Who is the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven? That is the question to Jesus from His disciples. He answers them by first addressing the issue of entering the Kingdom of Heaven at all, let alone who is the greatest.(Verse 3)
And he said: "I tell you the truth, unless you change and become
like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.
Basically Jesus tells them unless they trust God (as a child trusts a loving parent) they have missed the whole point. I guess the disciples assumed they were a "shoe-in" as far as Heaven was concerned.
Perhaps they were having a discussion about which one of them would be the greatest there. Jesus addresses this as well.
(Verse 4)
Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this
child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.
Jesus makes it clear, Heaven is such a wonderful place we won't worry about who is the greatest. (Perhaps that is the humble part.)
This chapter helps us understand to rid ourselves of what causes us to sin. The metaphor of a removing a body part is quite effective. Obviously having a body part removed would be a painful experience. Likewise there are things that cause us to sin, and it is painful to rid ourselves of them. But it is well worth doing so.
Matthew 18 also gives guidance of how to handle a situation when someone sins against us. However the "Parable of the Unmerciful Servant" clearly stresses the importance of forgiveness.
(Forgiveness is usually the key to resolve painful situations that may have occurred.)
In a few words:
Trust God to help us recognize and remove the things in our lives that cause us to fall short.
No comments:
Post a Comment