An auto mechanic received a repair order that described a clunking noise when going around corners. He took the car out for a test drive and made two right turns, each time hearing a loud clunk.

Back at the shop, he returned the car to the service manager with this note: “Removed bowling ball from trunk.”

A simple solution to what appeared to be a major problem. How often this is the case—even in church life.

Sometimes churches can find themselves in situations where there are conflicts on every hand. Experts are often consulted for the purpose of diagnosing the problems, seminars are attended to find the solutions, or drastic measures are put in place to get to the bottom of the trouble. But all too often the solution is quite simple, someone (or someones) has forgotten or neglected to take the bowling ball of pride out of the boot of their life. The result is a whole lot of needless and irritating noise interfering with an otherwise smooth ride. This is precisely the issue that our Lord faced with His disciples.

The Twelve were rather obsessed with who was the greatest. In the midst of the Lord’s wonderful teaching, in which He revealed His promise to build His church, followed by His transfiguration, in which His glory was revealed, there was an annoying clunking noise as they walked towards Capernaum. And the Lord heard it.

Once they reached Capernaum and entered a particular house (see Luke 9 & Mark 9) the Lord opened the boot and identified the problem: pride. The discourse in Matthew 18 records the substance of our Lord’s solution to this problem. Pride must be removed with the result that the believer humbles himself. In so doing, he then honours other believers and, further, helps believers to pursue holiness, which culminates with harmony in the family of the little ones.

This narrative reminds us that relationships can be messy—even in church life. The local church is a place in which pettiness, bitterness, suspicions, hurtful words, misunderstandings, and personality conflicts can strive. Church life can be painful, and the fundamental cause pride. Let’s face it: You battle with it, I battle with it and the disciples battled with it. This is why Jesus addressed it in Matthew 18.

As we continue our study of this chapter let’s do so asking the Lord to identify and remove any and all unnecessary clunking from the boot of our own lives.

We have learned thus far that we are to humble ourselves, and then we will honour others. According to vv. 5-9 there are two ways in which we will honour others: First, by accepting (“receive”) them (v. 5), and second, by being alert for them (vv. 6-9). Jesus warned that it was better to experience the worst death imaginable (for that is what drowning was to the Jewish mind) than to lead another believer into sin. And the reason for this is that those who are careless about the converted reveal that they themselves are not converted.

We noted previously that Jesus spoke about “hell fire,” which is a translation of the Greek word gehenna. I made the point in our previous study that gehenna was the name given to the rubbish heap outside Jerusalem, which was constantly burning. In the Old Testament, gehenna was known as the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, and was the centre of Molech worship, part of which was child sacrifice.

It is perhaps necessary to clarify that, although gehenna was the name of a physical rubbish heap outside of Jerusalem, Jesus was using the name as a metaphor of a greater reality. Hell is a literal place of eternal punishment. Jesus spoke more of hell than any other biblical writer or speaker, and more of hell than He did of heaven. Hell is the place where the unsaved will spend eternity suffering the holy wrath of God. Only unbelievers will experience hell, and therefore anyone in danger of being “cast into hell fire” must necessarily be an unbeliever. Jesus point, then, is that those who lead His “little ones” into sin are behaving as unbelievers.

G. Campbell Morgan summarises: “The man who lacks the child’s heart will be treated in the economy of God as outside the city, fit only for the rubbish heap.” Or as J. C. Ryle put it, “No lips have ever spoken so clearly about hell as those of Christ Himself. Hardened sinners will find out, to their cost, that there is such a thing as the ‘wrath of the Lamb’ (Rev. 6:17).”

Beware, then, of rejecting/mistreating any believer and thus steering them off the path of discipleship. Beware of misleading them from the path. Be sure that your example is one that can be followed in a godly manner.

The story is told of a man (who had a drinking problem) who went out one night to a pub. He was not there long before he felt a tug on the leg of his pants. Looking down, he saw with some shock that his seven-year-old son was standing there in his pyjamas. “How did you find me?” he asked his son. “I followed your tracks in the snow,” replied the boy. The father realised that he was misleading his son.

There is great power in example, and whether we know it or not, others are looking to our testimony. We ought to be careful of misleading others through our bad example.

In this study we will continue to address this issue of honouring others as we contemplate vv. 10-14. Our emphasis will be upon affirming the “little ones.” There is some overlap with the previous point, but I want for us to focus on honouring the little ones in three ways:

• By thinking properly about them;
• By being helpful to them;
• By being hopeful about them.

