of mathematics, it’s a matter of spirit, that you should have the spirit of forgiveness. And I am certain that He is certain that if you take the four hundred and ninety, that you’ll lose count before you’ll ever get there. And you’ll just realize, hey, it isn’t a matter of numbers, it’s a matter of spirit. I am to have the spirit of forgiveness.

And then Jesus went on to illustrate it. He said,

Therefore is the kingdom of heaven likened unto a certain king, which would take a count of his servants. And when he had begun to reckon, one was brought unto him, which owed him ten thousand talents [about sixteen million dollars]. But inasmuch as he did not have any money to pay, his Lord commanded him to be sold, his wife, and his children, and all that he had, in order that a partial payment might be made. And the servant therefore fell down, and worshipped him, saying, O Lord, have patience with me, and I will pay you all. Then the Lord of that servant was moved with compassion, and he freed him, and he forgave him the debt. But the same servant went out, and found one of his fellowservants, which owed him an hundred pence [about three thousand dollars]: and he laid his hands on him, and took him by the throat, saying, You pay me what you owe me. And the fellowservant fell down at his feet, and he begged him, saying, Have patience with me, and I will pay you everything. But he would not: he had him cast into the debtors’ prison, until he should pay the debt. So when his fellowservants saw what was done, they were very grieved, and they came and told their lord all that he did. Then his lord, after he had called him, said unto him, O you wicked servant, I forgave you all that debt, because you desired me to: Should you not also have had compassion on your fellowservant, even as I had pity on you? And his lord was angry, and delivered him over to the tormentors, until he should pay all that was due from him. So likewise shall my heavenly Father do also unto you, if you [careful note] if you from your hearts forgive not every one his brother their trespasses ( Mat 18:23-35 ).

Heavy duty, lesson on forgiveness.

Now the analogy is very clear and obvious. God has forgiven you so very much, all of your past sins. Who are you to hold a little crutch or a grievance against your brother, not forgive him, because of some slight, or some mean thing that he has said about you, or some dirty thing that he has done to you. Who are you to hold this bitterness and unforgiving spirit? Jesus said, “Look, if you don’t forgive them from your heart, your Father won’t forgive you your debt.”

Now that is heavy. You say, “Well, explain it to us.” I can’t. If you want me to explain it away, I can’t. You say, “Well, isn’t that works then, forgiveness on works?” I don’t know what it is, but it’s the word of Jesus, and you better take heed.

Now the Lord has never commanded us to do anything, but what He will give us is the capacity to do it, if we are willing. The problem is, we are not often willing to forgive. The Lord is saying it’s got to be more than just a forgiving of words. “Oh, I forgive you, but you do that again, you’re going to get it. I forgive you, but I won’t forget. I’ll bury the hatchet, but I leave the handle showing so I can grab it whenever I need it.” The forgiveness is from the heart. Forgiveness is a matter of heart. It’s a matter of spirit. And inasmuch as God has commanded it, God will give me the capacity if I am willing, but I’ve got to be willing.

And so I have to pray, “Oh, God give to me that spirit of forgiveness. God I am bitter. God I am angry with what they’ve done. Lord I am upset over this thing, and I don’t want to forgive. I want vengeance, God, but I know that that is not of you. Father give to me the spirit of forgiveness. Give to me forgiveness in my heart. God take away this bitterness. Take away this unforgiving spirit that I have.” And I will receive God’s help, if I am willing. But I must be willing, but I must do it. That is a must. “

Fuente: Through the Bible Commentary

Mat 18:1. At the same time came the disciples unto Jesus, saying, Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?

The question we have sometimes heard asked in other forms, Which is the highest office; which form of service shall have the greatest honour? As if we were courtiers and were to take our positions according to precedent.

Mat 18:2. And Jesus called a little child unto him, and set him in the midst of them.

They all wondered what he was going to do. The little child was no doubt pleased to find itself in such happy company.

Mat 18:3. And said, Verily I say unto you,

And said Verily I say unto you to you, men or women, who think no small things of yourselves, and are wanting to know which is greatest, implying that you, each one, think yourself pretty good as it is.

Mat 18:3. Except ye converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.

Someone said to me this morning, This is a growing day. Ah! I said, I hope we shall all grow spiritually. Which way? said he; smaller or larger? Let it be smaller, brethren that will be the surest way of growth certainly. If we can become much less today, we shall be growing. We have grown up, as we call it, let us grow down today, and become as little children, or else we shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.

Mat 18:4. Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven.

The lower down, the higher up. In a certain sense the way to heaven is downward in our own esteem certainly. He must increase; I must decrease. And when that straight-backed letter I, which often becomes so prominent, vanishes altogether, till there is not an iota of it left, then we shall become like our Lord.

Mat 18:5. And whoso shall receive one such little child in my name receiveth me.

The humblest and the least in the family of divine love, if received brings with that reception the same blessing as the reception of Christ.

Mat 18:6. But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me,

It does not mean put him out of temper by his taking his silly offence but shall cause him to sin, shall make him stumble, shall scandalize him whosoever shall do that.

Mat 18:6. It were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea.

If you have the revised version, you will see in the margin that it is an ass millstone not a common millstone, which women used to turn, but a bigger stone, which was turned by an ass, in a mill which thus was of a larger kind altogether. The very heaviest conceivable doom were better than to be a stumbling block in the way of the very least of Gods people. Yet I have known some say Well, the thing is lawful, and if a weak brother does not like it, I cannot help it, he should not be weak. No, my dear brother, but that is not the way Christ would have you talk. You must consider the weakness of your brother; all things may be lawful to you, but all things are not expedient, and if meat make your brother to offend, eat no meat while the world standeth. Remember, we must, after all, measure the pace which the flock can travel by the weakest in the flock, or else we shall have to leave behind us many of the sheep of Christ. The pace at which a company must go, must depend upon how fast the weak and the sick can travel is it not so? unless we are willing to part company with them, which I trust we are not willing to do. So let us take care that we cause not even the weakest to stumble by anything that we can do without harm to ourselves, but which would bring harm to them. Then I am not sure if it would harm the weakest, whether it would not harm us also, because we are not as strong as we think we are; and, perhaps, if we took a better measure, we might put ourselves among the weakest, too.

Mat 18:7-8. Woe unto the world because of offences! for it must needs be that offences come; but woe to that man by whom the offence cometh! Wherefore if thy hand or thy foot offend thee, cut them off, and cast them from thee:

Get rid of that which is most useful to you, most necessary to you, rather than be led astray by it, and made to sin for

Mat 18:8. It is better for thee to enter into life halt or maimed, rather than having two hands or two feet to be cast into everlasting fire.

Remember that is the word of Jesus everlasting fire not the word of some of those coarse, cruel theologians that you hear a great deal about now-a-days, but the word of Jesus Christ, the Master himself. You cannot be more tender than he; to pretend to be so, with only prove us to be very foolish.

Mat 18:9. And if thine eye offend thee,

So needful to thy pleasure, and to thy knowledge, and to thy guidance yet if it make thee sin,

Mat 18:9. Pluck it out, and cast it from thee: it is better for thee to enter into life with one eye, rather than having two eyes to be cast into hellfire.

Better to be but a maimed believer than to be an accomplished unbeliever; better to be an uncultured saint than a cultured modern thinker; better that thou lose an eye, or lose a hand, than lose thy faith in God and his word, and so lose thy soul and be cast into hell fire.

Mat 18:10. Take heed that ye despise not one of these little ones;

So apt to do so, when a man appears to have no perfect knowledge, no large pretensions, we are so apt to think, Oh! he is a nobody.

Mat 18:10. For I say unto you, That in heaven their angels do always behold the face of my Father which is in heaven.

There is an angel to watch over each child of God; the heirs of heaven have those holy spirits to keep watch and ward over them. These sacred intelligences, who watch over the people of God, do at the same time behold Gods face. They do his commandments, hearkening unto the voice of his word, and beholding his face all the while. And if these little ones are thus honourably attended by the angels of God, never despise them. They may be dressed in fustian, they may wear the very poorest of print, but they are attended like princes; therefore, treat them as such.

Mat 18:11. For the Son of man is come to save that which was lost.

Another reason why you must not despise them. How think ye? Put on your considering cap, and think a minute.

Mat 18:12-14. How think ye? if a man have an hundred sheep, and one of them be gone astray, doth he not leave the ninety and nine, and goeth into the mountains, and seeketh that which is gone astray? And if so be that he find it, verily I say unto you, he rejoiceth more of that sheep, than of the ninety and nine which went not astray. Even so it is not the will of your Father which is in heaven, that one of these little ones should perish.

Nor shall they. Christ has come on purpose that He may send them out, and find them out he will; and having an hundred, whom his Father gave him, he will not be satisfied with ninety-and-nine, but the whole hundred shall be there. Now, as if to show us that we are not to despise the very least in the family, nor even the most erring, he brings it personally home to us.

Mat 18:15. Moreover if thy brother shall trespass against thee, go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone: if he shall hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother.

Do not say, You must come to me. Go to him; he has trespassed against you, it is a personal affair; go and seek him out. It is useless to expect the person who does the injury to try and make peace. It is the injured one who always has to forgive, though he has nothing to be forgiven, it always comes to that, and it is the injured one who should, if he be of the mind of Christ, be the one to commence the reconciliation.

Mat 18:16-17. But if he will not hear thee, then take with thee one or two more, that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established. And if he shall neglect to hear them, tell it unto the church: but if he neglect to hear the church let him be unto thee as an heathen man and a publican.

Quit his company he has despised the last tribunal. Now you must leave him. Be not angry with him. Freely forgive him, but quit him.

Mat 18:18. Verily I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.

Where the church acts rightly, it has the solemn sanction of God; this lesser tribunal on earth shall have its decrease sanctioned by the great tribunal above. Hence it becomes a very serious matter, this binding and loosing which Christ has given to his Church.

Mat 18:19-20. Again I say unto you, That if two of you shall agree on earth as touching any thing that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven. For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.

It is not a large church, therefore, that is girded with the wonderful power of prayer, but even two or three. Christ will not have us despise one, he will not have us despise two or three. Who hath despised the day of small things? On the contrary, measure by quality, rather than by quantity, and even if the quality fail measure by love, rather than by some rule of justice that you have set up.

Mat 18:21. Then came Peter to him and said, Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? till seven times?

He thought he had opened his mouth very wide when he said that.

Mat 18:22. Jesus saith unto him, I say not unto thee, Until seven times: but, Unto seventy times seven.

I do not wonder that we read in another place that the disciples said, Lord, increase our faith. For it needs much faith to have so much patience, and to continue still to forgive.

Fuente: Spurgeon’s Verse Expositions of the Bible

Mat 18:1. , in that hour) when they had heard of the freedom of the children, declared in ch. Mat 17:26 (which accounts for the use of , then, in this passage); and when they had seen that Peter, James, and John (ch. Joh 17:1), had been all summoned to the Mount.- , …, who then, etc.) They put the question indefinitely in words, but in their own hearts they think of themselves.[803]- , in the kingdom of heaven) See that thou enter there: do not enquire beforehand what are the several portions allotted to each therein.

[803] In Mar 9:33-34, and Luk 9:46-47, the fact is stated with some little change in the form in which the circumstances appear; namely, the disciples, after that they had disputed on the way, and were on that account set to rights by our loving Saviour, were at first silent: but then, all having been convened together by the Saviour, some finally proposed the question to Him. Harm., p. 381, 382. Comp. Michaelis in der Einleitung, etc., T. ii., p. m. 911, etc.-E. B.

Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament

Mat 18:1-14

23. WARNINGS AGAINST GIVING OFFENSE

Mat 18:1-14

1 Who then is greatest in the kingdom of heaven?-Parallel records are found in Mar 9:33-41 and Luk 9:46-50. “In that hour,” we do not know the exact time; it is not said that Peter went immediately to the sea to catch the fish which should furnish the tribute money. Luke omits the visit to Capernaum, which is incidentally mentioned by Mark and Matthew. His disciples had been greatly troubled at the announcement of the sufferings of Jesus, but their grief soon passed and their thoughts began to turn to the kingdom which he was to set up. They still believed that he would set up a kingdom, and even if he should have to die, someone would have to carry on the kingdom. They thought it would be an earthly kingdom with royal splendor and that the Jews would be supreme over all other nations; furthermore they thought that there would be distinctions and offices in it; someone must be high treasurer, some governors over provinces, and some prime ministers to stand near the throne. Who would fill these offices? On the way to Capernaum they debated this question. The kinsmen of Jesus naturally supposed that their blood relationship would entitle them to peculiar honors; Peter had not forgotten the distinction with which he had been treated when he confessed Jesus as the Son of God, and James and John were meditating the project for which they afterwards received a rebuke. (Mat 20:20-24.) The disciples were occupied with unworthy ambitions and longings for imaginary honors. Jesus asked them about their dispute, and they, ashamed of it, held their peace. (Mar 9:33.) They were like children or heirs quarreling over an estate before the death of a benefactor.

2-4 And he called to him a little child.-By way of instructing them and rebuking them for their contention, as to who should be the greatest in the kingdom, he called a little child “and set him in the midst of them.” Jesus frequently taught and impressed lessons in this way. The symbolic mode of conveying instruction was common in the East at that time. Some have speculated as to whose child this was; there is no ground for any supposition or tradition as to who it was. When the child was placed in their midst Jesus said to them, “Except ye turn, and become as little children, ye shall in no wise enter into the kingdom of heaven.” This put the responsibility on them; they had the opportunity and the power to “turn” about and change their life so that they would become fit subjects of his kingdom. Later Peter said to some, “Repent ye therefore, and turn again.” (Act 3:19.) They were commanded to do this, hence they could do it, and must do it in order to receive the blessings of God. In their turning or change, Jesus tells them what change they should make; they are to “become as little children”; children are humble, docile, and free from ambitious designs; Jesus demanded that his disciples trust him and obey him in humility; “for God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace to the humble.” (1Pe 5:5.) The condition of their entering the kingdom was thus made clear; if they do not turn and become like the child, they cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven. This shows that the disciples at this time were not in the kingdom or church; that the kingdom or church had not been established at this time; for if it had been, these disciples would have been in it.

Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.- The kingdom of heaven is composed of the meek on earth. The greatest in the sight of God are those who are the most humble and obedient; those who are most like Christ in service to God and to man. Here is a new standard of greatness; it is God’s standard of greatness “the way up is down,” down in humility and up in the greatness of God. In the estimation of God, humility is a most sublime virtue. This does not necessarily teach that there are degrees in happiness on earth or in heaven; it was not spoken to teach .such. The disciples of Jesus should have been able to understand more of the nature of the kingdom of God. Jesus here answers the questions which had been raised by his disciples (verse one), “Who then is greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” The greatest is the most humble, the least ambitious. (Psalms 131; 1Co 14:20.)

[The child of God who thus humbles himself like the little child to think the Father knows best, and he knows it is best because his Father says so, will be crowned with the highest honors in the kingdom of heaven. He who thinks he is wise enough to improve on the Father’s ways is a fool, and will never find a home in heaven. It is the vital point of a true son to take God’s way just as he gave it as the best and only way for a child of God to walk and work.]

5, 6 And whoso shall receive one such little child.-“Such little child” means not little ones in age, but in disposition and character. To receive such is to have the humility of Christ, to be truly a disciple. (Mat 10:40-42.) To encourage his followers Jesus promised to take care of them; he makes common cause with his faithful disciples. (Mat 25:35-40; Mar 9:38-40; Luk 9:49-50.) Jesus here passed from the symbol to the things symbolized, from the child by nature to the child by grace. Those who receive the humble unpretending disciples of Jesus receive him, because these disciples belong to him. It is a blessed thought to be so closely identified with Jesus, that the one who receives his disciple receives him.

But whoso shall cause one of these little ones that believe on me to stumble.-This shows that Jesus is talking about his disciples; it is one who believes “on me” and not a child in age. The one who receives such receives Christ and is blessed; but the one who causes one “to stumble” or be offended receives the condemnation. To cause one to fall away from the faith is a fearful sin. (Mat 5:29.) To offend in the scriptural use of the word is to cause anyone to fall from the faith, or renounce his belief in Jesus, and upon everyone who causes such a fall the heaviest condemnations of God are pronounced. It is better for “a great millstone” to be “hanged about his neck, and that he should be sunk in the depth of the sea.” An ancient mode of punishment for certain crimes was to hang a millstone about the necks of the victim and cast him into the sea to drown; this was practiced by the Syrians, Greeks, and others. The Jews at times had practiced this by casting the victim into the Dead Sea with a stone tied around him. There were two kinds of millstones-those which are used with the hand and turned by women in grinding and then those that were larger and turned by an ass. The term used here in the original means “ass-millstone,” which means the heaviest. Such a one should be “sunk in the depth of the sea”; the intensity of the depth is described as the image of the utter ruin which such crimes deserve. This shows that it is a fearful sin to cause even the least of God’s children to stumble.

[Jesus speaks of little ones able to believe; the word translated “stumble” means to lead into sin, to cause to offend; the meaning of it is that it is better for him who causes one to stumble to have a millstone hanged about his neck and be cast into the depth of the sea. Jesus speaks here of children who believe, or of the simplest childlike persons who believe.]

7-9 Woe unto the world because of occasions of stumbling! -A woe is pronounced upon those who encourage in sin; “occasions of stumbling” means “stumbling blocks” in the path of the righteous; those things which cause others to sin, the things which cause others to turn from Christ. Condemnation is pronounced upon the world because so many are not only guilty of sin themselves, but encourage others to sin. Jesus says, “For it must needs be that the occasions come.” God has not decreed by any secret decree that there shall always be some men in the world who must necessarily work out their own ruin, by the temptation of others into sin, by inventing heresies to corrupt the doctrines of salvation, by making schisms, to lead astray the simple-minded and humble disciple; he only foretells that which will occur. God has allowed men liberty and free will to choose between good and evil. Some will choose evil and cause the ruin of others; the necessity is in the obstinacy of men and not in the decrees of God. The depraved state of society shows the consequences of causing others to sin. The condemnation of God is upon those who ensnare others into sin. God does not slay men, nor deprive them of their free nature, nor limit its natural free action in its allotted range, in order to prevent men from sinning. It is a fundamental law of man’s nature that his character shall have full scope freely to develop itself; hence responsibility can justly exist, penalty can be justified, and rewards can be bestowed.

[It is God’s purpose that the servants of God should be tempted to do wrong. Only a bad person could tempt them to go wrong. So though God desired them tempted, to buffet them, the wicked spirit led in the temptation of the unrighteous, woe be to him for it! (Luk 17:1; 1Co 11:19; 1Ti 4:1.) The person or thing that tempted to evil was to be cut off or given up, even if as dear as the right eye, the right hand or foot. Causes and occasions of division and strife will come in all the churches. Many will fail to see and know the whole truth, will give trouble and care in their shortsightedness and missteps. They are to be borne with and trained in the law of God.]

And if thy hand or thy foot causeth thee to stumble, cut it off, and cast it from thee.-The same idea is repeated here, almost in the same words, as in the sermon on the mount. (Mat 5:29-30.) It is better for the disciples of Jesus to go into heaven with nothing but his word to plead than to be cast away for the sake of worldly thrones or the gratifications of fleshly ambitions. The words of Jesus here are not to be taken literally, for God does not permit us to injure and maim our bodies in order to avoid temptation, but shows us, by this impressive figure of speech, that we should deny our selfish and proud desires, and “put to death therefore your members which are upon the earth.” (Col 3:5.) “Enter into life” means life eternal, and “hell of fire” may mean “Gehenna,” which is called “eternal fire” (verse eight) as the fire was kept burning in the Valley of Hinnom to consume carcasses and refuse. (Mat 5:22.) Mark shows the application of the proverb by saying here “enter into the kingdom of God,” which is the same as eternal life with all of its promises.

10, 11 See that ye despise not one of these little ones.- Again “little ones” means disciples of Jesus; to “despise” one of them is to neglect to use the means that will help them in living the Christian life; we are to use all means at our command to help each other; to despise one is to put temptation in their way. Men often despise the poor, or the humble Christian, do them wrong, almost force them, by oppression, into doing evil; sometimes disciples of one race may despise those of another, because the color of the skin does not mark them in their class. God is the avenger of those who so treat his disciples. (1Th 4:6; Jas 5:6.)

The reason assigned by Jesus as a warning to those who would despise his disciples is “that in heaven their angels do always behold the face of my Father who is in heaven.” This is a difficult passage; scholars are not agreed as to its meaning. The most general meaning is that each disciple has a “guardian angel” which protects and guides in living the Christian life. They are represented as beholding the “face of my Father who is in heaven.” To “behold the face” of God is to be present before his immediate glory, and entrusted with high commissions and power. It has been doubted by some whether there are single angels delegated to minister a special providence to each one of the disciples of Jesus. Many think that there are such special angels to care for each soul. (Psa 34:7; Act 12:15; Heb 1:14.) These scriptures by some are interpreted to mean that each Christian is guarded in his efforts to be holy by his attendant angel.

[This is relied on to prove that each disciple has a “guardian angel,” but for this to have any bearing on that subject, it must be first assumed that persons have guardian angels. It may be the spirits of persons after death become angels and those who humble themselves as little children in the future state become angels and stand nearest the throne of God. This would be more consoling than the other idea. Is there any ground for supposing the redeemed spirits become angels? Jesus said, “In the resurrection they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are as angels in heaven.” (Mat 22:30.) This does not say they become angels, but it does say they become as angels-are conformed to their state in important particulars. Act 12:15; Act 23:8 and Mat 25:41 are scriptures that seem to have a bearing on the subject. When properly construed these do not suggest the idea; hence no proof whatever is found of the idea. If Christians or others have guardian angels, what do they for them? Do they suggest thought? When a thought comes into the mind, how can we tell whether it was suggested by an angel or not? Are we not liable to accept evil suggestions as made by the angels? Who is responsible for our actions, ourselves or our “guardian angels”? It seems to be fraught with the same danger that directs spiritual influence; we are liable to attribute our fleshly emotions and desires to the guardian angel. Does the angel make suggestions or exert an influence and give us no rule by which to test when the influence is from the angel or from something else? When man sins, who is responsible -the man or the angel? In the parable of the man who sowed good seed and evil plants grew in the field (Mat 13:24-30), the servants, who were the angels, asked, “Shall we gather up the evil plants?” He said, “No; let them grow together until the harvest then the reapers will separate them.” This teaches that there will be no superhuman interference with men until the judgment. The idea of guardian angels is attended with some evil; it is best not to teach it.]

Verse eleven is omitted in the Revised Version because the ancient manuscripts and versions do not have it. Some think that it is quoted from Luk 19:10, where it is genuine. It states the purpose of the advent of Jesus-“to save that which was lost.” Jesus came to save the world; those who accept him will receive the blessings of salvation from past sins, and, if faithful to him, will in the end receive eternal life. (Mar 16:16;Act 4:12; Rom 3:23-26.)

12-14 If any man have a hundred sheep.-This parable is also found in Luk 15:4-10. It shows the value that Jesus placed on a human soul. He came to seek and to save the lost; if there is not much value to be placed on a human soul, then Jesus’ mission was not worth very much. If we deem his mission to earth very valuable, we must place a very high estimate on the soul. Jesus makes no difference in his estimation of a soul; the least of his disciples is as valuable and precious in his sight as the most renowned. The Pharisees and other religious leaders of that day disregarded the poor, the disgraced, and degraded wretches of human society. They were spoken of as “publicans and sinners” and “publicans and harlots.” So Jesus here shows by the parable of the lost sheep the care that should be given to each one. If one has a flock of a hundred sheep and one is lost, the shepherd leaves the ninety-nine and goes to find the one that has gone astray. When it is found, he rejoiceth over it more than the ninety-nine “which have not gone astray.” This does not mean that he values the one greater than he does the ninety-nine; but to restore the one to the flock gives him greater joy for the occasion than the remainder of the flock. Jesus makes his own application of this parable when he says, “Even so it is not the will of your Father who is in heaven, that one of these little ones should perish.” By implication Jesus teaches that it is possible for those who have become his “little ones” to perish. It is not God’s will that any should perish. (Eze 33:11; 2Pe 3:9.) As it is not the will of the shepherd that one of the flock should perish, so it is not the will of our Father that even the least of his disciples perish.

Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary

What a sad state of heart prompted this question! How absolutely opposed to the whole genius of the Master’s teaching and example! He replied by an act, and a statement growing out of that act. The child in the midst was a revelation of the truly great character. To rob a child of its child character is to make it stumble, and the words of Jesus leave no room for doubt how such an act is abhorred by God. The journey into the wilderness is a journey to restore childhood to a wanderer, for it is not the will of God that a ‘little one” should perish. The essential fact in the transformation Christ works is that He changes the great ones into little children.

Out of the desire for greatness will spring actual trespass of one against another. With such trespass our Lord dealt from the standpoint of the duty of the injured, and not of the one who inflicts the injury.

1. Tell him his fault. You have no right to ignore it, for so you injure the wrong-doer.

2. Failing this first method, take one or two others.

3. Failing that, tell it to the church.

4. Then if that fail, let him be unto thee as a heathen man and a publican.”

What does that signify? That I am to despise and oppress him? Certainly not. The Christian’s attitude toward a “heathen man and a publican” must be a passionate desire to help and save. This is emphatically taught in the parable which answered Peter’s question. It is in this connection that the Master utters the memorable words which contain the most perfect statement of true ecclesiastical policy. The gathering of souls in the name of Jesus constitutes the Church, which has authority to deal with the wrong-doer. Then let it be noted that the seat of authority is not in human agreement, but in the presence and Lordship of Jesus.

Fuente: An Exposition on the Whole Bible

(M) 18:1. In that hour came the disciples to Jesus, saying, Who then is greater in the kingdom of the heavens?] The editor here returns to Mk 33, but omits the dispute and Christs question (see above), for which he substitutes the statement that the disciples came with a question. The is probably intended as a link with the preceding incident. Why is Peter regarded as chief among us? Who is to be chief in the coming kingdom? In order to form a connecting link, the editor inserts ; cf. the insertion of , 12:1. For , see on 4:3,

(M) 2. And He called a child, and placed him in the midst of them, and said.] Mk. has: And sitting down, He called () the Twelve, and saith to them, If any one wishes to be first, he shall be last of all, and servant of all. And He took a child, and placed him in the midst of them; and having taken him into His arms, He said to them. For the omission of , cf. 19:15. In Mk. there now follows a series of sayings, 9:37-50, broken by a short paragraph of incident, 38-40. The connection of these sayings is sometimes very obscure, and frequently artificial. The transition, e.g., from 42 to 43 is difficult, and unless in v. 49 has the same reference as in 48, the connection of thought seems to be broken there also. It is probable that Mk. has strung together detached sayings or paragraphs. of v. 37 would remind the Evangelist of 38-40 and 41, both of which have a similar phrase vv. 39, 41. (= children) of v. 37 would bring to his remembrance v. 42 with its (= recent converts). And the of 42 would suggest the section 43-48, although this paragraph has no immediate bearing on the subject with which the discourse started. Lastly, of v. 48 would suggest the (probably) quite different of v. 49 (see Swete), and of this verse recalls to the Evangelists mind the saying about salt, v. 50.

The editor of Mt., however, has treated the whole series of sayings as though it formed a unity, only omitting some of the least harmonious verses. But just as he has made Mar 6:8-12 and 4 the basis round which to group a number of other sayings so as to form a discourse of some length, so he has done here. The relation of Mt. to Mk. may be shown as follows. Passages in brackets are added by Mt.:

Mat_18[3-4] for 3; cf. Mar 10:15.

5 = 9:37a.

omitted 37b.

omitted 38-40.

omitted 41.

6 = 42.

[7]

8-9 = 43-47.

omitted 48-50.

[10-35]

Mat 19:1a is a closing formula like that which closes the three previous great discourses in Mat 7:28, Mat 11:1, Mat 13:53.

Of the verses omitted, 37b has already found a place in 10:40; 38-40 are omitted because they break the tenor of the speech; 41 has already been recorded in 10:42; 48-50 are probably omitted on account of their difficulty. A saying parallel to v. 50 has already been recorded in 5:13. Of the verses inserted, 12-14 find a parallel in a different context in Luk 15:3-7; Luk_6 finds a parallel in a different context in Luk 17:2; Luk_7 in Luk 17:1; Luk_15 in Luk 17:3; and 21 in Luk 17:4.

(L) 3. Verily I say to you, Except ye turn and become as children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of the heavens.] That is to say, in asking who shall be the greater, you have entered upon a path which will not lead you to this end. The very question shows that you do not understand what greatness is. You must turn back and recover the childlike temper which is untempted to self-advancement. You must become again as children, i.e. unassuming. Otherwise, so far from being great in the kingdom, you will never even enter it. This verse anticipates Mar 10:15.

(L) 4. Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this child, he shall be the great one in the kingdom of the heavens.] That is to say, greatness involves humility. To be great one must be unassuming.

(M) 5. And whosoever shall receive ore such child in My name receives Me.] Mk. has: Whosoever shall receive one of such children in My name receives Me. By receive in My name here is apparently meant to recognise in the humble, unassuming disposition of children a feature of the Christlike character; cf. 11:29.They who recognise and welcome this characteristic of childhood receive Christ, i.e. are in communion with Him.

The editor here omits Mk 37b-41. But it is noticeable that in 10:40, 42 he has parallels to the first and last of these sayings.

(M) 6. And whosoever shall cause to stumble one of these little ones who believe in Me, it is expedient for him that an asss millstone be hanged about his neck, and (that) he be sunk into the deep sea.] Mk. has And whosoever shall cause to stumble one of these little ones who believe in Me, it is good for him rather if an asss millstone is placed about his neck, and he is cast into the sea.- ] for Mk.s , as often.- ] In Mk. the thought of the discourse has been turned by the insertion of vv. 38-40 from the consideration and treatment of children to that of children in faith and belief.1 In Mt., who has omitted 38-40, the thought is still of children. The editor retains Mk.s in spite of its incongruity. Mk. has – for . Mt. assimilates to 5:29, 30. Lk. in 17:1 has .- ] Mk. has . So Lk. The is an assimilation to 5:29-30.-] Mk. has , Lk. – ] Mk. has , simply. occurs only here in Mt. In Mk. It is wrongly omitted by D a b ff i k. The there, immediately after vv. 38-41, can only refer to such as had confidence in the power of Christ, like the man who cast out demons in His name even though he was not an immediate follower of Christ. The construction does not occur again in Mk. nor in Lk. It is common in Jn. The in Mt. is incongruous, and is only explicable as borrowed, i.e. not omitted, from Mk.

(L) 7. Woe to the world because of stumbling-blocks! for there is necessity that stumbling-blocks come; but woe to that man through whom the stumbling-block comes!] Luk 17:1 has: , . The editor inserts the saying here because of the verbal connection between and of the previous verse; cf. the juxtaposition of 6:16 () and 6:19 . For , cf. 5:14, 13:38.

