A Powerful Warning Against Being A Cause Of Stumbling To Young Believers (18:5-10).
Jesus now moves on from a consideration of the need for His disciples to have become ‘as little children' in regard to service for Him, to the equal need for them to recognise the importance of all ‘little ones'. This change of description draws attention to the fact that He now has in mind those who have become ‘as little children' because they have believed on Him. In those days children were not seen as too important outside their own family, (although the Jews did take great trouble within the family to teach their children the Law, as the Law itself required), but the disciples were to recognise that to God such children who believe in Him are very important, and are to be seen as very important, as are all who become as little children because they believe. All such are therefore to be nurtured and encouraged, and every effort must be made to prevent their stumbling, for as believers they are the Father's children. Indeed they are so important to Jesus Himself that not only is to receive and welcome them into fellowship and a sphere of caring similar to receiving and welcoming Him (compare Matthew 25:35-40), but also causing them to stumble or to be entrapped is a heinous offence punishable in the most dreadful way, for the latter is an offence which reveals the one who is deliberately or carelessly involved in it as being outside the mercy of God. By it they will be demonstrating that they themselves are too high above themselves and have not ‘become as little children'. For the one who has become as a little child will receive them and care for them and tend them with greatest care.
Analysis.
a “And whoever will receive one such little child in my name receives me” (Matthew 18:5).
b “But whoever shall cause one of these little ones who believe on me to stumble, it is profitable for him that a great millstone should be hanged about his neck, and that he should be sunk in the depth of the sea” (Matthew 18:6).
c “Alas to the world because of occasions of stumbling! for it is necessary that the occasions come, but alas for that man through whom the occasion comes!” (Matthew 18:7).
b “And if your hand or your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off, and cast it from you. It is good for you to enter into life maimed or lame, rather than having two hands or two feet to be cast into the eternal fire, and if your eye causes you to stumble, pluck it out, and cast it from you. It is good for you to enter into life with one eye, rather than having two eyes to be cast into the Gehenna of fire” (Matthew 18:8-9).
a “See that you do not despise one of these little ones, for I say to you, that in heaven their angels do always behold the face of my Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 18:10).
Note that in ‘a' the believing child is to be received and welcomed as a believer in His Name, and to receive and welcome him is therefore to receive Jesus, and in the parallel the child who is a believer is not to be despised for he is ever represented by angels who are welcomed in the presence of His Father. The child is thus seen to be beloved of both Jesus and His Father. In ‘b' to cause a young believer to stumble or fall into a trap is so dreadful a crime that the worst of deaths is preferable, and indeed in the parallel His disciples are to go to the most extreme of lengths so as to ensure that they themselves do not stumble, either in this way, or in any other way, lest they prove false and finish up in eternal destruction. Centrally in ‘c' we have the recognition of the inevitability of occasions of stumbling arising, and the sad position of those through whom they happen.