This study will be intensely practical, but to be productively so we must first ground our duty in doctrine.

The Context

We have already considered somewhat the context of our text. The issue in these verses is how we ought to treat God’s “little ones.” They are valuable to God, and they therefore deserve our esteem.

We should note here that believers were not chosen by God because they were valuable. Conversely, believers are valuable because they were chosen by God. Their value is not intrinsic, but is bestowed upon them by virtue of the fact that God chose to set His love on them.

The Command

Jesus begins His command with the words “take heed.” This phrase—which could also be translated “see to it,” “take notice of this” or “pay attention”—is a present imperative. In other words, Jesus is saying, “Be constantly aware of this.” It is a perpetual command.

To “despise” someone means “to think down on” them. The assumption is that the one despising believes that he is superior to the one despised. For example, Jesus said elsewhere that you cannot serve two masters, for you will ultimately “be loyal to the one and despise the other” (Matthew 6:24). In other words, you will consider one superior to the other.

Paul used the same word when he told Timothy, “Let no one despise your youth.” Timothy was not to let anyone make him feel inferior, for his task in Ephesus was a God-ordained one. Peter warned us not to “despise authority” (2 Peter 2:10). When we disobey authority—and, in the immediately context of 2 Peter 2:10, governmental authority—we are essentially professing belief that we are superior to the authority set forth. It was Jesus’ concern that His disciples not consider themselves superior to other believers.

William Hendriksen writes, “The words of Jesus are very emphatic. He warns the disciples constantly to see to it not to make even a single one of those whom he considers his own the object of scorn or disdain, of belittlement or contempt.”

We must then constantly see to it that we do not:

• Look down on a fellow believer;
• Disregard another believer;
• Hold in contempt a believer;
• Lord it over a believer;
• Adopt an “air of superiority” over another believer;
• Belittle a believer.

You won’t—indeed, you can’t—do this if you are humble. The lowly cannot look below! And despite the counsel of pop psychology to the contrary, this is precisely what Christ calls us to.

Therefore if there is any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and mercy, fulfil my joy by being like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind. Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself.

(Philippians 2:1-3)

Previously, we saw that we are forbidden to dishonour fellow believers passively (v. 5), but now Jesus forbids us to do so actively. Of course, the latter will lead to the former. Once we begin despising Christ’s sheep we will never biblically receive them. If you don’t think right about others you will not treat them right. Our attitude will lead to our actions.

Importantly, we are to esteem all little ones the same. When it comes to honouring others, there are no believers who are greater than others. They all deserve the same esteem from us because they are all recipients in equal measure of the Father’s love in Christ. Only if we believe that we are the greatest will we despise those who are less proud than we are. And if we do despise others, then we must become once again as little children.

The Constraint

Jesus proceeds to give the reason that we are not to despise one another: “For I say to you that in heaven their angels always see the face of My Father who is in heaven.”

This is a somewhat difficult text, particularly because of the mention of “their angels.” Precisely who are the little ones’ “angels” to which Jesus refers? Several suggestions have been offered.

Some suggest that this is a reference to guardian angels, and that each believer is assigned a guardian angel by the Lord. Whilst there is nothing in Scripture that would expressly deny such a claim, I am not convinced that that is what Jesus was saying here.

A second suggestion is that the term “angels” is simply being used comparatively here. “If angels are important, how much more these ‘little ones’?” Again, this is a possible, but unlikely, interpretation in my opinion.

The reference could be to angels as servants to God’s people. Hebrews 1:14 speaks of angels as “ministering spirits sent forth to minister for those who will inherit salvation.” During a recent hospital visit to a church member I was informed that, at least at that hospital, each bed in ICU has a separate nurse assigned to it. It is the task of that nurse to sit by the bed and watch the patient, doing all she can to care for the sick one. This is another possible interpretation of the “angels” of whom Jesus spoke.

A very plausible interpretation is that Jesus was speaking here of the spirits of the departed. The word “angels” is sometimes used in this manner in the New Testament. For example, after Peter was miraculously released from heaven and made his way to John Mark’s house, where he knew the church would be gathering to pray, he knocked at the door and asked to be let in. When Rhoda, the servant who answered the door, interrupted the prayer meeting informing the church that Peter was at the door, they initially believed that she was mad. But when she kept insisting that it was so, they concluded, “It is his angel.”

Their conclusion was that it could not be Peter himself—they were, after all, praying for his release; he ought to at least have the good manners to wait for them to finish praying before announcing that their prayers had been answered!—so it must be his spirit. But they used the word “angel” in reference to his spirit.