(M) 8. And if thy hand or thy foot is causing thee to stumble, cut it off, and cast (it) from thee. It is good for thee to enter into life maimed or halt, than having two hands or two feet to be cast into the eternal fire.] Mk. has two separate sayings for the hand and the foot: And if thy hand should cause thee to stumble, cut it off. It is good for thee maimed to enter into life, than having the two hands to go away into Gehenna, into the unquenchable fire. And if thy foot should be causing thee to stumble, cut it off. It is good for thee to enter into life halt, than having the two feet to be cast into Gehenna. Mt. has the saying about the hand in 5:30. He combines here, selecting (Mk 45) rather than (43). In 5:29-30 he has both verbs. He assimilates to 5:29 by substituting for (), and for , and by adding ; cf. Introduction, p. xxx. For life, see on 7:14.- ] Mk. has: , . , is an assimilation to 25:41. occurs again in 25:46 of , and in 19:16, 29, 25:46 of . On the idea of everlasting punishment, see Volz, Jd. Eschat. p. 287. Cf. Ps.-Sol. 2:35 ; Enoch. 91:9 eternal judgement; 27:3 judgement-continually, for ever;22:11 punishment and torture for ever; 67:13 fire which burns for ever; Josephus, Wars, ii. 164, everlasting punishment ( ); Ant. xviii. 14, an everlasting prison ( ); Secrets of Enoch 10:6 hell is an everlasting inheritance; Jubilees 24:32 eternal malediction; Berakhoth 28b (Jochanan ben Zaccai) All the more should I weep now that they are about to lead me before the King of kings, the Holy One, blessed be He, who lives and abides for ever, and for ever and ever; whose wrath, if He be wrathful, is an eternal wrath; and if He bind me, His binding is an eternal binding; and if He kill me, His killing is an eternal killing; whom I cannot placate with words, nor bribe with wealth; Baruch 85:12 there will be no opportunity of returning, nor a limit to the times. In view of this general drift of contemporaneous thought upon this subject, there is no justification for the attempt to weaken the meaning of in this Gospel. For the questions raised as to the duration of punishment in the Rabbinical schools, see Volz.

(M) 9. And if thy eye is causing thee to stumble, pluck it out, and cast (it) from thee. It is good for thee with one eye to enter into life, than having two eyes to be cast into the Gehenna of fire.] Mk. has: And if thy eye should be causing thee to stumble, cast it out. It is good for thee with one eye to enter into the kingdom of God, than having two eyes to be cast into Gehenna, where their worm dies not, and the fire is not quenched. Mt. assimilates to 5:29 by substituting – for -, for , for , and by adding . The addition of after is an assimilation to 5:22 and a substitute for Mk v. 48.

(L) 10. Take heed, do not despise one of these little ones; for I say to you, That their angels in heaven always see the face of My Father who is in heaven.] The editor adds a saying which clearly has reference to children, not to adult Christians of childlike faith, and is an additional proof that in v. 6 he still had literal children in mind. The of v. 6 and of this verse probably suggested the insertion of this saying here. See note on v. 7.- ] Cf. 1 K 10:8, 2 K 25:19, To 12:15. The seeing the face means that they stand in the immediate presence of God. The verse gives an additional reason for reverencing the Christlike qualities of children; cf. v. 6.

(L) 12. What think ye? if any man have a hundred sheep, and one of them stray, doth he not leave the ninety-nine, and go to the mountains and seek that which has strayed?]

(M) 13. And if it happen that he find it, verily I say to you, that he rejoices more over it, than over the ninety-nine which did not stray.] Luk 15:3-7 has a similar saying. The parable there illustrates the divine love which seeks to reclaim sinners. In Mt. after v. 10 and before v. 14 it apparently illustrates from another point of view the value of children in Gods sight. Their angels stand in His presence, and He cares for them as a shepherd does for his lost sheep. But this can hardly be an original connection.

(L) 14. So it is not the will of (before) your Father who is in heaven, that one of these little ones should perish.] Vv. 12-14 have probably been added here by the editor as a third saying about ; cf. vv. 6, 10. Even if vv. 10-14 be interpreted of children in faith, i.e. recent converts, vv. 12-14 can hardly be in an original connection. They presuppose a context such as that in Lk. where they would illustrate the divine love, not for children or for childlike believers, but for sinners who had strayed away from His love. For cf. 11:26 .

10. ] D b c ff 1 2 g1 2 S2, add , to assimilate to v. 6. The words are very unsuitable here.

11. So D al S2 latt. Omit B. L * 1 13 33 e ff1 S1. The verse is interpolated from Luk 19:10, apparently in order to make some sort of connection between v. 10 and 12-14.

15. The thought with which the discourse started was the necessity of an unassuming and unpretentious disposition in those who hope to enter the kingdom. Children and behaviour towards them were the test of this quality, vv. 1-5. A change was then made to the consideration of conduct towards children, and the sin of putting stumbling-blocks in their path, v. 6. Another abrupt change due to Mk. introduced the subject of a man who puts stumbling-blocks in his own spiritual life, vv. 7-9. Lastly, in some verses added by Mt. to Mk.s discourse the thought returned to the consideration of right conduct towards children (or childlike believers?), vv. 10-14. In these last three verses the thought of Gods forgiveness of sinners is not prominent. Rather the thought emphasised here is that of His love for children (or childlike believers?). But the love of God is most strikingly expressed in His forgiveness of sin, and the Evangelist is aware that the parable could more appropriately be employed to illustrate His forgiving love. This suggests to him the sayings which follow about forgiveness as a necessary qualification of the Christian character. It seems clear that the juxtaposition of the ideas of giving no offence to little ones, v. 6, and of forgiving sin, v. 15, is purely artificial and literary, and that it is due to the editor of the Gospel. Now it is noticeable that vv. 6, 7, 15, 21 are paralleled in Luk 17:2, Luk 17:1, Luk 17:3, Luk 17:4. That is to say, that both Evangelists connect the ideas of giving offence to little ones and of forgiving sin. Since a motive for this connection can be discovered in Mt., whilst in Lk. it seems purely arbitrary, it seems probable that Luk 17:1-4 is due to reminiscence of Mat_18.

(L) 15. And if thy brother sin against thee, go convince him between thee and him alone. if he hear thee, then hast gained thy brother.] Lk (17:3, 4) has: If thy brother sin, rebuke him; and if he repent, forgive him. And if seven times a day he sin against thee, and seven times turn to thee, saying, I repent, thou shalt forgive him. Cf. Test. Gad 6:3-7 If he admit his offence and repent, forgive him.-] cf. Lev 19:17 – ] is an Aramaism. The thought is of personal offences. The Christian disciple is to be reconciled to his offended fellow-Christian before he can bring offerings to God, 5:23, 24. He must also do everything in his power to bring one who has wronged him to penitence and to forgiveness.

(L) 16. But if he will not hear (thee), take with thee one or two more, that at the mouth of two witnesses or three every word may stand.]- ] i.e. if he will not admit his wrong-doing and be reconciled to you.- ] i.e. take with you one or two that they may admonish him, and be witnesses to the fact that you have made efforts to re-establish amity.- ] in order that the Mosaic two or three may be satisfied. The two or three are the offended Christian and the one or two whom he takes with him. The matter is not treated from a strictly legal point of view, because the offended person would not be regarded as a witness in a law court. Moreover, the one or two are to witness not to the offence, but to the unwillingness of the offender to be reconciled, and to the efforts made by the offended party to bring about reconciliation. It is probable that the quotation is an addition to the original saying made by the Evangelist, or by the compiler of his Jewish Christian source. The words quoted are from Deu 19:15 . Luc has .

(L) 17. But if he refuse to hear them, tell it to the Church: and if he refuse to hear the Church also, let him be to thee as the Gentile and the toll-gatherer.] in the later Greek is to refuse to hear, cf. Est 3:3, Est 3:8, To 3:4, Polyb. xxvi. 2. 1, xxx. 18. 2, and Mar 5:36 with Swetes note.-] see on 16:18. The Church is the society of disciples of Christ who dwell in any place. For and , see on 5:46, 47. The Christian disciple who refuses to be reconciled to his fellow-Christian is to be regarded as no true member of the Society.

(L) 18. Verily I say to you, Whatsoever things you shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever things you shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.] The saying with the verbs in the singular has already been recorded in 16:19. Here it means that the decisions of the community regarding what is or is not justifiable in its members must be regarded as final.

(L) 19. Again I say to you, That if two of you agree upon earth concerning anything which they shall ask, it shall be done for them from My Father who is in the heavens.] This gives the reason for the assurance made in v. 18. The decisions of the community will be final, because God will hear the petitions of even two Christians who agree together. But the verse cannot be in an original connection. In v. 18 the agreement presupposed is agreement in coming to decisions upon questions which concern the Churchs welfare. V. 19 is clearly an encouragement to prayer on the ground that the agreement of the smallest number in their petitions will insure an answer. The on earth and in heaven in both verses suggested the insertion of 19 here. Cf. note on v. 7.

(L) 20. For where two ar three are gathered in My name, there am I in the midst of them.] That is to say, the prayer of two who are agreed will receive an answer, because Christ is with His disciples in their prayer; cf. Sayings of Our Lord, Log. v.: Wherever there are (two) they are not without God, and wherever there is one alone I say I am with him; Mal 3:16 They that feared the Lord spake often the one to the other, and the Lord hearkened and heard; Aboth 3:8 Two that sit together and are occupied in the words of the Law have the Shechinah (i.e. the Divine Presence) among them. Cf. 3:9 and B. Berakhoth 6a quoted by Taylor, The Oxyrhynchus Logia, p. 34 f.

15. ] So D al latt. S1 S2. The words are wrongly omitted by B 1 22 234*, and if not expressed would have to be understood. They are not found in Luk 17:3, but occur in the next verse. is omitted by S1 S2.

20. D S1 have this verse in a negative form: For there are not two or three gathered together in My name that I am not in the midst of them.

(L) 21. Then came Peter, and said to Him, Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me, and I shall forgive him? unto seven times?] Luk 17:4 has: And if seven times in the day he sin against thee, and seven times turn to thee, saying, I repent; thou shalt forgive him. For the introduction of Peter, cf. 14:28, 15:15; and see note on 16:19, p. 180.

(L) 22. Jesus saith to him, Not, I say to thee, until seven times; but, until seventy times seven.] The latter number is meant as an indefinitely great one. There is the same literary contrast between seven and seventy times seven in Gen 4:24 LXX. Cf. Moulton, p. 98: A definite allusion to the Genesis story is highly probable. Jesus pointedly sets against the natural mans craving for seventy-sevenfold revenge, the spiritual mans ambition to exercise the privilege of seventy-sevenfold forgiveness. Dr. Moulton had previously said that the meaning seventy seven times is unmistakable in Genesis. It is very probable that Mt.s is modelled on the similar phrase in Genesis, but it seems doubtful whether in both passages we should not translate seventy times seven, rather than seventy-seven times. In Mt., D has , an obvious emendation. Blass renders seventy times seven, p. 145. So Wellhausen and Zahn, in loc. Contrast the teaching in the Babylonian Talmud, Joma 86b Rabbi Jose ben Jehuda said, If a man commits an offence once they forgive him, a second time they forgive him, a third time they forgive him, the fourth time they do not forgive him: for it is said (here follow Job 33:29 and Amo 2:6); 87a Rabbi Isaac said, Every one who vexes his neighbour, if only in words, must appease him. Rabbi Jose ben Hanina said, He who begs forgiveness from his neighbour must not do so more than three times, for it is said (here follows Gen 2:17, in which are here three particles of entreaty).

23. The editor now inserts a parable to illustrate the necessity of forgiveness.

(L) 23. Therefore the kingdom of the heavens is like to a man, a king, who wished to take reckoning with his servants.]-] See on 11:16.- ] cf. 20:1, 22:2, 13:52. Here and in 22:2 probably means an earthly king, a grecised form of the Jewish king of flesh and blood which is common in the parables of the Talmud and Midrashim.- ] occurs in BU 775, 2nd cent. a.d.; the middle voice in Faym Towns, p. 261, , 1st cent. a.d.; and in Ox. Pap. i. 113, 2nd cent. a.d.

(L) 24. And when he began to take account, there was brought to him a debtor to the amount of ten thousand talents.]- ] Cf. Blass, p. 144. And see on 9:18.- ] The talent was equivalent to 6000 denarii, or 240. 10,000 talents is, therefore, an enormous sum. We must either suppose that the sum is heightened in order to form a literary contrast to the 100 denarii, or suppose that the servants here referred to are the higher officers of the king, through whose hands would pass the imperial taxes.

(L) 25. And when he was unable to pay, his lord commanded him to be sold, and his wife and children, and all that he had, and payment to be made.]

26. Therefore the servant fell down, and did homage to him, saying, Lord, have forbearance with me, and I will pay thee all.]

(L) 27. And the lord of that servant had compassion on him, and absolved him from the debt.]

(L) 28. And that servant went out, and found one of his fellow-servants, who owed him one hundred denarii.] The denarius was worth about eightpence halfpenny.

And he seized him, and held him by the throat, saying, Pay anything thou owest.]

(L) 29. Therefore his fellow-servant fell down, and besought him, saying, Have forbearance with me, and I will pay thee.]

(L) 30. And he would not; but went and cast him into prison, until he should pay what was owed.]

(L) 31. Therefore his fellow-servants, seeing what had happened, were grieved exceedingly, and came and recounted to their lord all that had happened.]- ] see on 17:23.

(L) 32. Then his lord called him, and saith to him, Thou evil servant, I forgave thee all that debt, since thou besoughtest me.]-] See on 2:7.-] occurs in 1Co 7:3, Rom 13:7.Rom 13:1

(L) 33. Oughtest not thou to have had pity on thy fellow-servant, as I had pity on thee?]

(L) 34. And his lord was angry, and delivered him to the tormentors, until he should pay all that was owed.]

(L) 35. So also my heavenly Father will do to you, if ye forgive not each his brother from your hearts.]

The details of the parable do not seem altogether consistent. After v. 23 we seem to have a story of a wealthy merchant and his slaves, rather than one of a king and his ministers. The story has quite probably been adapted by the editor to suit the context. But the main point, that an unmerciful disposition will meet with the divine wrath, is quite clear. The parable begins with the formula the kingdom of heaven is like. This means nothing more than that a lesson may be drawn from what follows, which all who hope to enter the kingdom should lay to heart.

M the Second Gospel.

L the Matthan Logia.

1 Men like the Exorcist, vv. 38-40, or like him who merely gave a cup of cold water, v. 41, were little ones who believe in Me. No stumbling-blocks were to be placed in their way.

Ps.-Sol. The Psalms of Solomon.

S Syriac version: Curetonian.

al i.e. with other uncial MSS.

latt. Manuscripts of the Old Latin Version.

B. Babylonian Talmud.

S Syriac version: Sinaitic MS.

Polyb. Polybius.

LXX. The Septuagint Version.

Ox. Pap. Oxyrhynchus Papyri.

1 For examples from the Papyri, see Deissmann, Bib. Stud. p. 221. And add Ox. Pap. ii. 286. 18 (a.d. 82), 272. 16 (a.d. 66), iv. 719. 24 (a.d. 193) 736. 75 (a.d. 1); Faym Towns, 247. The word is not found in literature outside the New Testament.

Fuente: International Critical Commentary New Testament

Removing Stumbling-Blocks

Mat 18:1-9

Our Lords transfiguration suggested that the time to take up His Kingdom was near; and the Apostles began to arrange their plans. The Master therefore used a child for His text and preached a sermon on humility. We must not be childish, but childlike. See 1Co 13:11. The beauty of a little child is its unconsciousness, humility, simplicity, and faith. Christs kingdom abounds with the rare blending of the warrior and the child. See 2Ki 5:14. Gods best gifts are placed, not on a high shelf for us to reach up to, but on a low one to which we must stoop.

An offence is anything that makes the path of a holy and useful life more difficult for others. Be sure, in all your actions, to consider the weaker ones who are watching and following you. Father, said a boy, take the safe path; I am coming. A man, whose arm was caught in a machine, saved his boy from being drawn in by severing the arm with a hatchet. All that hurts us or others, however precious, must be severed.

Fuente: F.B. Meyer’s Through the Bible Commentary

hapter 18 Ideal Subjects of the Kingdom and Discipline in the Church

Submitted by H A Ironside on Tue, 04/22/2008 – 05:00 Henry Allen Ironside Matthew

Two things are brought into juxtaposition in this chapter: the kingdom in its spiritual aspect and the church yet to be brought into existence by the Lord after His death and resurrection, but seen here in its local aspect as an assembly of believers responsible to maintain principles of righteousness, and therefore to deal in discipline with refractory or trespassing members who refuse to repent.

The kingdom section includes verses 1-14:

At the same time came the disciples unto Jesus, saying, Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven? And Jesus called a little child unto him, and set him in the midst of them, and said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And whoso shall receive one such little child in my name receiveth me. But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea. Woe unto the world because of offences! for it must needs be that offences come; but woe to that man by whom the offence cometh! Wherefore if thy hand or thy foot offend thee, cut them off, and cast them from thee: it is better for thee to enter into life halt or maimed, rather than having two hands or two feet to be cast into everlasting fire. And if thine eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee: it is better for thee to enter into life with one eye, rather than having two eyes to be cast into hell fire. Take heed that ye despise not one of these little ones; for I say unto you, That in heaven their angels do always behold the face of my Father which is in heaven. For the Son of man is come to save that which was lost. How think ye? if a man have an hundred sheep, and one of them be gone astray, doth he not leave the ninety and nine, and goeth into the mountains, and seeketh that which is gone astray? And if so be that he find it, verily I say unto you, he rejoiceth more of that sheep, than of the ninety and nine which went not astray. Even so it is not the will of your Father which is in heaven, that one of these little ones should perish.

Not yet delivered from the desire for prominence in the coming kingdom, when heavens authority shall be established over all the earth, the disciples came to Jesus with the question, Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven? It is a question that no truly noble soul would ever ask, or about which he would be concerned. But devoted as these disciples were they could not seem to get away from the thought that the kingdom was to be a place and a time for flesh to assert itself, although the Lord had rebuked them for this on former occasions.

This time He answered both in word and by an object lesson. He called a little child. The wee one responded and came to Him without hesitation, we may be sure. Setting him in the midst, Jesus said solemnly, Verily, I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. In other words, the true subjects of the kingdom are the meek and lowly who hear the voice of Jesus and come at His call, content with the place of His appointment. The greatest in the kingdom will be the one who is willing to take the lowest place, thus proving himself a follower of Him who came from the glory of God to be a servant in this scene of suffering and sorrow.

To receive a little child in His name is to receive Him, because He identifies Himself with all who trust Him. He is not only the Savior of those who, because of wasted years in sin and debauchery, realize their need of forgiveness and cleansing, but He is also the Savior of the little ones who, in their comparative innocence, are attracted to Him because of His tender interest in them.

Whether absolutely true in detail or not, there is much truth in general in the often-told story of the stern-visaged minister who was preaching a sermon on The Tears of Jesus. He is said to have exclaimed, Three times we read that Jesus wept, but we never read that He smiled. A little girl below the pulpit cried out, forgetful of where she was, Oh, but I know He did! Shocked at the interruption, the minister asked, Why do you say that, my child? Now thoroughly frightened as she realized all eyes were upon her, she replied, Because the Bible says He called a little child and he came to Him. And if Jesus had looked like you, I know the child would have been afraid to come. She did not intend to be rude. It was a childs frankness, but it told a wonderful truth. Children were never afraid of Jesus, and He was always ready to bless and acknowledge them.

Nor did He ever speak more sternly to anyone than to whoso should cause to stumble one of these little ones who believed in Him. For such, it were better that a millstone be hanged about his neck and he be cast into the depths of the sea. Such stumbling blocks He foresaw, but He warned His hearers not to be among them. Better to mutilate oneself by cutting off a hand or a foot than to be guilty of using either physical member to point or lead one of these children astray. To do so was to be exposed to the fire of Gehenna-eternal judgment. In the same way He speaks concerning the eyes which, alas, have often led vicious and lascivious men to look wickedly upon childish innocence.

Because the Father has a special interest in the children, and in heaven their guardian angels always appear before His face, all are warned never to despise these little ones. Possibly by angels here, however, we are to understand the spirits of departed children. Both views have been held by godly men, and it may be best not to be too dogmatic regarding it, for unquestionably both are true in fact, whichever may be intended here.

When speaking of adults in Luk 19:10, Jesus said, The Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost. Here as He speaks of children, He simply says He came to save them. While members of a lost race, they have not wandered willfully into paths of sin, so they do not need to be sought.

The parable of the lost sheep, gone astray on the mountain of sin, follows, for it is not only to save the children that He came. There is rejoicing in heaven, where myriads of saints are safely gathered, over one such wanderer recovered and saved. But if this be so-and it is-how much more the joy when one is saved in early childhood and so never wastes long years in rebellion against God.

Verse 14 gives the assurance that all children dying before coming to years of accountability are forever saved through the work of Christ. It is not the Fathers will that any of them perish. Inasmuch as their wills are not set against the will of God, we may be certain they are with Christ in the Father s house.

On the occasion when Peter made his great confession, the Lord had spoken for the first time of the church that He was to build. Now He gives instruction concerning discipline and godly order in that church, which, while one throughout the world, was to be manifested locally as distinct assemblies in various places.

Moreover if thy brother shall trespass against thee, go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone: if he shall hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother. But if he will not hear thee, then take with thee one or two more, that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established. And if he shall neglect to hear them, tell it unto the church: but if he neglect to hear the church, let him be unto thee as an heathen man and a publican. Verily I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Again I say unto you, That if two of you shall agree on earth as touching any thing that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven. For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them. (vv. 15-20)

In some of the best manuscripts the words against thee are omitted after trespass, so that there may be more involved than trespass against one individual. If thy brother shall trespass. He who recognizes this and is concerned about it is instructed, not to blazon it abroad, and so to defile others who might not otherwise know anything of it, but to go to the offender privately and speak to him about the matter, endeavoring to bring him to repentance. This was in accordance with the law of Moses which commanded, Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thine heart: thou shall in anywise rebuke thy neighbor, and not suffer sin upon him (Lev 19:17). In Gal 6:1 we are told, Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such an one in the spirit of meekness; considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted. To so act toward an erring one is to fulfill the Lords admonition, Ye also ought to wash one anothers feet (Joh 13:14). To apply the water of the Word to an offending brothers feet is the duty of the one who is cognizant of the offense. This principle is applied in both the old and the new dispensations.

But if the wrongdoer is stubborn and willful and shows no disposition to put things right, one is to take one or two more brethren and see him again. These witnesses are to hear and give their judgment according to the facts presented. If they agree that wrong has been done, they are to join with the first in seeking to bring the recalcitrant brother to own his sin and seek forgiveness. If this does not avail, and the trespasser is adamant and refuses to accept their admonition, the matter is for the first time to be put before the local assembly, which will hear the case, and if convinced of the righteousness of the plaintiff, the accused one is again to be admonished to own his wrong and endeavor to put things right. If he refuses to hear the church, he is to be put under discipline and treated as an outsider-as a heathen, or worldling, and a publican.

It is only in this place that we get these words of which Rome makes so much: hear the church. They do not call upon us to bow to the teaching of the church as such, but in an instance of the kind here dealt with the man under discipline is responsible to accept the judgment of the assembly. Nowhere is the church as such said to be the authoritative teacher. On the contrary, the church is commanded to hear what the Spirit says through the Word.

The binding and loosing of verse 18 is illustrated in the Corinthian Epistles. It has to do with church, or assembly, discipline. When Paul commanded the Corinthian assembly to put away from themselves the wicked person-the incestuous man-in 1 Corinthians 5, he was binding his sin upon him until he should repent. When, in 2Co 2:5-11, he instructed the assembly to forgive this man upon evidence of his repentance, he was loosing him. Such actions, when in full accordance with the Word of God, are bound in heaven.

Verse 19 suggests something even higher than this. Suppose a case where human judgment is at fault, and the saints are in utter perplexity. They may appeal to the Lord Himself for light and help. Wherever two agree, or symphonize, as the word really is-that is, where even two come to God in prayer in harmony with His Spirit and with one another-He will act for them, doing according to His will in the church on earth as that will is done in heaven. For every local assembly of believers gathered together in the name of the Lord Jesus may be assured of His presence in the midst. This does not refer to some one special group claiming more intimate association with Christ than others, but the Lords presence is predicated for every company gathered in His name, no matter how small that company is. What comfort is this in a day of ecclesiastical ruin and yet of great religious pretension!

The rest of the chapter deals particularly with forgiveness in several different phases.

The whole problem is easily solved for the Christian. We are to forgive as God in Christ has forgiven us (Eph 4:32; Col 3:13). From the kingdom standpoint, however, forgiveness is based upon the repentance of the offender. Christs disciples are to maintain an attitude of forgiveness at all times and toward all men. But they are to bestow that forgiveness upon the one who says, I repent (Luk 17:3-4). To fail to do this will bring the unforgiving one himself under the chastening hand of God in government, as seen in the parable of the obdurate servant who refused the plea of his fellow debtor for mercy. This principle abides even in the dispensation of the grace of God, for grace and government go together. No one is more responsible to show grace to others than he who is himself the object of grace. Much of the chastening that we as Christians have to undergo can be traced to our hard and oftentimes relentless attitude toward those who have offended us. We would save ourselves much sorrow in the way of disciplinary dealing on the part of our Father if we were more careful and considerate of others (Heb 12:6-11).

Then came Peter to him, and said, Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? till seven times? Jesus saith unto him, I say not unto thee, Until seven times: but, Until seventy times seven. Therefore is the kingdom of heaven likened unto a certain king, which would take account of his servants. And when he had begun to reckon, one was brought unto him, which owed him ten thousand talents. But forasmuch as he had not to pay, his lord commanded him to be sold, and his wife, and children, and all that he had, and payment to be made. The servant therefore fell down, and worshipped him, saying, Lord, have patience with me, and I will pay thee all. Then the lord of that servant was moved with compassion, and loosed him, and forgave him the debt. But the same servant went out, and found one of his fellowservants, which owed him an hundred pence and he laid hands on him, and took him by the throat, saying, Pay me that thou owest. And his fellowservant fell down at his feet, and besought him, saying, Have patience with me, and I will pay thee all. And he would not: but went and cast him into prison, till he should pay the debt. So when his fellowservants saw what was done, they were very sorry, and came and told unto their lord all that was done. Then his lord, after that he had called him, said unto him, O thou wicked servant, I forgave thee all that debt, because thou desiredst me: shouldest not thou also have had compassion on thy fellowservant, even as I had pity on thee? And his lord was wroth, and delivered him to the tormentors, till he should pay all that was due unto him. So likewise shall my heavenly Father do also unto you, if ye from your hearts forgive not every one his brother their trespasses, (vv. 21-35)

How oft shall I forgive him? Peter had not risen to the true conception of grace that God had shown toward him and that he was to manifest toward a brother.

Until seventy times seven. Seven is the perfect number. Our Lord raises this, as it were, to its highest power. Our forgiveness is to be like that which God has given to us. Seventy times seven may seem like an impossible number of offenses to forgive, but have we not all exceeded that number many times in our relations with God?

A certain king, which would take account of his servants. In this parable the disciple is viewed as a subject of the kingdom, under the government of God, who, though He is our Father, exercises corrective discipline over His people (1Pe 1:17).

One which owed him ten thousand talents. This was an immense sum, whether the talents were of gold or only of silver. It suggests one who has been guilty of great offenses against the divine government.

He had not to pay. The offender is morally bankrupt. No man can ever make up to God for the wrong he has done. His lord commanded him to be sold. According to the law then prevailing, the insolvent debtor could be sold into slavery.

Have patience with me, and I will pay thee all. While no man could meet the full demands of Gods holy law, yet the attitude of this debtor is one of penitence and repentance.

The lord of that servant loosed him, and forgave him the debt. Even so does God deal with His erring servants when they face their sins in His presence and own the claims of His righteous government. Observe, it is not the case of the forgiveness of an unsaved man that is here before us, but a servant of God who has grievously failed.

One of his fellowservants owed him an hundred pence. It was a very trivial sum, as compared with the other great debt. No man can possibly offend any of us to anything like the extent that our sins have offended a holy God. Pay me that thou owest. To demand full satisfaction of a brother who has wronged me, when God has dealt so graciously with my greater offense, is to act inconsistently with the principle of grace.

His fellowservant besought him. He takes the same attitude toward his creditor that the other had taken toward his lord, and he should have had the same consideration.

He would not: but went and cast him into prison. The creditor was obdurate and not only refused forgiveness, but also cast his fellow servant into the debtors prison, doubtless hoping his friends would come to his aid and pay the debt.

His fellowservantstold unto their lord all that was done. Shocked by such conduct, the unworthy creditors evil action was reported to his lord by those who were aware of the facts of the case.

O thou wicked servant! The indignation of the master was stirred by the perfidious conduct of the one toward whom he had extended such clemency.

Delivered him to the tormentors, till he should pay all that was due. Governmental forgiveness may be revoked, as in this instance, where the recipient of it forfeits all title to consideration because of his inconsistency afterward. Observe that it is not that eternal forgiveness which God bestows upon the believing sinner that is here in view, but the forgiveness of one already in the kingdom who has grievously failed.

So likewise shall my heavenly Father do if ye forgive not. It is the Father who deals with the members of His own family, and who will not overlook harshness or lack of compassion on the part of His children toward their erring brethren. There are many of Gods children who are under disciplinary correction all their days, simply because there is someone whom they will not forgive. Let us search and try our own ways as to this matter.

Those who have entered into the kingdom by new birth (Joh 3:5) are all forgiven sinners who stand before God on the ground of pure grace. Nevertheless, as children in the family of God, they are subject to the Fathers discipline and are under His government. The moment our responsibility as sinners, having to do with the God of judgment, ended, our responsibility as children, having to do with our Father, began. In this new relationship we are to display the activities of the divine nature, and therefore are called upon to act in grace toward any who may offend us. If we fail to do this, we shall be sternly disciplined in order that the government of God may be maintained in His own family.

Different aspects of forgiveness. If we do not distinguish the various aspects of forgiveness as set forth in the Word of God, we are likely to be in great confusion of mind because of Gods disciplinary dealings with us after our conversion to Christ. When He saves us, He forgives us fully and eternally and will never, as Judge, remember our sins again (Heb 10:17). But as His children, we are to confess our sins whenever we fail, and He gives restorative forgiveness (1Jn 1:9). Certain governmental results, however, may follow these failures, which are not to be construed as indicating that God has not pardoned, but He would teach us by discipline the heinousness of sin in His sight (2 Sam. 13-14). Forgiven ourselves, we are to forgive our brethren who sin against us (Col 3:13). Members of the church who offend against Gods righteous principles are to be disciplined but forgiven when they give evidence of repentance (v. 17; 2Co 2:7).

Degrees of guilt. Our Lords teaching shows us clearly that there are varying degrees of guilt in regard to sin. All sin is wickedness in the sight of God. But the greater ones light and privileges, the greater is his responsibility. Consequently, the sin of one who knows Gods Word and has enjoyed years of fellowship with the Lord is far worse than that of one who is comparatively ignorant and immature. Degrees of punishment vary accordingly (see Luk 12:47-48; Joh 13:17; Rom 2:12; Jam 4:17; 1Jn 5:17).

In the following instances, we see the government of God exemplified:

1. Jacob: He deceived his father (Gen 27:18-24); his sons deceived him (Gen 37:31-35).

2. Moses: He failed to glorify God at Meribah (Num 20:11); God refused to let him go into the land (Num 20:12).

3. David: He sinned in the matter of the wife of Uriah (2Sa 11:1-26); the sword never departed from his house (2Sa 12:9-10).

4. The Corinthians: They dishonored God at the Lords Table (1Co 11:20-22); sickness and death of many resulted (1Co 11:30).

Fuente: Commentaries on the New Testament and Prophets

Mat 18:1-4

Becoming like Little Children.

I. The disciples had asked our Lord, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” And the answer which our Lord made, though it did not give them any particular light as to the manner in which the coming of His kingdom should be realized, did yet give them a view of one leading feature of that kingdom, and impressed it upon them in such a manner that they could never forget it. He took a little child, and set it in the midst of them as a pattern and example, and He said, “Except ye be converted”-that is, except ye be altogether turned from your present jealous, ambitious, rivalrous state of mind-“and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.”

II. Now it is obvious that there is much in the character of a little child from which the disciples of our Lord, as ourselves, might learn lessons of great value to their souls: childlike gentleness, teachableness, obedience, truthfulness, purity; in fact, the apparent absence of all the evil qualities and passions, which, though existing in the child’s heart in the seed, have not yet become visible. But I apprehend there is one special quality of the mind of a little child which our Saviour intended principally to hold forth in the text, and this is its unconsciousness of any dignity belonging to it or to its actions. “Whosoever shall humble himself,” says our Lord, “as this little child.”

