AUG 1 - The Greatest in the Kingdom
1 About that time the disciples came to Jesus and asked, “Who is greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven?”
2 Jesus called a little child to him and put the child among them. 3 Then he said, “I tell you the truth, unless you turn from your sins and become like little children, you will never get into the Kingdom of Heaven.
Matthew 18:1-3 NLT
Jesus says something quite controversial to a group of grown people, religious scholars and his disciples.
Like most people, they’re competitive and they want to know how to “get better“ at being Christian. They want to know how to get better so that they can strive to be the greatest.
Because there has to be someone that’s the greatest right?
Jesus flips this on its head, the greatest? It’s a kid.
He gives them two to-do’s:
Turn away from your sins.
Become like little children.
The first, has to do with our DEPENDENCE on our sin, turning away from sin implies replacing the void that led us to the sin in the first place. Turn away from counting on sin, reject the idea that you have to be in sin forever.
The second, has to do with many of the qualities that kids can have. A child will obey, they’ll follow directions, they’ll listen in on how to do things. As adults, we often battle with doubt, we hear things and have the intelligence to determine if we believe it or not.
When Jesus says the children are the greatest, it’s because they’re the ones that will ALWAYS depend on their father. Who is the greatest? The ones who count on themselves LESS, and more on God.
If we depend on ourselves, if we think we can save ourselves by not sinning or chasing perfection then we are making our salvation about works. It was never about works, only God’s grace.
Let’s count on God, let’s be led by Him or we’ll-
never get into the Kingdom of Heaven.