ut whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck, and he were drowned in the depth of the sea (Matt. 18:6).
The disciples had asked who was the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. Our Lord's response made use of a nearby little one in order to show the disciples the importance of a childlike humility. The entry to the kingdom requires a conversion to childlike humility (vv. 3-4). Unless a man is so converted, he will by no means enter the kingdom.
But having made the point about humility, the Lord continued to teach on the important subject of children, or as He states it, little ones. In a very real way, we can see that the kind of humility Christ was requiring here is measured in terms of one's attitude toward children.
In verse 5, He states that whoever receives one little child like this in My name receives Me. He then utters the terrifying curse quoted above. Whoever is a stumbling block to believing little ones lies under a horrible judgment of God. In the next verse, the Lord states that the world is a sinful place and that offenses (to little ones) will come, but woe to that man through whom they come.
Of whom is He speaking? Although Christ is speaking generally, to whom do these words primarily apply? The answer is parents. R.L. Dabney, in an essay on parental responsibilities, makes the observation that, under God's providence, when a man and a woman have a child, they have kindled a spark that can never be put out. That child, blessed or cursed, will exist forever and ever. There is no peaceful oblivion for poorly reared children. And further, God has made the world in such a way that parents have a tremendous influence over the direction their children take, for both good and evil.
How serious, then, should we as parents be in the assumption of these responsibilities? The next two verses tell us; they are the familiar ones about what we should do if our hand, foot or eye causes us to sin. We should sacrifice them: better to enter life maimed than to be thrown into Hell whole and entire. This is still in the context of the Lord's teaching about children, for in the next verse He states, Take heed that you do not despise one of these little ones, for I say to you that their angels always see the face of My Father who is in heaven. In other words, the Lord is teaching us that it is better to maim ourselves than to stumble our children -- a very serious warning indeed.
The passage presents three basic truths. We as parents must be converted men and women so that we are like our children. We are to be teachable, humble, malleable. Second, we are to receive our children in the name of the Lord, for to do so is to receive the Lord. Pregnancy, child-bearing, and child-rearing deserve great honor, for in these things the Lord is visiting us with blessing. And last, we are to take heed that we do not despise our little ones.
The Lord says we are to take heed, take care, that we do not despise them. We can be guilty of such despising in at least two ways, the first being perhaps more obvious. Children are despised when they are neglected, overlooked, and shunted aside for larger, more adult, concerns. It was this kind of grown-up officiousness that Christ rebuked when His disciples tried to keep the little ones away from Him (Matt. 19:14). Children matter. The Christian faith is not like those rides at Disneyland, where you have to be a certain height to participate.
But a second way of despising children is not as clear, perhaps. This happens when we think we are not despising them because we pay so much attention to them. We live in a culture that is obsessed with the idol of youth, but there is a vast difference between the childlike and teachable humility enjoined by Christ and the childish immaturity worshipped by MTV, Young Life, and Reebok.
These words of rather severe instruction from Christ should bring us up short. When we consider the solemnity involved in the task of bringing up our children in the Lord, we should both fear God concerning our children and, as was discussed in our last issue, trust God with our children.
As we bring our children up, we should descend to their level in one sense (humility) in order to lead them to our level (maturity). This is not the same as descending to their level (immaturity) in order to lead them to our level (pride). We must not cater to them. One of the central problems with bringing up children in our day is the constant temptation to underestimate their capacities. We teach them profane and irreverent little ditties, not psalms and hymns. We give them moralistic little stories, not biblical doctrine and ethics. We expect them to act as though they have no brains or souls until they have graduated from college.
We aim at nothing, and we hit it.