III. The lesson which the disciples were chiefly intended to learn is not without its value for ourselves; for it points out to us (1) the manner in which we are to walk along the narrow way which leads to life, ever pressing towards the mark, looking unto Jesus, the Author and Finisher of our faith, without looking upon other things, and without comparing ourselves with others who are striving for the same crown. (2) Imitate little children in the matter of the relation in which your reason stands to your faith. God reveals to you that which you could never have found out for yourselves, and which therefore it becomes you to receive at His hands humbly and thankfully. If we first receive God’s revelation with a little child’s humility, and when we have received it, walk with a little child’s purity and simplicity, then we shall be able to grow in the knowledge of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, until we come to that blessed state in which we shall know even as we are known.

Bishop Harvey Goodwin, Parish Sermons, 2nd series, p. 310.

References: Mat 18:1-4.-H. Ward Beecher, Christian World Pulpit, vol. vi., p. 298. Mat 18:1-10.-Clergyman’s Magazine, vol. iii., p. 151. Mat 18:1-14.-A. B. Bruce, The Training of the Twelve, p. 200; Parker, Inner Life of Christ, vol. iii., p. 40. Mat 18:2.-J. Keble, Sermons for Saints’ Days, p. 77.

Mat 18:2-3

Christian Innocence.

When our Lord took a child, and set it in the midst of the disciples, and made its face the answer to their question, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” nay, even told them they could not enter into the kingdom of heaven unless they were converted and became as that child, he certainly laid them and us under a very serious obligation to inquire what it is in this image which He loved, and after which He would mould us.

I. The purity and innocence of any human creature are not and cannot be his own; we are only innocent so far as we claim nothing of our own, so far as we look out of ourselves, so far as we forget ourselves in another. The reverence for unconsciousness, the almost worship of childhood, are nothing else than a silent homage to this doctrine. And the protest against mere unconsciousness, the desire we feel that a child should grow into a distinct living person, the conviction we have that the command, “Know thyself,” does descend from heaven, even when obedience to it seems sometimes to bring us to the very brink of hell,-this also is a witness in behalf of the same doctrine. For how can there be any giving up of self if there is not a self to give up? How can a man cease from his own works and his own strivings if there is nothing working and striving within him which he has to cease from?

II. All attempts to make ourselves innocent by putting ourselves into a regulated atmosphere, and trying to bar out the intrusion of evil; all attempts to cut ourselves off from sinners, lest they should defile us; all treatment of other men’s evils as if they were not our own, must be fatal to the acquisition of Christ’s innocence, the only innocence which God knows anything of. On the other hand, it is contradicting Scripture, and reason, and experience to say that those who have been most stained with outward and inward defilements may not receive the gift of innocency in its fullest measure. “Thou shalt purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean,” was the confident and well-grounded assurance of a man upon whose conscience lay the burden of adultery and murder. Let men frame what notions they may about baptismal purity, the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper witnesses that the sin-stricken man, who has discerned that he never had and never can have anything righteous in himself, may become altogether childlike and spotless when he turns from himself and seeks for fellowship with Him in whom is no sin.

F. D. Maurice, Sermons, vol. i., p. 82.

Reference: Mat 18:2, Mat 18:3.-J. W. Burgon, Ninety-one Short Sermons, No. 10.

Mat 18:3

I. The expression “converted” is one requiring careful examination; with the simple Greek word faithfully rendered, our text would be, “Except ye be turned.” It appears, then, that men must be turned, or they cannot enter into Christ’s heavenly kingdom. This first implies that they are, before such turning takes place, proceeding in a direction which will not lead them to that kingdom. We are all, when Christ’s Gospel meets with us, proceeding in a direction averse from that which is our highest interest, the salvation of our body, soul, and spirit, in a glorious and eternal state. We are seeking the lower welfare of the animal soul, not the higher welfare of the immortal spirit. The direction of our path must be changed; we must be turned.

II. Of what sort is this turning? It is plain that it is not any partial change in the outward life, not any polishing and rounding of the circumference of a man’s character, but a changing of the centre itself, a change thorough and complete. It is not the opinions alone which are in question here; the desires are changed also. From having no mind to God, no eye to eternity, the desire after Him is awakened, and things invisible and eternal assume their proper place of prominence.

III. Consider the manner of the change. The turning is not the work of an instant. However rapid the thaw, the thick-ribbed realm of ice will not melt away but by degrees. However complete the renewal at last, there is an inertia to be overcome, an impulse to be communicated and to gather force, before the whole mass will obey the moving hand, in the spiritual as well as in the material world. There is no reason to question, but every reason to believe, that here as elsewhere the miracle is the exception, the ordinary agency by secondary means the rule; that conversion is not in the generality of cases the sudden, well-defined event which it is represented to be, but the gradual accruing result of the teaching and operation of the Spirit, working through the common every-day means of grace.

H. Alford, Quebec Chapel Sermons, vol. iii., p. 67.

I. Man was made for God. He made us to behold Him; beholding, to reflect Him; reflecting Him, to be glorified in Him. He willed, evermore, to shine on into our souls, to be the light of our souls, that we might see all things truly by His light. He willed to make us holy, that we might be little pictures of Himself, and that He might dwell with good pleasure upon us, as a father’s soul rests with joy and love upon the child of his love. From this we fell by sin; to this God willed to restore us in Christ. Sin was to choose, against God’s will, something instead of God. In whatever way the change may be wrought, a change there must be. God is the Lord, the Father, the centre of the soul, The soul must turn wholly to Him for its life, its light, its peace, its joy, its resting-place, all good to it, all goodness in it. As the flower follows the sun, opens itself to its glow, and through that glow sends forth its fragrance and ripens its fruit, so the soul must turn to Him, the Sun of righteousness, unfold itself wholly to His life-giving glow, hide nothing from His searching beams, and through the fire of His love ripen to Him the fruits of His Spirit.

II. Conversion to God is not a mere ceasing from some sin when the temptation ceases. It is not a breaking off from outward sin, while the heart enjoys the memory of it, and enacts it again in thought. Conversion is not a passing emotion of the soul, nor is it a mere passionate sorrow or remorse. Without ceasing from sin there is no conversion. Yet to cease from sin is not alone conversion; nor is it for the soul only to condemn its own sin. It is to hate, for the love of God, whatever in the soul displeases God; it is to hate its former self for having displeased God; conversion is a change of mind, a change of the heart, a change of the life. The mind, enlightened by the grace of God, sees what once it saw not; the heart, touched by the grace of God and melted by the love of God in Christ Jesus, loves what once it loved not, and the life is changed, because the mind and heart, being changed, cannot endure the slavery to the sins which before they chose; and now they love, for the love of Jesus, to submit and subdue themselves to the love of God, which before they did not endure.

E. B. Pusey, Parochial and Cathedral Sermons, p. 16.

There is something exceedingly touching and full of instruction in the association of the words and acts of our blessed Lord with little children. If the story of redemption had been invented by man, and the Son of God had been described in His incarnate course on earth by mere human imagination, we may well conceive that this would have been otherwise. The mind of the Gospel would have been that of the disciples, who forbade the children to come to Him. Our religion would have been a stern, and forbidding, and restrictive code of morals, not the glorious Gospel of freedom and love.

I. Notice the humility of the child. We may speak with children without danger of wounding their self-esteem; we feel that it ought not to be present, and we act as if it were not. We expect to find in them a natural consciousness of their lowly position, springing from the mere simplicity and meekness of the helpless and inexperienced. Now, in humility the candidate for the kingdom of heaven must be as the little child.

II. The trusting disposition of the child is necessary for the disciple of Christ. Distrust is the offspring of worldly experience. It would be in the highest degree unnatural to find it in the disposition and behaviour of a young child. Our reconciled Father in heaven calls on us to trust Him. He invites us with no double purpose. It is as much a duty to trust God as it is to serve Him.

III. We must be teachable, like little children. The child is willing to learn, ready to receive, apt to lay up what is heard; in ordinary cases, not difficult to persuade, open to truth and to conviction. So must it be with Christ’s disciples.

IV. Loving obedience. It is especially the gem and perfection of a child’s character to obey. He who knows God, trusts God, is taught by God, and obeys not God is a example of inconsistency difficult to conceive. Never, for a moment, imagine that you can be right in heart towards God, without a life consciously and diligently spent in obeying Him and glorifying Him, and growing up towards a perfect man in Christ under the sanctification of His Spirit.

H. Alford, Quebec Chapel Sermons, vol. iii., p. 116.

References: Mat 18:3.-Homiletic Magazine, vol. ix., p. 335; G. B. Ryley, Christian World Pulpit, vol. vi., p. 154; Clergyman’s Magazine, vol. xv., p. 338; S. A. Brooke, Church Sermons, vol. i., p. 177; S. Baring-Gould, Preacher’s Pocket, p. 52.

These words of the Lord teach us to look upon the life of the Christian as a glorified child-life.

I. As regards its faith. The child has undoubting faith in those who are set over him, in his parents and teachers. Is there any more touching picture than that of a group of children who listen to their father or mother with eager questioning eyes, and receive as gospel every word that falls from those hallowed lips? Even as children believe with unquestioning faith, so we, whom the Son of God has purchased with His precious blood, believe our Lord. Other masters may give their disciples a stone for bread, a scorpion for an egg; the word of our Lord is evermore the bread of our lives, whether we understand its full meaning or not. He who has learned this childlike faith in his Saviour is like a man who sails out of the broad sea into a sheltered haven.

II. As regards its love. The love of the child is without partiality. Let there be only a human eye, a human face, and the child will smile to greet it; the child of the prince will clasp the hand of the beggar. And may we not say that we Christians love all men without distinction, with a childlike love? To us, also, every human face is holy, but we are better off in this respect than the child; for the child loves not always wisely. His love is blind, even as his faith is ignorant. But we in whose heart the Spirit of the Lord has implanted this love for men can read on every human brow this inscription, this solemn writing, which makes every human countenance sacred: God “hath made of one blood all nations of the earth,… that they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after Him, and find Him, though He be not far from every one of us.”

III. As regards its hope. The child’s hope knows no boundary. He sees no thorns in the present, and so he can enter deep into the flowery life which he sees around him, and looking out into the future, he sees the flowers of the present blooming still. The grace of Christ offers to all Christians what is most lovely in the life of the child-its faith, its love, and its hope. And it offers these things transformed and glorified. The hope of the Christian is not the careless hope of the child; he knows why he hopes. Christians are children of hope, because they believe in Christ, who, as the Apostle says, is in them, “the hope of glory.” Through the mercy of God, they are born again unto a lively hope.

F. A. Tholuck, Predigten, vol. iii., p. 284.

Mat 18:4

I. Notice the expression, “Whosoever shall humble himself”-it is not be humble-“Whosoever shall humble himself.” It implies a process, and then a victory; it recognizes and presupposes a state of pride; it declares humility not a gift, but an attainment, not by nature, but by grace. And this humility is as much better than a natural humility as the grace of God is better than a man’s own disposition, or as holiness is superior to innocence.

II. How shall we cultivate it? (1) Be sure that you are loved. We are all inclined to be proud to those whom we think do not like us, and we all can stoop to anything for those of whom we are fond, and of whom we believe they are fond of us. Therefore the first root of humility is love. (2) Realize yourself the object of great mercy. Take your sorrows as a proof of remembrance, and all your blessings as each a mark of an individual favour to you; for this will endear God to you. (3) Be more reverential in your religion, because, if once you can establish the relationship of a true humility to God, it will not be very difficult to go on to be humble to man. He who has once felt as a child to His heavenly Father will be ready to be a child to every one. (4) Do acts of humility. For act feeds feeling as much as feeling nourishes act. God will mark His approbation of acts like these by increasing in you the humility which dictates them, and for the sake of which you have done them.

J. Vaughan, Fifty Sermons, 7th series, p. 235.

Mat 18:6

I. The Christian home is an instrument of incalculable power for drawing forth and presenting in their full form and force all those ministering qualities and energies by which, in all ages, society is blessed and saved. But it has a further, deeper, and larger power. It can touch the life of society at the very spring, and renew it. “Suffer little children to come unto Me, and forbid them not,” says Christ: “for of such is the kingdom of God.” Had the Church understood the words of the Master, and in that mind undertaken the training of these little ones, we should not now be sighing and crying for the signs of the kingdom of heaven among men.

II. The root of the mischief-the fundamental cause of the failure of the Church to make the Gospel the power which God intended it to be in the spiritual education of mankind-is to be found in a radical misconception of the function of the Church. It has sought to rule in His name; it was set to witness to His truth. God has been systematically presented to the mind of Christendom, and of course to the youth of Christendom, and its homes, as the Ruler, the Lawgiver, the Judge, rather than as the Father; and the Church has been more prompt to wield authority than to minister and save. It is not too much to say that the chief trust of Christendom has been in law, as a power superior to love, in rebuking and destroying that sin from which man must be saved or perish. Never forget that the first, the fundamental principle of a Christian education is the surrounding the young spirit, in the very cradle of its higher life, with the witness that it is born into the Father’s home, and that it has a right, in all its struggles, its sufferings, and its sins, to claim the Father’s pity, to cry for the Father’s help, and to rest on the Father’s will and power to save.

III. A second great principle of Christian culture, which the Church has failed to grasp and to wield as a power, is this: Christ bids us remember that men have to be trained here for the universe and eternity, and that the training must begin in the home, if it is to bear any blessed and lasting fruit. “A man’s life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth,” said the Master. “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word which proceedeth out of the mouth of God.” How much of our education of our children has respect exclusively to the question, What kind of training will most largely and swiftly pay? And our thought concerns not what it will pay the man as an immortal being, with eternity before him to work out the great plan of his existence.

J. Baldwin Brown, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xvii., p. 392.

References: Mat 18:6.-T. Arnold, Sermons, vol. ii., p. 48; F. Wagstaff, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xix., p. 409.

Mat 18:7

If there is any work in the world which peculiarly deserves the name of the work of the devil, it is the hindrance which men sometimes put in the path in which their fellow-creatures are called by God to walk. Of all the temptations which surround us in this world of temptations, the most difficult, in almost all cases, to deal with, are those which our fellowmen cast in our way.

I. The most glaring form of the sin of tempting others is that of persecuting and ridiculing the conscientious. It is almost always easy to find means for doing this. Every one who endeavours to live as God would have him is sure to lay himself open to ridicule, if nothing worse. There is mixed up with our very best actions quite enough of weakness, of folly, of human motives, of human self-seeking, to give a good handle to any one who seeks for a handle, and supply materials for a bitter jest, for a scoff, not quite undeserved. How easy it is to ridicule the imperfect virtue, because it is imperfect; how easy, and yet how wicked!

II. Are Christians quite safe from doing this great and sinful mischief? I fear not. (1) In the first place, Christians are not exempt from the common failing of all men, to condemn and dislike everything which is unlike the ordinary fashion of their own lives. (2) Again, Christians are quite as liable as other men to be misled by the customs of their own society, and to confound the laws that have grown up among themselves with the law of God. (3) Again, Christians are very often liable, not, perhaps, to put obstacles in the way of efforts to do right, so much as to refuse them the needful help without which they have little chance of succeeding. (4) Again, Christians are quite as liable as any to give wrong things untrue names, and to take away the fear of sin by a sort of good-natured charity towards particular faults. (5) Lastly, Christians are liable to that which is the common form of tempting among those who are not Christians; not to persecute or ridicule what is right, but to seek for companions in what is wrong. They are tempted, whenever sin is too powerful for their wills, to double it by dragging others with them on the same path.

Bishop Temple, Rugby Sermons, 1st series, p. 166.

I. The little child is the hero of Christ’s panegyric in the context. The little child is the type of the citizen of God’s kingdom. Its simplicity, its innocence, its frankness, its trustfulness are the badges of civic privilege in the heavenly polity. And as the little child is the subject of the encomium in the context, so is it also the occasion of the warning in the text. It is the stumbling-block placed in the way of Christ’s little ones that calls down the denunciation of woe. We may resent the imputation of a childish nature; we may throw off its nobler characteristics, but its feebler qualities will cling to us still. The category of Christ’s little ones is as wide as the Church is wide, as mankind is wide. We are all exposed to the force of some stronger nature than our own-stronger in intellect, or stronger in moral character and definiteness of purpose, or stronger (it may be) in mere passion of temperament, attracting us to the good or impelling us to the evil.

II. Let no man think that he can escape responsibility in this matter. There is some element of strength in all, even the very weakest. It may be superior intellectual power or high mental culture; it may be a wider acquaintance with the world; it may be a greater force of character; it may be more enlarged religious views: in some way or another each man possesses in himself a force which gives him a power over others, and invests him with a responsibility towards Christ’s little ones.

III. Against the perils of influence I know of only one security-the purification, the discipline, the consecration of the man’s self. Be assured, if there is any taint of corruption within, it will spread contagion without. It is quite impossible to isolate the inward being from the outward. No man can be always on his guard. “Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.” Each one of us carries about with him a moral atmosphere, which takes its character from his inmost self.

Bishop Lightfoot, Oxford and Cambridge Journal, Oct. 26th, 1876.

Reference: Mat 18:7.-H. Melvill, Penny Pulpit, No. 1,579.

Mat 18:10

I. What is meant to be impressed upon us by the text is that in our carelessness about sin and God’s service we stand, as it were, alone in creation; that higher beings view with interest every one who is striving to do God’s will; that they rejoice over every soul gained over from the cause of evil to the cause of good. We know how worse than indifferent we often are to both these things; that those who are called in the text “little ones,” that is, persons with great want of knowledge, and with neither outward circumstances nor force of character to commend them to general notice, but yet really desirous of doing their duty, that these “little ones” we are far from particularly respecting, and farther still from helping them on amidst the difficulties of their way.

II. If we look at what our nature is, and how few set themselves in earnest about renewing it, we may feel quite sure that both we ourselves, and every individual with whom we are acquainted, will meet in the world his share of difficulties and temptations. But let us for ourselves, every one individual amongst us, take heed, for his own personal part, that neither for himself nor for others does he assist in creating these difficulties and temptations. It is a guilt distinct from the general guilt of our own sins in the sight of God, and one which greatly aggravates that. If we lived alone in the world, then our badness would hurt ourselves only; it would be sin, but it would not be what the Scripture calls “offence;” that is, conduct to hurt the souls of others. But we do not live alone; we cannot act independently of others; our good and evil must have an effect upon them; our good must bring forth fruit in the hearts of others also; our sin must contain that other and deeper guilt of tempting or disposing to sin some of God’s little ones.

T. Arnold, Sermons, vol. iii., p. 193.

References: Mat 18:10.-H. W. Beecher, Christian World Pulpit, vol. iii., p. 371; A. Mursell, Ibid., vol. xxiv., p. 8; Clergyman’s Magazine, vol. xiii., p. 136; H. P. Liddon, Three Hundred Outlines on the New Testament, p. 25; G. Matheson, Expositor, 2nd series, vol. vi., p. 370; Bishop Boyd-Carpenter, Contemporary Pulpit, vol. vi., p. 321; M. Dix, Sermons Doctrinal and Practical, p. 40.

Mat 18:10-14

Think of His words, and you will see, first, that Jesus isolates each of us, setting us one by one apart: “despise not one;” He is come to save that one; “if one of them be gone astray;” “not His will that one should perish.” He who counts our hairs much more counts us. Next, you will see that Jesus measures the worth of each human being by God’s special and separate care of him. “Despise not one,” for his angel is before the Father’s face. “Despise not one,” for the Son is come to save him. Thus, finally, Jesus having isolated each and weighed the worth of each of us, finds us in His Father’s sight equal.

I. Notice, also, those two proofs which Jesus gives us of the rare price at which God prizes each soul of His. He singles out the two classes of men whom we set the least store by, and shows how His Father handles them. There are the little ones whom we despise, and there are the lost ones whom we both despise and dislike. The sin of despising the little ones of God falls mainly, perhaps, on the unconverted man, the sin of repelling lost ones mainly on the Church. But to the despised little ones God does honour, for their angels are such as always see His face; to the disliked lost ones God shows love, for to seek them He sends His Son.

II. Notice in what way it is that the teaching of Jesus has cut the roots from that self-valuing or self-praising which leads men, and has always led them, to undervalue and despise others. I may seek to sober man’s conceit by showing man’s littleness at his best, by reminding him how human greatness turns to dust, and how, in spite of wealth, or birth, or fame, or wisdom, men are but poor things while they live, and being dead are equal in their graves. This is the moralist’s way; it is not Christ’s. No word, scornful or sad, drops from His mouth to lower the dignity or to lessen the worth of the nature He had chosen to wear. He comes to put our self-esteem on its true footing. It is not what is peculiar to you or me which makes either of us precious to God; it is what is common to us all. God is no respecter of persons, but He respects men. We are greater than we thought, but it is a greatness in which we share alike. Because we are men, with a separate personality like God’s, with a separate responsibility to God, with an immortal capacity for personal fellowship with God, therefore we are, each of us, creatures of uncountable value, on whom angels may deem it no indignity to wait, and for whom God’s Son will not grudge to die.

J. Oswald Dykes, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xvii., p. 307; see also Sermons, p. 219.

Reference: Mat 18:11.-H. Bushnell, Christ and His Salvation, p. 57-

Mat 18:12

I. Look at the figure of the one wanderer. (1) All men are Christ’s sheep. All men are Christ’s, because He has been the Agent of Divine creation, and the grand words of the hundredth Psalm are true about Him, “It is He that hath made us, and we are His; we are His people, and the sheep of His pasture.” They are His because His sacrifice has bought them for His. Erring, straying, lost, they still belong to the Shepherd. (2) Notice next the picture of the sheep as wandering. The straying of the poor half-conscious sheep may seem innocent, but it carries the poor thing away from the shepherd as completely as if it had been wholly intelligent and voluntary. Let us learn the lesson. In a world like this, if a man does not know very clearly where he is going he is sure to go wrong. If you do not exercise a distinct determination to do God’s will, and to follow in His footsteps who has set us an example, and if your main purpose is to get succulent grass to eat and soft places to walk in, you are certain, before long, to wander tragically from all that is right, and noble, and pure.

II. Look at the picture of the Seeker. In the text God leaves the ninety and nine, and goes into the mountains where the wanderer is, and seeks him. And thus, couched in veiled form, is the great mystery of the Divine love, the incarnation and sacrifice of Jesus Christ our Lord. Not because man was so great; not because man was so valuable in comparison with the rest of creation-he was but one amongst ninety and nine unfallen and unsinful-but because he was so wretched, because he was so small, because he had gone away so far from God; therefore the seeking love came after him, and would draw him to itself.

A. Maclaren, A Year’s Ministry, 2nd series, p. 267.

Reference: Mat 18:12.-R. C. Trench, Notes on the Parables, p. 373.

Mat 18:14

Nothing impresses us so much with God’s inexhaustible love in creation as tracing it into its minute provisions, and searching for its arrangements which escape the common sight of men. However we may fail to reach the extent of that love of creation, one lesson is powerfully impressed upon every reasonable being by such appearances-that it is not the will of our Creator that one of the least of His creatures should perish. Where the farthest and smallest rillets are pure the fountain must be pure also. The creative mind of God is love.

I. When we speak of God’s creative love we must infer that human effort is included in that creative love; that when our Creator declared it to be His will that His creatures should not perish He took into account the powers which he bestowed on man. In creation God has ordained that we should be workers together with Him, in carrying out His beneficent purposes.

II. From the world of matter let us pass upwards to the world of spirit. This, too, is God’s creation. And here likewise His creative love is equally visible. But here, again, as in creative, so in redemptive love, God distinctly takes into account and weaves into His purposes the agency and diligence of His people. Without man, it is His ordinance that His earth remain unfilled, and bring not forth bread to the eater; without man, it is equally His ordinance that spiritual culture shall not take place. We should never, in creation, providence, or grace, sever the love of God from that which it involves, our own most earnest striving together with Him in the direction of that love; every thwarting and making void of God’s love is against ourselves, not against Him. If the husbandman, through idleness or wilfulness, till not his ground, though others so far lose, he is the chief sufferer; if a church, or a family, or an individual work not together with God in His will that none should perish, there may be general loss ensuing, but that church, that family, that man shall bear the chief burden to all eternity.

H. Alford, Quebec Chapel Sermons, vol. iv., p. 257.

Consider the love of God for little children. It is-

I. A love of utter unselfishness.

II. A love of delight in them.

III. A love of compassion towards them.

IV. A love of trust in the almost infinite capacities of children.

T. Gasquoine, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xii., p. 389.

References: Mat 18:14.-H. M. Butler, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xviii., p. 241; see also Harrow Sermons, p. 230; C. Garrett, Loving Counsels, p. 161. Mat 18:15-20.-A. B. Bruce, The Training of the Twelve, p. 209. Mat 18:15-35.-Parker, Inner Life of Christ, vol. iii., p. 49.

Mat 18:19-20

I. When we consider the great promises which are made to prayer, and particularly the great blessing attached to public worship which the words of the text imply; when we consider, moreover, how sacred and almost Divine the prayers of the Church are, and how these prayers themselves are almost in a manner sanctified, and made more acceptable by the holiness of the places in which we meet together, it is surely a matter greatly worthy of inquiry how it is that Christians in general derive so little benefit from the prayers of the Church, in comparison with what they might in all reason be expected to do. Doubtless the reason is because persons come to church without consideration; they neither think of God nor seriously concerning themselves.

II. It may, indeed, be almost impossible for any one to shut out the world from his thoughts when he comes to church, if he is very much taken up with it at other times; but then when he finds that he is not able to pray on account of wandering thoughts, this ought to remind him that he is in a dangerous and bad way, that there is something wrong in his way of going on. For he may be quite sure if his mind is too distracted to wait upon God, that he is serving another master. It is evident that our prayers depend upon our manner of life. No one can express wants he does not feel, but he who most feels his want of assistance from God will be sure to pray aright.

III. We cannot doubt but that the words of the text do contain a great and assured truth that, over and above the usual and sure benefits of prayer, where two or three are gathered together in the church, there Christ is in the midst of them, in some mysterious and life-giving manner beyond understanding-present to hear their prayers, present with Divine power to bless them and give them His peace. According as any man lives, so does he pray, and as far as he lives aright he will pray aright; and by prayer-serious and devout prayer-men are brought into some mysterious nearness to the Almighty God; they feel beneath them and around them the everlasting arms.

Plain Sermons by Contributors to “Tracts for the Times,” vol. i., p. 206.

References: Mat 18:19.-E. M. Goulburn, Thoughts on Personal. Religion, p. 132; J. Thomas, Catholic Sermons, vol. ii., p. 109. Mat 18:19, Mat 18:20.-Parker, Cavendish Pulpit, vol. ii., p. 245.

Mat 18:20

Christ with Us.

I. In considering this subject, we must bear in mind that the human nature of our blessed Lord and Master must be subject to those laws of nature which He, as God, hath ordained and decreed. The human nature, being a created nature, cannot be omnipresent; nor is this asserted. But the omnipresence of His human nature is not implied in the promise of our text, although its presence in various places is. It is a presence promised to His Church and people wherever they may be; but this is to be distinguished from that universal presence of the Absolute which is a mystery incomprehensible by the intellect of the creature.

II. Had our Lord remained upon earth, His presence could have been vouchsafed to only a few. When he commissioned His Apostles he breathed upon them, but the breathing of grace is requisite on every soul that it may live, and for that reason our Lord was elevated and placed on His throne of glory. He ascended to that place in the kingdom of heaven, that from thence, the Day-star on high, he might pour down the rays of grace, and through them be present wherever two or three are gathered together in His name.

III. The beams that flow down from the Sun of righteousness are not created beams; they are the sanctifying influences of God the Holy Ghost. Only let us remember that when by the mighty operations of God the Holy Ghost a new light dawns upon the understanding, and a new warmth glows in the heart, and a new power is given to the will, and a new tenderness softens the conscience, and a new creature rises from the putrefying mass of human corruption, susceptible of holy impressions and capable of spiritual affections, it is through the medium of the ever-present Saviour, the God-man, our Lord Jesus Christ, that the Spirit of God, sent by the Father, passeth into the hearts of His people, to be their Guide and support, their Sanctifier, their Comforter, their Paraclete.

W. F. Hook, Parish Sermons, p. 253.

References: Mat 18:20.-Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxx., No. 1761; Clergyman’s Magazine, vol. xv., p. 140; H. Wace, Expositor, 2nd series, vol. ii., p. 202; B. F. Westcott, The Historic Faith, p. 115; J. B. French, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxxi., p. 269; C. Girdlestone, Twenty Parochial Sermons, 1st series, p. 261; G. Huntington, Sermons for Holy Seasons, vol. i., p. 111.

Mat 18:21

I. Today’s Gospel has a side of comfort to us. It reminds us-it puts the truth in a way that none can possibly mistake-of the largeness, the freeness, of God’s forgiveness. “He loosed him, and forgave him the debt.” He forgives us from day to day and from hour to hour, and He is not afraid to tell us beforehand-nay, He presses on us as the great hope of our continual repentance and ultimate strength, that we may count upon His forgiveness.

II. But the parable has also its side of warning. “Shouldest not thou also have had compassion on thy fellow-servant, even as I had pity on thee?” Our Lord is not speaking at the moment of the attitude of human authority towards offenders against law. Nor, again, is He speaking directly of the duty of judging gently the wrong-doings of others. What our Lord is speaking of in this parable is the forgiveness of personal wrongs to ourselves. The lesson of forgiveness begins in repentance, in the new, unselfish, humble heart, which we learn at the cross of Christ.

E. C. Wickham, Wellington College Sermons, p. 196.

References: Mat 18:21, Mat 18:22.-R. D. Rawnsley, Village Sermons, 2nd series, p. 246. Mat 18:21-35.-Homiletic Quarterly, vol. i., p. 468.

Mat 18:21-22

You will not find a single saying of Christ which has any approach to a maxim of morality, or which draws near to a limited opinion on the subjects which belong to religious life, or thought, or feeling. There is nothing He ever said which is to be taken literally, nothing which is not said within the region where the pure imagination is imperial master. Here is an instance in His talk with Peter. Peter wanted a literal statement as to the duty of forgiveness, its practice and its limits. Christ said, “Until seventy times seven.” His answer meant there is no limit to forgiveness between man and man.

I. The text speaks of personal forgiveness, not of social or judicial forgiveness. Nor, again, does it tell us to make a man aware that we forgive a wrong done to ourselves unconditionally. There is a condition-that is repentance. We should forgive, be in the loving temper of forgiveness, and that always, but we cannot, with any regard to justice, make that forgiveness known unless there is some sorrow for the wrong.

II. Peter’s notion of personal forgiveness was that there was a certain time when we were to stop. It is a plausible view, but a tree is known by its fruits, and its results will tell us whether Peter’s notion was right. (1) The first result is hardness of heart. When we cease to forgive, still more when we make it a duty to cease, the temper of forgiveness in us lessens, decays, and finally dies. (2) And the temper of forgiveness is the temper of mercy, pity, and love. With its loss, all these three beautiful sisters are also lost, die, and are buried in our heart. (3) When these three sisters are dead we have no guard against the evils which they oppose.

III. Try Christ’s view, too, by its results. (1) We gain moral power in a beautiful thing, and inward joy in it. (2) Having, through this habit of forgiveness, brought love, mercy, and pity as living presences into the soul, they establish rule in it over the evil passions of hatred, envy, revenge, jealousy, and anger, and finally end by slaying them and burying them in the heart. (3) The soul that forgives first learns to love, and secondly spreads a spirit of love.

