The disciples asked Christ, who will be the greatest in the kingdom of heaven? They were always jockeying for the best positions, sometimes to the point of embarrassment!
They did this because they viewed the kingdom in terms of earthly kingdoms, where there were positions of power and prestige close to the king. How do we get into those slots in the kingdom of heaven?
Jesus commences to disabuse them of this false view. He presents to them a little child, and tells them that unless they be converted, and become as little children, they could not enter into the kingdom!
But the disciples had prevented little children from coming to Jesus, and had been rebuked by the Savior for doing so.
They looked on little children as a burden and hindrance to the work of the kingdom, because they still considered the kingdom an earthly one.
But Jesus informed them that "of such little children is the kingdom of God!" Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom as a little child, shall not enter therein.
Some people falsely believe that Christ is teaching that all little children go to heaven, but this view completely misses Christ's meaning!
Christ is asserting that all who would enter the kingdom must come to Him! All must trust in Jesus! Christ makes it clear, that God's jealousy and protection is for those little children who believe in Jesus!
All must come to Christ as little children. This does not mean that older people must be literally converted back to small children physically.
Rather, Jesus is using physical little children as a picture of the spiritual "little children" who will make up the kingdom of God.
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John Pittman Hey was born in 1961 in Jackson, Mississippi, to Godly parents who from the beginning raised him in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. With child-like faith he came to Christ on his fourth birthday at his mother's knee. He received his education at church...
