Little ones

DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL OF MATTHEW

LITTLE ONES

Matt 18:10-14

10 "See that you do not look down on one of these little ones. For I tell you that their angels in heaven always see the face of my Father in heaven.   12 "What do you think? If a man owns a hundred sheep, and one of them wanders away, will he not leave the ninety-nine on the hills and go to look for the one that wandered off? 13 And if he finds it, I tell you the truth, he is happier about that one sheep than about the ninety-nine that did not wander off. 14 In the same way your Father in heaven is not willing that any of these little ones should be lost.

NIV

Jesus has been talking about child-like faith, coming to him in that kind of faith. He has been talking about how we should be as a child in our trust and faith in him. He has been talking about being humble as children are, rather than trying to be the greatest in the kingdom. He has been talking about welcoming these new believers, these children in the faith, so to speak. He has admonished us not to cause them to sin, not to put so much on them, they cannot bear up under the pressure of the lists of do’s and don’ts. Then he talked about how the world is judged in that it offers so much temptation for both the mature and the new babe, or child-like believer. Now he continues about how we who might be mature in our faith, or at least been a believer for some years, whether that indicates maturity or not, we cannot be certain, should behave toward the new believer. We certainly should not look down on them because they either do not know as much as we do about the scripture, or how to properly walk in the faith. We should not look down on them because they may not have been convicted to quit smoking, or drinking. We should not look down on them because they may be overly excited about being saved and they are not able to converse about the deeper things of God, we think are important. The fact is when a person becomes a new believer in Christ all of heaven rejoices. This should also be our response. We should rejoice about this new believer’s faith in Jesus for their salvation. Were we not one of those little ones once? Did we not only know of saving faith? Were we not so excited about not having to perish, but have eternal life? Rejoice, we say again rejoice! This is not a time to inundate this new believer with every aspect the doctrine of the church or what is the next step in their walk, such as what area of service would they fit well in. This is the time to rejoice with them, encourage them, and be a friend to them. Jesus is telling us that God does not want any of these little ones, these babes in Christ, these new believers to be lost. He does not want them to get lost in any way. This could happen if we do not response in the manner God desires us to toward these new believers. It is not that God does not care about us ninety-nine who have been in the flock for many years, he does, he cares for us greatly, but the one new believer is very vulnerable and he wants to make sure they are brought safely into the flock. Sometimes we do not know who they are. When a message of salvation is preached and a call is made, the preachers do not ask them to get up and come forward and make a public confession of their faith. They ask everyone else to close our eyes so not to embarrass the responder, the one who wants to accept Jesus. So then how can we rejoice? It seems right that the new believer should tell everyone, so we can rejoice with them, welcoming them into the faith, not the church. Let us ever be mindful of both sharing the good news about Jesus and watching over those who accept him so they will not get lost along the way. Too much doctrine, too much esoteric discussions might overwhelm them and they can lose their way. Let us simply rejoice with them, allowing them to search their way, asking, seeking to find more about Jesus. We should also remember that just because they are referred to as little ones, does not mean we are big ones.