S. A. Brooke, The Spirit of the Christian Life, p. 67.

Reference: Mat 18:21, Mat 18:22.-T. Keble, Sermons for Sundays after Trinity, part ii., p. 320; A. J. Griffith, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxii., p. 22. Mat 18:21-35.-Clergyman’s Magazine, vol. iii., p. 213; Homiletic Quarterly, vol. ii., p. 421; R. C. Trench, Notes on the Parables, p. 150.

Mat 18:23-35

The Unmerciful Servant. The key-notes of this parable are to be found at the beginning and end. It was spoken in order to show that a man should set no limit to the forgiveness of injuries; and in order to show this, the parable goes into the deep things of God. It shows that the motive power which can produce in man an unlimited forgiveness of his brother is God’s mercy forgiving himself. At the close it lays down the law that the act or habit of extending forgiveness to a brother is a necessary effect of receiving forgiveness from God.

I. The practice of forgiving injuries. The terms employed indicate clearly enough that the injuries which man suffers from his fellow are trifling in amount, especially in comparison of each man’s guilt in the sight of God. There is a meaning in the vast and startling difference between ten thousand talents and a hundred pence.

II. The principle of forgiving injuries. Suppose that the methods for practice are accurately laid down, where shall we find a sufficient motive? From an upper spring in heaven the motive must flow; it can be supplied only by God’s forgiving love, on us bestowed, and by us accepted. When, like little closed vessels, we are charged by union with the Fountain-head, forgiving love to erring brothers will burst spontaneously from our hearts at every opportunity that opens in the intercourse of life. But there is more in the connection between receiving and bestowing forgiveness than can be expressed by the conception of yielding to the pressure of a motive. It is not only obedience to a command enjoined; it is the exercise of an instinct that has been generated in the new nature. The method in which this and other graces operate is expressed by an Apostle thus: “It is no more that I live, but Christ that liveth in me.” When Christ is in you He is in you not only the hope of glory, but also the forgiving of an erring brother.

W. Arnot, The Parables of Our Lord, p. 185.

References: Mat 18:23.-C. Kingsley, The Water of Life, p. 278; J. M. Neale, Sermons for Children, p. 31. Mat 18:23-35.-Homiletic Magazine, vol. vi., p. 175; A. B. Bruce, Parabolic Teaching of Christ, p. 401. Mat 18:28.-H. J. Wilmot-Buxton, The Life of Duty, vol. ii., p. 190. Mat 18:32.-Homiletic Magazine, vol. x., p. 138. Mat 18:32, Mat 18:33.-F. W. Robertson, The Human Race and other Sermons, p. 278.

Mat 18:33

Forgiveness: one Law for Lord and Servant. This is a parable to show us that our life must be a repetition of the life of God. It is not a title to a mansion in the skies, nor even possession of that, which can make us Christians. It is possession of God’s life. We are to be perfect, even as our Father in heaven is perfect. We are to forgive, even as God forgives, and to be compassionate, as He is compassionate.

I. Our Lord had been talking of discipline, of giving and forgiving offences; and Peter put the question to Him, “How oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him?” The answer of the Lord, folded up in this parable, is, “As often as God forgives you.”

II. The second lesson fills out and completes the first. It was not simply because he did not resemble his lord that the servant was condemned. It was also because he would not resemble him. But that implies that he had the ability to resemble him; and the parable makes plain to us that he did possess this ability. The whole scope of the parable goes to show that the lord’s purpose in remitting the ten thousand talents was the bestowal of this power to forgive. And therefore I put the second lesson of the parable into this shape: God’s mercy to us is to be a spring of mercy in us to others. We are receivers mainly that we may be givers. We are ourselves forgiven that we may in turn forgive.

III. The third lesson is, We must take the entire gift or lose all. The entire gift of the king was something more than forgiveness. It was also a forgiving heart. If we shut out mercy from our hearts, if we from our hearts forgive not, we shall by mercy be ourselves shut out. Pardon of our sins is not salvation: there must be life as well as pardon. We live only when God’s life has become ours. And our life grows spiritually only as we practise the life of God. If we do not open our hearts to it, or if, having opened our hearts, we do not follow its leadings, we fall back into a deeper condemnation.

A. Macleod, Days of Heaven upon Earth, p. 100.

References: Mat 18:35.-C. Girdlestone, A Course of Sermons, vol. ii., p. 445; R. Heber, Parish Sermons, vol. ii., p. 337. Mat 19:1-26.-A. B. Bruce, The Training of the Twelve, p. 251. Mat 19:11.-J. E. Vaux, Sermon Notes, 4th series, p. 88. Mat 19:13.-Parker, Hidden Springs, p. 342. Mat 19:13-15.-P. Robertson, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xv., p. 37.

Fuente: The Sermon Bible

6. Instructions to His Disciples. Concerning Forgiveness.

CHAPTER 18

1. Concerning the Little Ones and Offences. (Mat 18:1-10.)

2. The Son of Man to Save What is Lost. (Mat 18:11-14.)

3. The Church Anticipated and Instructions Concerning it. (Mat 18:15-20.)

4. Concerning Forgiveness. (Mat 18:21-35.)

So closely is this chapter connected with the events of the previous one that it should not be divided into a separate chapter at all. It was in that hour the disciples came to Him with their question. When the Lord had just uttered the great truth the sons are free and added His gracious Word that we may not be an offence to them and the disciples asked their question about being greatest in the kingdom, the great Teacher continues His teachings.

Who then is greatest in the kingdom of the heavens? And Jesus having called a little child to Him, set it in their midst, 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. Whoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, he is the greatest in the kingdom of the heavens (Mat 18:1-5). In the Gospel of Luke (chapter 9:46) we read that they were reasoning amongst themselves who should be the greatest. Perhaps the Lords words to Peter about the keys of the kingdom produced this strife among the disciples. While the Lord had set His face like a flint to go up to Jerusalem and spoke of His coming suffering and death, they had these selfish thoughts and reasonings. And so they approach the Lord, in the hour when He, who had become poor, had manifested His divine power in bringing the fish with a piece of money from the bottom of the sea to Peters hook. And how graciously He teaches them. He knew their hearts and read their thoughts. He knew the depths of their natures and that one of their numbers was not His own. What love that He so patiently instructs them.

The disciples meant of course the kingdom of the heavens, as they understood it, that kingdom which was and is to be established in the earth, and their selfish ambition was reaching out for a great earthly position in that kingdom. They thought of the time when service, self-denial and suffering would be rewarded by the King; who then would be greatest? And the Lord takes a little child and sets the little one in their midst and through this object lesson teaches them who will be the greatest in the kingdom. What the Lord tells His disciples here is practically the same which Nicodemus heard from His lips in that night visit. The kingdom must be entered in 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 the natural birth into the world. He gives therefore the great characteristics of those who have entered the kingdom and the great principles which are to govern them. It is lowliness, littleness and dependence. These are the characteristics of a little child. Whoever therefore shall humble himself as this child, he is the greatest in the kingdom of the heavens. Having entered into the kingdom by being born again, we are to act practically according to these principles and he who does so is the greatest. The new life will grow and develop, but in regard of these characteristics the believer is ever to remain a child in simplicity, dependence on the Lord and in lowliness of mind as well as self-forgetfulness. It is by the constant following of these principles that growth in Grace is attained. Nothing is more detrimental to the development of spiritual life than self-consciousness, self confidence and pride. How often the Lord has to do with His children what the earthly father has to do with his children when they are wilful. He has to discipline them, and that means to show them their true place as a little child. Moreover, we have had the fathers of our flesh as chasteners, and we reverenced them; shall we not much rather be in subjection to the Father of spirits, and live? For they indeed chastened for a few days, as seemed good to them; but He for profit, in order to the partaking of His holiness (Heb 12:9-10). Lowliness of mind, that self-forgetfulness and dependence on God, was the path of the Lord Jesus Christ in the days of His humiliation. Let this mind, therefore, be in you which was in Christ Jesus.

And whosoever shall receive one such little child in my name receives me. 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 into the depths of the sea. 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! 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 have two hands or two feet to be cast into eternal fire. 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 (Mat 18:5-9).

The great thought put here before us is the identification of the Lord with every little one, each 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 He that toucheth you toucheth the apple of His eye (Zec 2:8). It is spoken of Israel, it finds a still higher application in us. We also may think of that other statement: In all their affliction, He was afflicted (Is. 63:9). And so honor done to one of the little ones is done unto Him, injury done to one of them is injury done to Him. What glory of the believer this reveals! How this fact should teach us how to behave one towards the other and not despise any one who is Christs. How apt we are to do this. This one or that one is so little taught in the Word, he is so ungracious — and with all our criticism we forget he is after all one of Christs own.

Care, however, must be taken in interpreting the passage concerning those who offend, the casting into the sea with a millstone and into eternal fire. [Christ here speaks of a kind of death, perhaps nowhere, certainly never used among the Jews; He does it either to aggravate the thing, or in allusion to drowning in the Dead Sea, in which one cannot be drowned without something hung to him, and in which to drown anything by a common manner of speed implied rejection and execration. — Horae Hebraeicae.] That this cannot mean the true believer, who gives offence is obvious. The true believer may give offence, as alas! he often does, but the fate eternal fire or hell of fire is not for him. But in the kingdom, the kingdom of the heavens as it is now, there are not alone those who are truly born again, but also many who are mere professors without possessing life. These are of course indifferent and careless about grieving Him. The eternal fire is surely for those who though professing, continue deliberately in sin and unbelief. And yet the exhortation has a most solemn meaning for every true believer. Whatever is in your way, whatever is a stumbling block it is to be removed. If it is the hand by which we serve and act, or by the foot, the walk, or by the eye, the very best we have, put it away so as not to give an offence.

And our Lord continues: 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 (Mat 18:10). It would take many pages to follow or state all the different interpretations of these words and the various theories and doctrines which have been built upon it. That there are difficulties here none would deny.

Much has been made of this passage in teaching that there is a guardian angel for every believer. That angels have ministries which we cannot fully grasp now, cannot be denied.

Are they not all ministering spirits sent out for service on account of those who shall inherit salvation? (Heb 1:14). Faith can enjoy it, child-like 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.

The question is, does the Lord still speak of believers or does He now refer to actual little ones? We believe the latter is the case. With the tenth verse ends properly the exhortation of the Lord in answer to the question of the disciples. The little child He had put in their midst was most likely still there, and it is now concerning little ones, little children, He speaks, that they should not be despised. Children are subjects in the kingdom of the heavens. How little the disciples understood their Lord and how they needed the very exhortation not to despise one of these little ones is seen in the next chapter, when they brought little children to the Lord and the disciples rebuked them. The Lord then declared: Suffer little children, and do not hinder them from coming to me; for the kingdom of heaven is of such (chapter 19:13, 14). And when the Lord now speaks of their angels in the heavens continually behold the face of my Father, what does He mean by it?

All of course depends on the interpretation of angel. At the first glance it would seem as if these little ones have angels in heaven. There is a passage in Act 12:1-25 which is the key to solve the difficulty here. When Peter, rescued by an angel, led forth miraculously from the prison house, knocked at the door of the praying assembly and Rhoda maintained that Peter stood outside, they said It is his angel. They believed that Peter had suffered death and that his angel stood outside. What does angel mean in this passage? It must mean the departed spirit of Peter. This fact throws light on the passage before us. If these little ones, who belong to the kingdom of the heavens, depart, their disembodied spirits behold the Fathers face in heaven; in other words, they are saved. Surely heaven is peopled by these little ones. What a company of them is in the presence of the Lord! The little ones perish not. The work of the Lord Jesus Christ was for them. The verses which follow and which have been said to be an interpolation, belong rightly here; indeed, they fit in most wonderfully, though in the Gospel of Luke we have the substance of these words enlarged. For the Son of Man has come to save that which is lost. [The omission of to seek is significant. They (little children) are lost ones needing a Saviour, but seeking implies a condition of active wandering from God such as in their case is hardly begun yet. — Num. Bible.] What think ye? If a certain man should have a hundred sheep, and one of them be gone astray, does he not leave the ninety and nine on the mountains, go and seek the one which has gone astray? 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. So it is not the will of your Father who is in the heavens that one of these little ones should perish (Mat 18:11-14).

The words of our Lord, which follow His gracious declaration, that it is not the Fathers will that one of these little ones should perish, are very important. Here for the second time in this gospel and the last time, the Lord uses the word church, or as we translate it assembly. We must have therefore additional teachings given by our Lord concerning His church, which He had announced in the sixteenth chapter He is going to build. We have learned before that the building of the church was future, that when He gave that statement there was no church in existence. And so the words He spoke to His disciples in the passage before us are in anticipation of the gathering out of the assembly or church.

Some have taught that the word church means a synagogue. Church and synagogue, however, are totally different terms. (Of late this argument has been pressed in certain quarters that the word church means synagogue. However if the Lord had meant synagogue the Holy Spirit surely would have used the Greek word synagoge instead of ecclesia.) Others have failed to see the close connection which exists between the first part of the chapter and the continued teachings of our Lord going now on about the authority of the church. That all is vitally connected in this chapter may not be discovered at the first glance, but it is so nevertheless. He had answered their question about the greatest in the kingdom of the heavens and true believers were described by Him as little children, born of God and in possession of the characteristics of a little child. No offence should be given to any of these little ones. He then spoke of His own mission, that He came to save that which is lost and of His Grace in seeking the sheep which has gone astray till He finds it and rejoices over it. And now He speaks of a brother who has sinned. How is he to be treated? The connection then is clear. If He sought us and saved us when we were lost in our sins, so we, in possession of His life, in the spirit of a little child in dependence upon Him and in meekness, are to seek our brother who has sinned. The instructions He gives, however, soon refer us to the church and her executive power on the earth during the absence of the Head, the Lord Jesus Christ. But we have to examine these words in detail.

But if thy brother sin against thee, go reprove him between thee and him alone. If he hear thee, thou hast gained a brother (Mat 18:15). The question is how sin in a brother is to be treated. What kind of a sin is meant, whether a sin against a person or sin in a wider sense of the word, we shall not attempt to discuss. He is a brother who has sinned and the first thing to be done is that the one who knows about it is to go to him personally and reprove him, that is, show him his fault. The object of his reprover is not perhaps to defend himself, if a personal matter, a false accusation, is the sin, but it is to restore and gain the brother. But to go to the brother who has sinned needs great caution, earnest prayer, meekness and self judgment. If the reproving is attempted in a wrong spirit it will work untold harm. The Holy Spirit has given us in Galatians the description of the brother who should go and reprove him who has sinned and the manner in which he is to do it. Brethren, if even a man be taken in some fault, ye who are spiritual restore such a one in a spirit of meekness, considering thyself lest thou also be tempted (Gal 6:1). Alas! how little this is done. Instead of going at once to the brother who sinned, after earnest prayer and with the love and grace of God in the heart, the sin of the brother is often spread about and by this un-Christlike behavior magnified. Bitter feelings are stirred up, resulting in greater evils, slanders, backbiting, lying and other sins. If at last some one makes an attempt to see the brother, he finds the case perhaps beyond hope. How simply our gracious Lord has pointed out the way for us, what the first step is to be if the brother has sinned. It is to be treated as a personal matter and the sinning brother should not needlessly be exposed. Such grace manifested is able to gain the brother.

But in case he does not hear, what is to be the second step? But if he do not hear thee, take with thee one or two besides, that every matter may stand upon the word of two witnesses or three (Mat 18:16). Of course the two, which are to be taken along in this second step to restore a brother, must have the same spiritual characteristics as the brother who came to him first. It is to bring still greater love to bear upon him, but at the same time to show the brother that unconfessed sin, sin not put away, cannot be tolerated in a brother. Should he stubbornly refuse to see his fault, his case would appear hopeless and the last step to be done would hardly reach him, for from the very outset he has been hardening his heart against love and grace, the love of Christ, which sought to restore him.

And so the Lord gives the last injunction, But if he will not listen to them tell it to the assembly. The sin is now to be made public, the whole assembly is to hear of it and of course from the side of the assembly or church there is to be renewed seeking to gain the brother in love. Hasty judging is to be avoided and in all these steps impatient haste, the fruit of the flesh, is to be avoided.

The assembly is mentioned, we repeat, in anticipation of its building in the future. The injunction given here could not have been kept at the time when the Lord gave it, nor before the day of Pentecost. (It is very interesting though to find that the Elders and Rabbis of old had many sayings about reproving a brother which remind one strongly of the words here. It was also customary among the Jews to note those that were obstinate and after public admonition in the synagogue to set a mark of disgrace upon them. The words by our Lord, Where two or three are gathered together unto my Name there I am in the midst of them, is also found in the talmudical writings. The old Rabbis say, Two or three sitting in judgment, the Shekinah is in the midst of them. However all this does not authorize to say the synagogue is meant here.) First of all the church had to be called in existence. That the church is a gathering of persons unto the name of the Lord Jesus Christ we find later. This assembly then, the church, is to act as a body in the case of the brother who has sinned. Of course it means a local church gathered unto the name of the Lord of which the offender is a part.

And if also he will not listen to the assembly; let him be to thee as one of the nations and a taxgatherer. Verily I say unto you, whatsoever ye shall bind on the earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatsoever ye shall loose on the earth shall be loosed in heaven. These are solemn and important words, as they not alone give us light on what is to be done with an impenitent brother, but also show us the responsibility and authority of the church on earth. He is, after refusing to hear the church, to be considered as one outside, one who has forfeited his place. This however does not mean that further attempts should not be made to restore him. The action of the assembly is to prove that holiness is to be maintained.

And now the verily of the Lord. Whatever has been read into these words of binding and loosing by the assembly we pass by. The words simply tell us that the Lord conferred authority to act on the earth for Himself, and the authority is absolute. But to whom does He give this authority? To the disciples, apostles to be conferred by them upon others? Never! That is the unscriptural, man-made doctrine which has displaced the person and the work of Christ, one of Satans most powerful inventions. The authority is given to the church. He gives the church executive power. She is to act according to His rules laid down and in acting in fullest harmony with the absent Lord and obedient to His Word as well as guided by His Spirit, the action of the assembly is valid in heaven. The Lord sanctions it in heaven, whether it is binding or loosing. If, therefore, anything is done which deviates from His Word and is not according to His mind, He cannot sanction it. The case must be a very plain one. If there is disagreement, diversity of opinion, taking of different sides, it is evidence that the Lord cannot sanction what is done.

Alas! how little these injunctions have been followed! How little the church has understood the way of grace as well as her heaven-given, solemn authority. That which professes to be the church has made attempts to follow these injunctions, but being disobedient to the Word, has failed long ago and is powerless to carry out these words. Much of that which calls itself church is simply a human man-made institution, having adopted a set of rules, a form of government much like a club. Saved and unsaved are taken in and as for discipline that is all out of question.

And those who returned to the first principles how great their failure! The flesh has come in and worked havoc; things are done often in a sectarian spirit, a spirit which the Lord can never sanction. Yet all failure is no proof that what is spoken here by the Lord is impossible to carry out. It is possible and ever will be possible as long as our Lord is gathering out a people for His name. And while failure is everywhere failure may be avoided from our side if we are obedient to Him and to His Word.

He then continues with the words of comfort just on account of the difficulty: Again I say to you, that if two shall agree on the earth concerning any matter, whatsoever it may be that they shall ask, it shall come to them from my Father who is in the heavens. For where two or three are gathered together unto my name, there am I in the midst of them (Mat 18:19-20).

The Lord knew the difficulty of such a path and the responsibility which rests upon believers as an assembly with such an authority put upon them, and therefore He gives this exceeding great and precious promise. It is a promise which tells us that He and His strength and wisdom is on our side and that He is willing to supply that which we lack. The promise stands first of all in connection with the restoring of a brother who sinned. United prayer is first of all needed. Yet the promise is not limited to this. We are told to ask touching anything and the assurance is given that it shall be done for us by the heavenly Father. Prayer in secret is blessed and made in His Name has the assurance likewise of an answer, but united prayer, even if only by two who are agreed, who know their place, their responsibility, is what the Lord here emphasizes. And there is much need in these days of believers being agreed and casting themselves upon this promise, in confession of their weakness and with their responsibility resting upon them, making their requests known unto God. What mighty works have been accomplished in this way! It would take pages to record some of the victories gained, doors opened, barriers broken down, hundreds and thousands of souls saved, all accomplished through united prayer. He is still the same; the promise still holds good. And how graciously He puts the number the lowest; not a hundred, not fifty, not twenty-five — but if two shall agree.

The words Where two or three are gathered together unto my name, there am I in the midst of them gives us the center to which the assembly is gathered. [Not in My Name. This is a wrong translation. It is _unto My Name.] Not the name of a man, but unto the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, the exalted Head of His body. The promised presence of the Lord is for those who acknowledge the Lord Jesus Christ as the One to whom they are gathered. Alas! that the very passage should have been used to foster the same sectarianism which has been the snare of the professing church! And still it is true where two or three are gathered unto the Name, which is above every name, rejecting all other names, there is an assembly and there is the Lord in the midst of them.

Peter now comes once more to the foreground. He is again the spokesman of the disciples. The mention of the word church most likely revived in him the memory of the words the Lord had uttered after Peters confession of Him as the Christ, the Son of the living God. Peter had, of course, then no knowledge of the full meaning of that which came from the lips of the Lord Jesus. Then Peter came to Him and said, Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me and I forgive him? Until seven times? Jesus says to him, I say not to thee until seven times, but until seventy times seven (Mat 18:21-22). The question is in closest connection with what the Lord had said. But He had not said a word about forgiving a brother. The word forgive was not used once by our Lord; He had spoken of gaining a brother who had sinned. Did Peter perhaps mean how often he should forgive his brother before the case should be taken up in the order as indicated by our Lord? We think it is now specifically the question of personal grievances we may have against a brother. Peter thinks and speaks of self. The Rabbis had given the following rule: Pardon a man once, that sins against another; secondly pardon him; thirdly pardon him; fourthly do not pardon him, etc. (Bab. Joma.)

Peter, quite well acquainted with the traditions of the elders, most likely thought of this and he desired to show his appreciation of the gracious words he had heard by declaring his readiness to forgive his brother not three times, but twice three times and a little over. Until seven times? he asks. Surely, he must have thought the Lord will be pleased with such generosity and brotherly love. Ah, how little he knew the Grace of Him whom he had followed. The answer of the Lord must have been a revelation to Peter, until seventy times seven. This is unlimited forgiveness. This God in Christ has forgiven us and forgives us, and the same Grace, unlimited Grace is to be shown towards the brother who sins against me. It is the same blessed word God the Holy Spirit gives us in the Epistles, forbearing one another, if any should have a complaint against any; even as the Christ has forgiven you, so also do ye (Col 3:13). And be to one another kind, compassionate, forgiving one another, so as God also in Christ has forgiven you (Eph 4:32).

This human question of Peter brought out the fullness of divine Grace.

And now the heavenly Teacher utters in connection with this a parable. For this cause the kingdom of the heavens has become like a King who would reckon with his bondmen. And having begun to reckon, one debtor of ten thousand talents was brought to him. But he not having anything to pay, his lord commanded him to be sold, and his wife and his children, and everything that he had; and that payment should be made. The bondman, therefore, falling down did him homage, saying, Lord have patience with me and I will pay thee all. And the lord of that bondman, being moved with compassion, loosed him and forgave him the loan. But that bondman having gone out, found one of his fellow bondmen who owed him a hundred denarii. And having seized him, he throttled him, saying, Pay me if thou owest anything. His fellow bondman therefore, having fallen down at his feet, besought him, saying, Have patience with me and I will pay thee. But he would not, but went away and cast him into prison until he should pay what was owing. But his fellow bondmen having seen what had taken place, were greatly grieved, and went and recounted to the lord all that had taken place. Then his lord having called him, says to him, Wicked bondman! I forgave thee all that debt because thou besoughtest me; shouldst not thou also have had compassion on thy fellow bondman, as I also had compassion on thee? And his lord being angry delivered him to the tormentors till he paid all that was owing to him. Thus also my heavenly Father shall do to you if ye forgive not from your hearts every one his brother (Mat 18:23-35).

In looking closer at this parable we must first of all be clear on the fact that it is a parable of the kingdom of heaven, and as such does not present to us the conditions as they prevail under the Gospel of Grace and in the church.

It is not the assembly which is before the Lord, but the Kingdom of the heavens, therefore the parable describes conditions as prevailing in the Kingdom. The parable illustrates an important principle. Here we have a picture of the sinner in the servant who owes the king ten thousand talents, about twelve million dollars. He is unable to pay this immense debt, as the sinner is unable to pay his debt. The servant is threatened with complete loss of all he has and possesses; and then appeals to the king, asking his patience for his willingness to pay all. But what does the king do? He ignores the plea; he knows the impossibility that this penniless servant could ever pay the debt he owes, and then in marvelous compassion he sets the bound servant free and forgives him. All this illustrates the hopelessness of the sinner and the Mercy of God without bringing out the blessed facts of the Gospel. This would be beyond the scope of the parable. But what happens? The liberated and forgiven one finds a fellow servant who owes him a hundred denarii, which is about seventeen dollars. Fresh from his terrible experience, his narrow escape and the great mercy shown to him, he flies at the poor fellows throat, a thing the king had not done, demands his pay, and without taking his plea at all into consideration casts him into prison. The mercy shown to him had not touched his heart; and with all that rich mercy extended to him, he is a wicked man and addressed thus by the king, who gives him over to tormentors, to suffer till he should pay all that was due. Thus a mere professor of the Gospel may act; his profession outwardly is that he is a sinner, that he owes God much and he professes to believe in the compassion and forgiveness of God. His heart, however, knows nothing of the Mercy and Grace of God. He goes on acting wickedly, and his evil heart is manifested by the way he treats his fellow servant. Where Mercy is given, Mercy must be shown. If the heart has really apprehended the Grace of God and realizes what God has done for us in His wonderful Grace, it will ever be gracious and forgive; if we do not act according to this principle we must expect to be dealt with by a righteous and holy God.

Fuente: Gaebelein’s Annotated Bible (Commentary)

Chapter 47

As Little Children

At the same time came the disciples unto Jesus, saying, Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven? And Jesus called a little child unto him, and set him in the midst of them, And said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And whoso shall receive one such little child in my name receiveth me. But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea. Woe unto the world because of offences! for it must needs be that offences come; but woe to that man by whom the offence cometh! Wherefore if thy hand or thy foot offend thee, cut them off, and cast them from thee: it is better for thee to enter into life halt or maimed, rather than having two hands or two feet to be cast into everlasting fire. And if thine eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee: it is better for thee to enter into life with one eye, rather than having two eyes to be cast into hell fire. Take heed that ye despise not one of these little ones; for I say unto you, That in heaven their angels do always behold the face of my Father which is in heaven. For the Son of man is come to save that which was lost. How think ye? if a man have an hundred sheep, and one of them be gone astray, doth he not leave the ninety and nine, and goeth into the mountains, and seeketh that which is gone astray? And if so be that he find it, verily I say unto you, he rejoiceth more of that sheep, than of the ninety and nine which went not astray. Even so it is not the will of your Father which is in heaven, that one of these little ones should perish.

(Mat 18:1-14)

The Word of God uses many names to describe and identify the Lords people. But more frequently than anything else the name that is used is children. We are called children of promise, children of light, dear children, beloved children, children of the day, and little children. This is a great privilege and a matter of great joy. All who believe on the Lord Jesus Christ are the children of God, chosen in eternity, adopted in love, accepted in the Beloved, heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ, and always under the Fathers tender care. Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of GodBeloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is (1Jn 3:1-2).

However, the word children not only expresses the idea of great privilege and highest honor, it also is a word that implies our nature and state, our condition in this world. Children are weak, dependant, very ignorant, unable to care for themselves, and immature. And children are easily persuaded, tender-hearted, and quick to forgive.

Matthew 18 tells us that all who are converted by the grace of God become as little children in this world. Of course, there are babies, young men, and old men in the kingdom of God (1Jn 2:12-13). But there is a very real sense in which it may be said that as long as we are in this world, in this body of flesh, we are in a state and condition of spiritual childhood. This 18th chapter of Matthew should be read and understood as a single sermon, one of the greatest and most important sermons ever to fall from the lips of the Lord Jesus Christ. The subject of the sermon is children, the children of God. The purpose of the message is to teach us, the church of God as a family of imperfect, weak children, how to get along with each other in this world. Our blessed Savior teaches us five distinct lessons in this message.

1.Everyone who enters the kingdom of heaven must do so as a little child (Mat 18:1-14).

2.All of Gods children are to be treated by us as Gods children (Mat 18:5-9).

3.They are all to be cared for as Gods children (Mat 18:10-14).

4.When they require it, all must be disciplined as Gods children (Mat 18:15-20).

5.And they must all be forgiven as Gods children (Mat 18:21-35).

The thing that inspired this sermon was a question that seemed to have been a constant matter of debate among our Lords disciples, even as it is to this day Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven? These poor disciples were still looking for Christ to establish an earthly kingdom; and each one wanted a carnal place of prominence in that kingdom. Their question is one that revealed terrible ignorance, terrible arrogance, and terrible ambition in these men. And it is a question that still reveals terrible ignorance, arrogance, and ambition.

There is only one Great One in the Kingdom of God; and that Great One is Christ (Mat 11:11). All believers are equal in him. There are no degrees of reward among the redeemed (Joh 17:24). But this question inspired our Lord to give the message contained in this chapter. And the method our Lord took to correct their error was as gentle and affectionate as it was wise and instructive.

The Necessity of Conversion

Our Lords response to this question reveals the necessity of conversion. He said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven (Mat 18:3). It is impossible for anyone to be saved without being changed, not outwardly changed, but inwardly changed. Ye must be born again! By nature there is no fear of God in our hearts, no love for God in our souls, and no faith toward God in us, but only corruption and sin. By nature, we are entirely unfit for Gods presence (Isa 64:6). Not only do we deserve Gods wrath, but we are unfit to enter into his presence. Conversion is as necessary as election and redemption. Without it there is no salvation (Rev 21:27).

The Nature of Conversion

In Mat 18:2-4, our Savior teaches us the nature of true conversion.

And Jesus called a little child unto him, and set him in the midst of them, And said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven.

Conversion is a change, the turning of a sinner to God. It is not something that we do, but something that is done to us. The language of Holy Scripture is not, Except ye convert yourself, but Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven (Jer 31:18-19; Lam 5:21).

Someone once wrote, Conversion is a change. It is a change of natures (2Co 5:17), a change of masters (Luk 14:25-33), a change of motives (2Co 8:9), and a change of manners (Gal 5:22-23). This change is begun in regeneration (Eph 2:1-4). When a sinner is born again he enters into an entirely new world, an entirely new life. Christ enters into him and he enters into Christ in such a real way that he is made a partaker of the divine nature (2Pe 1:4). But conversion is an on-going, continual operation of grace. Regeneration is the commencement of life. Conversion is the continual movement of the soul toward God, the believers continual coming to Christ (1Pe 2:4; Rom 6:11-18; Php 3:4-14).

The illustration our Master used to exemplify conversion is clear and instructive. Jesus called a little child unto him, and said, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. What did he intend to convey by this child and these statements? Children are completely dependent. So we must be completely dependent upon him, living by faith, trusting him alone as our Savior. Children are modest, humble, and unassuming. So those who are converted by the grace of God, knowing and confessing their sin before him, are modest, humble, and unassuming. Children are sincere and honest. And grace experienced in the soul makes people sincere and honest. Children are relatively free of envy and ambition. And grace teaches us to deny such lusts of the flesh. Children are quick to forgive. And those who have experienced forgiveness forgive one another. In a word, conversion in time, our experimental and vital union with Christ by faith, is the fruit and evidence of our union with Christ from eternity.

Receive Them

In Mat 18:5-6 our Lord Jesus teaches us that we are to receive his children, just as we would receive him. And he warns us to carefully avoid offending any of his darlings.

And whoso shall receive one such little child in my name receiveth me. But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea.

