Even so it is not the will of your Father which is in heaven, that one of these little ones should perish.
It is the will of the Father in heaven that not even one of these little ones should perish or be finally lost. The little ones are children and those who believe in Christ made meek and teachable like children, including the weak and less instructed, and those who have strayed, fallen and are lost in sin. To fulfill that will Christ came to save the lost, leaving the ninety-nine to seek the one gone astray at any cost and rejoicing greatly when it is found. One soul is of immeasurable worth because Christ gave His life and glory to ransom it unto eternal life, so that He would have died to save even one. Therefore none is to be despised, offended or treated harshly, but all who believe are to cooperate with Him in seeking the straying with personal, patient, tender love that restores them rather than drives them away.
Verse Setting and Terms
The verse closes Christ's warning not to despise one of the little ones, for in heaven their angels always behold the face of the Father, for the Son of man came to save that which was lost, and for the owner of a hundred sheep who leaves the ninety-nine in the mountains to seek the one gone astray and rejoices more over finding it than over the ninety-nine that did not stray. It therefore forbids despising, leading into sin, or exercising a masterly spirit that lords it over God's heritage, and it requires learning and practicing this lesson in practical life in order to enter the kingdom, since any offense given to them is regarded as given to Christ. The shepherd picture means believers and teachers must work together with Christ with more intense interest, love, compassion and tender watchcare for believers who are ignorant, feeble against a fierce enemy, liable to err while doing their best, youth and those newly come to the Father, and souls perishing without Christ, helping rescue all who seek Christ with the whole heart and restoring those found in fault in meekness and love rather than criticizing, condemning or pushing them farther away. Going privately to tell the fault between the two alone, putting an arm about the brother, talking kindly in Christ's Spirit, seeking the Lord together, pleading tenderly with lawbreakers, and carrying the bread of life to the perishing fulfills the Father's will that not one be lost.
To perish here means to be finally lost at last, not merely to be lost or to die for a time. One rescued from temporal death can still go astray on life's journey, meet and battle its evils, die, and be lost forever instead of being saved to praise God forever in His kingdom. The word lost carries the anguish of a parent laboring over a trembling life in the balance and of a whole city stirred to go out with lights through streets, riverbank and woods, searching and crying until the lost child is found. The deaths of little children are not a mysterious act of providence to be so explained. Parents are entrusted with their children to train them for usefulness in this life and for heaven, and should provide a good inheritance and address harmful conditions connected with their birth, for God does not desire the death of little children.
The whole instruction of Matthew 18 gives relief and courage and hope. It supplies Christ's direction for dealing carefully with erring church members, for reclaiming a brother, and for warning against offending or hindering little ones so they are treated with care and preserved. That duty requires thorough organization and accountability within the church. When difficulties arise among believers the teaching is to be read and searched to trace out the cause of disaffection and its evil consequences. The verse means to go forward in faith, take the case to the Lord Jesus in prayer, believe He hears, and find pardon upon confession of sins, repentance and walking humbly with God, whose correction purifies and saves.
In this setting greatness in Christ's spiritual kingdom is inward and spiritual excellence shown in true conversion and in a meek and lowly spirit, not position, outward splendor or authority, and it binds all disciples to remain ever learners of Christ, taking His yoke of submission and obedience to find rest of soul. It stands against striving for supremacy, self-sufficiency, self-esteem, self-exaltation, inward concealed strife for supremacy and manifest strife to be first and highly esteemed, and against criticism and faultfinding. Such criticism and faultfinding is expressly the devil's work, begun in the heavenly courts by seeking sympathy, claiming great things could be done if not hampered by God's law, suggesting a change in God's government for the advantage of the heavenly family, deceiving angels into assent, spreading suspicion and distrust of God and of one another, and starting strife, until God dealt decisively with the rebellion and expelled the instigator of evil and the disloyal for the good of the loyal and true. When self interposes between workers and God, when men stand back on dignity unless specially requested, withhold labor unless their judgment is appreciated, take satisfaction in brethren's deficiencies, condemn others, neglect the straying, or use words that hinder rather than build up, the Saviour's Spirit is grieved, God is dishonored, His cause is marred, and the work is hindered until this unsanctified element is cleansed from the soul temple.
Matthew 18 therefore lays on responsible leaders and stewards the work of protecting and strengthening God's people with wise counsel rather than ruling over them as kings. Self is to be kept under the control of the great Teacher, truth properly represented in all its lines, and unity kept among believers. This requires rejecting selfishness and narrow-mindedness, giving the gospel ministry its rightful place without disparaging it, giving the Lord's servants ample room to do their appointed work, respecting teachers of men, women and children in understanding the work for this time, studying the Bible with intense interest and practicing its teachings so less human wisdom is seen and more of God's wisdom, saving time and strength. Their conduct must be free of selfishness and provide a humble, safe example that others can follow without being misled or harmed within their influence.
Who Are the Little Ones
The little ones include children, especially young girls, as the younger members of the Lord's family and as God's own property. Because the Father does not will that even one of them should perish, they are to receive careful attention, plain teaching, and patient care as learners who are taught practical duties without scolding or discouragement over early mistakes. Parents bear responsibility to seek to save them from the enemy's power and bring them to Christ, making the saving of their souls the aim and burden of life and refusing to rest until they are safely in the fold on the Lord's side. That work begins in the home as the first missionary field, with patient, untiring, tender yet firm training when they err, taking them into opposition to the evil that destroys soul and body and sharing with them the secret of the cross as sanctification, redemption, and eternal victory.
The little ones are also those who believe in Christ, His disciples changed in views and character and made meek, lowly, teachable, and submissive like children. Each one is precious to Him, and their protection from harm is heaven's concern. They may be vulnerable to being despised or led astray, so seeking supremacy, condemning others, or otherwise offending them runs against the Father's will to save the lost. The assurance belongs both to new believers and to those longer in the truth who feel their own nothingness, that God deeply cares even for the weakest and feeblest and that heaven rejoices when the straying one is sought and found.