If the word is used that way in Acts 12, it is not a stretch to conclude that it might be used in a similar way in Matthew 18. What Jesus might well be saying, therefore, is that (in the words of B. B. Warfield) “their destiny is the unshielded glory of the Father.” Just as dead believers today enjoy the glory of the Father’s presence in heaven, so every “little one” on earth is headed for the same destiny. And since that is their destiny, how dare we despise them?

Considering their destiny and value, be careful. If you despise the children, you displease the Father. God holds them in high esteem, so must you. This is a most practical truth: God chose them, making them valuable—don’t despise that! It was precisely because Egypt despised and mistreated God’s chosen and loved people that they suffered God’s wrath. Surely we would want to avoid the same!

The Bible speaks quite clearly to the fact that believers are “chosen” of God. Consider just a few sample verses to prove this point.

• Matthew 20:16—“So the last will be first, and the first last. For many are called, but few chosen.”
• 1 Corinthians 1:27—“But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty.”
• Ephesians 1:4—“Just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love.”
• 2 Thessalonians 2:13—“But we are bound to give thanks to God always for you, brethren beloved by the Lord, because God from the beginning chose you for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth.”
• James 2:5—“Listen, my beloved brethren: Has God not chosen the poor of this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which He promised to those who love Him?”
• 1 Peter 2:9—“But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvellous light.”
• Colossians 3:12—“Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, put on tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, longsuffering.”
• Romans 8:33—“Who shall bring a charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies.”

Remember: These “little ones” weren’t chosen because they had value; rather they have value to the Father because He chose them. Some years ago we chose to invite a little orphan girl into our home, fostering her until her “forever family” finally adopted her. We had a previous relationship with her (because another family in our church was her foster family before we took her), but when we took her into our lives she became wonderfully valuable to us.

Similarly, those whom God has chosen are valuable to Him. We dare not despise those who are destined for glory. Make no mistake: God sees how you treat His “little ones.” Does he frown or smile when He watches your attitude toward them?

The Concern

Some manuscripts omit v. 11, and whilst I am no textual critic, I find that the verse fits the context perfectly. The world may despise God’s little ones, but it is precisely those who are despised for whom Christ gave His life. He came to earth for those whom He had chosen. When we consider the price paid for those whom we are tempted to despise, surely we will think twice about our attitude toward them?

At this point, some might respond with the well-known cliché, “I have to love them but I don’t have to like them!” Like most clichés, this is only a half truth. In fact, it is heavily toward the side of being erroneous. It is true that there are some people with whom we enjoy being with more than others, and there are those whose behaviour we do not like, yet certainly there is some good about them! Surely there is something good that we can identify in the life of a little one, a child of God?

I am reminded of a church which advertised this sentiment in a wonderful play on words with its signboard out front. The sign read: “Come hear our pastor. He’s not very good but he’s short!” Now that is a commitment to finding some good in an otherwise unlikable situation!

The simple fact is that we can learn to like others. And God expects us to do just this. If He finds them precious—and if He also likes them—then surely there must be something in them that we also find likeable. We daren’t look down on those for whom God looks out.

The Commitment

Jesus now gives what is a familiar picture to those who have read the Gospels.

What do you think? If a man has a hundred sheep, and one of them goes astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine and go to the mountains to seek the one that is straying? And if he should find it, assuredly, I say to you, he rejoices more over that sheep than over the ninety-nine that did not go astray. Even so it is not the will of your Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish.

(Matthew 18:12-14)

Every little one is precious to God and He will love them to the end. So must we. As R. V. G Tasker wrote, “As all the sheep are the property of one owner, so all the members of the kingdom of heaven are the children of the same father.”

Second Peter 3:9 is a verse that is often used in debates about God’s sovereignty and man’s freewill. Peter writes, “The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.”

It is important, however, to note the context of this chapter in our interpretation of the verse. Peter writes to the “beloved” to whom he also wrote his first epistle (v. 1). And according to 1 Peter 1:1-2, the first epistle was addressed to the “elect according to the foreknowledge of God.” In other words, Peter wrote to believers—to God’s sheep—and therefore 2 Peter 3:9 is addressed to believers.

When Peter says that God is “longsuffering toward us” he is speaking about His elect. When he says that God is “not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance” He is saying that God is not willing that any of His elect should perish but that all of His elect should come to repentance. The New Testament identifies as sheep both believers and unbelievers whom God has chosen to salvation. We do not know who all the sheep are, but God does, and we must beware of despising anyone who might in fact one day be revealed as one of His sheep.