Those who receive Gods children receive Christ himself. He regards anything done to one of his children as being done to him (Mat 10:41-42). But those who offend his children are regarded by him as his marked enemies. To offend is to cause to stumble, to lead astray, or to discourage. We sometimes offend others directly by our acts, and words, and attitudes. And we sometimes offend others indirectly by an example of inconsistent behavior.

It is impossible for us to measure (this side of eternity) the harm that is done by one person who professes faith in Christ, and yet behaves inconsistently. He gives the infidel ammunition. He stands in the way of those who seek the Lord. He discourages Gods saints. Our lives affect a lot of people and a lot of things. None of us lives unto himself. Everything we say and everything we do affects other people. Our companions, our children, our brethren, our neighbors, our friends, and our enemies are watching us. What we say and do affects them.

The scandalous lives of people who profess faith in Christ and the scandalous actions of people who possess faith in Christ is a matter of grave concern, because it gives men occasion to blaspheme the name of our God. The more prominent and influential a person is the more severe the consequences of his sin are (Rom 2:23-24).

These lessons are clearly demonstrated in Davids terrible fall. Though God did not punish David for his sin personally (His sin was punished in Christ!), he did chasten him publicly. He had to vindicate his honor and show his displeasure with Davids sin. The consequences of Davids sin were far reaching. The name of the Lord was blasphemed (2Sa 12:14). The child of Davids lust was killed (2Sa 12:18). The sword has never departed from his house (2Sa 12:10). And David reaped the consequences of his sin in his children (2Sa 12:11-12; 2Sa 16:22). Absalom learned to despise his father by his fathers deeds. Ahithophel learned to betray his trusted friend by Davids deeds.

Let us take care never to offend any of Gods children. So earnest is our blessed Savior for the present and everlasting welfare of his redeemed ones, that he declares, Whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea.

Hell Fire

In Mat 18:7-9 the Son of God speaks plainly about the judgment of God and of his everlasting wrath poured out upon the damned in hell.

Woe unto the world because of offences! for it must needs be that offences come; but woe to that man by whom the offence cometh! Wherefore if thy hand or thy foot offend thee, cut them off, and cast them from thee: it is better for thee to enter into life halt or maimed, rather than having two hands or two feet to be cast into everlasting fire. And if thine eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee: it is better for thee to enter into life with one eye, rather than having two eyes to be cast into hell fire.

Two strong, strong expressions are used here to get our attention. everlasting fire and hell fire. There is a place of unspeakable misery and fiery indignation, where reprobate, unbelieving men and women will spend eternity suffering the horrible, unmitigated wrath of God. Many foolish dreamers and religious deceivers have joined ranks with the infidel and scoffer, denying the doctrine of everlasting punishment. They repeat the devils lie Ye shall not surely die (Gen 3:4). Do not allow their logic and reasonings to deceive you, no matter how plausible they sound, hell is real! Hell is horrible! Hell is forever! Your conscience verifies that fact. Noahs flood verifies that fact. The ashes of Sodom verifies that fact. There is such a thing as the wrath of the Lamb (Rev 6:17). God is love. God is merciful and gracious. God is good and kind. And God is just and true. That means, The soul that sinneth, it shall die. The only way to escape the wrath of God in hell is to find refuge in a Substitute God has accepted, the Lord Jesus Christ.

The hand, the foot, and the eye are used metaphorically to represent our strongest earthly desires and our dearest earthly possessions. All are to be denied and renounced rather than that we, by indulging ourselves, offend our brothers and sisters in Christ. Rather than gratifying ourselves, let each submit to the other, each esteeming the other better than himself. What redeemed sinner would not count it his great honor to personally sacrifice his dearest possession, or surrender his most ardent desire to Christ? That is the great privilege and high honor afforded us, every time we have opportunity to serve the interests of another believer, either by receiving him, or by taking care not to offend him.

Blessed Security

In Mat 18:10-14 the Lord Jesus returns to and teaches us one of his favorite subjects. Here he, once more, asserts the blessed and absolute security of his elect.

Take heed that ye despise not one of these little ones; for I say unto you, That in heaven their angels do always behold the face of my Father which is in heaven. For the Son of man is come to save that which was lost. How think ye? if a man have an hundred sheep, and one of them be gone astray, doth he not leave the ninety and nine, and goeth into the mountains, and seeketh that which is gone astray? And if so be that he find it, verily I say unto you, he rejoiceth more of that sheep, than of the ninety and nine which went not astray. Even so it is not the will of your Father which is in heaven, that one of these little ones should perish.

Christ is the Good Shepherd who tenderly cares for every soul committed to his charge. The youngest, the weakest, the most sickly of his flock are as dear to him as the strongest. And they shall never perish. Not one of them can perish because their angels watch over them (Mat 18:10), Christ came to save them (Mat 18:11-13), and it is the will of God that they all be saved (Mat 18:14).

Fuente: Discovering Christ In Selected Books of the Bible

The King arranges Rank in his Kingdom

AT the same time came the disciples unto Jesus, saying, Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?

He spoke of his abasement, they thought of their own advancement; and that “at the same time.” How different at the same moment the Teacher and the disciples! The idea of greatness, and of more or less of it for each one, was interwoven with their notion of a kingdom, even though it might be “the kingdom of heaven.” They came unto Jesus; but how could they have the hardihood to ask their lowly Lord a question so manifestly alien to his thought and spirit? It showed their trustfulness, but also displayed their folly.

Mat 18:2. And Jesus called a little child unto him, and set him in the midst of them.

He did not answer them with words alone, but made his teaching more impressive by an act. He “called a little child unto him.” The child came at once, and Jesus “set him in the midst of them.” That the child came at his call, and was willingly placed where Jesus wished, is evidence of a sweetness of manner on the part of our Lord. Surely there was a smile on his face when he bade the little one come unto him; and there must have been a charming gentleness in the manner in which he placed the child in the centre of the twelve, as his little model. Let us see Jesus and the little child, and the twelve apostles grouped around the two central figures. Thus may the whole church gather to study Jesus, and the childlike character.

Mat 18:3. And said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.

The apostles were converted in one sense, but even they needed a further conversion. They needed to be converted from self-seeking to humbleness and content. A little child has no ambitious dreams; he is satisfied with little things; he trusts; he aims not at greatness; he yields to command.. There is no entering into the kingdom of heaven but by descending from fancied greatness to real lowliness of mind, and becoming as little children. To rise to the greatness of grace, we must go down to the littleness, the simplicity, and the trustfulness of childhood. Since this was the rule for apostles, we may depend upon it we cannot enter the kingdom in any less humbling manner. This truth is verified by our Lord’s solemnly attesting word, “Verily I say unto you.”

Mat 18:4. Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven.

In the kingdom of heaven the least is the greatest. The most humble is the most exalted. He that will fulfil the lowest offices for the brethren shall be highest in their esteem. “We have need to use endeavours to make ourselves truly lowly in mind; and if, through almighty grace, we succeed in it, we shall take high degrees in the school of love. What a kingdom is this, in which every man ascends by willingly going down!

It is wisdom for a man to humble himself, for thus he will escape the necessity of being humbled. Children do not try to be humble, but they are so; and the same is the case with really gracious persons. The imitation of humility is sickening; the reality is attractive. May grace work it in us!

Mat 18:5. And whoso shall receive one such little child in my name receiveth me.

It is no small thing to be able to appreciate humble and lowly characters. To receive one childlike believer in Christ’s name is to receive Christ. To delight in a lowly, trustful character is to delight in Christ. If we count it a joy to do service to such persons, we may be sure that we are therein serving our Lord. Those who receive little ones in Christ’s name will grow like them, and so in another way will receive Christ into their own souls.

Fuente: Spurgeon’s The Gospel of the Kingdom

kingdom

(See Scofield “Mat 3:2”)

Fuente: Scofield Reference Bible Notes

the same: Mar 9:33-37

Who: Mat 20:20-28, Mat 23:11, Mar 9:34, Mar 10:35-45, Luk 9:46-48, Luk 22:24-27, Rom 12:10, Phi 2:3

in: Mat 3:2, Mat 5:19, Mat 5:20, Mat 7:21, Mar 10:14, Mar 10:15

Reciprocal: Mat 5:3 – the poor Mat 18:4 – greatest Mat 20:21 – Grant Act 8:19 – General Rom 12:3 – not to Rom 12:16 – Mind

Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

WHO IS THE GREATEST?

At the same time came the disciples unto Jesus, saying, Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?

Mat 18:1

Three times over during the closing weeks of our Lords life do we find this strange strife. Let us look upon these three occasions and learn lessons from them.

I. Spiritual envy.Our text relates to the first occasion. Our Lord has just taken St. Peter, St. James, and St. John away from the other disciples into the Mount of Transfiguration. We can understand how on the part of the nine disciples there may have been envy at this time. How does our Lord rebuke this spirit? He takes a little child and sets that little child in the midst of them. Christ would teach both those who envy others and those who may be tempted to be proud of their gifts. He wants them to remember that these gifts are given for the building up of the Church, and not on account of their own merit.

II. Spiritual ambition.In Mat 20:20 the circumstances are different. Our Lord has just foretold His coming death, and St. James and St. John asked that they might sit one on His right hand and the other on His left in His kingdom. He does not blame this ambition of St. James and St. John. It was splendid faith which, just at that moment, when He foretold His cross, was able to keep its eye fixed upon the Throne. And Jesus Christ tells us how it is to be obtained. God helping, it is to be obtained by resignation, by submission, by drinking of the cup. The only man who really commands the homage of other men is the man who is willing to serve.

III. Spiritual pride.The third occasion upon which there is this strife as to who shall be the greatest is in St. Luk 22:24. There was also a strife amongst them, which of them should be accounted the greatest. This is an occasion of spiritual pride, looking down upon others because of some fancied superiority in spiritual things. How does our Lord deal with it? He teaches them that all need cleansing, and He will go round and wash all their feet; and then they learn the lesson. Then, instead of looking one upon another, doubting of whom He speaks, they begin to ask, crestfallen, Lord, is it I?

Canon E. A. Stuart.

Illustration

St. Augustine, being asked What is the first thing in religion? replied, Humility. And what is the second? Humility. And what the third? Humility.

Fuente: Church Pulpit Commentary

THE DISCIPLES QUESTION, Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven? showed that the kingdom was filling their thoughts just at that moment. The answer made it abundantly 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; consequently the humblest is the greatest in the kingdom. The disciples needed to have their ideas on this matter revolutionized, and so all too frequently do we. It is evident that here the Lord speaks of the kingdom not as the sphere of profession out of which evil will have to be cast, as in chapter 13, but as a sphere marked by vital reality.

To answer the question Jesus had called a little child and set him in the midst as an object lesson. He proceeds to show that one such child, if presented in His name, becomes a person of great importance. To receive him is equivalent to receiving the Lord Himself. In verses Mat 18:2-5 the little child is in question; in verse Mat 18:6 it is one of these little ones which believe in Me. To offend one of these merits 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.

Down to verse Mat 18:14 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 Saviours saving grace. Third, the

Fathers 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, giving ample assurance of their blessing. The comparison of verse Mat 18:11 with Luk 19:10 is instructive. There a grown-up man was in question, who had had plenty of time to go astray; so the word seek is found. Here, where the little child is in question, it is omitted. The tendency to go astray is there in each, as verses Mat 18:12-13 indicate, but the wandering is not put to account in the same way till years of responsibility are reached.

Verses Mat 18:1-14, then, deal with the little child and the kingdom. verses Mat 18:15-20 with the brother and the church. In chapter Mat 16:18, Mat 16:19, we had the church and the kingdom, and both reappear here. If it be a question of the little child our tendency is to ignore and despise him. If our brother be in question there is a sad tendency for disagreements and occasions of trespass to occur, and these are now contemplated in the Lords teaching. We have definite instructions as to the procedure to be followed, the ignoring of which has produced untold mischief. If a brother has injured me, my first step is to see him alone, and point out his wrongdoing. If I do this in the right spirit, I shall very likely gain him and get things rectified. Alternately, of course, I may find that my thoughts needed rectifying, for things were not as they seemed.

But he may not hear me, and then I am to approach him again with one or two brethren as witnesses, so that his wrong may be brought home to him in a more definite and impartial way. Only if he still remain obdurate is the church to be informed so that the voice of all may be heard by him. If he go so far as to disregard the voice of the church, then I am to treat him as one with whom all fellowship is impossible.

It will be noticed that the Lord does not go on to say what the church should do; doubtless because trespasses are of many kinds and varying degrees of gravity, so that no instruction would apply to all cases. Verse Mat 18:18 does however imply that there would be cases where the church would have to bind the wrongdoer, and again others where their action would have to be in the nature of loosing. Here we find that what had previously been said to Peter alone is now said to the church. To carry this out rightly would mean much dependence on God and prayer to God. Moreover even in the earliest days and under most favourable circumstances it would hardly ever be possible to get the whole church together in one place. Hence in verses Mat 18:19-20 the Lord brings things down to the smallest possible plurality, showing that the potency of prayer and of church action does not depend upon numbers but upon His Name. In the case of the little child and the kingdom the important point was in My Name. In the case of the brother and the church again in [or, to] My Name is the decisive thing. The whole weight of authority lies there.

Verse Mat 18:20 is sometimes quoted as though it described a certain basis of fellowship, true at all times for those in the fellowship. But the Lord spoke not of being gathered simply, but of being gathered together; that is, He spoke of an actual meeting. His Name is of such value that, if only two or three are gathered together to it, He is there in the midst, and this gives power to their requests and authority to their acts. He is spiritually present, not visibly: a wonderful and gracious provision this for days when the church cannot be got together as a whole, owing to its broken and divided state. We may be very thankful for it, but let us beware how we use it.

There has been such a tendency to make this gathering together to His Name just a matter of a certain church position, eliminating from it all thought of moral condition. Then we may be tempted to argue this or that must be ratified in heaven, or granted by heaven, because we acted or asked in His Name. We should be much wiser if we trod more softly, and when we saw no signs of heaven either ratifying or granting, we humbled ourselves and searched our hearts and ways to discover wherein we had missed a true gathering together in His Name; whether all the time we really had ourselves before us, and our moral state was wrong.

In verse Mat 18:21, we find Peter raising the other side of the matter. What about the offended rather than the offending party? The reply of Jesus came to this-the spirit of forgiveness towards my brother is to be practically unlimited.

Thereupon He spoke the parable as to the king and his servants, with which the chapter closes. The general bearing of this parable is very plain; the only point we notice is that it refers to Gods governmental dealings with those who take the place of being His servants, as is made plain when we reach verse Mat 18:35, which gives the Lords own application of it. There is entirely another basis for eternal forgiveness, but governmental forgiveness does very often hinge upon the believer manifesting a forgiving spirit. If we treat our brethren ill, we shall find ourselves sooner or later in the hands of the tormentors and have a sorrowful time. And if any of us are witnesses of one brother ill-treating another we shall be wise if, instead of taking the law into our own hands and attacking the wrongdoer, we imitate the servants of the parable and tell our Lord all that was done, leaving Him to deal with the offender in His holy government.

Fuente: F. B. Hole’s Old and New Testaments Commentary

18:1

The apostles believed that the kingdom of heaven that Jesus had been announcing was to be a restoration of the old Jewish government with perhaps some additional features suited to the times. They maintained this idea even after the resurrection (Act 1:6). With such a system in mind it was natural for them to ask the question of this verse, for in earthly governments there are men of superiority in rank.

Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary

At the same time came the disciples unto Jesus, saying, Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?

[Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?] it cannot be passed over without observation, that the ambitious dispute of the disciples concerning primacy, for the most part followed the mention of the death of Christ and his resurrection. See this story in Mar 9:31-33; and Luk 9:44-46; “He said to his disciples, Lay up these discourses in your ears: for the time is coming that the Son of man is delivered into the hands of men. But they knew not that saying, etc.; and there arose a contest between them, who among them should be greatest.” Also Mat 20:18-20; “He said to them, Behold, we go up to Jerusalem; and the Son of man shall be betrayed unto the chief priests, etc. Then came to him the mother of Zebedee’s children with her sons, saying, Grant that these my two sons may sit, one on thy right hand,” etc. And Luk 22:22-24; “The Son of man indeed goeth as it is determined, etc.; and there arose a contention among them, who of them should seem to be the greater.”

The dream of the earthly kingdom of the Messias did so possess their minds (for they had sucked in this doctrine with their first milk), that the mention of the most vile death of the Messias, repeated over and over again, did not at all drive it thence. The image of earthly pomp was fixed at the bottom of their hearts, and there it stuck; nor by any words of Christ could it as yet be rooted out, no, not when they saw the death of Christ, when together with that they saw his resurrection: for then they also asked, “Wilt thou at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” Act 1:6.

However, after Christ had oftentimes foretold his death and resurrection, it always follows in the evangelists that “they understood not what was spoken”; yet the opinion formed in their minds by their doctors, that the resurrection should go before the kingdom of the Messias, supplied them with such an interpretation of this matter, that they lost not an ace of the opinion of a future earthly kingdom.

See more at Mat 24:3.

Fuente: Lightfoot Commentary Gospels

Mat 18:1. In that hour. As Peter returned from paving the temple tax. According to Mark (Mar 9:33), our Lord first asked them about their dispute on this subject in the way, probably to Capernaum. Hence the declaration: surely then the sons are free (chap. Mat 17:26), could not have occasioned this discourse. Nor did they answer His question (Mar 9:34); His knowledge of their thoughts (Luk 9:47) probably shamed them. An indication of the moral power of His Person.

Who then, etc. Then hints at a previous discussion.

The greater. Priority, not primacy. This gives room for a more general discussion.

Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament

Notwithstanding our blessed Saviour had so often told his disciples that his kingdom was not of this world, yet they still dreamt of a temporal and earthly kingdom, which he, as the Messias, should shew forth the glory of; in which there should be distinct places of honour and offices, one above another; and accordingly, at this time, the ambition of the disciples led them to enquire of our Saviour, who should have the chief place of honour and dignity under him in that his kingdom, who should be the principal officers of state; concluding it must be some of them, though they could not agree who were fittest for those high posts of honour and service.

Learn hence, that the best and holiest of men are too subject to pride and ambition, to court worldy dignity and greatness, to affect a precedency before, and a superiority above, others: the disciples themselves were tainted with the itch of ambition, which prompted them to enquire of their Master, Who should be the greatest in his kingdom of the church?

Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament

Mat 18:1. At the same time When Jesus had just foretold his own sufferings, death, and resurrection; came the disciples, saying, Who is greatest in the kingdom of heaven? Which of us shall be thy prime minister in the kingdom which thou art about to set up? which they still thought would be a temporal kingdom. That this was their meaning, appears evident from the parallel passages, Mar 9:33-37; Luk 9:46-48, (where see the notes.) So that just after the Lord Jesus had predicted that he should be rejected of the Jewish nation, condemned, and crucified, the apostles were entertaining worldly and ambitious views, striving for wealth, honour, and power, and contending with one another which should be greatest! Such is human nature, blind, unfeeling, selfish, ambitious, covetous, contentious about the little, low, perishable things of this present short-enduring world! It is true, our Lords late prediction concerning his sufferings (Mat 17:23) had made the disciples at first exceeding sorry; but their sorrow was of short duration: it soon went off, or their ignorance quickly got the better of it.

Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

LXXIII.

FALSE AMBITION VERSUS CHILDLIKENESS.

(Capernaum, Autumn, A. D. 29.)

aMATT. XVIII. 1-14; bMARK IX. 33-50; cLUKE IX. 46-50.

c46 And there arose a reasoning among them, which of them was the greatest. b33 And he came to Capernaum: c47 But when Jesus saw the reasoning of their heart, band when he was in the house [probably Simon Peter’s house] he asked them, What were ye reasoning on the way? 34 But they held their peace: for they had disputed one with another on the way, who was the greatest. [The Lord with his disciples was now on his way back to Galilee from Csarea Philippi, where, some ten days before, he had promised the keys of the kingdom to Peter, and where he had honored Peter and the sons of Zebedee by a mysterious withdrawal into the mount. These facts, therefore, no doubt started the dispute as to which should hold the highest office in the kingdom. The fires of envy thus set burning were not easily quenched. We find them bursting forth again from time to time down to the very verge of Christ’s exit from the world– Mat 20:20-24, Luk 22:24.] 35 And he sat down, and called the twelve, and he said unto them, If any man would be first, he shall be last of all, and servant of all. [The spirit which proudly seeks to be first in place thereby consents to make itself last in character, for it reverses the graces of the soul, turning love into envy, humility into pride, generosity into selfishness, etc.] a1 In that hour came the disciples unto Jesus, saying, Who then is greatest in the kingdom of heaven? [Not comprehending our Lord’s answer and wishing to have him definitely point out the honored person, they now come asking this question. Had Jesus wished to teach the primacy of Peter, no better opportunity [430] could have been found.] 2 And he called to him a little child b36 And he took a child, cand set him by his side, band set him in the midst of them: and taking him in his arms, he said unto them, aVerily I say unto you, Except ye turn, and become as little children, ye shall in no wise enter into the kingdom of heaven. 4 Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven. [Jesus told them plainly that they must turn from their sin of personal ambition or they could not be his disciples–part of his kingdom–and he pointed them to a little child as the model in this particular, because the humble spirit in which the child looks up to its parents stood out in sharp contrast with their self-seeking, self-exalting ambition.] 5 And b37 Whosoever shall receive one of such little children {cthis little child} in my name, receiveth me: and whosoever shall receive {breceiveth} me, receiveth not me, but creceiveth him that sent me: for he that is least among you all, the same is great. [Greatness does not consist in place. Disciples who receive those of a childlike spirit and disposition that they may thereby honor the name of Christ are honored of Christ as the greatest. The words “in my name” probably suggested to John the incident which follows.] 49 And John answered and said, Master, bTeacher, we saw one casting out demons in thy name; and we forbade him, cbecause he followeth {bfollowed} cnot with us. [Was not one of our immediate company. This man’s actions had excited the jealousy of John. Jealousy as to official prerogative is very common. His zeal for Jesus reminds us of the friends of Moses ( Num 11:27-29). But Jesus shows that one who knows enough of him to use his power is not apt to dishonor him.] 50 But Jesus said unto him, bForbid him not: for there is no man who shall do a mighty work in my name, and be able quickly to speak evil of me. 40 For he that is not against us is for us. cfor he that is not against [431] you is for you. [The converse of this statement is found at Mat 12:30. The two statements taken together declare the impossibility of neutrality. If a man is in no sense against Christ, then he is for him; and if he is not for Christ, he is against him.] b41 For whosoever shall give you a cup of water to drink, because ye are Christ’s, verily I say unto you, he shall in no wise lose his reward. [Jesus here returns to the discussion of greatness, and reasserts the doctrine that the smallest act of righteousness, if performed for the sake of the King, shall be honored in the kingdom. For comment, see Isa 66:24, and refers to those worms which feed upon the carcasses of men. The fire and worm can hardly be taken literally, for the two figures are incompatible–worms do not frequent fires. The two figures depict hell as a state of decay which is never completed and of burning which does not consume. Some regard the worm as a symbol of the gnawings of remorse, and the fire as a symbol of actual punishment.] 49 For every one shall be salted with fire. [At this point many ancient authorities add, “and every sacrifice shall be salted with salt.”] 50 Salt is good: but if the salt have lost its saltness, wherewith will ye season it? Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace one with another. [We have here one of the most difficult passages in the Bible. If the word “fire” were found in an isolated text it might be taken as a symbol either of purification or of punishment. But the context here determines its meaning, for it has just been taken twice as a symbol of punishment. Salt is a symbol of that which preserves from decay. Now, Jesus has just been talking about the future state, with its two conditions or states [433] of bliss and punishment. In both of these states the souls of men are salted or preserved. Every one of the wicked is preserved by a negative or false salt–a worm which feeds but does not die, and a fire which consumes but refuses to go out. Though this state is a condition of life, it is such a negative and false condition that it is elsewhere termed a second death. It is therefore rightly called a “salted” or preserved condition, yet it contradicts the symbolic idea of saltness. As we understand it, the difficulty of the passage lies in this contradictory sense in which the term “salt” is used–a contradiction in which the term “eternal life” also shares, for eternal life is the constant contrast to life in hell, though that life also is spoken of as eternal. The true Christian–the man who offers his body as “a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God”–is preserved by the true salt or element of preservation, which is a divinely begotten life of righteousness within him. This is the good state of preservation which a man is counseled to obtain, and not to lose, since it will not be restored to him. The passage summarizes and contrasts the two states of future preservation, one being the salt of eternal life which preserves a man to enjoy the love of God in heaven, and the other being the salt of fire which preserves him in hell to endure the just punishment of God. The “every one” in Mar 9:49 refers to the sufferers mentioned in Mar 9:48.] a10 See that ye despise not one of these little ones: for I say unto you, that in heaven their angels do always behold the face of my Father who is in heaven. [Jesus here resumes his warning against that pride which exalts itself and despises the humble; disclosing the fact that the ministration of angels is not only general but special, certain angels being entrusted with the care of certain individuals, and all of them supplementing their own wisdom and power by direct access to the presence of God.] 12 How think ye? if any man have a hundred sheep, and one of them be gone astray, doth he not leave the ninety and nine, and go unto the mountains, and seek that which is goeth astray? 13 And if so be that he find it, verily I say unto you, [434] he rejoiceth over it more than over the ninety and nine which have not gone astray. 14 Even so it is not the will of your Father who is in heaven, that one of these little ones should perish. [Those who have led highly moral lives have a tendency to despise those who have been defiled by gross sin. This truth is abundantly illustrated by the conduct of the Pharisees, but that such little ones should not be despised Jesus speaks this warning parable. Though the sheep in the fold and the one that is lost have, as individuals, the same intrinsic value, yet this even balance of value is somewhat modified by the sentiments and emotions incident to loss and recovery. Moreover, the anxiety and trouble caused by the sheep’s wandering do not depreciate but rather enhance the value of that sheep, because the heart of the Shepherd is so replete with goodness that the misbehavior of the sheep prompts him to feel pity and compassion, rather than to cherish resentment and revenge. Sin does not add to a man’s intrinsic value in God’s sight–nay, it detracts from it; but it excites in the heart of God pity, compassion, and other tender emotions which make it extremely dangerous for those who hinder his reformation and imperil his soul by despising him.]

[FFG 430-435]

Fuente: McGarvey and Pendleton Commentaries (New Testament)

Matthew Chapter 18

In chapter 18 the great principles proper to the new order of things are made known to the disciples. Let us search a little into these sweet and precious instructions of the Lord.

They may be looked at in two ways. They reveal the ways of God with regard to that which was to take the place of the Lord upon earth, as a testimony to grace and truth. Besides this, they depict the character which is in itself the true testimony to be rendered.

This chapter supposes Christ rejected and absent, the glory of chapter 17 not yet come. It passes over chapter 17 to connect itself with chapter 16 (except so far as the last verses of chapter 17 give a practical testimony to His abdication of His true rights until God should vindicate them). The Lord speaks of the two subjects contained in chapter 16, the kingdom and the church.

That which would be proper for the kingdom was the meekness of a little child, which is unable to assert its own rights in the face of a world that passes it by-the spirit of dependence and humility. They must become as little children. In the absence of their rejected Lord this was the spirit that became His followers. He who received a little child in the name of Jesus received Himself. On the other hand, he who put a stumbling-block in the way of one of those little ones who believed in Jesus [53] should be visited with the most terrible judgment. Alas! the world do this; but woe unto the world on that account. As to the disciples, if that which they most valued became a snare to them, they must pluck it out and cut it off-must exercise the utmost carefulness in grace not to be a snare to a little one believing in Christ, and the most unrelenting severity as to themselves, in whatever might be a snare to them. Loss of what was most precious here was nothing, compared with their eternal condition in another world; for that was in question now, and sin could have no place in Gods house. Care for others, even the weakest, severity with self was the rule of the kingdom that no snare or evil might be. As to offence, full grace in forgiveness. They were not to despise these little ones; for if unable to force their own way in this world, they were the objects of the Fathers special favour, as those who, in earthly courts, had the peculiar privilege of seeing the kings face. Not that there was no sin in them, but that the Father did not despise those that were far from Him. The Son of man was come to save the lost. [54] And it was not the Fathers will that one of these little ones should perish. He spoke, I doubt not, of little children like those whom He took in His arms; but He inculcates on His disciples the spirit of humility and dependence on the one hand, and on the other, the spirit of the Father, which they were to imitate in order to be truly the children of the kingdom; and not to walk in the spirit of man, who seeks to maintain his place and his own importance, but to humble themselves and submit to contumely; and at the same time (and this is true glory) to imitate the Father, who considers the lowly and admits them into His presence. The Son of man was come on behalf of the worthless. This is the spirit of grace spoken of at the end of chapter 5. It is the spirit of the kingdom.

But the assembly more especially was to occupy the place of Christ on earth. With respect to offences against oneself, this same spirit of meekness became His disciple; he was to gain his brother. If the latter would hearken, the thing was to be buried in the heart of the one whom he had offended; if not, two or three more were then to be taken with him by the offended person to reach his conscience, or serve as witnesses; but if these appointed means were unavailing, it must be made known to the assembly; and if this did not produce submission, he who had done the wrong should be to him as a stranger, as a heathen and a publican was to Israel. The public discipline of the assembly is not treated of here, but the spirit in which Christians were to walk. If the offender bowed when spoken to, even seventy times seven times a day, he was to be forgiven. But though church discipline be not spoken of, we see that the assembly took the place of Israel on earth. The without and within henceforth applied to it. Heaven would ratify that which the assembly bound on earth, and the Father would grant the prayer of two or three who should agree together in making their request; for Christ would be in the midst wherever two or three should be gathered together in or to His name. [55] Thus, for decisions, for prayers, they were as Christ on the earth, for Christ Himself was there with them. Solemn truth! immense favour, bestowed on two or three when really gathered together in His name; but which forms asubject of the deepest grief when this unity is pretended to, while the reality is not there. [56]

Another element of the character proper to the kingdom, which had been manifested in God and in Christ, is pardoning grace. In this also the children of the kingdom are to be imitators of God, and always to forgive. This refers only to wrongs done to oneself, and not to public discipline. We must pardon to the end, or rather, there must be no end; even as God has forgiven us all things. At the same time, I believe that the dispensations of God to the Jews are here described. They had not only broken the law, but they had slain the Son of God. Christ interceded for them, saying, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. In answer to this prayer, a provisional pardon was preached by the Holy Ghost, through the mouth of Peter. But this grace too was rejected. When it was a question of shewing grace to the Gentiles, who, no doubt, owed them the hundred pence, they would not hear of it, and they are given up to punishment, [57] until the Lord can say, They have received double for all their sins.

In a word, the spirit of the kingdom is not outward power, but lowliness; but in this condition there is nearness to the Father, and then it is easy to be meek and humble in this world. One who has tasted the favour of God will not seek greatness on earth; he is imbued with the spirit of grace, he cherishes the lowly, he pardons those who have wronged him, he is near God, and resembles Him in his ways. The same spirit of grace reigns, whether in the assembly or in its members. It alone represents Christ on the earth; and to it relate those regulations which are founded on the acceptance of a people as belonging unto God. Two or three really gathered together in the name of Jesus act with His authority, and enjoy His privileges with the Father, for Jesus Himself is there in their midst.

Footnotes for Matthew Chapter 18

53: The Lord here distinguishes a believing little one. In the other verses, He speaks of a little child, making its character, as such, a model of that of the Christian in this world.

54: As doctrine, the sinful condition of the child, and its need of the sacrifice of Christ, are dearly expressed here. He does not say, Seek, as to them. The employing the parable of the lost sheep is striking here.