The little ones are the weak, ignorant, feeble, vulnerable, and less instructed, including youth and those newly come to the Father and all who need care and protection in religious experience. They are liable to err and make mistakes even while doing their best, with feeble strength against a fierce enemy and without the opportunities others have had, and they need tender sympathy, compassion, tenderest watchcare, and daily learning how to serve Christ, pray, and obey His Word. In their simplicity they can serve Him acceptably, and the Good Shepherd gives special care to the weakest of the flock rather than caring only for eminent believers. Therefore they must not be despised, merely accused, abandoned to temptation, led astray by word or example, or treated with heedless unkindness, but prayed for, encouraged, approached kindly, and helped back toward what is right, since any offense given them is regarded as given to Christ whose angels always behold the Father's face.
The little ones include those who have strayed and are lost, the helpless, degraded, fallen, and outcast, including those society has cast out and the lowest and most degraded in a world seared and marred by the curse, whom Christ came to meet, uplift, and save. As the shepherd leaves the ninety-nine to seek the sheep gone astray and rejoices when it is found, so the lost must be sought with a burden of soul to wrench them from Satan's hand by going into the depths of human woe in Christ's way of relieving suffering, teaching righteousness, and laboring in love by feeding, cleansing, and clothing those in need. Faithful loving care restores God's moral image in poor outcasts whose image was destroyed, so that restored ones become precious among His elect, stand next to the throne, and in turn seek to restore others, with angels cooperating and greater joy in heaven over one redeemed soul than over those who never went astray. Learning and practicing this lesson instead of despising, driving away, or lording it over God's heritage with a masterly, domineering spirit is required to enter the kingdom of heaven, and that spirit closes heaven's gates.
The little ones also include unbalanced, diseased minds and sick and afflicted believers, who are sick and need a physician to heal them with tender forbearance rather than to be cut off as a diseased limb. They are to be saved by forbearing words tenderly spoken, for if Jesus dealt with people as people deal with one another not one would be saved, and many are lost because those words are left unsaid. Because Jesus gave His precious life to hold every believing soul as His own property, the sick believer lying restless through painful nights and wearisome days, learning faith, submission, and moral discipline in suffering and longing for clearer light through darkness, may trust in simple faith that Jesus loves and keeps His own. Christ as Substitute and Surety fights and struggles in place of the one who cannot, so whether the sufferer lives or dies he remains the Lord's while trials work out a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.
Father's Will to Save
It is not the will of the Father in heaven that even one of these little ones should perish or be lost, and each one matters to God. The little ones include those who have strayed and are lost and those whom society has cast out, as well as the weakest believers who are to be looked after and encouraged rather than despised or driven away. In their simplicity they can serve Him acceptably, they are precious to God, and the Good Shepherd gives special care to the weakest of His flock. This is the conclusion of the warning not to despise one of the little ones because their angels always behold the Father's face, of the coming of the Son of man to save the lost, and of the parable of the owner of a hundred sheep who leaves the ninety-nine to go into the mountains to seek the one gone astray and rejoices more over finding it than over the ninety-nine that did not stray. In the setting of church discipline this supplies Christ's instruction for dealing carefully with erring church members, and it lays on teachers the lesson to help rescue those who seek Christ with the whole heart.
One soul is very precious in God's eyes because of its potential, its spiritual privileges, its capacities when made alive by God's word, and the immortality offered through the gospel. Christ died so that soul might live through eternal ages, and He would have died to save even one soul so that person could live forever. He gave His precious life and glory to ransom His own property and secure their eternal salvation, holding every believer as His own. The self-denial, self-sacrifice, humiliation and crucifixion of the Son of God as the redemption price of a lost world must be contemplated to estimate human worth, and that price proves that human worth cannot be measured and that the love of Jesus for souls cannot be measured. He died not only for the few who accept Him but to save every son and daughter of Adam, coming not to seek and save those who are faultless and lovely but to seek and save those who are lost, as the true Shepherd ever ready to leave the flock in the fold and go into the wilderness to seek the lost sheep.
The Father watches over every soul for whom Christ died and does not turn away those who seek Him. Jesus watches over His sheep and lambs by day and by night, and the heavenly Father has great love for every soul for whom Christ died and purposes that none of His little ones be lost. That watchful love is the reason for the charge to feed lambs and sheep and the ground for confidence in prevailing prayer at any hour. God hears the humble suppliant, grants blessing, never turns away those who seek with the whole heart, tries faith for good, and bestows grace for grace on those who ask in humble faith to feed others with the bread of life. The whole instruction gives relief and courage and hope, meaning to go forward in faith, to take the case to the Lord Jesus in prayer, to believe that He hears, and that upon confession of sins and repentance and walking humbly with God pardon is found, for the Lord's correction purifies and saves.
For a sick and afflicted believer lying restless through painful nights and wearisome days, learning faith, submission and moral discipline in suffering and longing for clearer light through darkness between the soul and Jesus, the verse gives assurance to trust in simple faith that Jesus loves and keeps His own. Christ as Substitute and Surety fights and struggles in place of the one who cannot, and whether the sufferer lives or dies he remains the Lord's while trials work out a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. Applied personally, it assures that God wants one to live, while urging regulation of diet and trust in His help in struggling against harmful habits and self-indulgence. God does not desire anyone to perish or to be separated from the brethren, so efforts to divide believers run against His will. Every soul is precious in God's sight and God has claims on each person that no circumstances excuse forgetting or neglecting, so whatever course others take each must set his own heart in order and answer in the Judgment for his own works, for even if one, two, or three in the church have done wrong and have not shown a Christlike spirit, their wrongs do not blot out or excuse personal sin, since two wrongs do not make one right.
Christ Seeks the Lost
Christ came to save what was lost, knowing His sheep, giving His life to ransom them as His own, and seeking them even before they seek Him with persistent, personal care. As the shepherd seeks the straying sheep, He leaves the gathered flock and the ninety-nine to go into the wilderness, mountains and deserts to find the one outside the fold and does not abandon any who trust in Him. His care reaches the fallen to uplift them, including those helpless in sin, the lowest and most degraded, whom He strengthens when weak and delivers when tried and tempted from Satan's power and the enemy's hand.
