"The Offender's mistake"
You've made a mistake with someone in the family, the body of Christ, the church, of which we are all members as adopted children. You've hurt one of your brothers of sisters, now what?
“I assure you,” He said,
"unless you are converted
and become like children,
you will never enter the kingdom of heaven."
Only God's children will inherit God's kingdom.
"Child at heart" just means a tender heart. Remember who you are when the temptation to offend or the sin of offense comes up.
A childlike heart easily trusts their parent because they have an openness to the parent. We all started there once, but we probably got burned sooner or later along the way and slowly began to harden our hearts, but when we meet God and He calls us His child and we realize He is or good father, it is a new relationship with the heart of a child afresh. Only this time, our parent is perfect in all His ways, rather than a broken sinner like our earthly parents. The point is not that our first parent was a mistake, but that they were a glimpse and preparation for our union with our true parent. You've been hurt before and that shows you how sin destroys us and why Jesus had to die, but now with that similar childlike heart we once had toward are parents, we bring that before God in how we relate with Him as our perfect and true parent.
"Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child — this one is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven."
It does not mean they don't make mistakes! Children make many, many, many mistakes! It is regarding their humility, in that they know they need help, protection, love, and care.
"Like a child" or "childlike" is different from "childish". To be like a child here is referring to a child's humility only. This includes such things as the weakness and dependence of a child's disposition.
Whereas to be childish, we all know, is often the negative connotation we use to mean things like whining, selfish, petty irresponsible, etc.
"And whoever welcomes one child like this in My name welcomes Me."
How we treat one another is how we treat God Himself!
That needs to sink in...sink in deeply. The way you treat another person in the family of God (and this is something you cannot easily judge, so it might even be best to say anyone) is a direct dealing with God Himself. You are, everyday, encountering God in the people you meet with, see, hear, and talk to or talk about. So it begs the question: how do you treat God? And the answer lies in how you treat other people. We bear the image of God in us, and that is not something to be ignored.
On the positive side, if you've ever found yourself praying that you "welcome God into the room" or that you desired Him to be with you or anything like that, then the surest way to welcome God into your life is to welcome the childlike-hearted person into your life! Find them because those kinds of people are far greater than treasures of wealth!
How cool is that?
God gave us a way to find Him and to welcome Him into our lives, and this is by seeking and searching for those who are like children in the world....the needy, the dependent, the weak, and the tender-hearted person who humbly recognizes their condition.
This is quite a contrast to what culture deems as the "in crowd," yet here are the words from the very mouth of God Himself! Who are you welcoming into your life everyday? Do you search out the people of treasure or the people of trash? I'm not saying we can know if someone is trash or treasure, but I'm saying that the criteria for which we consider giving our time to someone should be based on this very method of seeking people who have a childlike heart not people who are merely rich and beautiful or admired by people...although these can also be children at heart, it is the way in which we look at people that matters. Do you look first at their exterior or do you search for what's inside? Do you have a trained intuition for seeking out character rather than clothing, reputation rather than rank, that kind of thing. Consider the things that draw you to a person and be aware of certain areas in your own character that God might be transforming you in.
That was a tangent! Haha I'm personally very passionate about that sort of topic because I was once full fledged in the work of the enemy by placing trash over treasure when it came to the criteria for which I measured other people. I wanted beautiful people who were rich and smart and popular to be my friend, and I looked down on the timid people who lacked in those areas. Glory to God I have been redeemed! Haha. Back to where I was going with the text:
If you have ever sought after God this is a helpful measure of your quest in that you have sought after the broken-hearted. For that is where you will find God.
*hint: going back to the first verse, all of God's children are such as these, meaning the one you seek is the one who is just like you."
"But whoever causes the downfall of one of these little ones who believe in Me — it would be better for him if a heavy millstone were hung around his neck and he were drowned in the depths of the sea!"
Last night, conveniently (in preparation for this talk), I had a dream where a friend of mine got into a quarrel with someone and I urged him to apologize because I knew it would only spoil his day and his relationship with God if he let that moment fester inside of him because of pride or his emotions. In my dream I accompanied my friend who, after some time to cool off, agreed with a feasible amount of contriteness to saying sorry. However, as he delivered his sincere words of apology to the person an unexpected firing back took place on the person's part and my emotions of wanting to protect him for doing the right thing (justice) made me call her a "b#%ch!" in fury!
I realized afterward that I was now the one who needed to say sorry, because my own emotions took over. Now if injustice does that much to someone like me who does not see the entirety of what is going on to make judgment calls, how much more will actual injustice do to the God who does see all things!? Don't mess with God's children, or He will mess you up and you don't want to be going up against God. This passage is declaring just that kind of thing when Jesus says:
"But whoever causes the downfall of one of these little ones who believe in Me — it would be better for him if a heavy millstone were hung around his neck and he were drowned in the depths of the sea!"
He means business people. You mess with His family then you're gonna wish you had a heavy rock tied around your neck, flung into the sea, and drowned! If you think He's joking, think again.