55: It is important to call to mind here, that-while the Holy Ghost is personally fully recognised in Matthew, as in the birth of the Lord, and (chapter 10) as acting and speaking in the disciples in their service, as a divine Person, as it is ever from Him alone we can act rightly-the coming of the Holy Ghost, in the order of divine dispensation, forms no part of the teaching of this gospel, though recognised as a fact in chapter 10. The view of Christ in Matthew closes with His resurrection, and the Jewish body are sent out from Galilee as an accepted body to the world to evangelise the Gentiles, and He declares He will be with them to the end of the age. So here He is in the midst of two or three gathered to His name. The church here is not the body by the baptism of the Holy Ghost; it is not the house where the Holy Ghost dwells on earth; but where the two or three meet to His name, there Christ is. Now I do not doubt that all good from life on, and the word of life, comes from the Spirit, but this is another thing, and the assembly here is not the body, nor the house, through the coming down of the Holy Ghost. This was a subsequent teaching and revelation, and remains blessedly true; but it is Christ in the midst of those assembled to His name Even in chapter 16 it is He builds, but that is another thing. Of course it is spiritually He is present.

56: It is very striking to find here, that the only succession in the office of binding and loosing which Heaven sanctions is that of two or three assembled in Christs name.

57: This giving up, and the formal opening into the intermediate heavenly place connected with the Son of man in glory are in Act 7:1-60, where Stephen recites their history from Abraham, the first called as root of promise, to that day.

Fuente: John Darby’s Synopsis of the New Testament

APOSTOLICAL AMBITION

Mat 18:1; Mar 9:33-35; Luk 9:46-47. Mark: And being in the house, He asked them, What were you disputing about with one another on the road? And they were silent; for on the road they had been disputing with one another which one should be greater. And He, sitting down, called the Twelve, and says to them, If any one wishes to be first, he shall be last of all, and the servant of all. We see here the outcropping of ambition among the apostles, each one wanting the pre-eminence in the gospel kingdom; thus most unequivocally illustrating their need of the fiery baptism, to consume all their ambition, and humiliate them, meek and lowly, at the feet of Jesus, in utter and eternal abandonment to God, to be taught by the Holy Ghost. This is demonstrative proof of the second work of grace in the Divine economy, as no one would dare to call in question the conversion of the apostles. They had already, pursuant to our Saviors commission, gone all over that country, preaching the gospel, casting out demons, and healing the sick. Jesus never sent out sinners to preach. He does not yoke up the devils cattle to pull the salvation wagon, but always uses His own. Jesus very pertinently notifies them that, in His kingdom, the one highest in office is least of all i.e., deepest down in the valley of humiliation and servant of all, as his official administrations include all, actually making him the benefactor of all his subordinates. While this is not always true in ecclesiastical officers, it is invariably the matter of fact in the kingdom of God; as in the Divine estimation, going down is coming up, and the enlargement of our field of labor simply magnifies our servitude to all included in these augmented dominions.

Fuente: William Godbey’s Commentary on the New Testament

Mat 18:1. Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven? The comparative greater, is put here for the superlative. By the kingdom of heaven, they meant the worldly glory of the church in the present life, as when they asked, Lord wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel?

Act 1:6. Our Saviours having promised the keys to Peter, though the power of remission was afterwards equally given to all, as in Mat 18:18, might have suggested some idea of superiority.

This contest, to be the greatest, is the first law of carnal nature. The beasts in the field settle that point first with the strength of their horns. It developes itself in the splendour of opulence, and the intrigues of a court: hence arise many of the contests and factions of life. A heathen has a tart remark here. Nec Csar ferre priorem, Pompeiusve parem potuit.

Nor Csar could to a superior look, Nor patriot Pompey could an equal brook.

Mat 18:2. Jesus called a little child unto him, which had no schemes of aggrandisement, wealth and power; which bore no malice against another for former faults. When children are hurt or grieved in play, they are all friends again next hour. They love without jealousy, suspicion, or fear; they have no distrust of providence, or of parental affection; they live joyful in all the happiness of early years. What models for grey-headed sinners!

Mat 18:3. Except ye be converted, and become as little children. Conversion is not merely a deliverance from the guilt and power of sin; it is the entrance of Christ and of glory into the soul. It is a substitution of the reign of grace for the reign of sin. Every vice flowing in evil streams from the heart, is superseded by the love of the opposite virtue. Pride is superseded by humility, self-love by the love of God and all mankind, envy and jealousy by divine contentment, and all fretfulness of temper by the peace of God that passeth understanding.

In the Gothic gospels of Ulphilas, our Saviour is often called HLEND, the Healer. And could any case have been selected more pertinent than that of a little child, to make ministers blush for ambition? Could any remedy have been devised more effectual than that of being least of all? Shall the sons of the church be bold and forward, and ask our vote and interest, like the children of this world? Moses made excuses. Saul hid himself. David called himself the least in his fathers house. But now we offer ourselves for the honours of the sanctuary. Assuredly this adduction of a little child was an emanation of him, who is the wisdom and the power of God. 1Co 1:24. The way to preferment in the Redeemers kingdom is to be least of all. He draws from the treasures of his providence the men best qualified to do his pleasure in the church. Let young men do all the good they can, and leave the issues with the Lord.

Mat 18:6. Whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me. , shall scandalize. Mat 11:6. It signifies to discard, to persecute, or rather to drive the faithful from the truth. Let all men consider this; the saints have angels to guard them, and to avenge their wrongs. A man had better have a dogs burial in the water than draw good men into sin.

Mat 18:8. If thy hand or thy foot offend thee, cut them off. Good men must never trifle with sin: to dally and parley with unholy propensities is to carry on a treasonable correspondence with rebels. Satan reigns on his own ground. Samson, mighty Samson, fell by feasting with the Philistines, and dallying with Delilah. Awed by the fire of Gehenna, we must take the knife of excision, and amputate the offending member; we must withdraw it from the objects of desire.

Mat 18:10. Take heed that ye despise not one of these little ones. Either for their poverty, or for not submitting implicitly to your pleasure, or for some past defect in their religious profession; for they are not despised by your heavenly Father. He dwells in their hearts, he guards them by holy angels, who can avenge their wrongs. They bear the image of God, and are heirs of glory, how much soever they may be despised on earth.

Mat 18:12. If a man have a hundred sheep. There is a just and natural connection between a parents care over a little child, and a shepherds solicitude for a strayed sheep. It was when the pharisees reproached the Lord for preaching to publicans, that he superadded the parable of the ten pieces of money, and of the prodigal son. See on Luke 15.

Mat 18:15. If thy brother shall trespass against thee. This is a fair and laudable procedure against offenders: and from the threefold gradation of reproof here prescribed, we learn that no sin is to be allowed in the church, or in its members, for the temple of God is holy. All dirt must be carefully swept from the sacred mansion, and washed from our hands. Hence, if my brother shall injure me in character, or defraud me in property, or even if I shall see him commit any wickedness, I must call him aside, faithfully expose to him his sin, and require the proper fruits of repentance. And though he be richer and greater than myself, I have nothing to fear, for we have one Father, even God, and we are all brethren. If he hear me, and comply, I have gained his soul back to God: and what more can I wish? There is then no Achan in the camp, no secret sin to make the Lord withhold prosperity from the church. I must then honourably conceal his sin till death. If, on the contrary, I tell not my friend of his fault, and in fact tell every one till he is exposed to public infamy, before perhaps any one has the honesty to warn his soul, then he will hate me as a base and most detestable wretch; yea, and by unnecessarily exposing him, I shall damp the work of God, and perhaps cause many who are weak in faith to stumble at his sin, and fall away from the Lord. Let the consequences be what they may, I must not suffer sin to remain upon my brother; for that is hating him, and apparently wishing him the greatest evil. Lev 19:17. Still I must not expose him to the public, but take a confidential friend or more with me; and if he do not make restitution, or abandon his secret sin, I must then expose him only to his christian brethren.

Mat 18:17. Tell it to the church, as described in Mat 16:18, and that not by whispering it in the ears of private individuals, but by communicating it to the bishop or pastor, for they had a bishop in every city or town. Chrysostom. Then he who obstinately offends will be put to the test, either to renounce his sin, or be debarred from eating the sacramental bread. This was the law of the ancient synagogue; and the christian church must not be below them in purity of morals, and salutary discipline. The refractory were accounted unclean, and classed with gentiles and with publicans.

This procedure does not apply however to every class of offenders, to public acts of drunkenness, fraud, or fornication; in all those cases where mens sins are revealed, the church must suspend or expel the offender from communion. But what must a man do, supposing he should know of any acts of uncleanness, or any like deadly sin committed in the church? This is a very serious, but not a doubtful case. I would not cause Belial to rejoice, and the weak to stumble. I would seek the glory of God, and the health of the sinner. I would require a total separation of the parties, and a temporary abstinence from communion: and if the man held any sacred office in the church, I would require his silence for a time, till the tears of repentance and the blood of atonement had removed the guilt. If fornication be suffered to show her front in the sanctuary of God, all the calamities of Elis priesthood will again be repeated on the church.

Mat 18:18. Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven. By the doctrine of humility that went before, our Saviour evidently foresaw the tyranny of the man of sin, the man of Rome, taking heaven and earth into his own hands. The keys were given to Peter by name, merely because his name stood first, and because his confession was the voice of the other disciples. Here the power of binding and loosing is equally given to all; and it is defined to be the power of expulsion of irreclaimable members of the church, and the power of remission by receiving penitents back into its fellowship. Such likewise are the sentiments of St. Paul in regard of the Corinthian, who had been expelled for about the space of a year: To whom ye forgive any thing, I forgive also. Receive such a one, and comfort him, lest he be swallowed up of overmuch sorrow. 2Co 2:5-10. It was, as Du Pin states, determined in the Lateran council, held in the year 1215, that every one should confess to his own proper priest at least once a year, on pain of damnation. And if those pardons are only ecclesiastical, what need of them for men not expelled? Is not the salvation of a man greatly endangered, who trusts to a priestly mediation, instead of trusting to Christ alone?

When Luther heard the fryer preach,

And found he made a dreadful breach

In morals, never made before,

To bring the hire of a w e,

To build St. Peters church at Rome,

And promise grace for years to come:

To sell indulgences for crime,

Before the culprit yet had time

To gratify his foul desire

In sins, which set his soul on fire;

He raised to heaven his strong protest,

That God did neer such power invest

In popes, indulgences to sell,

Which sent the buyers soul to hell;

Nor yet in councils wise and sure,

Nor in apostles ever pure.

Mat 18:19. If two of you shall agree as touching any thing that they shall ask. The jews had a notion that ten men must agree in asking a special favour of God. But our Saviour who sent out his disciples two and two in every direction, restricts the number to two or more. One man might be selfish in his prayers, but his friend, free from the clouds of passion, would ask in the Spirit, and according to the scriptures. Then soon or late it shall be done unto them, even as they have asked. Mutual counsel augments the faith of prayer.

Mat 18:21. How oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him; till seven times? If remission had been limited to seven times, what had become of Peter? Rather, as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are Gods ways higher than our ways, and his thoughts of mercy and love above our thoughts. Isa 55:8.

Fuente: Sutcliffe’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Mat 18:1-20. A Conversation with the Twelve.For Mat 18:1-5, the question of precedence, cf. Mar 9:33-37*, also Mat 20:26 f., Mar 10:43 f., Luk 9:48; Luk 22:26. Mt. makes the disciples begin the discussion, but characteristically omits the derogatory intimation that they had been disputing. In his account Jesus does not embrace the child (cf. Mat 19:15, Mar 10:16), and the saying of Mar 9:35 is omitted, or rather reserved till Mat 23:11. By way of compensation we have the vivid sayings of Mat 18:3 f., an anticipation of Mar 10:15, and perhaps more suitable in that context.

Mat 18:1. In that hour may be meant as a link with the preceding incident, which has given a prominence to Peter.

Mat 18:3 f. The point is not so much the humility of children as that the disciples are bidden to be in spirit and in feeling what children are in reality and status, little ones (Loisy). In Mat 18:5 the child symbolises the unassuming character of the true disciple of Jesus.

Mt. omits the incident of the exorcist who stood outside the apostolic succession (Mar 9:38-41 is found at Mat 10:42), and passes on to the passage about hindrances or stumbling-blocks (Mat 18:6-10), for which cf. Mar 9:42-48. Little ones in Mat 18:6 and in Mat 18:10 means believers, not children (cf. Mat 10:42). 7 is not found in Mk., but occurs in Luk 17:1; it reflects Jesus early experience of apostate followers. Mat 18:8 f. has already been met with (Mat 5:29) in the Sermon on the Mount; it breaks the connexion here, and is introduced to contrast offences against oneself with offences against others, a theme resumed in Mat 18:10, which is peculiar to Mt. and leads up to the parable of the strayed sheep (better in Luk 15:12 ff.), which Mt. uses to emphasize further the value set by God on the humble believer. A later hand tried to improve the connexion by inserting n from Luk 19:10.

Mat 18:10. A reference to the idea of guardian counterpart-angels (cf. Act 12:15, Jubilees, 35:17), or that the angels which represent and protect the unassuming disciple are the angels of the presence, who see Gods face continually (cf. Tob 12:15, Luk 1:19, also 1Ki 10:8, 2Ki 25:19). See further JThS, iii. 514, and DCG, art. Little Ones. [In addition to his article It is his Angel, in JThS, J. H. Moulton has touched on the subject in his Early Zoroastrianism, pp. 324f. He says of Mat 18:10, Act 12:15, These two passages seem to be explicable by the presence of a belief in angels very much like the Fravashis on the side which was independent of ancestor-Worship. (This side, it may be explained, was a belief in a kind of external soul.) He continues, The same may be said of the princes of the nations in Daniel and the Talmud, and the angels of the Churches in Revelation 2-3. These Fravashis of communities answer very well to Avestan conceptions. He suspects foreign influence on the Biblical ideas. In his article Fravashi (ERE, vol. vi., p. 118), he says, Mat 18:10 makes the angels of the little ones dwell perpetually in the Presence. The declaration is completely interpreted if these are the heavenly counterparts, the Fravashis, of those who have not yet learned to sin; no other conception of angels suits it so well, since tutelary angels of children would have no special reason for precedence over those of adults. In Act 12:15 Peters angel is clearly his doublehis counterpart which has taken his place while he still lives. See also Matthew 21-12*.A. S. P.]

Mat 18:12-14. Montefiore points out the advance made by Jesus on Rabbinical religion; it is not enough to welcome and appreciate repentance when it occurs, one must seek out the sinner and get him to repent.

In Mat 18:15-20 Mt. gives a short collection of ecclesiastical sayings not found in Mk. and only partially in Lk. (Luk 17:3), of which Mt. seems to be an expansion, just as Luk 17:4 is greatly amplified in Mat 18:21-35. A brother who goes astray (some MSS. omit against thee in Mat 18:15) is to be reproved privately (cf. Lev 19:17, Test. Gad, Mat 6:3); if this fails, a couple of witnesses are to be called in (Deu 19:15). If this in turn fails, the community or brotherhood is to be notified, and if the wrongdoer is still impenitent, he is to be excommunicated, and may be proceeded against in the public courts. Mat 18:17 contrasts with Mat 18:12 ff. as with Mat 18:21 f., and it may be that here we have the practice of the early Church (with the problem of sin as affecting not only individuals and God, but also the brotherhood) not unnaturally seeking shelter under the Founders (supposed) sanction.

In any case, church here is used in the local sense (= synagogue), not as in Mat 16:18*, though Wellhausen sees in both cases a reference to the mother-congregation of Jerusalem. The decisions of the community (not simply of its officials, one or more than one) as to what or who within it is tolerable, are final, because (Mat 18:19) God hears the petitions of even two believers who are in agreement, and this because (Mat 18:20) Jesus is with the two or three who meet (and pray) m His name. Jesus adopts the OT idea of the mystic presence of God in Israel (cf. Joe 2:27, Mal 3:16, and Pirke Aboth, Mat 3:8, Two that sit together and are occupied in the words of the Law have the Shekinah among them; similarly, Sayings of Jesus, Mat 18:5, Wherever there are (two) they are not without God, and wherever there is one alone I say I am with him). Still the connexion of Mat 18:19 with Mat 18:18 suggested by on earth and in heaven is not original; Mat 18:19 is really an encouragement to prayer. Clement of Alexandria has the pretty fancy that the two or three are husband and wife and child, the ecclesia of the family.

Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible

Though the Lord Jesus has been seen to forego His own rights, He who is by right infinitely great, the disciples show the opposite attitude in desiring some rights above those of others in the kingdom. This is evident (though perhaps thinly veiled) in their question as to who is greater in the kingdom. They all need the object lesson the Lord gives them. Calling a little child (who obediently comes), He virtually tells them that one who desired greatness would not even enter the kingdom, let alone be great in it. They must be converted, their attitude changed from one of self-seeking to one of lowly dependence as a little child depends upon its parents, rather then seeking to rule its parents.

An attitude of voluntary humbling of oneself as a little child therefore would constitute one greater in the kingdom of heaven. This is not the kind of greatness they were thinking of, but it is what God considers greatness in spiritual character. He adds to this that whoever received such a little child in His name would be receiving Him. This consideration of the weak and dependent is an indication of what one’s true thoughts are toward Christ Himself.

On the other hand, one who is guilty of offending a little one who believes in Him is offending the Lord Himself. It would be better for him to be thrown in the sea with a millstone tied to his neck than to be guilty of such an offence. No doubt not everyone would agree that death is preferable to sin against God, but it is true.

The Lord pronounces a woe against the world because of offences. These are things that tend to make souls think less of the truth of God, and the world is full of such deceitful efforts. It is inevitable that offences will come, and souls are tested by such causes of stumbling. Of course if one stumbles it is his own fault if he remains 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.

Therefore verse 8 brings the matter home to the individual conscience. If one’s hand or foot offends him, let him cut off the offending member. This is swift, summary judgment. It is not here a question of offending God or another, but personal conscience being offended by personal actions or walk. Unsparing self-judgment is the only way of dealing with this, not of course a literal cutting off, but a spiritual refusal of the evil in myself. An unbeliever never does honestly judge himself; therefore he will be cast with all his members into everlasting fire.

Nor is it only the actions of the hand or the walk of the foot that must be judged, but also the sight of the eye. Men know it when they see something that bothers their own conscience. Ignoring conscience is dangerous, and may lead to a searing of it that leaves one almost insensible to its protests. But again if one never judges the evil that his eye sees, he is not a believer: he will be cast with two eyes into hell fire.

It may be that in only looking at a little one men will despise the child, but verse 10 is a serious warning. That child, if dying in childhood, would not be cast into hell fire, but his spirit in heaven would always behold the face of the Father. “For,” He adds, “the Son of Man is come to save that which was lost.” Children too are lost, just as are adults, but where adults are concerned, Luk 19:10 shows that they need to be sought in order to be saved. As regards little ones, their wills have not been turned against God as is the case of those in older years. Certainly for them too it was just as necessary that Christ should suffer and die as for the most wicked adult, but he has not as yet formed the character of rebellious self-will that afflicts those older.

The parable of the lost sheep is however applied even to little ones, and the shepherd mentioned as going after and seeking that which had gone astray. It is not that this is primarily applicable to little ones, but the fact that the Lord Jesus would show such concern for any individual lost sheep shows His concern for little too. The joy in one being found is greater that in ninety-nine who had never gone astray. Of course this ninety-nine represents those who self-righteously consider themselves as never having been lost, while “the lost” are those who recognize 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.

Verse 15 calls upon us to have genuine consideration for our brethren too, as well as for little children. The case in point will seriously test the reality of our own faith and love. This is a case of a specific sin of serious character, not a small thing that should be forgotten, nor one in which there can be any question of doubt, but a fact of sin that is clearly established, so that the offender cannot dispute the fact. How good if this matter may be kept entirely from the knowledge of others! True faith and love would lead one to go alone to the offender in genuine concern for his true blessing. Certainly he should go in the spirit of Gal 6:1 : “in the spirit of meekness; considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted.” “if he shall hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother.” The brother has accepted the gentle reproof and has been restored in his soul. Precious result indeed! Jam 5:19-20 adds to this that such good work will “hide a multitude of sins.” For it will nip in the bud what otherwise might be spread so widely as to badly affect many others.

If, however, the offender high-handedly refuses to listen, then the matter must be communicated to one or two more, so that two or three going together will emphasize the seriousness of the sin that has not been judged. This should so impress the offender that he ought at least now to consider that his sin must be faced. When it is said, “that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established,” this does not mean there is any question of establishing the person’s guilt, for this has already been established, but rather it is to be clearly established what response the offender makes to this genuine effort to restore him. If this bears good fruit, then at least only two or three have been aware of the matter beside the offender. If honestly judged, it is to be dismissed and forgotten.

If the man still refuses to listen, the matter is to be told to the gathered assembly, — not gossiped about from one saint to another, but told solemnly with all humility, so that the assembly will delegate some to speak again to the guilty person, on behalf of the assembly. The necessity of this is a most serious matter, for if he refuses to listen to the assembly, this is arrogance that calls for decided action. The individual now is to regard him “as a heathen man and a publican,” that is, as though not even a believer.

Assembly action is not here directly spoken of, but it is nevertheless implied in verse 18, where the word, “thee” is no longer used, but “ye.” In a case such as this, what the assembly binds on earth is bound in heaven. God fully backs up the action of the assembly in binding upon the offender the guilt of his arrogance, which involves their putting him away from their fellowship. 0n the other hand, losing is just as important a matter, for if putting away serves to drive the soul in self-judgment to the Lord to find restoration, then the assembly is to be ready to restore publicly also, and this will be ratified in heaven.

Even after one has had to be put away from fellowship, the Lord offers another recourse: if two of you shall agree.” Intercessory prayer on the part of only “two of you” brings the promise of the Father’s answer. Even if the assembly does not engage in such prayer (possibly because not as concerned as they should be as to the restoration of the offender), the prayers of only two untidily gathered to the Lord’s name will have special effect.

“For,” He adds, “where two or three are gathered together unto my name, there am I in the midst of them.” This promise is deeply precious. The only true Christian gathering is to the name of the Lord Jesus, and when this is true, He promises His presence in the midst. “To His name” implies subjection to His authority. If gathered to a denominational name, this involves denominational authority: in such a case, how can we possibly expect the presence of the Lord?

Our verse shows, however, that not only can we expect His presence in the midst of the assembly when gathered to His name, but even in the midst of two or three when it is honestly to His name they are gathered, though it is not a gathering of the assembly. This is appreciated encouragement to engage in fellowship prayer with only one or two others who may be exercised as to matters of serious importance before the Lord.

Peter however now raises another question. Is there to be a limit to our forgiving one who sins against us? In the previous case the brother had not acknowledged his wrong. If the brother will bear, however, there is virtually no limit to the number of times he may be forgiven; for who would be inclined to keep track of the “seventy times seven?”

The Lord’s illustration as to the kingdom of heaven is most pointed. The king’s servant who owed ten thousand talents is typical of everyone of us by nature and practice, for our debt of sin has been tremendously beyond our ability to pay. Righteousness demands satisfaction, and the man faces the tragedy of losing everything, including, his wife and children and his own freedom. He pleads for mercy and time to pay, so that his lord compassionately forgave him the debt. This illustrates the fact that anyone whom God forgives has been forgiven a debt that is for beyond the possibility of our ever paying it.

Certainly we should therefore have the same forgiving spirit toward others. Yet this servant, though entreated by his fellow servant to have patience with him, is adamant in demanding payment of a debt of a hundred pence, and has him imprisoned till he should pay the debt. He himself had owed 700,000 times as much, yet forgets how he has been shown such great mercy.

Other fellow servants have observed this painful action, however, and it is good to see that they were not merely angry or bitter, but “very sorry.” They tell their Lord, who calls the offending servant to account. Calling him a wicked servant, he reminds him that had received mercy when helped for it, and asks if he ought not to have shown similar compassion toward his fellow servant. The man’s forgiveness was rescinded, and he was delivered to the tormenters, evidently confined to the rigors of prison until he should pay all his debt. This was a righteous recompense for his having done this to his fellow servant.

This case is one of governmental forgiveness, for it is dependent on some fitting response on the part of the one forgiven. Many have been baptized, professing some acceptance of the faith of Christianity, and thereby entering the kingdom. But later they expose the emptiness of their profession by their evident despising of grace. Simon the sorcerer is a case in point. Though publicly forgiven through baptism, he had not been born again, and later exposed his actual unbelief. Peter then publicly rescinded his forgiveness (Act 8:9-24).

Fuente: Grant’s Commentary on the Bible

Verse 1

Who is the greatest? They still supposed that the Messiah was about to establish a kingdom of great temporal splendor; and they wished to know which of his followers were to be elevated to the highest stations in it. They did not bring this subject before Jesus of their own accord, but, as appears from and Luke 9:46, 47, in answer to a question from the Savior, after having been privately discussing the question by themselves.

Fuente: Abbott’s Illustrated New Testament

1-35

CHAPTER 18

At that time came, &c. There seems to be a discrepancy here with Mar 9:31, where it is said that the disciples disputed about this matter in the way, and that afterwards, when they were in the house, Christ prevented them, and asked them what they were doing in the way? S. Chrysostom answers that the Apostles had often disputed about this same matter, and at length Christ anticipated them with this question. When, therefore, they saw that their thoughts were known to Christ, they opened the matter to Him of their own accord, and asked him to resolve their question for them. Various things gave rise to these disputations, but the immediate cause was Christ having paid the didrachma for Peter only. Hence they envied him, as preferred to them, and then each began to be anxious that he might be promoted to the first rank. Hear S. Jerome, “Because they saw that the same piece of money had paid the tribute both for the Lord and Peter, from the equality of the payment, they thought Peter was preferred above the rest of the Apostles. Therefore they asked, who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven? Jesus knowing their thoughts, and understanding the cause of their error, desired to heal their desire of glory by teaching them to contend in humility.” Again, they saw that Peter, James and John had been taken apart by Christ on Tabor, and they grieved that they too had not been taken. Lastly, they had heard that Christ was shortly to die, and rise again, and enter into His glorious kingdom, and they prematurely were occupying themselves about these things, and seeking how they might become chiefs.

The greatest, i.e., in the kingdom of Messiah, which the Apostles expected Christ would establish on the earth indeed, though a heavenly and Divine kingdom, that is, in the Church. For the Church Militant on earth is tending towards the Church Triumphant in Heaven, as to the kingdom promised it by Christ. Maldonatus understands the passage as follows: He who is less, i.e., more humble in the Church is greater in the Church, and therefore greater in the kingdom of Heaven. He proves this: 1, from the occasion of this question, because from Christ’s having paid the didrachma for Peter, the Apostles conjectured he was to be the future head of the church; 2, because Christ regarded the question as a mark of ambition: and it is ambition to seek the first place in the Church, but not in Heaven. Charity persuades us to seek the first places in Heaven. This explanation is probable; but we may understand the passage more simply, by taking the kingdom of Heaven to mean literally Heaven. The Apostles are charged by Christ with ambition, because they looked upon the kingdom of Heaven like an earthly kingdom, which is often compassed because of pride, and even seized by force of arms.

And Jesus called a little child, &c. Mark adds that He took him in His arms. It is thought, says Jansen, that this little boy was S. Martial, who afterwards became a disciple of S. Peter, and was sent by him to preach the Gospel in Gaul, and converted the inhabitants of Limousin, of Toulouse, and Bourdeaux. But others say that S. Martial was one of the seventy-two disciples. He could not, therefore, have been a little child at this time.

Converted, i.e., from this emulation and ambition of yours, which is at least a venial sin, and therefore an impediment to entrance into the kingdom of Heaven.

As little children: for, speaking generally, they do not envy others, nor covet precedence, but are simple, humble, innocent, and candid. I say generally, for S. Augustine (Confess. l 1, c. 7) testifies that he had seen an infant at its mother’s breasts growing pale with envy, because he saw his twin brother sucking at the same breasts. But there is no little child who is ambitious of a kingdom, or of the first place in a kingdom, as the Apostles were.

Christ bids us become like little children. Briefly, and to the point, does S. Hilary sum up their characteristics which ought to be imitated by believers. “They,” he says, “follow their father; they love their mother: they wish no evil to their neighbour; they regard not the care of riches; they are not wont to be insolent, nor to hate, nor to tell lies. They believe what they are told; they regard as true what they hear. Let us return, therefore, to the simplicity of little children, for when we have that, we bear about with us a likeness of the Lord’s humility.”

The way, therefore, to Heaven is humility; and the entrance and the door of Heaven is humility, because, save through it, there is no access to Heaven. S. Antony saw in spirit the whole world full of gins, and souls who desired to fly to Heaven caught in them, and being thus ensnared by the demons, thrust into hell. He cried out with groans, “0 Lord, who shall escape all these snares?” And he heard the answer, “Humility shall escape them all.” Christ, that He may cure the ambition of His disciples by a zeal for humility, makes use of three reasons to persuade them. The first is in this verse, in which he declares that none who are devoid of it shall enter Heaven. The second is in the following verse; that humility exalts, and that if you wish to be great in the kingdom of Heaven you must be small and humble on earth. The third is in the fifth verse; that humility is conformity to Christ, Who humbled Himself below the Apostles and all men, Who humbled Himself even unto death. Therefore, whoso receiveth him that is humble receiveth Christ.

Whoso shall humble himself, &c., i.e., shall be as humble through virtue as this little child is by nature: or who shall be lowly in mind as he is little in body. Christ then bids us become like little ones, not in want of wisdom but in simplicity and innocence, and directly in humility. Thus the Apostles (1Co 14:20). “Brethren be not children in understanding: howbeit in malice be ye children, but in understanding be ye men.” Origen gives the reason, “A little child has no overweening ideas of himself, and does not boast of rank or riches. We see that infants until their third or fourth year, even if they belong to the nobility, put themselves on an equality with boys of lowly birth, and are as ready to love poor children as rich ones.”

Moraliter: learn here the paradox of Christian wisdom. If you wish to be great in heaven, desire to be unknown on earth, and to be little among men, to be despised and made of no account. If you wish to be raised to the chief thrones in the empyrean, place thyself even below the feet of Judas, as S. Francis Borgia did. For it has been fixed and sanctioned by the eternal law of God, that “whoso exalteth himself shall be abased, and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.” There once was seen a lofty and glorious throne among the Seraphim, and a voice was heard which said, “This seat is kept for the lowly Francis.” So Bonaventura in his life.

Humility is grateful and honourable with God, with angels and with men. Even if you would act upon mere policy, you must embrace humility, because it is in favour with all men. Hence courtiers, be they as ambitious as they may, yet marvellously humble themselves both in word and deed; but because they labour under the secret arrogance of the mind, it is difficult for them not to betray their hauteur from breaking out by some indication in their countenance. S. Jerome, or rather S. Paulinus (Epist. ad Celant. 14), says, “You can have nothing more excellent, or more loveable than humility. She is the chief preserver, and as it were the guardian of all virtues. And there is nothing which can make us so pleasing to God and men, as that when we are deservedly great by reason of our life, we should be the lowest by reason of humility.” As the Scripture says, “The greater thou art, humble thyself in all things, and thou shalt find favour before God.” Moreover S. Jerome says (Epis. 45, ad Anton.), “Our Lord as a teacher of humility to His disciples, when they were disputing about dignity, took a little child and said, whosoever of you shall not be converted to be like an infant, cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven. But that He might appear not only to teach, but also to do, He fulfilled this by His example, when, whilst washing His disciples’ feet, He kissed His betrayer; when He conversed with the Samaritan woman; when He talked with Mary sitting at His feet about the kingdom of heaven; when, rising from the dead, He appeared first to the women. But Satan fell from the state of an archangel for no other cause than pride, which is the vice contrary to humility.” Humility, therefore, makes man to become an angel, even as pride made an angel become a devil. The first gift which is given to a man from beholding the Divine light is self-knowledge, says S. Denys (Epist. 7, ad Titum), and this is humility. For humility is a virtue by which a man thinketh vilely of himself through self-knowledge, and reckons himself inferior to all; either because he esteems himself viler, weaker, or more wretched than all, or because he piously thinks others are endowed with greater grace and other gifts of God than he is. That is a golden saying of blessed Nilus: “Blessed is he whose life is lofty, his spirit lowly.” Hear, too, the words of Csarius (Hom. 30): “As from an earthly fountain, or a terrestrial river, no one can drink unless he be willing to stoop, so also no one can draw living water from Christ, the Fountain of Life, and from the river of the Holy Ghost, unless he shall humble himself, according to that which is written-‘God resisteth the proud.'” Lastly, S. Jerome gives a mirror of humility in S. Paula, of whom he writes thus in her epitaph: “She shines, amongst a multitude of gems, as the most precious of all, and, as a ray of the sun, obscures the little sparkles of the stars. Thus she surpassed the virtues of all by the power of her humility. She was the least of all, that she might become greater than all; and the more she cast herself down, the more she was lifted up by Christ. She was obscure, and yet she could not lie hid. By flying from glory, she merited renown, which follows virtue like its shadow, and-deserting those who hunger after it-seeks those who despise it.”