The lost sheep must be found at any peril or cost, and the Chief Shepherd endures hardship and suffering to bring it back, His wounds showing the price of rescue. He gently carries the straying soul back and rejoices to recover it, never forsaking anyone who trusts in Him. Those who neglect the straying or treat them without sympathy can discourage their return and leave them to perish, so restoration calls for special, personal effort in Christlike love.
Finding the stray brings great joy, with more rejoicing over one sinner who repents and returns from sin under His protection than over ninety-nine just persons who need no repentance and never went astray. There is joy among the heavenly angels over one redeemed soul rescued from Satan and brought back to the fold, and angels cooperate with faithful workers and themselves seek those ready to perish. That rescue is wrought by going into the depths of human woe and misery in Christ's way of relieving suffering and teaching righteousness, feeding, cleansing and clothing those in need to prepare them to know someone cares for their souls, wrenching them from Satan's hand and restoring God's moral image in outcasts whom society cast out until they become precious among His elect. Because Christ repeatedly saves people from perishing in this way, His followers are to help others return to safety rather than grow tired or discouraged when efforts seem fruitless.
His tenderness toward those others reject is shown in His care for Zacchaeus, revealing His purpose to save the lost; the sick who seem objectionable or hopeless are not to be abandoned or sent away but brought to Christ through prayer, guidance, extra effort and love. By that example His ambassadors are called to reach sinners where they are and lead them to salvation, giving each straying and vulnerable soul a chance to receive salvation.
Seeking and Restoring Duty
Because the Father wills that not even one of the little ones perish, all who believe are laid under the work of seeking those gone astray as laborers together with Christ and living agencies cooperating with the divine. The lesson is mercy, forbearance, patience and love toward perishing souls who are helpless in sin and liable to be destroyed by the arts and snares of Satan, cared for as a shepherd cares for the sheep of his flock. They are not to be despised, abandoned or sent away as objectionable or hopeless, for they are sick and need help, and the work is to go to help them rather than wait for them to return. It is to be done by personal effort, prayer, guidance, extra effort and love, going in Christ's way into the depths of human woe and misery to relieve suffering by feeding, cleansing and clothing those in need and by teaching righteousness, to prepare them to know someone cares for their souls. The pattern is Jesus acquainted with His sheep, giving His life for them and going to seek them even before they seek Him, as shown in His tenderness to Zacchaeus whom others rejected, with more rejoicing in heaven and among angels over one sinner that repents and one redeemed soul than over ninety-nine just persons that need no repentance and never went astray. Through such loving care those whose moral image of God was destroyed may be restored to that image and gathered as precious among the elect, and then, restored through human agencies, will in turn seek to restore that image in others for whom Christ paid the price of His own blood.
A brother's wrong and a person doing wrong are to be corrected with loving concern, patient encouragement and messages of kindness and love, so the one doing wrong recognizes the danger and danger of his course, turns from it, reforms, is won and is saved from perishing in sin and death, covering many sins. Those whose own record stands charged with unconfessed sins must not be rigid toward a brother's wrong, nor despise, criticize, condemn or push the faulty farther away, but bring them close to the heart and restore in meekness and love with desire for the salvation of the soul. The rule is Christ's rule of private, loving reproof between the two alone: go privately, tell the fault and speak it plainly where needed, put an arm about the brother, talk over the difference kindly in the Spirit of Christ, seek the Lord together, love one another, plead tenderly with neighbors who break God's law, and offer the bread of life to feed Christ's sheep. The injured person should seek the believer's restoration rather than wait for reconciliation to begin, and church members must try to save souls and not discourage or destroy them through criticism or evil reports, so the difficulty is healed and the offending brother is won. The aim throughout is recovery, not shame, judgment, condemnation or self-justification, and the lesson of the chapter is for the interest of all to study and practice.
Ministers as shepherds must make saving the lost their one object, searching for lost sheep and lambs and bringing them back to the fold, with shepherding care reaching the lost and straying. Christ's search for one lost sheep while leaving the ninety-nine shows the value of each lost soul because of its potential, spiritual privileges, capacities when made alive by God's word, and immortality offered through the gospel, and shows the care, effort and sacrifice ministers should give. They are not to confine labor to hovering over churches or put ease or wages first, but to leave familiar settings for new places and the regions beyond, accepting weariness, hardship and cost to personal comfort, working unselfishly, diligently, patiently and earnestly, watching over souls as those accountable. The lost are souls for whom Christ died and whom the devil seeks to enslave, worth seeking through patient earnest work, and neglecting that work betrays a sacred trust and insults God. Those who would honor God must work for others' salvation, be in right relation with God and humble so they can lead others to Him and be fitted for service.
Teachers, Bible teachers and ministers responsible for children and youth must practice this lesson and help rescue those who seek Christ with the whole heart, for like the shepherd who gives his strength to finding the lost sheep they should give special attention to those most in danger of being lost. The duty of Bible teachers is therefore to seek the lost, draw near to the unconverted, work with them personally and give clear instruction, and children should not be left to stray from the path prepared for the redeemed, since a teacher's example and practical godliness can keep them on that path. Harshness, passion, arbitrary action and every satanic attribute that bruises a child and destroys manhood must be put away, even though cherishing that spirit feels as dear as a right arm, and they must be converted and become as little children. They must put themselves in the child's place and on a level with the child in mind and spirit, making the child feel loved in order to have good influence, receiving the child in Christ's name, never offending believing little ones, never seizing and shaking a child suddenly, but taking it alone to pray and talk with it, showing it the will of Christ and binding it to the heart with love, tenderness and forbearance. They must deal with human minds as tenderly as Christ has dealt with them, being kind to those Satan seeks to lead, because they themselves are imperfect and need Christ's forgiveness for their own sins.
