BECOMING AS LITTLE CHILDREN*
[* This short exposition is from writings by D. M. Panton. I have quoted from the New International
Version because it appears to be the translation which is being used in
most churches today.].
"At that time the disciples
came to Jesus and asked, 'Who is the greatest in the kingdom of
heaven?' He called a little child and had him stand among
them. And He said: 'I tell you the truth, unless you
change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom
of heaven. Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child is the
greatest in the kingdom of heaven," Matthew
18: 1-4.
Childlikeness,
not childishness, is our Lord's model for us. The Apostle Paul safeguards us on the point:
"When I was a child, I talked like a child"
- ignorantly; " I thought like a
child" - erratically; " I reasoned like
a child" - with small mental grasp: "When I became a man, I put childish things behind me",
(1Cor. 13: 11): "Brothers, stop
thinking like children. In regard to evil " - impurity - "be
infants, but in your thinking be adults," (1 Cor. 14: 20).
Our
Lord always moved on a background of the infinite. He takes a lily, and
unfolds the petals of the providence of God; He sees the massive stones of the
Temple, and He depicts the last earthquakes; and He meets a little child - a
lovely little human dew-drop - and at once His thoughts are on those who will
"walk with Him in white"; and He revolutionizes
the thinking of the Apostles by
a revelation which is for all of us, - all of us who are His
disciples - grave, (serious, requiring careful consideration,) urgent,
vital. "I tell you the truth,
unless you change
[repent] and become like little children, you will
NEVER ENTER the kingdom of heaven," (Matt.
18: 3).*
For
our Lord bodily presents our model. "He
called a little child" - old enough to be called, but young
enough to be lifted (Mark 10: 16). Not
infants, and not children, but 'little'
children; perhaps between the ages of three and seven, are those whom
our Saviour gives us as a photograph of kingdom saints. - "and had him stand among them" (Matt. 18: 2): there - if our Lord had never
spoken another word - is the greatest: for ever, amongst us for all
time, is a mute, living symbol of the enthroned in the Kingdom of God.
"For," He says, " the kingdom of heaven belongs
to such as these" (Matt. 19:
14). The only record we have of Christ ever embracing anyone is
His embrace of a little child; and the child - our model - rests,
happily and contented, in the Everlasting Arms.
So
we ponder a little child. A little child is perfectly simple, without
being a simpleton: it is wide awake, and constantly learning through sense: it
is extraordinary open to the truth, and extraordinary sincere: it responds
wonderfully to affection: its purity is crystalline: it is exceedingly quick to
forgive: it has not the faintest trace of worldly ambition: the thought never
enters its head to doubt its father's word: it has an awe of God, and its
conscience is singularly tender. Our Lord does not set a sinless
seraph in our midst, or a blazing angel: winsome as childhood is, and tenderly
beautiful, it has its waywardness, its tempers, its
foolishness: nevertheless such are the Kingdom saints. God wants the manlike intellect, the childlike heart, and the
godlike character and conduct.
The
Lord closes with the practical. The Apostles had been grasping for glory
on the wrong side of the grave; so He says:-
"Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this
child (the same) is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven" (Matt. 18: 4). Satan lost the highest
of all created thrones through pride:
we can win the highest thrones through humility.
A child is humble; we must become humble; and this
attainment, as superior to a child's as holiness is superior to innocence, is
within our grasp. "Whoever HUMBLES
HIMSELF" - self-emptied
because God-filled: it is possible not only to become great in the Kingdom of God, but greatest. Humility, unworldliness, simplicity, teachableness,
heart purity must replace jealousy, worldly ambition, pride, and strife: and Lo, the Child is the King!
-------
FOOTNOTE.
[* The expression, "The Kingdom of Heaven," (Matt.
18: 3) does not refer (in this context) to the eternal
kingdom of God in 'a new
heaven and a new earth' (Rev. 21: 1). All
who are eternally saved by His grace, accredited with His
righteousness and redeemed by His blood, will most certainly enter that
kingdom, because they already have eternal life as 'the free gift of God' (Rom. 6: 23, R.V.). The literal reading from
the Greek in Matthew is: "The Kingdom of the
Heavens": it is a rule over this earth
from 'the heavens': and to attain entrance one
must become 'like the angels' - (who serve God
in both heavenly and earthly spheres of the kingdom during this evil age.)
Therefore, to be ‘like the angels’ a future
change
in us is necessary, by either resurrection or rapture,
(Like 20: 35, 36; 1 Cor.
15:50, 51; Luke 21:24-36.).
There
are various interpretations of the meaning of these words. For example: A
L. Chitwood understands the expression to refer
to the heavenly sphere of the kingdom over the earth, where Satan
and the fallen angels presently rule. On the other hand, Robert
Govett believes the expression relates to
the time when Christ’s Millennial
Kingdom will be
established on the earth: "The God of heaven will set up a kingdom ... " etc. (Dan. 2: 44).
Both views are taught throughout the
Scriptures. A glance at the prepositions used in Scripture will show
Christ ruling 'on' and 'over' this earth during the millennium.
"He will reign ON David’s throne and
OVER his kingdom" (Isaiah
9: 7). "I will come back and take you to BE
WITH ME that you also MAY BE WHERE I AM" (John 14: 3). "They - [those
who had been beheaded because of their testimony for Jesus and because of the
word of God - martyrs throughout all ages, as
well as those who will be martyred during the Great Tribulation] - came to life and reigned with Christ
a thousand years. (The rest of the dead did not come to life
until the thousand years were ended.) This is the first
resurrection" (Rev. 20: 5).]