Whoso receiveth, &c. That is in hospitality, to his table, by favour, or by assisting in any other way. By receive is here meant any kind of benefit or charity, or benevolence. Observe, Luke has this little child. From this it appears that Christ speaks: 1. Of a child who is truly a little one: 2. Of a mystical child, viz., of a person who is lowly and humble. He rises from one to the other, playing upon the expression little one (parvulus). It is as though Christ said, So pleasing is humility to Me, that I delight in children, because they bear humility about with them, in appearance, in their stature, their age, their innocence: and I would have all My disciples become little children, and imitate little children, and so deserve to be received by all men. For men will think that in them they receive Me, because they receive them for My sake. For of Me Isaiah prophesied “Unto us a child (pavulus) is born, to us a son is given.” Like unto this is the voice of Christ in the following chapter, verse 14. S. Jerome observes that a little one is here spoken of, “because he who is offended is a little one; for those who are older do not take offence.” Mark and Luke add, He that receiver Me, receiveth Him that sent Me. Luke gives the reason, He that is least among you all, i.e., who is the most humble of you all, he is the greatest, that is to say, with Me and My Father which is in Heaven. “He is lowly,” says S. Augustine, “who chooses rather to be an abject in the house of the Lord than to dwell in the tabernacles of sinners.” (Vulg.) This saying of Christ, S. Elizabeth, the daughter of the King of Hungary, stamped upon her very inmost heart. She fed and served daily nine hundred poor people, sick, full of scabs and ulcers. The lepers she washed with her own hands, wiped and kissed their ulcers. In such offices she delighted, and was wont to say, “How good and kind the Lord is to me, in that He suffers me to wash and wipe these people.”

Whoso shall offend, &c. Syriac, shall be for a stumbling block to. That means, as Theophylact says, shall injure, as S. Chrysostom says, shall despise. It is opposed to the word, shall receive, in verse 5. So Maldonatus. But it is better to take, as Jansen does, the word offence in its proper meaning. For this is plain from what follows. So there is an antithesis between it and receive. As thus, he who shall receive a little child in My name, i.e., shall cherish and advance him in My faith and love and worship, receives Me. But whoso shall offend one of these little ones, that is, shall by wicked word or example turn him from My love and worship, it would be better for him that he were &owned in the sea.

It were better for him, i.e., as Luke has it (xvii. 2), It were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and be cast into the sea, than that he should offend one of these little ones. It were better to be sunk in the sea than to scandalize little ones upon earth, because drowning is the death of the body, but causing a scandal is the death of the soul, both your own and the the souls of those whom you cause to stumble, and lead into sin. S. Matthew leaves out the second part of the antithesis, which Luke expresses in the words, than that he should offend one of these little ones. S. Jerome gives a different turn. “It is better for him,” he says, “to receive a short punishment for a fault, than to be reserved for eternal torments: for the Lord will not punish twice for the same offence.”

You will ask how this verse is connected with what precedes, and how this offence applies to the Apostles? S. Jerome replies, “Although this sentence may be taken as generally applicable against all who cause any one to stumble, nevertheless according to the sequence of the words, it can even be understood as spoken against the Apostles, who by asking which was the greatest in the kingdom of Heaven, seemed to contend among themselves about pre-eminence. And if they remained in this fault, they might destroy those whom they were inviting to the faith, by giving them cause of offence, when they saw the Apostles fighting among themselves about dignity. And when He says, it were better for him that a very heavy millstone were hung about his neck, He is speaking according to the custom of the country: for this was a method of punishing very great criminals amongst the ancient Jews, that a heavy stone should be tied to them, and that they should be sunk in a deep place.”

Millstone (Vulg. mola asinaria; Gr. ) This is a millstone which in Palestine, say SS. Hilary and Ambrose, is turned by asses. Whence the Syriac translates, the millstone of an ass. It means a large and heavy millstone, which could not be turned by a man, but which would require a horse or an ass to turn it. Or it may mean the nether millstone upon which the upper millstone revolves. This nether millstone is called in Greek , an ass, because it sustains the weight and burden of the upper millstone. Thus, too, the Hebrews call the upper stone recheb, a horseman, because it rides, as it were, upon the nether stone.

Let the clergy and religious, who contend for pre-eminence among themselves, take note of this passage. For such contention causes seculars to stumble, and is a great disgrace and cause of reproach to religion. And it were better for them that they should be sunk with a millstone in the depths of the sea than that they should give cause of scandal to Christian people.

Woe to the world, &c.; that is, great and dreadful evils, both present and future, impend over men of the world, on account of God’s wrath because of scandals, active as well as Passive. For they who cause others to stumble by their ambition, or by the example of their evil life, are guilty of the punishment of hell. And they who are scandalized, and follow the evil examples of others, are condemned as their followers and associates, and both alike perish. The world is full of scandals, because it is full of wicked men, libertines, spend-thrifts, and avaricious people. In order that they may satisfy their lusts, they cause all to stumble. Wherefore the larger part of mankind is damned because of scandals. Wherefore it follows, it must needs be, &c. Moreover, scandals, or offences-of which Christ is here speaking-are persecutions, derision, injuries of the righteous; also evil examples, false doctrines, things done or said unseasonably; for there are many things which are good and lawful in themselves, but by reason of inopportuneness of time, or place, when they are done before the uninstructed, become an occasion of scandal.

It must needs be, &c. Not absolutely, nor per se, but by supposition. For the various dispositions and corruptions of so many men being foreseen and presupposed; together with their levity, ambition, cupidity, forasmuch as they are free to be wicked, it is not possible but that sometimes by some, yea frequently by many, there should be (at least indeterminately, and in the gross) scandals, i.e., crimes, and other things which cause the little ones to stumble. So S. Paul says (1 Cor. xi. 38): There must be heresies. Thus it is necessary in genere, and in the gross, that a just man should commit venial sin sometimes; although the particular acts of each individual are free, not absolutely determined. Therefore, any individual may avoid venial sins, considered one by one, but not all venial sins altogether. For let us grant that in individual cases a man may give such care and attention as not to sin, yet it is impossible that-taking all contingent events in the lump-a man should not sometimes be remiss, and fail, or slip. For this is the infirmity of the mind of man since the Fall. In the same way it is necessary that the most skilful archer, who to a certainty hits the mark as often as he chooses to do so, should sometimes miss it, if he is perpetually shooting at it. For this is a condition and result of human weakness-that mind, hand, or eye cannot long keep up the strain of their attention, that a man should hit the mark a hundred times running. He must miss sometimes.

But woe to that man, &c. Because he determinately, and of free will, in this or that wicked or indiscreet action gives an offence to the little ones, and so sins mortally. SS. Jerome and Bede apply these words to Judas, who gave the greatest scandal to the whole world, when he betrayed Christ. But the words are of general application, and threaten the woe of eternal damnation to all who are a cause of offence. Christ here teaches three things concerning scandals: 1. How grave they are in themselves and in their consequences. 2. How numerous they are, and that they must needs come; speaking generally. 3. How carefully they are to be avoided. Wherefore He subjoins,

But if thy hand, &c. (verses 8 and 9), as I have expounded on chapter v. 30.

Take heed, &c., viz., those who are lowly, whom the world despises as poor and miserable. For although they may be weak, yet have they guardian angels who are strong, who may accuse you to God the Father, whom they always behold, and by His command may severely avenge and punish all offences and wrongs done to those who have been committed to their charge.

For I say unto you, &c. From this passage, and from Gen 48:16, and Act 12:15, and from the general tradition of the Fathers, doctors teach that all Christians, yea indeed all men, have an angel who is appointed by God to be their guardian from birth unto death. Hear S. Jerome “Great is the dignity of souls, that each has from his birth an angel appointed to watch over him.” And again, “The angels offer daily, through Christ, the prayers of those who are to bc saved. It is therefore a perilous thing to despise one whose desires are carried to the eternal and invisible God by the ministry of angels.” All the rest of the Ancients, and even the Protestant doctors, teach the same thing. Suarez cites them (lib. 6 de Angelis, c. 17, n. 8). He shews in opposition to Calvin and the Centuriators that it is an error to deny that a guardian angel is given by God to all men, not only to believers and the righteous, as Origen seems to have supposed, but even to unbelievers and the reprobate. Wherefore Antichrist will have his guardian angel, as S. Thomas teaches (1 part. qust. 113, art. 4, ad. 3). Suarez teaches the same, and that guardian angels are ordinarily of the ninth, or lowest order of the angelic hierarchy, who are designated by the common appellation of angels. But to some special individuals of surpassing excellence or dignity, as Apostles, Prophets, Patriarchs, Bishops, Kings, guardians have been assigned of the eighth order, who are called archangels. Hence Gabriel was the guardian of the Blessed Virgin, and he is thought by many to belong to the order of the Seraphim. In saying that all men have a guardian angel, I except Christ, for He needed not an angel, whose Divinity was a sufficient guardian of His humanity. Nevertheless Christ had many angels, always at hand to minister to His wants. On this subject we must read Origen with caution, who pretends that guardian angels sometimes sin through negligence in their guardianship, and therefore are deprived for a time of the vision of God. But this is an error, for all the angels are blessed, and therefore immutable and impeccable.

The offices of the guardian angels are as follows:-1. To avert dangers both of the body and the soul. 2. To illuminate and instruct those committed to their charge, and to urge them to good works. 3. To restrain the demon, that he may not suggest wicked thoughts, or furnish occasions of sin. 4. To offer to God the prayers of him whom he guards. 5. To pray for him. 6. To correct him if he sin. 7. To stand by him at the hour of death, to comfort and assist him in his last struggle. 8. After death to convey the soul to Heaven, or if it need purgatory, to accompany it thither, and when there to console it from time to time, until purgatory being over, he carries it to Heaven.

You will ask why the expression their angels connotes not only the little ones who believe in Christ, which is the direct antecedent, but all other men? S. Chrysostom replies that angels denote not any angels, but those of surpassing dignity, as though the care of the little ones were committed to the highest angels. S. Thomas interprets the highest angels to mean not the chief of the highest order the Seraphim, but the chief of the ninth order of angels, so that the highest angels in that order are the guardians of men; those in the middle ranks, of animals; and the lowest, the guardians of trees and plants. To this we may add the opinion of Maldonatus, who thinks that the guardians of little ones are higher in rank than those of other men. And by little ones he understands not children, but the humble and the righteous, for whom God has greater care than for other men, as the whole of Scripture testifies. He proves that the angels of the little ones are greater and more honourable for this reason, that they always behold the face of God. Not that the other angels do not see It, but because by this expression the Hebrews signify one who is near to God, and His friend. It is a metaphor taken from courts, where the most honourable are those who are nearest to the king, and therefore most frequently see His face. Thus the Queen of Sheba says of the servants of Solomon, “Blessed are these thy servants, who stand before thee, and hear thy wisdom.”

2. Their angels, denotes that the angels of little ones have special care of them, more than the angels of those who are grown up. Of little ones, I say, both those who are so in age and faith, as well as in their lot and condition. For these, since they are weak in judgment and prudence, have the greater need of the care and guardianship of angels. It is a saying of the common people, that infants and idiots are the chief objects of angels’ care, for truly, unless angels had special care of infants, they would continually fall into the fire or water, and would be injured by pigs and beasts, and run over by horses and carriages.

3. Their angels, means that they are the peculiar friends of the little ones. For the angels marvellously love little children and the humble, because they, as it were, belong to them, and are most like them. For the angels are very humble, and by their humility they overcame Lucifer, saying, with S. Michael, their captain, mi ca el, i.e., who is as God? (See Philo Berlemont, in the Paradise for Children).

Moraliter: Learn from hence, first, how great is the dignity of souls, that they have angels for their guardians. In the next place how great is the condescension of God, that he assigns to us such guides. For these are they of whom it is said in Psalm civ., “Who maketh His angels spirits, His ministers a flaming fire.” In the last place, how great is the humility and love of the angels, who do not disdain these offices, but delight in them, because they see their Lord and God made man, as S. Bernard says. Wherefore the same S. Bernard says, on the words of the Psalm, He shall give His angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways, “What reverence ought these words to instil into thee, what devotion, what confidence. Reverence for the angel’s presence, devotion for his kindness, confidence for his guardianship. Walk warily, even as one to whom angels are present, in all thy ways. Whithersoever thou turnest aside, in whatever corner thou art, reverence thy angel. Do not dare to do in his presence what thou wouldst not dare to do if I saw thee.”

Again, since the angels make it their business to purify, illuminate and perfect us, it is right that we should obey them by striving with all our might to attain to great sanctity and perfection, that we should emulate the life and habits of the angels, as those who are to be by and bye their companions in Heaven, for as the Apostle says, “Ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints, and of the household of God.” And, “Ye are come unto the city of the living God, to an innumerable company of angels.” Wherefore let us put away far from us all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, and especially all pride and contention. Nothing so provokes the angels to indignation as quarrels and scandals, as Christ here teaches, for they are the very angels of peace and edification.

In fine, let us often converse with our angels in spirit, as St. Bernard says, “Have the angels, my brethren, for your friends, and often go to them in earnest thought and devout adoration, for they are always present to guard and comfort you.”

Always behold, &c., that is, the shining essence of God. The angels always see clearly without a veil, as it were face to face. The angels, says S. Augustine (lib. 9. de Civit. c. 22.), enjoy the immutable and ineffable beauty of God, with the holy love of Whom they burn. they despise all lower things, and themselves among them, that they may enjoy wholly, because they are good, that Good, by which they are good. The face of God then is the beauty and the brightness of the Divinity, clearly manifesting Itself to the angels, and making them blessed; for otherwise, strictly speaking, God has not a face, even as he has not a body.

Which is in Heaven: S. Gregory (2 Moral. c. 2.), and S. Bernard (Serm. 5, de dedicat. Eccles.) observe that the angels, even when they go forth from Heaven, always behold the face of God. For they are blessed wheresoever they are; therefore, wheresoever they are, they are said to be in Heaven. For where there is the vision and glory of God, there is Paradise and Heaven. Hence S. Gregory says, “They both stand before God, and are sent; because through this, that they have been circumscribed, they go forth; and through this, that they are also present within, they never go away. And therefore they always see the face of the Father, and yet come to us, because they go forth abroad to us in spiritual presence, and yet they keep themselves there by interior contemplation.” And a little before, “What can they be ignorant of in things that can be known, who know Him who knoweth all things?” They are not therefore called away from the guardianship of the humble through desire of returning to God, because they never depart from God, but wheresoever they are, they have Him present. They do all things, and guard the little ones in God, and for the sake of God.

The Son . . . that which was lost. Gr. , even the whole human race, which was lost through Adain’s sin. This is Christ’s second reason why the little ones and the lowly must not be despised nor offended. As though Christ said-I, Who am the Son of God, make so great account of the little ones that for their sake I have stooped to the lowest depths of humility, and have come down from Heaven that I might assume their flesh. Wherefore their salvation has brought singular joy both to Me and to My Father, as will appear from the parable of the sheep, which I am about to subjoin. Take good heed therefore lest by your offences ye destroy those little ones whom I have redeemed at the expense of so much toil and blood. For if ye do, ye will make not only the angels, but My Father and Myself your enemies. For I love the little ones even as My own children and My most intimate friends. They are My especial property, and if ye take them away from Me by causing them to offend, I will require it at your hand.

How think ye, &c. . . . doth He not leave the ninety-nine upon the mountains? (Vulg.): Where they feed after their manner.

This parable may be expounded and applied in these ways:-1. Generally, of angels and men. 2. Particularly, of men only. 3. Specially, of the little ones alone. Many generally, by the ninety-nine sheep feeding upon the mountains understand the holy angels, who have the fruition of God in Heaven, who have never sinned. By the hundredth sheep which went astray, they understand the whole human race which sinned in Adam, and which, that He might redeem, and bring it back into the way of salvation, Christ as it were left the angels, and came down from Heaven, and was made man. So S. Hilary, Theophylact, Anselm, in this passage; S. Gregory (Hom. 34 in Evang.); Cyril (Catech. 15); S. Ambrose (in (in Apolog. David, c. 5); Irenus (l. 3, c. 21); Origen (Hom. 2 in Genes.) and many others. Gather from hence how vast is the multitude of the angels, which as greatly exceeds the number of all the men who have been, or are, or ever will be, as ninety-nine exceeds one.

You may say, These sheep are the sheep of the Son of man. But Christ, as man, fed not the angels, but men only. Yet Christ was not as yet man, when he came down to this world to seek the hundredth sheep, i.e., man. It is replied, The angels are the sheep of the Son of Man: 1, materially, because they are the sheep of the Son of God, who is also Son of Man. Whilst in the post-parable, not the Son of Man is spoken of, but God the Father, when it is said, It is not the will of your Father . . . that one of these little ones should perish.

1. Formaliter, also: For Christ qu man, is also the Saviour of the angels, though not their Redeemer, as He is of men. For, for the angels He merited all grace and glory, i.e., election, predestination, vocation, all helps, stirring up, assisting, sufficing and efficacious: and lastly all merit and increase of grace and glory. Wherefore Christ is the meritorious cause of the grace and glory of the angels. And the angels, on their part had a lively faith in Christ Incarnate, and by that were justified. So Richardus, Albertus, Catherinus, Galatinus, and others, whom Suarez cites (3. p. q. 19. disp. 42. sect. 1.), although Paludanus, Durandus, Bonaventura, and Alensis think the contrary, that Christ merited grace and glory for men alone, not for the angels.

2. Particularly: By sheep, men only may be understood. For as a shepherd searches after a single stray sheep, and is glad when he finds it, so Christ sought the whole human race, and rejoiced when He brought it back.

3. This parable is of special application to the little ones, i.e., the poor, the despised, the ignorant, the simple, and the humble, who are small in wisdom, or wealth, or honour, or prudence. To them Christ applies the 14th verse; and all that preceded had reference to the little ones. Wherefore He contrasts the one little sheep which went astray with the ninety-nine who went not astray, i.e., with those who are great in wisdom, riches, or authority, or who esteem themselves great. For these are supposed to go astray and sin less. For little sheep, as lambs, forasmuch as they are simple and inexperienced are more ready to go astray than older sheep, who are accustomed to look to and follow their companions and their shepherd. The meaning is as follows: As a shepherd who has ninety- nine sheep, if the hundredth little one being, say, a lamb, wanders from the flock, the shepherd leaves the ninety-nine, and seeks the missing lamb. Thus Christ leaves those who through His grace are already great in faith and virtue, or who esteem themselves so, the number of whom is very great, to take care of themselves and each other. But if any one who is little in faith and prudence wander from the way of salvation, He seeks for him by Himself, by His angels, by His doctors and preachers, that He may bring him back into the way. For He has a singular and peculiar love and care for these little ones, forasmuch as they are forsaken by others, and left to themselves. This, it is plain, is the true sense of the parable from what has been now said, and because Christ, in repeating it in Luke xv. 4, so explains it; except that by the ninety-nine sheep He understands the just, and by the one hundredth erring one he means the sinner. But here by the ninety-nine He means the great, and by the hundredth, the little ones.

He rejoiceth more, &c. Habitually, the shepherd rejoices more over ninety-nine sheep (because of their number) than he does over one. Whence, if he were asked whether he would rather lose ninety-nine than the one which had gone astray, he would answer, By no means I would rather lose one than ninety-nine. Nevertheless, actually-and in this particular instance-he does rejoice more over the one which had gone astray, and is brought back into the way of salvation. This is so, because this return raises a new and immense gladness, and because it drives away the sorrow which had arisen at the loss. For the joy which suddenly succeeds to sorrow is the greatest of all. Roman history relates how a mother, who was grieving for the loss of her son, who was said to be slain at Cann, when she unexpectedly beheld him alive, expired for joy. Thus if any city or province be converted from heresy or idolatry, we rejoice more on account of it, than over all other cities or provinces that are already converted. This is, as it were, a third reason, whereby Christ by a parable shews that the little ones must not be despised.

Even so it is not the will, &c., that is, God does not wish, nor is it pleasing to Him that one of the little ones should perish.

But if thy brother sin, Syriac, shall err, in allusion to the wandering sheep, of which He had been speaking. Christ passes appropriately from little ones to sinners, because they are little, that is despised and abject. For what is more worthless than sin and sinners? As therefore He taught that the little ones who are offended must not be despised, so now He likewise teaches that sinners who offend and injure others must not be despised, nor must vengeance be inflicted upon them for the injuries they have done, but that they must be corrected in love, that they may be restored to God’s grace, and to salvation. Christ therefore gives this as the remedy by which scandals may be taken away, even by the correction of him who caused the scandal.

Sin against thee. Certain Protestants expound the words against thee, to mean, thou alone knowing; if any one sin secretly and privately, secretly correct him; for the public sinner must be publicly corrected, as an example to others. But the words against thee, are no where taken as meaning, thou alone being conscious. And Luke explains it as against thee. For he says, (Luk 17:3), If thy brother sin against thee, rebuke him, but if he repent, forgive him; that, namely in which he has sinned against thee. This is the way in which S. Peter understood the expression, for he, having reference to these words of Christ, asks the question, how oft shall my brother sin against me? Christ alludes to Lev 19:17. “Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thine heart, but openly rebuke him.” Meaning do not cherish secret hatred against thy neighbour who has injured thee, but tell him plainly and openly that thou hast been wronged by him, that he may amend and make satisfaction to thyself and God by repentance. Whence Tertullian (l. 4, contra Marc. c. 35), understands this passage of Leviticus concerning brotherly correction, as if it had been commanded to the Jews.

You may say then, our neighbour is to be corrected only for sins against ourselves, not for those against God. I answer by denying the consequence, because Christ by synecdoche, speaking of injuries done to us, means to include all other sins. For there is the same, yea, a greater application to other sins. For if our neighbour is to be corrected for injuries done to us, much more for the offences by which he had offended God. We ought to love God better than ourselves: therefore we ought to ward off from Him their injuries, more than from ourselves. Christ however makes mention only of sin against ourselves, that He may put a bridle upon revenge, and substitute charity instead of it, and from charity brotherly correction. It is as though He said, if thy neighbour have offended or injured thee, do not make it publicly known or avenge it, but first reprove him lovingly and secretly. We must understand, if there be hope of amendment by such means, otherwise, omitting the private correction, we must proceed to correction in the presence of witnesses. But if there be no hope from this, we must tell it to the Church, i.e., to the pastor or the prelate. But if not even from this there be hope of amendment, this correction must be altogether omitted, and left to God. The reason is an priori one. As charity obliges me to succour my neighbour when he is in any grave corporal necessity, so much more does it oblige me to succour him in any spiritual necessity, such as a state of sin and condemnation. Rightly argues Suarez, (2. 2. q. 33.). In addition to the hope of profit, in order that this precept may bind, it is necessary that my neighbour should stand in need of my correction. If for instance I am reasonably afraid that unless I correct him he will fall in the like sins. This is proved, because this is an affirmative precept of mercy. It is therefore only binding according to the rules of similar precepts; therefore, only in a case of necessity.

It may be asked whether this correction be a matter of precept, or of counsel only? Again, whether it binds all the faithful, or priests and superiors only? 1. SS. Augustine, Chrysostom, Hilary, Basil, Theophylact, Bonaventura, and others, think that the correction of which Christ here speaks, has regard only to such as sin against us. As much as to say, Do not inflict vengeance upon him who has injured thee, but lovingly correct him; and so this correction would be of precept rather than of counsel. Salmeron attempts to prove this view by many reasons, but what he says must be read with the greatest caution. For he might seem in his eleventh tractate to do away with this correction sanctioned by Christ altogether, and to find fault with it as useless, and often pernicious. But he does not express his own opinion, but that of others whom he cites, as he says expressly in the beginning of his eleventh chapter. Again he does not set aside the declaration of Christ, but the opinion of those scholastics and interpreters, who extend Christ’s declaration to every kind of case whatsoever, who maintain that this mode of correction should be observed with respect to all sins, though Christ only enjoins it expressly with reference to the correction of those who sin against us. And Suarez himself shews that frequently this method cannot be observed, except to the detriment of the commonwealth, as clearly appears in a case of heresy, which creeps secretly like a cancer.

2. Johannes Archias (in cap. Nativ. de Judiciis), think that this correction is of precept to priests and prelates only; and of counsel to the laity. But this is too lax.

3. Others think that this correction is of precept to the neighbours only, since it would be incongruous that a man who is guilty of the same, or a similar fault, should reprove another for that fault. Abulensis seems to favour this opinion. But I say that the correction which is here enjoined by Christ is not merely of counsel, but of precept, and is binding upon all the faithful. For although Christ says in express words only that those who have sinned against us are to be corrected, yet by parity of reasoning He intended it to be extended to all sinners. So the interpreters and scholastics, with S. Thomas, passim (2. 2. qust. 33). This is plain from the expression, thy brother. For brother denotes any Christian believer, and an equal rather than a superior. For although unbelievers are at times to be corrected, yet Christ is here speaking only of the faithful as belonging to Himself and subject to His Church. For infidels cannot be punished and excommunicated by the Church, inasmuch as they do not belong to it.

The reason is priori, because this precept of correction is, both as regards its substance, as well as its method and order, not so much a positive command; and, according to the jus divinum, as of the jus natur, belonging naturally to charity and grace. For charity requires that we should bring back our neighbour when he sins into the way of salvation by correcting him; and that we should have regard to his shame as well as his good name. For as S. Jerome says, “If he lose shame and modesty, he will remain in sin.” For it is not public and judicial correction which is here treated of, which deals with the just punishment of offences committed against the commonwealth, but that private correction which tends to the salvation of our neighbour when he sins. This reason is urged by S. Augustine (Serm. 16, de Verb. Apost.). “Rebuke thy neighbour,” he says, “between thee and him alone, for the sake of the correction, and sparing his shame. For perchance he may, through shame, begin to defend his sin; and thus him, whom thou wishest to become better, thou makest worse.” And again, “Forget thine own injury, not thy brother’s fall, nor suffer him to perish through thy silence. If thou alone knowest his fault, and reprovest it before others, thou art not a corrector, but a betrayer.”

Wherefore, in order that this correction, which of itself is an odious thing, may be fruitful and efficacious, two principal things are needed; namely, charity and prudence, or discretion. Charity; that he who sins may feel that the correction proceeds not from hatred, or pride, but from love and compassion. Prudence, that it may be done modestly and gently, and with such circumstances of time and place and manner, as that he who has sinned may receive it gratefully, and may amend, according to the Apostle’s words, “Instruct in the spirit of meekness, &c.” (Gal 6:1.) As S. Leo says (Epist. 84.), “Let there be benevolence rather than severity uppermost in the corrector; let there be more of exhortation than of fussiness; more of love than of power.”

Moreover so great is the need of mutual correction of faults that a certain holy father was wont to say that there was nothing so great a cause of ruin as the lack of brotherly correction, and the violation of the precept to avoid impurity. S. Augustine (l. 1. de Civit. Dei. c. 9.) testifies that because of the omission of this brotherly correction, the good as well as the bad in this world are afflicted with very grievous calamities. The Gloss says, he who sees his brother commit a sin, and keep silence, is equally in fault with him who does not forgive him who repents. The very elements teach us the benefit of this correction. For so fire chastises, and by burning purifies the air. The air by the blasts of winds chastises and purifies the water. In like manner so does the water the earth. There can be no Christian charity in any one unless he afford the medicine of correction to an erring brother.

In the last place, ordinarily, brotherly correction is only of obligation when the sin is mortal. Although indeed Cajetan, Valentia and D. Soto, think we are under an obligation to correct when the sin is venial. But this does not seem to be generally true, nor is it usual in practice, unless grave loss or scandal follow from the venial sin. For otherwise the burden of correcting every single trifling fault and, being corrected for them, would be equally intolerable both to the corrector and the corrected: Indeed it would be morally impossible. (See Suarez 2. 2. tract. de charitate, disp. 8. sect. 2).

If he shall hear thee, &c. Thou hast saved him who was ready to perish, and hast gained for God and heaven, him who was in danger of hell; yea thou hast gained him for thyself, because both thou and he had suffered loss from discord, as S. Chrysostom says. “By the salvation of another, salvation is gained for ourselves also,” says S. Jerome.

But if he will not hear thee, &c. Christ orders that if the person corrected reject a secret admonition, he must be corrected in the presence of one or two others, and this for two reasons. The first is that he who is not ashamed in the presence of one may be ashamed in the presence of a greater number, and that several witnesses may the more easily and effectually convince him of sin, and persuade him to amend.

But if he will not hear them, &c. This is the third stage to be observed in the order of correction, that those who are unwilling to listen to him who admonishes them, nor yet to the witnesses, may be brought before the Church, that is to a pastor and superior, or a prelate, as to a spiritual father and a judge, that he may paternally, but with greater authority, correct the sin, and so bring about amendment. But that if the sinner will not be reformed, he may as a judge cut him off from the company of the faithful. Five acts, says Suarez, are to be noted in this order of correction, as given by S. Matthew. The 1st is private admonition: Tell him his fault between thee and him alone. 2. Correction, before one or two witnesses. 3. Denunciation: Tell it to the Church. 4. The rebuke of the prelate, if he will not hear the Church. 5. Coercion by means of excommunication: let him be to thee as a heathen.

For various reasons this order may be omitted, or inverted. And there are times when it is right that he who has sinned should be immediately brought to a superior, as Salmeron shews upon this passage. The first of such cases is when the sin is public, so that it is impossible by means of secret admonition to preserve the good name of the offender. 2. When the sin is against a third person, or the commonwealth, such as heresy, which eats like a cancer, and which ought therefore to be at once repressed with the utmost rigour by the pastor and bishop. 3. If it be evident that private monition, or before witnesses will be of no avail. For as Adrian says, “To strive in vain, and to labour for no other end than to gain hatred, is a mark of the utmost folly.” 4. If he who is corrected waives his right, and is content that his transgression be straightway laid before the superior. As it is in the Society of Jesus, those who enter it are expressly asked about this matter, whether they be willing that it shall be so. Among the Jesuits therefore, and other similar religious orders, a different method of correction is prescribed, namely that the case shall be immediately taken before the Superior, for this rule is set before the religious at their entrance. They waive this particular right of caring for their reputation. No wrong therefore is done them.

The first reason is because it is expedient for the general good, lest the sin should infect others, and that the superior should take immediate steps to guard against it. 2. Because Religion is the school of humility and mortification, and of contempt of honour and reputation. 3. Because Religious are brethren. And he who corrects seems to set himself up as the superior of him who is corrected. Hence, our rule commands that no one shall reprove another. S. Augustine (Epist. 109), in his rules for monks, ordains that if a monk shall see another casting a wanton glance, he shall admonish him privately-if he repeat the glance, he shall tell it to the superior. S. Basil has a similar rule (Reg. 46). Rashly, therefore, have some persons carped at this rule of religious orders. For these statutes have been approved by the Apostolic See. The statutes of the Dominicans have a similar provision. So S. Thomas, Richard, Angelus, Salmeron, Suarez, and others. Vide Suarez (tom. 4, de relig. cap. 7), where he adds that in the Society of Jesus and other religious orders, this rule of Christ is observed wherever there is any certain hope that secret correction will produce amendment. Moreover, in episcopal and abbatial visitations a different order is observed. For then it is ordered, on pain of censure, that sins shall be denounced. But bishops and abbots proceed not according to the method of fraternal correction, but of judicial enquiry. And of this Christ says nothing in this place.