Fathers and mothers are placed under responsibility to save their children from the enemy's power and bring them to Christ, for children are precious members of the Lord's family and younger members of the Lord's family whose souls are exceedingly precious, including young girls called little ones who are to be treated as belonging to Jesus Christ with compassion, tenderness and love. This work must begin in the own family, for the home is the first field of missionary effort, and parents with living connection with Christ and anxious solicitude to glorify Him by creation and by redemption make the saving of their children's souls the one aim and burden of life. They must feel travail of soul for their children's salvation to have more blessing, refuse to rest until they see them safely in the fold on the Lord's side, use the best opportunity to seek straying lambs and rest not until every child is brought in, beginning with their own little flock. They labor with patient, untiring effort to train them so they will never be hostile to the Saviour, dealing tenderly yet firmly when they err, taking them into the work of opposing the evil by which Satan seeks to destroy soul and body, sharing with them the secret of the cross as sanctification, redemption and eternal victory, teaching practical duties without scolding or discouraging early mistakes, and taking special pains to make home pleasant and cheerful, understanding they deal with children for time and eternity.
The work includes seeking the salvation of people around us who are ready to perish, including people among the outcasts whose souls are perishing and those outside the fold, and responding to people who want to learn the truth. Workers should seek those who have strayed and make every effort to give them a chance to receive salvation, for each soul is precious and Christ came to save the lost, and the costly work of salvation gives reason to labor to reach them. Through faithful labor, daily self-denial and a Christlike spirit of cooperation many can be brought to a sin-pardoning Saviour and to saving knowledge of the truth, with angels cooperating with those who work to save perishing people. Christ's loving care repeatedly saves people from perishing and there is joy in heaven when an erring person is rescued from Satan and brought back, so His followers are to help others return to safety rather than grow tired or discouraged when efforts seem fruitless.
Tender Care Without Harm
It is not the Father's will that one of these little ones perish, and therefore none of them is to be despised, offended, misled, hindered, condemned, treated with contempt, or ruled with a masterly, domineering spirit that lords it over God's heritage. The little ones so guarded include those who believe in Christ yet are ignorant, feeble, young or less instructed, without the opportunities others have had, liable to err while doing their best against a fierce enemy, needing to learn daily how to serve, pray and obey, including youth, those newly come to the Father, and souls perishing without Christ. They include also those who have strayed, gone astray, wandered, and are lost, degraded, fallen and outcast in a world marred by the curse, whom Christ came to meet, uplift, seek and save. Any offense given to them is regarded as given to Christ, their angels always behold the Father's face, the Son of man came to save the lost, and learning and practicing this lesson of Matthew 18 in practical life is required to enter the kingdom, while the domineering spirit closes heaven's gates. Those who claim to be God's children must therefore take heed not to be heedless, unkind, or careless in word, conduct or example, for misleading the young and less instructed grieves the Holy Spirit, yet they can learn when given opportunity and shown a Christlike example.
The erring, weak, trembling, straying and distressed who long for pardon and peace, even the lowest, the sick in sin, the soul overcome by temptation, and those who have left the truth, are to be met with mercy, forbearance, patience, compassion, gentleness and tender, pitying love like Christ's. Workers are to love as brethren with hearts of tender affection, brotherly love, courtesy and pity, being tenderhearted and pitiful, for their present and eternal good. Such persons are to be encouraged and strengthened, brought close to the heart, prayed for, patiently given messages of kindness and love, led and guided with cords of love and helped back toward what is right, receiving reproof and turning from the wrong course rather than remaining in it. They are not to be merely accused, abandoned to temptation, criticized, treated with harsh words that deepen pain, or pushed farther away toward despair.
Harshness, arbitrary rule, crowding humiliation upon one who has done wrong, unwise action, neglect and unsympathetic treatment drive youth and adults to desperation, discouragement, stubbornness, unyielding hardness and ruin. Neglect can discourage return, leave the wandering without hope and in Satan's hands under danger, and some go to ruin for lack of anyone reaching out, though their apparent hardness does not erase their worth or potential and heaven pities them even when men withhold compassion. Such neglect betrays a sacred trust and insults God, and those responsible bring accountability before God, for each soul is precious because of its potential, spiritual privileges, capacities when made alive by God's word, and the immortality offered through the gospel. By contrast tenderness melts hard hearts and restores, the Chief Shepherd seeks with persistent care, gently carries back the straying soul and rejoices to recover it, with heaven's joy over one brought back showing the importance of earnest, personal, special effort to rescue even one. If Jesus dealt as men deal with one another, not one would be saved.
The verse therefore calls proud, self-sufficient workers and ministers to humble themselves, be converted and become as a little child, turning from self toward sympathy and love shown in personal effort for those without Christ. It means taking Christ's yoke of meekness and lowliness instead of manufacturing a galling yoke, chastising self instead of criticizing and accusing brethren, stopping ministry while in soul-sickness until humbled, and not withdrawing to labor alone, for no minister is fit to handle sacred things while entertaining temptation and a selfish, unholy spirit without daily humbling, overcoming, and self-discipline under the Word. Each person must cultivate the garden of the soul under personal stewardship, remove every weed and tare sown by Satan while watching others' faults, purify thoughts into captivity to Christ, love God with all heart, soul, mind and strength and neighbor as self, and speak with careful consideration of where words will lodge and what they will produce, lest reckless words become a stumbling block to a weak brother for whom Christ died. Teachers and instructors must share the Father's seeking will by putting away harshness, passion, arbitrary action and every satanic attribute that bruises a child and destroys manhood, however dearly cherished, putting themselves in the child's place and on its level in mind and spirit, making it feel loved, receiving it in Christ's name, never seizing and shaking it suddenly, but taking it alone to pray and talk, showing Christ's will and binding it to the heart with love, tenderness and forbearance, dealing with minds as tenderly as Christ has dealt with them. Offending believing little ones through dissension and stumbling caused by unsanctified traits works against the Father in heaven and brings severe judgment, because He does not want any of them to be lost.