"Woe to the world because of offenses. "
God is serious about His family, and that's why when we belong to God we start to get serious about our family too. If someone messed with your loved one (mom or dad or sibling) what would you do? Get angry in order to protect them? Well, imagine if the family messed with was God's....he says "WOE to that man by whom the offense comes"
"For offenses must come,
but woe to that man by whom the offense comes."
God is saying, I know people are going to make mistakes everyday, but if you're on the side of being okay with bringing down My family rather than humbly admitting your wrongs like a child then you're going against God's beloved ones...and that will not go over so well with you. You go against one of God's children then you go against God. Because family protects family and no one in My family gets messed with. You're either for Me or against me.
We've all been given a bag of endless sorry's not because they're neat, but because they are one of our greatest weapons against the enemy!). We make mistakes even to our own family, but the family of God is not one to be okay with causing offenses, which is why we are called to cultivate a character of forgiveness toward one another. God is raising up His children for the purpose of being one family.
How serious does God take this raising up of His family?...
"If your hand or your foot causes your downfall, cut it off and throw it away.
It is better for you to enter life maimed or lame, than to have two hands or two feet and be thrown into the eternal fire.
And if your eye causes your downfall,
gouge it out and throw it away.
It is better for you to enter life with one eye, rather than to have two eyes and be thrown into hellfire!”
Matthew 18:3-9
How serious? Hellfire serious. We are talking about eternity here.
“See that you don’t look down on one of these little ones, because I tell you that in heaven their angels continually view the face of My Father in heaven.”
Matthew 18:10
The person with a childlike humility is the person who knows their Heavenly Father.
"The Victim's response"
“If your brother sins against you,
go and rebuke him in private.
If he listens to you,
you have won your brother.
But if he won’t listen,
take one or two more with you,
so that by the testimony of two or three witnesses every fact may be established.
If he pays no attention to them,
tell the church.
But if he doesn’t pay attention
even to the church,
let him be like an unbeliever and a tax collector to you.”
Matthew 18:15-17
In other words, we are called to develop a childlike humility, but those who are offended must also recognize that God takes this to be a humility of depending on God for your protection.
If someone offends you then if you offend them back, whether by committing a sin in return or by failing to care to mend the division, you are the same as the offender. You went from victim to offender in a matter of seconds! (Which means you now have to read the above section again haha)
God calls us to have a childlike humility not because we are without help, but because we are helped by our Father! So as a "victim" of offense in any given situation we, too, are called to be aware of whether we are living as children of God by seeing whether or not we desire or desire to desire for our offender to be unified back to us. And pray accordingly for help.
Jesus even gives us the very steps to take which include a private confrontation, but if that doesn't work we try again! The point here is that we care, and we don't just give up after the first try of reconciliation. We go at it by bringing two or three more of our mutual family into the matter because it helps when someone sees that more people can be present to give a more unbiased presence in the matter. Then if that still doesn't work we care enough for that person (despite being our offender) that we bring the matter before the church as the final authority to help bring this person back into unity. However, after that person still refuses to be corrected, it says "let him be like an unbeliever and a tax collector to you.”
Now, this is the point I think many people mistake to mean, cut them off! Do we cut off the unbeliever? Do we go around in life only sticking to our holy huddles? Not at all! I believe this very last call to consider that person as an unbeliever and tax collector is not a call to finally let all your evil feelings toward them flow freely, but a call to be EVEN MORE gentle and understanding of them, because they are the lost. We can have compassion on such souls because we, too, were once hopelessly lost and it was His kindness that lead us to repentance.
"The Child"
So my final encouragement to the victim is to be a child of God just as my encouragement to the offender is also to be a child of God. For whether we are more prone to offending or to feeling victimized, both are simply conditions for which the enemy uses to turn us away from our identity as God's children. Some days we are the offender and other days we are the victim, but in everyday we are called to be the child of God.
This process of knowing who we are is tumultuous because there are many mistakes, fails, sorrows and pains along the way, but we are called to such a journey in order to receive the prize of getting God. There is no higher love or greater joy than to know God and be with Him forever. Keep your eyes on prize.
Jesus prays for you and me in John 17 and repeatedly emphasizes our being one with each other.
“I pray not only for these,
but also for those who believe in Me
through their message.
May they all be one,
as You, Father, are in Me and I am in You.
May they also be one in Us,
so the world may believe You sent Me.
I have given them the glory You have given Me.
May they be one as We are one.
I am in them and You are in Me.
May they be made completely one,
so the world may know You have sent Me and have loved them as You have loved Me.
Father, I desire those You have given Me to be with Me where I am.
Then they will see My glory,
which You have given Me
because You loved Me
before the world’s foundation.
Righteous Father!
The world has not known You.
However, I have known You,
and these have known that You sent Me.
I made Your name known to them
and will make it known,
so the love You have loved Me with
may be in them and I may be in them.”
John 17:20-26
Not an offender and not a victim,
but a child of our Heavenly Father,
Jmegrey
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