Lastly, let the three following canons be noted, for if they be observed, nothing will be done amiss as regards brotherly correction. 1. Let the general good-that is, of the state, or the community-overweigh everything else; and, therefore, individual advantage. 2. Let the good of the soul, and the salvation of our neighbour, take precedence of the care of his reputation. 3. Always consider your neighbour’s reputation, as far as is consistent with the general good, and the salvation of his soul.

Tell it to the Church: that is, to the pastor who presides over your own Church. You ask, What is here meant by the Church? SS. Jerome and Anselm in this passage, and S. Gregory (lib. 4, Epist. 38) understand the company of the faithful; as if Christ here intended that an offender should be reproved before them, and put to shame, and so corrected. Zwinglius and the Protestants follow this with avidity, that they may find a sanction for their democratic and popular form of Church government. Whence Castalini profanely translates tell the Church, tell the republic. Others render, tell the community. But S. Chrysostom, Theophylact, Euthymius, and others (passim) understand by Church the pastors and prelates of the Church, who represent the Church (either individually or in Synod) as magistrates represent a republic, and a king a kingdom. This is proved-1. Because Christ here orders the Church to be heard, i.e., obeyed by him who is accused; otherwise he is to be accounted as a heathen. But this obedience is only rendered to the prelates of the Church, as is plain; yea, this reason persuaded Calvin to agree with our opinion. 2. Because Christ-explaining what is meant by the Church-subjoins, whatsoever ye shall bind; as if to say, Ye, 0 ye Apostles, as princes of the Church, and those who shall succeed you as bishops and pastors. 3. Because the universal custom of the Church has been that such a one should be brought to Pastors, Bishops, the Pope, or a General Council; not before the people. 4. Because to do otherwise would be contrary to the law of nature and a grievous wrong to our neighbour. It would be to defame him, if his crime were a secret one. Those Calvinists therefore who denounce the crimes of their adulterous members and other sinners publicly in the Church, as though Christ here commanded it, offend grievously, and sin against charity. The true meaning is, if a brother, when reproved, will not hearken to him who corrects him in private, or even before two or three witnesses, let him be brought to the Prelate, who as Rector represents the Church, that he who despises private persons, may at least reverence the Prelate, and give heed to his correction. But if he will not, that then the Prelate, who not only has the office of private correction, but has the care of the whole Church, may provide that the wickedness of him who is reproved may not affect the whole body; but that he may separate him as a diseased sheep from the rest of the flock, and may excommunicate and expel him. Hence it is plain against the same Protestants that the Church is visible, forasmuch as it ought to be approached by him who corrects, and seen and obeyed by him who is corrected.

You may say, If, then, the prelates themselves, and especially if the Pope sin, he ought in like manner to be brought before a general council, and therefore the Pope is subject to it, and consequently the government of the church is aristocratic-not monarchical. So Abulensis (qust. 108), Panormitanus, Gerson, Almain, and others, who, in accordance with this opinion, deposed Pope Eugenius IV., in the Council of Basle. But this rash act of theirs was shortly afterwards annulled and repudiated by the Council of Florence. I reply, therefore, by denying the consequence, as far as the Pope is concerned. For if Bishops sin they must be brought before the Pope, that they may be corrected by him. For the rule of which we have been speaking does not apply to the Pope, but to all others who have superiors. But the Pope has no superior upon earth-not even the Church, or a general council. For he is the head of the whole Church, as the perpetual usage and consent of the Church holds with the Lateran Council under Leo X. (Sess. 11). This is why it was once declared by acclamation in a council of one hundred and eighty Bishops at Sinuessa to Pope S. Marcellinus, when he repented after a fall. “Thou judgest thyself by thine own mouth: it is not our judgment, for the chief See is judged by none.” S. Damasus is the authority for this, and Platina in his Life. The Pope is greater in the Church than a king in his kingdom. For a king receives his power from the state, but the Pope receives his power not from the Church, but directly from Christ. Wherefore, under no circumstances can he be deposed by the Church, but can only be declared to have fallen from his Pontificate, if, for the sake of example, he should chance (which God forbid) to fall into public heresy, and should therefore, ipso facto, cease to be Pope, yea, to be a Christian believer.

But if he will not hear, &c. For he who despises the Prelate of the Church giving him admonition, despises the Church of which he is a ruler, and shows thereby that he will not be a son and citizen of the Church. Wherefore he must be accounted not a faithful Christian, but a heathen and a publican, that is to say, a public sinner.

Again, let him be as a heathen, implies that you must not eat with him, nor greet him (1Cor 5:11, and 2John1:10), that he may be confounded by the disgrace, and acknowledge his fault, and return to the Church. For excommunication is pronounced against a sinner, not to cause him to perish, but in order that he may amend.

Verily I say unto you, &c. Christ here explains what His Church is, and its power and authority; viz., that by the Church, Apostles and Prelates are meant, to whom He has given the power of binding and loosing both from sins and from excommunication, so that whomsoever they shall absolve from their sins on earth, God will absolve in Heaven: and whomsoever they, by excommunication shall eject from the company of the faithful, God will blot out his name from the Book of Life, and from the number of the blessed.

Whatsoever ye shall bind: Origen, Theophylact and Anastasius of Nice (q. 74) think that these words likewise pertain to the precept about correction, and therefore apply to all Christians. They explain as follows:-To whatsoever penitents you, 0 ye faithful, remit any offence which they have committed against you, God will remit it to them in heaven: but to those to whom ye do not remit, neither will God remit it to them. But this is an explanation which cannot be upheld. This is plain from the following consideration, that Christ speaks of the Church in opposition to private sinners, and those who correct them. Therefore by the Church He means her Prelates, and not the faithful generally. Again, because He assigns judgment and a tribunal to the Church, (and this belongs only to Prelates) to which obedience ought to be rendered, on pain of being considered a heathen, and afterwards refers to that judgment of the Church this general power of binding and loosing, both internal, in foro conscienti, and external, in foro externo, by excommunication, the opinion of Origen cannot be correct. For the sinner is brought to the Pastor of the Church, that he may be moved to repentance and confession, and so be absolved from his sin, and be justified and reformed, but if not that he may be excommunicated. So SS. Chrysostom, Hilary, Augustine, and others, passim. Wherefore theologians rightly gather and prove from this passage, the power of excommunication, as well as the sacrament of penance after the method of judgment and absolution. The Emperor Theodosius understood this, when being expelled from the Church by S. Ambrose because of his slaughter of the Thessalonians, he made his moan, “Even to slaves and beggars there is access to the temple of God, but I am shut out. For I know the Lord hath said, ‘Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven.'” Wherefore as a suppliant, he asked for absolution from S. Ambrose. This he obtained, and fulfilled the penance which he enjoined upon him. The Council of Basle take note from S. Thomas that there are three kinds of binding and loosing recognised by Catholics. The first is of authority, which belongs to God alone. The second of excellency, which is peculiar to Christ. The third, which has been granted by Christ to priests alone. Moreover this power of binding and loosing is a very ample one, and embraces various particulars, as I have shown in chapter Mat 16:19.

Observe here the beautiful order of Christ’s discourse. In the beginning of the chapter, when the Apostles were disputing about precedence, He puts the humility of the little ones, as it were a bridle upon them: and warns them lest by their ambition they offend the simple folk, and those who are as yet feeble in the faith of Christ. Then in Mat 18:15, He gives a remedy against scandal, brotherly correction; and He says all these things to the Apostles, as representing all the faithful. Then because He gives as the final stage of correction, that the Church must be told, that is to say, the Prelate of the Church, He intimates what His authority is, by saying, whatsoever ye shall bind on earth, &c. For this power of binding and loosing appertains to Prelates, not to the rest of the faithful.

Again I say unto you, &c. The connection of these words with what precedes is difficult to be traced. Therefore it has been taken in various ways. 1. Some are of opinion that the words refer to the two witnesses, of whom Christ speaks in Mat 18:16. Then the Gloss expounds, if two of you shall agree upon earth either in receiving one who is repentant, or in rejecting one who is proud, or about any other matter, about which they shall ask, it shall be done for them by My Father in Heaven.

2. Jansen draws out the connection thus-If two shall ask anything of God, He will grant it: how much more therefore will He ratify the judgment of the Church in binding and loosing? And Maldonatus thus-“In order that ye may not err in the judgment of binding and loosing, let prayer precede it. For if ye judge in My Name, whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in My Name, ye shall obtain.” 3. Francis Lucas thus-To you, 0 ye Apostles, not only do I give the power of binding and loosing, but another great gift as well. It is that if two of you agree to ask anything of God, ye shall obtain it. 4. Clearly and correctly, SS. Jerome, Hilary, Chrysostom, refer the words to the advantage of unity, of which He makes mention, verse 15, Mat 18:15: for the sake of which He instituted the precept of fraternal correction. It is as though Christ said, I have ordained that if any one sin against thee, thou shalt not pursue him with hatred, but shalt kindly correct him, with this end in view, that if two of you, especially if ye have been previously at enmity, or disagreement, should agree together, and unitedly ask anything of God, they may obtain it. Hear S. Jerome, “Christ’s entire preceding discourse had invited to concord; and now He makes a promise of a reward, that we may with eagerness hasten unto peace. For He says that He will be in the midst of two, or three. Thus the Apostles persevering in prayer with one accord, obtained the Holy Ghost at Pentecost.” (Act 1:14.)

If two: S. Chrysostom and Euthymius restrict this promise to the Apostles. Anastasius to the corrector and the corrected. Origen, to a husband and wife, that if they agree to abstain from the use of matrimony, that they may give themselves to prayer, they shall obtain whatever they ask. But I say that the wo

Fuente: Cornelius Lapide Commentary

The introduction of the theme of humility 18:1-4 (cf. Mar 9:33-36; Luk 9:46-47)

Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)

The writer introduced and concluded this discourse, as he did the others, with statements suggesting that Jesus delivered this address on one specific occasion (cf. Mat 5:1; Mat 7:28-29). The last two discourses in Matthew were responses to questions from the disciples (Mat 18:1; cf. Mat 24:1-3).

"At that time" probably means "in that stage of Jesus’ ministry" (cf. Mat 10:19; Mat 26:45). The preceding revelations about the King and the kingdom led the disciples, probably the Twelve, to express interest in who would be greatest in the kingdom (cf. Mar 9:33-38; Luk 9:46-48). Perhaps Peter’s leadership among the disciples and Peter, James, and John’s privilege of seeing Jesus transfigured made this one of their growing concerns. Jesus had taught that there would be distinctions in the kingdom (Mat 5:19; Mat 10:32-33). If Jesus gave this teaching in Peter’s house, the child may have been his (cf. Mat 17:25; Mar 9:33), but this is only a possibility.

In any case what Jesus did in setting a child forward as an example for adults to follow was shocking in His day. People of the ancient Near East regarded children as inferior to adults. They did not receive the consideration that adults enjoyed until they reached adult status. Children were to look to adults as examples to follow. Now Jesus turned the tables and urged His disciples to follow the example of a child. To do so would require humility indeed.

Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)

Chapter 14

Last Words at Capernaum – Mat 17:22-27; Mat 18:1-35

THE TEMPLE TRIBUTE {Mat 17:22-27}

THE way southward lies through Galilee; but the time of Galilees visitation is now over, so Jesus avoids public attention as much as possible, and gives Himself up to the instruction of His disciples, especially to impressing upon their minds the new lesson of the Cross, which they find it so very hard to realise, or even to understand. A brief stay in Capernaum was to be expected; and there above all places He could not hope to escape notice; but the manner of it is sadly significant-no friendly greeting, no loving welcome, not even any personal recognition, only a more or less entangling question as to the Temple tax, addressed, not to Christ Himself, but to Peter: “Doth not your Master pay the half-shekel?” (R.V). The impulsive disciple showed his usual readiness by answering at once in the affirmative. He perhaps thought it was becoming his Masters dignity to show not a moments hesitation in such a matter; but if so, he must have seen his mistake when he heard what his Lord had to say on the subject, reminding him as it did that, as Son of God, He was Lord of the Temple, and not tributary to it.

Some have felt a difficulty in reconciling the position taken on this occasion with His previous attitude towards the law, notably on the occasion of His baptism, when in answer to Johns remonstrance, He said, “It becometh us to fulfil all righteousness”; but it must be remembered that He has entered on a new stage of His career. He has been rejected by those who acknowledged allegiance to the Temple, virtually excommunicated, so that He has been constrained to found His Church outside the commonwealth of Israel: He must therefore assert His own rights and theirs in spiritual things (for it must be remembered that the “half-shekel” was not the tribute to Caesar. but the impost for the maintenance of the Temple worship). But while asserting His right He would not insist on it: He would stand by His disciples word, and so avoid putting a stumbling-block in the way of those that were without, and who therefore could not be expected to understand the position He took. While consenting to pay the tax, He would provide it in such a way as not to lower His lofty claims in the view of His disciples, but rather to illustrate them, bringing home, as it must have done, to them all, and especially to the “pilot of the Galilean lake,” that all things were under His feet, down to the very “fish of the sea, and whatsoever passeth through the paths of the seas”. {Psa 8:8; Psa 50:10-12} The difficulty which some feel in regard to this miracle, as differing so much in its character from those wrought in presence of the people as signs of the kingdom and credentials of the King, is greatly relieved, if not altogether removed, by remembering what was the special object in view-the instruction of Peter and the other disciples-and observing how manifestly and peculiarly appropriate it was for this particular purpose.

THE LITTLE ONES. {Mat 18:1-14}

The brief stay at Capernaum was signalised by some other lessons of the greatest importance. First, as to the great and the small in the kingdom of heaven. We learn from the other Evangelists that by the way the disciples had disputed with one another who should be the greatest. Alas for human frailty, even in the true disciple! It is most humiliating to think that, after that week, with its high and holy lessons. the first thing we hear of the disciples should be their failure in the very particulars which had been special features of the weeks instruction. Recall the two points: the first was faith in the Christ, the Son of the living God, and over against it we have from lack of faith the signal failure with the lunatic child; the second was self-denial, and over against it we have this unseemly strife as to who should be greatest in the kingdom.

It is startling and most sad; but is it not true to nature? Is it not after the most solemn impressions that we need to be most watchful? And how natural it is, out of what is taught us, to choose and appropriate what is welcome, and, without expressly rejecting, simply to leave unassimilated and unapplied what is unwelcome. The great burden of the instruction for the last eight or ten days had been the Cross. There had been reference to the rising again, and the coming in the glory of the kingdom; hut these had been kept strictly in the background, mentioned chiefly to save the disciples from undue discouragement, and even the three who had the vision of glory on the mount were forbidden to mention the subject in the meantime. Yet they let it fill the whole field of view; and though when the Master is with them He still speaks to them of the Cross, when they are by themselves they dismiss the subject, and fall to disputing as to who shall be the greatest in the kingdom!

How patiently and tenderly their Master deals with them! No doubt the same thought was in His heart again: “O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you? how long shall I suffer you?” But He does not even express it now. He takes an opportunity, when they are quietly together in the house, of teaching them the lesson they most need in a manner so simple and beautiful, so touching and impressive, as to commend it to all true-hearted ones to the end of time. Jesus called a little child to Him, “and set him in the midst of them.” Can we doubt that they felt the force of that striking object lesson before He said a word? Then, as we learn from St. Mark, to whom we always look for minute details, after having set him in the midst of them for them to look at and think about for a while, He took him in His arms, as if to show them where to look for those who were nearest to the heart of the King of heaven.

Nothing could have been more suggestive. It perfectly suited the purpose He had in view; but the meaning and the value of that simple act were by no means limited to that purpose. It most effectually rebuked their pride and selfish ambition; but it was far more than a rebuke-it was a revelation which taught men to appreciate child-nature as they had never done before. It was a new thought the Lord Jesus so quietly introduced into the minds of men that day, a seed-thought which had in it the promise, not only of all that appreciation of child-life which is characteristic of Christendom to-day, and which has rendered possible such poems as Vaugbans “Retreat,” and Wordsworths grand ode on “Immortality,” but also of that appreciation of the broadly human as distinguished from the mere accidents of birth or rank or wealth which lies at the foundation of all Christian civilisation. The enthusiasm of humanity is all in that little act done so unassumingly in heedless Capernaum.

The words spoken are in the highest degree worthy of the act they illustrate. The first lesson is, “None but the lowly are in the kingdom: Except ye be converted (from the selfish pride of your hearts), and become (lowly and self-forgetful) as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.” A most heart-searching lesson! What grave doubts and questions it must have suggested to the disciples! They had faith to follow Christ in an external way; but were they really following Him? Had He not said, “If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself? Were they denying self? On the other hand, however, we need not suppose that this selfish rivalry was habitual with them. It was probably one of those surprises which overtake the best of Christians; so that it was not really a proof that they did not belong to the kingdom, but only that for the time they were acting inconsistently with it; and therefore, before they could think of occupying any place, even the very lowest in the kingdom, they must repent, and become as little children.”

The next lesson is, The lowliest in the kingdom are the greatest: “Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven.” Again a most wonderful utterance, now so familiar to us, that we are apt to regard it as a thing of course; but what a startling paradox it must have been to the astonished disciples that day! Yet, as they looked at the bright, innocent, clear-eyed, self-unconscious little child, so simple, so trustful, there must have come a response from that which was deepest and best within them to their Masters words. And though the thought was new to them at the time, it did come home to them: it passed into their nature, and showed itself afterwards in precious fruit, at which the world still wonders. They did not indeed get over their selfishness all at once; but how grandly were they cured of it when their training was finished! If there is one thing more characteristic of the apostles in their after life than any other, it is their self-forgetfulness, their self-effacement, we may say. Where does Matthew ever say a word about the sayings or doings of Matthew? Even John, who was nearest of all to the heart of the Saviour, and with Him in all His most trying hours, can write a whole gospel without ever mentioning his own name; and when he has occasion to speak of John the Baptist does it as if there were no other John in existence. So was it with them all. We must not forget that, so far as this lesson of self-denial is concerned, they were only beginners now; {see Mat 16:21} but after they had completed their course and received the Pentecostal seal, they did not disgrace their Teacher any more: they did then really and nobly deny self; and thus did they at last attain true greatness in the kingdom of heaven.

So far we have what may be called the Saviours direct answer to the question as to the greatest; but He cannot leave the subject without also setting before them the claims of the least in the kingdom of heaven. He has shown them how to be great: He now teaches them how to treat the small. The two things lie very close together. The man who makes much of himself is sure to make light of others; and he who is ambitious for worldly greatness will have little regard for those who in his eyes are small. The lesson, then, would have been incomplete had He not vindicated the claims of the little ones.

It is manifest, from the whole strain of the passage which follows, that the reference is not exclusively to children in years, but quite as much to children in spiritual stature, or in position and influence in the Church. The little ones are those who are small in the sense corresponding to that of the word “great” in the disciples question. They are those, therefore, that are small and weak, and (as it is sometimes expressed) of no account in the Church, whether this be due to tender years or to slender abilities or to scanty means or to little faith.

What our Lord says on this subject comes evidently from the very depths of His heart. He is not content with making sure that the little ones shall receive as good a welcome as the greatest: they must have a special welcome, just because they are small. He identifies Himself with them-with each separate little one: “Whoso shall receive one such little child in My name receiveth Me.” What a grand security for the rights and privileges of the small! what a word for parents and teachers, for men of influence and wealth in the Church in their relations to the weak and poor!

Then follow two solemn warnings, wrought out with great fulness and energy. The first is against putting a stumbling-block in the way of even one of these little ones-an offence which may be committed without any thought of the consequences. Perhaps this is the very reason why the Master feels it necessary to use language so terribly strong, that He may, if possible, arouse His disciples to some sense of their responsibility: “Whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in Me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea.” How jealously He guards the little ones! Verily he that toucheth them “toucheth the apple of His eye.”

From the corresponding passage in St. Mark, it would appear that Christ had in view, not only such differences of age and ability and social position as are found in every community of disciples, but also such differences as are found between one company and another of professing Christians. {see Mar 9:38-42} This infuses a new pathos into the sad lament with which He forecasts the future: “Woe unto the world because of offences! for it must needs be that offences come: but woe to that man by whom the offence cometh!” The solemn warnings which follow, not given now for the first time, {see Mat 5:29-30} coming in this connection, convey the important lesson that the only effectual safeguard against causing others to stumble is to take heed to our own ways, and be ready to make any sacrifice in order to maintain our personal purity, simplicity, and uprightness (Mat 18:8-9). How often alas! in the history of the Church has the cutting off been applied in the wrong direction; when the strong, in the exercise of an authority which the Master would never have sanctioned, have passed sentence of excommunication against some defenceless little one; whereas if they had laid to heart these solemn warnings, they would have cut off, not one of Christs members, but one of their own-the harsh hand, the hasty foot, the jealous eye, which caused them to stumble!

The other warning is: “Take heed that ye despise not one of these little ones.” To treat them so is to do the reverse of what is done in heaven. Be their guardian angels rather, if you would have the approval of Him Who reigns above; for their angels are those who always have the place of honour there. Is there not something very touching in this home reference, “My Father which is in heaven”?-especially when He is about to refer to the mission of mercy which made Him an exile from His home. And this reference gives Him an additional plea against despising one of these little ones; for not only are the highest angels their honoured guardians, but they are those whom the Son of man has come to seek and to save. The little lamb which you despise is one for whom the heavenly Shepherd has thought it worth His while to leave all the rest of His flock that He may go after it, and seek it on the lonely mountains, whither it has strayed, and over whose recovery He has greater joy than even in the safety of all the rest. The climax is reached when He carries thoughts above the angels. above even the son of man, to the will of the Father (now it is your Father; for He desires to bring to bear upon them the full force of that tender relationship which it is now their privilege to claim): “Even so it is not the will of your Father which is in heaven, that one of these little ones should perish.”

TRESPASSES. {Mat 18:15-35}

The transition is natural from those solemn words in which our Lord has warned His disciples against Offending “one of these little ones,” to the instructions which follow as to how they should treat those of their brethren who might trespass against them. These instructions, occupying the rest of this chapter, are of perennial interest and value, so long as it must needs be that offences come.

The trespasses referred to are of course real. Much heartburning and much needless trouble often come of “offences” which exist only in imagination. A “sensitive” disposition (often only another name for one that is uncharitable and suspicious) leads to the imputing of bad motives where none exist, and the finding of sinister meanings in the most innocent acts. Such offences are not worthy of consideration at all. It is further to be observed that our Lord is not dealing with ordinary quarrels, where there are faults on both sides, in which ease the first step would be not to tell the brother his fault, but to acknowledge our own. The trespass, then, being real, and the fault all on the other side, how is the disciple of Christ to act? The paragraphs which follow make it clear.

“The wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable”; accordingly we are first shown how to proceed in order to preserve the purity of the Church. Then instructions are given with a view to preserve the peace of the Church. The first paragraph shows how to exercise discipline; the second lays down the Christian rule of forgiveness.

“If thy brother shall trespass against thee,”-what? Pay no heed to it? Since it takes two to make a quarrel, is it best simply to let him alone? That might be the best way to deal with offences on the part of those that are without; but it would be a sad want of true brotherly love to take this easy way with a fellow-disciple. It is certainly better to overlook an injury than to resent it; yet our Lord shows a more excellent way. His is not the way of selfish resentment, nor of haughty indifference; but of thoughtful concern for the welfare of him who has done the injury. That this is the motive in the entire proceeding is evident from the whole tone of the paragraph, in illustration of which reference may be made to the way in which success is regarded: “If he shall hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother.” If a man sets out with the object of gaining his cause or getting satisfaction, he had better let it alone; but if he wishes not to gain a barren triumph for himself, but to gain his brother, let him proceed according to the wise instructions of our Lord and Master.

There are four steps:

(1) “Go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone.” Do not wait till he comes to apologise, as is the rule laid down by the rabbis, but go to him at once. Do not think of your own dignity. Think only of your Masters honour and your brothers welfare. How many troubles, how many scandals might be prevented in the Christian Church, if this simple direction were faithfully and lovingly carried out! In some cases, however, this may fail; and then the next step is:

(2) “Take with thee one or two more, that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established.” The process here passes from private dealing; still there must be no undue publicity. If the reference to two or at most three (see R.V) fail, it becomes a duty to

(3) “tell it unto the church,” in the hope that he may submit to its decision. If he decline, there is nothing left but

(4) excommunication: “Let him be unto thee as a heathen man and a publican.”

The mention of church censure naturally leads to a declaration of the power vested in the church in the matter of discipline. Our Lord had already given such a declaration to Peter alone; now it is given to the church as a whole in its collective capacity: “Verily I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” But the question comes: What is the church in its collective capacity? If it is to have this power of discipline, of the admission and rejection of members-a power which, rightly exercised on earth, is ratified in heaven-it is important to know something as to its constitution. This much, indeed, we know: that it is an assembly of believers. But how large must the assembly be? What are the marks of the true church?

These questions are answered in vv. 19 and 20 (Mat 18:19-20). It is made very plain that it is no question of numbers, but of union with one another and the Lord. Let it be remembered that the whole discourse has grown out of the strife with one another which should be the greatest. Our Lord has already shown that, instead of ambition to be the greatest, there must be readiness to be the least. He now makes it plain that instead of strife and division there must be agreement, unity in heart and desire. But if only there be this unity, this blending of hearts in prayer, there is found the true idea of the Church. Two disciples in full spiritual agreement, with hearts uplifted to the Father in heaven, and Christ present with them, -there is what may be called the primitive cell of the Church, the body of Christ complete in itself, but in its rudimentary or germinal form. It comes to this, that the presence of Christ with His people and of His spirit in them, uniting them with one another and with Him, is that which constitutes the true and living church; and it is only when thus met in the name of Christ, and acting in the spirit of Christ, that assemblies of believers, whether large or small, have any guarantee that their decrees on earth are registered in heaven, or that the promise shall be fulfilled to them, that what they ask “shall be done for them of My Father which is in heaven.”

These words were spoken in the day of small things, when the members of the Church were reckoned by units; therefore it is a mistake to use them as if very small gatherings for prayer were especially pleasing to the great Head of the Church. It does indeed remain true, for the encouragement of the faithful few, that wherever two or three are met in the name of Jesus He is there; but that makes it no less disappointing when the numbers might be reasonably expected to be very much larger. Because our Lord said, “Better two of you agreed than the whole twelve at strife,” does it follow that two or three will have the power in their united prayers which two or three hundred would have? The stress is not on the figure, but on the agreement.

The words “There am I in the midst of them” are very striking as a manifestation of that strange consciousness of freedom from limitations of time and place, which the Lord Jesus felt and often expressed even in the days of His flesh. It is the same consciousness which appears in the answer to the cavil of the Jews as to the intimacy with Abraham He seemed to them to claim, -“Before Abraham was, I am.” As a practical matter also it suggests that we do not need to ask and wait for the presence of the Master when we are truly met in His name. It is not He that needs to be entreated to draw near to us: “There am I.”

So far the directions given have been with a view to the good of the offending brother and the honour of Christ and His cause. It remains to show how the offended person is to act on his part. Here the rule is very simple: “forgive him.” What satisfaction, then, is the offended party to get? The satisfaction of forgiving. That is all; and it is enough.

It will be observed, indeed, that our Lord, in His discourse up to the point we have reached, has said nothing directly about forgiveness. It is fairly implied, however, in the manner of process, in the very first act of it indeed; for no one will go to an offending brother with the object of gaining him, unless he have first forgiven him in his heart. Peter appears to have been revolving this in his mind, and in doing so he cannot get over a difficulty as to the limit of forgiveness. He was familiar, of course; with the rabbinical limit of the third offence, after which the obligation to forgiveness ceased; and, impressed with the spirit of his Masters teaching, he no doubt thought he was showing great liberality in more than doubling the number of times the offence might be repeated and still be considered pardonable: “Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? till seven times?” It has been thought that some of his brethren had been treating Peter badly, so that his patience was sorely tried. Be that as it may, the question was not at all unnatural. But it was founded on a fallacy, which our Lord cleared away by His answer, and thoroughly exposed by means of the striking parable which follows. The fallacy was this: that we have a right to resent an injury, that in refraining from this we are forbearing to exercise our right, and consequently that there is a limit beyond which we have no call to exercise such forbearance. Our Lord by His answer clears away the limit, and makes the obligation unconditional and universal (Mat 18:22).

The parable shows the reason why. there should be no limit-viz., that all believers, or members of the Church, by accepting from God the unlimited forgiveness He has extended to them, are thereby implicitly pledged to extend a like unlimited forgiveness to others. There is no duty on which our Lord insists more strenuously than this duty of forgiving those who trespass against us, always connecting closely together our forgiving and our being forgiven; and in this parable it is set in the strongest light.

The greatest offence of which our fellow-man can be guilty is as nothing to the sins we have committed against God. The proportion suggested is very startling. The larger sum is more than two millions sterling on the lowest computation; the smaller is not much more than four guineas. This is no exaggeration. Seven times altogether for a brothers offences seems almost unpardonable: do we never offend against God as many times in a single hour? Then think of the days, and the years! This is a startling thought on the one side; but how cheering on the other! For the immensity of the debt does not interfere in the slightest with the freeness and fulness and absoluteness of the forgiveness. Verily there is no more satisfying or reassuring presentation of the gospel than this parable, especially these very words, which rang like a knell of doom in the unmerciful servants ear: “I forgave thee all that debt.” But just in proportion to the grandeur of the gospel here unfolded is the rigour of the requirement, that as we have been forgiven so must we forgive. While we gladly take the abounding comfort, let us not miss the stern lesson, evidently given with the very strongest feeling. Our Lord paints the picture of this man in the most hideous colours, so as to fill our minds and hearts with a proper loathing of the conduct of those he represents. The same intention is apparent in the very severe terms in which the punishment is denounced: “His lord was wroth, and delivered him to the tormentors.” After this how awful is the closing sentence: “So likewise shall My heavenly Father do also unto you, if ye from your hearts forgive not every one his brother their trespasses.”

Is that tender name of Father out of place? By no means; for is it not the outraged love of God that cries out against the unforgiving soul? And the words “from your hearts,”-are they not too hard on poor frail human nature? It is easy enough to grant forgiveness with the lips, -but from the heart? Yet so it stands written; and it only shows the need we have, not only of unmeasured mercy, but of unmeasured grace. Nothing but the love of Christ can constrain to such forgiveness. The warning was a solemn one, but it need have no terror for those who have truly learned the lesson of the Cross, and welcomed the Spirit of Christ to reign in their hearts. “I can do all things through Christ Who strengtheneth me.”

There is an admirable fulness and harmony in Christs teaching on this subject, as on every other. The duty of unlimited forgiveness is most plainly enjoined; but not that weak forgiveness which consists simply in permitting a man to trespass as he chooses. Forgiveness and faithfulness go hand in hand. The forgiveness of the Christian is in no case to be the offspring of a weak unmanly indifference to wrong. It is to spring from gratitude and love: gratitude to God, Who has forgiven his enormous debt, and love to the enemy who has wronged him. It must be combined with that faithfulness and fortitude which constrains him to go to the offending party and frankly, though kindly, tell him his fault. Christs doctrine of forgiveness has not an atom of meanness in it, and His doctrine of faithfulness has not a spark of malice. “The wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy. And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace.”

Fuente: Expositors Bible Commentary

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