Matthew 18:1-20

The disciples asked Jesus who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. Jesus says that to even get into the kingdom of heaven, they must become like children. To earn greatness in the kingdom, one must become humble. Children are not skeptics by nature because they have not been hardened by the world; they are teachable because they have much to learn; they are dependent on their parents because they cannot provide for themselves. Without these qualities, we cannot take in what God wants us to learn. It seems strange at first that humility would lead to greatness, but out of humility comes respect and love for others. When we humble ourselves, the characteristics Jesus has been talking about come to the surface naturally.


How we treat people who exhibit these childlike traits is just as important, be they children or new Christians. By accepting them, we show our acceptance of Christ. A warning though to any who would try to lead one of these astray, Jesus said their fate will be worse than having a millstone tied around their neck and then tossed into the sea. It is apparent that Jesus is very protective of those who come to Him and pursue Him with childlike faith and humility. To impede someone's journey who is earnestly seeking Him is to ruin two lives, making it doubly worse.

Jesus illustrates that it is better to lose a hand or foot or eye that is causing us to sin than to keep it and lose out on salvation. Whether we have friends who pull us down into old, destructive habits or material things in our life taking our attention away from Jesus, we have to get rid of them.


Each believer is important to Jesus. Like a shepherd who leaves ninety-nine of his sheep to go off and find the lost one, Jesus comes looking for us when we wander away. Once found and brought back into the fold, He rejoices like the shepherd, glad to have us back where we belong. From time to time, we all go astray - just like sheep. We lose our focus and start to go whichever way seems like fun or most interesting. Praise God that Jesus isn't content to let us go. Each of us is precious to Him and worth protecting.


Having dealt with handling sin in our own lives, Jesus turns to how to deal with others who do wrong to us. Start small by confronting the person one-on-one. If he doesn't listen, bring two or three others to try to persuade him. If even that doesn't work, the matter should be brought before the church. If he is still not responsive, he should no longer be included in the church. This was not meant to be a road map for settling every petty squabble that we have with one another. To be excluded from the body of Christ, someone would have to have done something pretty grievous. Whatever the problem though, big or small, we should always be gracious enough not to include more people than absolutely necessary. The first step to resolving a problem with someone else is to go to them privately and give them a chance to explain their position and/or make things right. From there, decide whether the matter needs to be pursued, but no matter the outcome, we should not harbor ill feelings towards them or let ourselves be led to gossip about the situation. When more people need to be brought into the situation, it should be done prayerfully and in the name of Christ. It is then that He can come into the situation and direct the participants on agreeing on the proper course of action.