It is the will of the Father in heaven that not even one of these little ones should perish or be finally lost. The little ones are children and those who believe in Christ made meek and teachable like children, including the weak and less instructed, and those who have strayed, fallen and are lost in sin. To fulfill that will Christ came to save the lost, leaving the ninety-nine to seek the one gone astray at any cost and rejoicing greatly when it is found. One soul is of immeasurable worth because Christ gave His life and glory to ransom it unto eternal life, so that He would have died to save even one. Therefore none is to be despised, offended or treated harshly, but all who believe are to cooperate with Him in seeking the straying with personal, patient, tender love that restores them rather than drives them away.
Verse Setting and Terms
The verse closes Christ's warning not to despise one of the little ones, for in heaven their angels always behold the face of the Father, for the Son of man came to save that which was lost, and for the owner of a hundred sheep who leaves the ninety-nine in the mountains to seek the one gone astray and rejoices more over finding it than over the ninety-nine that did not stray. It therefore forbids despising, leading into sin, or exercising a masterly spirit that lords it over God's heritage, and it requires learning and practicing this lesson in practical life in order to enter the kingdom, since any offense given to them is regarded as given to Christ. The shepherd picture means believers and teachers must work together with Christ with more intense interest, love, compassion and tender watchcare for believers who are ignorant, feeble against a fierce enemy, liable to err while doing their best, youth and those newly come to the Father, and souls perishing without Christ, helping rescue all who seek Christ with the whole heart and restoring those found in fault in meekness and love rather than criticizing, condemning or pushing them farther away. Going privately to tell the fault between the two alone, putting an arm about the brother, talking kindly in Christ's Spirit, seeking the Lord together, pleading tenderly with lawbreakers, and carrying the bread of life to the perishing fulfills the Father's will that not one be lost.
To perish here means to be finally lost at last, not merely to be lost or to die for a time. One rescued from temporal death can still go astray on life's journey, meet and battle its evils, die, and be lost forever instead of being saved to praise God forever in His kingdom. The word lost carries the anguish of a parent laboring over a trembling life in the balance and of a whole city stirred to go out with lights through streets, riverbank and woods, searching and crying until the lost child is found. The deaths of little children are not a mysterious act of providence to be so explained. Parents are entrusted with their children to train them for usefulness in this life and for heaven, and should provide a good inheritance and address harmful conditions connected with their birth, for God does not desire the death of little children.
The whole instruction of Matthew 18 gives relief and courage and hope. It supplies Christ's direction for dealing carefully with erring church members, for reclaiming a brother, and for warning against offending or hindering little ones so they are treated with care and preserved. That duty requires thorough organization and accountability within the church. When difficulties arise among believers the teaching is to be read and searched to trace out the cause of disaffection and its evil consequences. The verse means to go forward in faith, take the case to the Lord Jesus in prayer, believe He hears, and find pardon upon confession of sins, repentance and walking humbly with God, whose correction purifies and saves.
In this setting greatness in Christ's spiritual kingdom is inward and spiritual excellence shown in true conversion and in a meek and lowly spirit, not position, outward splendor or authority, and it binds all disciples to remain ever learners of Christ, taking His yoke of submission and obedience to find rest of soul. It stands against striving for supremacy, self-sufficiency, self-esteem, self-exaltation, inward concealed strife for supremacy and manifest strife to be first and highly esteemed, and against criticism and faultfinding. Such criticism and faultfinding is expressly the devil's work, begun in the heavenly courts by seeking sympathy, claiming great things could be done if not hampered by God's law, suggesting a change in God's government for the advantage of the heavenly family, deceiving angels into assent, spreading suspicion and distrust of God and of one another, and starting strife, until God dealt decisively with the rebellion and expelled the instigator of evil and the disloyal for the good of the loyal and true. When self interposes between workers and God, when men stand back on dignity unless specially requested, withhold labor unless their judgment is appreciated, take satisfaction in brethren's deficiencies, condemn others, neglect the straying, or use words that hinder rather than build up, the Saviour's Spirit is grieved, God is dishonored, His cause is marred, and the work is hindered until this unsanctified element is cleansed from the soul temple.
Matthew 18 therefore lays on responsible leaders and stewards the work of protecting and strengthening God's people with wise counsel rather than ruling over them as kings. Self is to be kept under the control of the great Teacher, truth properly represented in all its lines, and unity kept among believers. This requires rejecting selfishness and narrow-mindedness, giving the gospel ministry its rightful place without disparaging it, giving the Lord's servants ample room to do their appointed work, respecting teachers of men, women and children in understanding the work for this time, studying the Bible with intense interest and practicing its teachings so less human wisdom is seen and more of God's wisdom, saving time and strength. Their conduct must be free of selfishness and provide a humble, safe example that others can follow without being misled or harmed within their influence.
Who Are the Little Ones
The little ones include children, especially young girls, as the younger members of the Lord's family and as God's own property. Because the Father does not will that even one of them should perish, they are to receive careful attention, plain teaching, and patient care as learners who are taught practical duties without scolding or discouragement over early mistakes. Parents bear responsibility to seek to save them from the enemy's power and bring them to Christ, making the saving of their souls the aim and burden of life and refusing to rest until they are safely in the fold on the Lord's side. That work begins in the home as the first missionary field, with patient, untiring, tender yet firm training when they err, taking them into opposition to the evil that destroys soul and body and sharing with them the secret of the cross as sanctification, redemption, and eternal victory.
The little ones are also those who believe in Christ, His disciples changed in views and character and made meek, lowly, teachable, and submissive like children. Each one is precious to Him, and their protection from harm is heaven's concern. They may be vulnerable to being despised or led astray, so seeking supremacy, condemning others, or otherwise offending them runs against the Father's will to save the lost. The assurance belongs both to new believers and to those longer in the truth who feel their own nothingness, that God deeply cares even for the weakest and feeblest and that heaven rejoices when the straying one is sought and found.