God is “willing . . . that all [His elect] should come to repentance.” He is helpful towards them because He is hopeful about them. What an honour! Can we do less? Does Paul not tell us that Christian love “bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things” (1 Corinthians 13:7)? Let’s take some time before we conclude this study to get very practical about what this means.

We Are to Be Helpful to Them

How can we practically help others? We can begin by personally affirming them. We must do so purposefully. We must consider them to be of great value and then affirm that value in them. Let me just run briefly through an incomplete list of ways that we can be helpful to God’s little ones.

We can be helpful to others by expressing gratitude. A thank you can go a long way! Expressing gratitude may not come easily to us, but it is important to actively work on expressing gratitude as a means of helping others.

We can express interest in the lives of others. Rather than being bored when they talk to us, listen actively and take in what they are saying. Greet them when you see them—and learn their name so you can greet them accordingly. Care enough to notice when they have been absent from fellowship, and care enough to then go after them and exhort them to join fellowship again.

Learn not to judge others. “Love does not envy,” says Paul, and “thinks no evil” (1 Corinthians 13:4-5). Resist the temptation to be homogenous in your fellowship. We are prone to fellowship with those with whom we are comfortable, and that often means fellowshipping only with those who are of the same race or socioeconomic background. We must avoid this temptation if we will be helpful to the little ones.

We can go out of our way to support something they are involved in. Recently, the youth in our church held a Saturday morning car wash and bake sale. There was no specific charge leveraged, but donations were gladly accepted in favour of a new ministry that we are investigating as a church. I was blessed on the day to see a large percentage of our church membership bring their vehicles in support of the youth. I was even more astonished the next day to learn how much money was raised throughout the day! Are you committed to supporting that in which the little ones are involved?

We can let others know that we are praying for them. Paul openly expressed his prayers for others. “I thank my God upon every remembrance of you,” he wrote to the Philippians, “always in every prayer of mind making request for you all with joy” (Philippians 1:3-4).

We can be helpful by being involved in discipleship, by building our own walk with the Lord into the lives of others. We will in turn seek reconciliation when there is strain. It is far too easy to avoid those with whom we feel strained. We can avoid them in church, quickly walk away when we see them at the shops, and pretend like we never saw them when we find ourselves eating at the same restaurant. This is not being helpful. We must take the required initiative to seek reconciliation when that is necessary.

John was helpful to God’s little ones when he openly recognised growth in their lives (2 John 3-4; 3 John 3-4). Do you offer encouraging words when you see others growing in Christ? Are you willing to speak words of admonition when you see failure to grow in Christ?

Another way in which we can be helpful to others is by refusing to listen to gossip about them. We must similarly refuse to gossip about others ourselves, and often it will be necessary to admonish others who are involved in gossip to resist the temptation to despise God’s little ones.

Another way in which we can prove helpful to the little ones is by recognising and respecting their convictions. Romans 14-15 makes it quite plain that believers have different perspectives on certain “grey areas.” Someone may have a conviction in a particular area that you very definitely do not share. Rather than being disdainful about their “immaturity,” we should respect the fact that their convictions are not ours (and ours not theirs) and we should not despise them for it.

There are many other ways in which we can prove helpful to God’s little ones: by forgiving them, and by seeking forgiveness when we have wronged them; by not insisting that you have your own way; by not always giving them your opinion; etc.

Simply put, we prove helpful to God’s sheep by self-denial—cross-carrying. This concept is unpopular with the world, but it is necessary before God. In fact, it is exemplified in God Himself: “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8).

Time and again we will need to be reminded as well as to be reinstructed. Do a phrase search in your concordance for “one another” in Scripture and you will see just how often we are reminded and reinstructed about these things. We are exhorted time and again to love one another, to greet one another, and to forgive one another. If God takes so much space to remind us of these things, surely they are things that bear reminding?

We Are to Be Hopeful for Them

The Lord makes it very clear that each individual sheep is important to God and thus each is to be deemed valuable to us.

There is one possible misunderstanding of this text. Some could read it with the misconception that the flock is abandoned for the sake of the lone sheep. Actually, we need to see it this way: The whole flock is so important to the Shepherd that He is not willing that even one be lost! Carson is helpful, “This love for the individual sheep is not at the expense of the entire flock but so that the flock as a whole may not lose a single one of its members.”