The little ones are the weak, ignorant, feeble, vulnerable, and less instructed, including youth and those newly come to the Father and all who need care and protection in religious experience. They are liable to err and make mistakes even while doing their best, with feeble strength against a fierce enemy and without the opportunities others have had, and they need tender sympathy, compassion, tenderest watchcare, and daily learning how to serve Christ, pray, and obey His Word. In their simplicity they can serve Him acceptably, and the Good Shepherd gives special care to the weakest of the flock rather than caring only for eminent believers. Therefore they must not be despised, merely accused, abandoned to temptation, led astray by word or example, or treated with heedless unkindness, but prayed for, encouraged, approached kindly, and helped back toward what is right, since any offense given them is regarded as given to Christ whose angels always behold the Father's face.
The little ones include those who have strayed and are lost, the helpless, degraded, fallen, and outcast, including those society has cast out and the lowest and most degraded in a world seared and marred by the curse, whom Christ came to meet, uplift, and save. As the shepherd leaves the ninety-nine to seek the sheep gone astray and rejoices when it is found, so the lost must be sought with a burden of soul to wrench them from Satan's hand by going into the depths of human woe in Christ's way of relieving suffering, teaching righteousness, and laboring in love by feeding, cleansing, and clothing those in need. Faithful loving care restores God's moral image in poor outcasts whose image was destroyed, so that restored ones become precious among His elect, stand next to the throne, and in turn seek to restore others, with angels cooperating and greater joy in heaven over one redeemed soul than over those who never went astray. Learning and practicing this lesson instead of despising, driving away, or lording it over God's heritage with a masterly, domineering spirit is required to enter the kingdom of heaven, and that spirit closes heaven's gates.
The little ones also include unbalanced, diseased minds and sick and afflicted believers, who are sick and need a physician to heal them with tender forbearance rather than to be cut off as a diseased limb. They are to be saved by forbearing words tenderly spoken, for if Jesus dealt with people as people deal with one another not one would be saved, and many are lost because those words are left unsaid. Because Jesus gave His precious life to hold every believing soul as His own property, the sick believer lying restless through painful nights and wearisome days, learning faith, submission, and moral discipline in suffering and longing for clearer light through darkness, may trust in simple faith that Jesus loves and keeps His own. Christ as Substitute and Surety fights and struggles in place of the one who cannot, so whether the sufferer lives or dies he remains the Lord's while trials work out a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.
Father's Will to Save
It is not the will of the Father in heaven that even one of these little ones should perish or be lost, and each one matters to God. The little ones include those who have strayed and are lost and those whom society has cast out, as well as the weakest believers who are to be looked after and encouraged rather than despised or driven away. In their simplicity they can serve Him acceptably, they are precious to God, and the Good Shepherd gives special care to the weakest of His flock. This is the conclusion of the warning not to despise one of the little ones because their angels always behold the Father's face, of the coming of the Son of man to save the lost, and of the parable of the owner of a hundred sheep who leaves the ninety-nine to go into the mountains to seek the one gone astray and rejoices more over finding it than over the ninety-nine that did not stray. In the setting of church discipline this supplies Christ's instruction for dealing carefully with erring church members, and it lays on teachers the lesson to help rescue those who seek Christ with the whole heart.
One soul is very precious in God's eyes because of its potential, its spiritual privileges, its capacities when made alive by God's word, and the immortality offered through the gospel. Christ died so that soul might live through eternal ages, and He would have died to save even one soul so that person could live forever. He gave His precious life and glory to ransom His own property and secure their eternal salvation, holding every believer as His own. The self-denial, self-sacrifice, humiliation and crucifixion of the Son of God as the redemption price of a lost world must be contemplated to estimate human worth, and that price proves that human worth cannot be measured and that the love of Jesus for souls cannot be measured. He died not only for the few who accept Him but to save every son and daughter of Adam, coming not to seek and save those who are faultless and lovely but to seek and save those who are lost, as the true Shepherd ever ready to leave the flock in the fold and go into the wilderness to seek the lost sheep.
The Father watches over every soul for whom Christ died and does not turn away those who seek Him. Jesus watches over His sheep and lambs by day and by night, and the heavenly Father has great love for every soul for whom Christ died and purposes that none of His little ones be lost. That watchful love is the reason for the charge to feed lambs and sheep and the ground for confidence in prevailing prayer at any hour. God hears the humble suppliant, grants blessing, never turns away those who seek with the whole heart, tries faith for good, and bestows grace for grace on those who ask in humble faith to feed others with the bread of life. The whole instruction gives relief and courage and hope, meaning to go forward in faith, to take the case to the Lord Jesus in prayer, to believe that He hears, and that upon confession of sins and repentance and walking humbly with God pardon is found, for the Lord's correction purifies and saves.
For a sick and afflicted believer lying restless through painful nights and wearisome days, learning faith, submission and moral discipline in suffering and longing for clearer light through darkness between the soul and Jesus, the verse gives assurance to trust in simple faith that Jesus loves and keeps His own. Christ as Substitute and Surety fights and struggles in place of the one who cannot, and whether the sufferer lives or dies he remains the Lord's while trials work out a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. Applied personally, it assures that God wants one to live, while urging regulation of diet and trust in His help in struggling against harmful habits and self-indulgence. God does not desire anyone to perish or to be separated from the brethren, so efforts to divide believers run against His will. Every soul is precious in God's sight and God has claims on each person that no circumstances excuse forgetting or neglecting, so whatever course others take each must set his own heart in order and answer in the Judgment for his own works, for even if one, two, or three in the church have done wrong and have not shown a Christlike spirit, their wrongs do not blot out or excuse personal sin, since two wrongs do not make one right.
Christ Seeks the Lost
Christ came to save what was lost, knowing His sheep, giving His life to ransom them as His own, and seeking them even before they seek Him with persistent, personal care. As the shepherd seeks the straying sheep, He leaves the gathered flock and the ninety-nine to go into the wilderness, mountains and deserts to find the one outside the fold and does not abandon any who trust in Him. His care reaches the fallen to uplift them, including those helpless in sin, the lowest and most degraded, whom He strengthens when weak and delivers when tried and tempted from Satan's power and the enemy's hand.