The group is more important than the individual and yet the individual is important to the group. This doesn’t mean that the health of the group is sacrificed on the altar of the individual. That is, this verse does not justify the flock being hostage to a pouting sheep. What it does mean is that the group cares for the individual and the individual recognises his responsibility to and for the group. For the individual to fail to see this may indicate he is a goat and thus is in fact not a legitimate member of the flock.

We Must Be Positively Confident in Seeking the Straying

We need to have biblical hope concerning God’s sheep. We are to assume that the wandering sheep will welcome being sought. Wandering sheep want to be found! With the psalmist they cry, “I have gone astray like a lost sheep; seek Your servant, for I do not forget Your commandments” (Psalm 119:176).

We must learn and practice the biblical truth that Christ’s sheep hear His voice and they follow Him (John 10:27). This will encourage us to go after them; after all, we have God’s promise! It will embolden our prayers; after all, since His will is that they not perish, and since He promises to answer prayers that according to His will, we can be confident. This will enlighten us to realise that some who profess to be sheep are actually goats.

We Must Be Personally Concerned to Seek the Straying

William Hendriksen wrote, “The Father in heaven is definitely interested in each of his sheep, yes, even in each of his wandering sheep. By sending his Son into the world he is rescuing sheep that have gone astray. In this the Father delights. See Luke 15:7, 20, 22-24. So does the Son. See Matt. 9:12, 13; Luke 19:10; John 10:11, 14. In this kind of work the disciples too should be engaged. See Matt. 9:36-10:1; John 4:35.”

This is what discipleship is all about. And it is ongoing. Discipleship is not simply about going through a particular curriculum with a fellow believer and then assuming after lesson such-and-such that they are now a disciple and moving onto the next one. Discipleship is a lifelong process by which we build our experience with Christ into the lives of others. Hear the words of William Barclay:

There can be a love which ruins; there can be a love which softens; but the love of God is the 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 the conqueror of sin.

We Must Be Passionately Committed to Seeking the Straying

The scene of v. 14 reminds us of the scene of Luke 15 where the father rejoices at the son who has returned. God is pictured in that story as being lavish in His love. We too are to have such an affirming love when the wanderer returns.

I am thankful that our church has a history of rejoicing over returning sheep, as well as maturing sheep. It is my earnest prayer that we never lose this heritage.

To be involved in the work of seeking the straying is incomparable! As Hendriksen notes, “The elation over being a benefactor is greater than that of being a mere possessor!”

When you give of yourself to others for the sake of Christ then so much of your self-generated problems (fuelled by self-pity) fall away. So get involved in prayerful gospel ministry! Lovingly look out for those whom the Shepherd Loves!

We Must Be Prayerfully Care-full about Finding the Straying

I use the term “care-full” in the sense of being full of care. If we are careless about the flock then perhaps we have fallen into the trap of thinking we are the greatest. When you are obsessed with personal fulfilment then you won’t care much about those who are fallen and empty.

May God give to us the grace to humble ourselves, to honour others and to demonstrate this by accepting them, by being alert for them and by affirming them—all in the name of Jesus.

I recently read a rather humorous story, which illustrates a powerful point.

During a visit to a mental hospital, I asked the director, “How do you determine whether or not a patient should be institutionalised?”

“Well,” said the director, “we fill up a bathtub, then we offer a teaspoon, a teacup and a bucket to the patient and ask him or her to empty the bathtub.”

“Oh, I understand,” I said. “A rational person would use the bucket because it’s bigger than the spoon or the teacup.”

“No,” said the director, “A rational person would pull the plug on the drain. Do you want a bed near the window?”

Sometimes we can miss the obvious. We look for solutions to a relational challenge in all the wrong places. We are prone to pride with the result that we often end up mistreating other believers in our quest for “greatness.”

What is the solution to this recurring malady?

Is it to use the teaspoon of belittling ourselves? No, for that would be to ignore the fact that you have value because you are made in the image of God.

Is the solution then the teacup of ignoring the faults in the lives of others so as to make them feel accepted? No, for to do so would not be in the best interest of our brothers and sisters.

Should we use the bucket of grit and determination to get rid of pride? No, for all the self-discipline in the world will not avail to overcome sinful pride and self-assurance.

What we need is to pull the plug on indwelling pride by immersing ourselves in the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. Only the gospel of the grace of God has the power—and powerful it is!—to overcome our quest for one-upmanship, our drive to be “greatest.” Once we turn to a cross-centred life then we will see much of sinful pride going down the drain of repentance.

Do you hear the voice of the Shepherd today calling you to humble yourself? Then take up your cross—motivated by His cross—and begin practically honouring an otherwise despised little child.