The lost sheep must be found at any peril or cost, and the Chief Shepherd endures hardship and suffering to bring it back, His wounds showing the price of rescue. He gently carries the straying soul back and rejoices to recover it, never forsaking anyone who trusts in Him. Those who neglect the straying or treat them without sympathy can discourage their return and leave them to perish, so restoration calls for special, personal effort in Christlike love.
Finding the stray brings great joy, with more rejoicing over one sinner who repents and returns from sin under His protection than over ninety-nine just persons who need no repentance and never went astray. There is joy among the heavenly angels over one redeemed soul rescued from Satan and brought back to the fold, and angels cooperate with faithful workers and themselves seek those ready to perish. That rescue is wrought by going into the depths of human woe and misery in Christ's way of relieving suffering and teaching righteousness, feeding, cleansing and clothing those in need to prepare them to know someone cares for their souls, wrenching them from Satan's hand and restoring God's moral image in outcasts whom society cast out until they become precious among His elect. Because Christ repeatedly saves people from perishing in this way, His followers are to help others return to safety rather than grow tired or discouraged when efforts seem fruitless.
His tenderness toward those others reject is shown in His care for Zacchaeus, revealing His purpose to save the lost; the sick who seem objectionable or hopeless are not to be abandoned or sent away but brought to Christ through prayer, guidance, extra effort and love. By that example His ambassadors are called to reach sinners where they are and lead them to salvation, giving each straying and vulnerable soul a chance to receive salvation.
Seeking and Restoring Duty
Because the Father wills that not even one of the little ones perish, all who believe are laid under the work of seeking those gone astray as laborers together with Christ and living agencies cooperating with the divine. The lesson is mercy, forbearance, patience and love toward perishing souls who are helpless in sin and liable to be destroyed by the arts and snares of Satan, cared for as a shepherd cares for the sheep of his flock. They are not to be despised, abandoned or sent away as objectionable or hopeless, for they are sick and need help, and the work is to go to help them rather than wait for them to return. It is to be done by personal effort, prayer, guidance, extra effort and love, going in Christ's way into the depths of human woe and misery to relieve suffering by feeding, cleansing and clothing those in need and by teaching righteousness, to prepare them to know someone cares for their souls. The pattern is Jesus acquainted with His sheep, giving His life for them and going to seek them even before they seek Him, as shown in His tenderness to Zacchaeus whom others rejected, with more rejoicing in heaven and among angels over one sinner that repents and one redeemed soul than over ninety-nine just persons that need no repentance and never went astray. Through such loving care those whose moral image of God was destroyed may be restored to that image and gathered as precious among the elect, and then, restored through human agencies, will in turn seek to restore that image in others for whom Christ paid the price of His own blood.
A brother's wrong and a person doing wrong are to be corrected with loving concern, patient encouragement and messages of kindness and love, so the one doing wrong recognizes the danger and danger of his course, turns from it, reforms, is won and is saved from perishing in sin and death, covering many sins. Those whose own record stands charged with unconfessed sins must not be rigid toward a brother's wrong, nor despise, criticize, condemn or push the faulty farther away, but bring them close to the heart and restore in meekness and love with desire for the salvation of the soul. The rule is Christ's rule of private, loving reproof between the two alone: go privately, tell the fault and speak it plainly where needed, put an arm about the brother, talk over the difference kindly in the Spirit of Christ, seek the Lord together, love one another, plead tenderly with neighbors who break God's law, and offer the bread of life to feed Christ's sheep. The injured person should seek the believer's restoration rather than wait for reconciliation to begin, and church members must try to save souls and not discourage or destroy them through criticism or evil reports, so the difficulty is healed and the offending brother is won. The aim throughout is recovery, not shame, judgment, condemnation or self-justification, and the lesson of the chapter is for the interest of all to study and practice.
Ministers as shepherds must make saving the lost their one object, searching for lost sheep and lambs and bringing them back to the fold, with shepherding care reaching the lost and straying. Christ's search for one lost sheep while leaving the ninety-nine shows the value of each lost soul because of its potential, spiritual privileges, capacities when made alive by God's word, and immortality offered through the gospel, and shows the care, effort and sacrifice ministers should give. They are not to confine labor to hovering over churches or put ease or wages first, but to leave familiar settings for new places and the regions beyond, accepting weariness, hardship and cost to personal comfort, working unselfishly, diligently, patiently and earnestly, watching over souls as those accountable. The lost are souls for whom Christ died and whom the devil seeks to enslave, worth seeking through patient earnest work, and neglecting that work betrays a sacred trust and insults God. Those who would honor God must work for others' salvation, be in right relation with God and humble so they can lead others to Him and be fitted for service.
Teachers, Bible teachers and ministers responsible for children and youth must practice this lesson and help rescue those who seek Christ with the whole heart, for like the shepherd who gives his strength to finding the lost sheep they should give special attention to those most in danger of being lost. The duty of Bible teachers is therefore to seek the lost, draw near to the unconverted, work with them personally and give clear instruction, and children should not be left to stray from the path prepared for the redeemed, since a teacher's example and practical godliness can keep them on that path. Harshness, passion, arbitrary action and every satanic attribute that bruises a child and destroys manhood must be put away, even though cherishing that spirit feels as dear as a right arm, and they must be converted and become as little children. They must put themselves in the child's place and on a level with the child in mind and spirit, making the child feel loved in order to have good influence, receiving the child in Christ's name, never offending believing little ones, never seizing and shaking a child suddenly, but taking it alone to pray and talk with it, showing it the will of Christ and binding it to the heart with love, tenderness and forbearance. They must deal with human minds as tenderly as Christ has dealt with them, being kind to those Satan seeks to lead, because they themselves are imperfect and need Christ's forgiveness for their own sins.
Fathers and mothers are placed under responsibility to save their children from the enemy's power and bring them to Christ, for children are precious members of the Lord's family and younger members of the Lord's family whose souls are exceedingly precious, including young girls called little ones who are to be treated as belonging to Jesus Christ with compassion, tenderness and love. This work must begin in the own family, for the home is the first field of missionary effort, and parents with living connection with Christ and anxious solicitude to glorify Him by creation and by redemption make the saving of their children's souls the one aim and burden of life. They must feel travail of soul for their children's salvation to have more blessing, refuse to rest until they see them safely in the fold on the Lord's side, use the best opportunity to seek straying lambs and rest not until every child is brought in, beginning with their own little flock. They labor with patient, untiring effort to train them so they will never be hostile to the Saviour, dealing tenderly yet firmly when they err, taking them into the work of opposing the evil by which Satan seeks to destroy soul and body, sharing with them the secret of the cross as sanctification, redemption and eternal victory, teaching practical duties without scolding or discouraging early mistakes, and taking special pains to make home pleasant and cheerful, understanding they deal with children for time and eternity.
The work includes seeking the salvation of people around us who are ready to perish, including people among the outcasts whose souls are perishing and those outside the fold, and responding to people who want to learn the truth. Workers should seek those who have strayed and make every effort to give them a chance to receive salvation, for each soul is precious and Christ came to save the lost, and the costly work of salvation gives reason to labor to reach them. Through faithful labor, daily self-denial and a Christlike spirit of cooperation many can be brought to a sin-pardoning Saviour and to saving knowledge of the truth, with angels cooperating with those who work to save perishing people. Christ's loving care repeatedly saves people from perishing and there is joy in heaven when an erring person is rescued from Satan and brought back, so His followers are to help others return to safety rather than grow tired or discouraged when efforts seem fruitless.
Tender Care Without Harm
It is not the Father's will that one of these little ones perish, and therefore none of them is to be despised, offended, misled, hindered, condemned, treated with contempt, or ruled with a masterly, domineering spirit that lords it over God's heritage. The little ones so guarded include those who believe in Christ yet are ignorant, feeble, young or less instructed, without the opportunities others have had, liable to err while doing their best against a fierce enemy, needing to learn daily how to serve, pray and obey, including youth, those newly come to the Father, and souls perishing without Christ. They include also those who have strayed, gone astray, wandered, and are lost, degraded, fallen and outcast in a world marred by the curse, whom Christ came to meet, uplift, seek and save. Any offense given to them is regarded as given to Christ, their angels always behold the Father's face, the Son of man came to save the lost, and learning and practicing this lesson of Matthew 18 in practical life is required to enter the kingdom, while the domineering spirit closes heaven's gates. Those who claim to be God's children must therefore take heed not to be heedless, unkind, or careless in word, conduct or example, for misleading the young and less instructed grieves the Holy Spirit, yet they can learn when given opportunity and shown a Christlike example.
The erring, weak, trembling, straying and distressed who long for pardon and peace, even the lowest, the sick in sin, the soul overcome by temptation, and those who have left the truth, are to be met with mercy, forbearance, patience, compassion, gentleness and tender, pitying love like Christ's. Workers are to love as brethren with hearts of tender affection, brotherly love, courtesy and pity, being tenderhearted and pitiful, for their present and eternal good. Such persons are to be encouraged and strengthened, brought close to the heart, prayed for, patiently given messages of kindness and love, led and guided with cords of love and helped back toward what is right, receiving reproof and turning from the wrong course rather than remaining in it. They are not to be merely accused, abandoned to temptation, criticized, treated with harsh words that deepen pain, or pushed farther away toward despair.
Harshness, arbitrary rule, crowding humiliation upon one who has done wrong, unwise action, neglect and unsympathetic treatment drive youth and adults to desperation, discouragement, stubbornness, unyielding hardness and ruin. Neglect can discourage return, leave the wandering without hope and in Satan's hands under danger, and some go to ruin for lack of anyone reaching out, though their apparent hardness does not erase their worth or potential and heaven pities them even when men withhold compassion. Such neglect betrays a sacred trust and insults God, and those responsible bring accountability before God, for each soul is precious because of its potential, spiritual privileges, capacities when made alive by God's word, and the immortality offered through the gospel. By contrast tenderness melts hard hearts and restores, the Chief Shepherd seeks with persistent care, gently carries back the straying soul and rejoices to recover it, with heaven's joy over one brought back showing the importance of earnest, personal, special effort to rescue even one. If Jesus dealt as men deal with one another, not one would be saved.
The verse therefore calls proud, self-sufficient workers and ministers to humble themselves, be converted and become as a little child, turning from self toward sympathy and love shown in personal effort for those without Christ. It means taking Christ's yoke of meekness and lowliness instead of manufacturing a galling yoke, chastising self instead of criticizing and accusing brethren, stopping ministry while in soul-sickness until humbled, and not withdrawing to labor alone, for no minister is fit to handle sacred things while entertaining temptation and a selfish, unholy spirit without daily humbling, overcoming, and self-discipline under the Word. Each person must cultivate the garden of the soul under personal stewardship, remove every weed and tare sown by Satan while watching others' faults, purify thoughts into captivity to Christ, love God with all heart, soul, mind and strength and neighbor as self, and speak with careful consideration of where words will lodge and what they will produce, lest reckless words become a stumbling block to a weak brother for whom Christ died. Teachers and instructors must share the Father's seeking will by putting away harshness, passion, arbitrary action and every satanic attribute that bruises a child and destroys manhood, however dearly cherished, putting themselves in the child's place and on its level in mind and spirit, making it feel loved, receiving it in Christ's name, never seizing and shaking it suddenly, but taking it alone to pray and talk, showing Christ's will and binding it to the heart with love, tenderness and forbearance, dealing with minds as tenderly as Christ has dealt with them. Offending believing little ones through dissension and stumbling caused by unsanctified traits works against the Father in heaven and brings severe judgment, because He does not want any of them to be lost.