SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 11/25/2022 9:12 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
“More on Conversion”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Matthew
18:3-4
Message of the verses: “3 and said,
"Truly I say to you, unless you are converted and become like children,
you shall not enter the kingdom of heaven. 4 “Whoever then humbles himself as
this child, he is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.”
The purpose of this section and maybe even the
chapter is to show that to be converted requires people to become like
children, as Jesus explained. A child is
simple, dependent, helpless, unaffected, unpretentious, unambitious writes John
MacArthur. Children are not sinless or
naturally unselfish, and they display their fallen nature from the earliest
age. However they are nevertheless naïve
and unassuming, trusting of others and without ambition for splendor and
greatness. The problem is it depends on
where a child is raised and how much responsibility they have put on them at an
early age. I remember when my 18 month
old son was in the hospital waiting on having surgery and in the room that we
were waiting was a little girl about the same age as our son. This little girl had a very wet dipper, (this
was the time before Pampers were that popular), and it did not bother her
because she had been neglected so much that she just go use to it. I wonder what ever happened to that girl as
she was going to have open-heart surgery like our son had. By the way my wife took care of her wet
dipper so the little girl would be more comfortable.
MacArthur
writes “It’s the person who humbles himself as this child,’ Jesus declared,
‘who is greatest in the kingdom of heaven.’’
The verb behind humbles is tapeinoo
which has the ligeral meaning of making low.
In God’s eyes, the one who lowers himself is the one who is elevated;
the one who genuinely considers himself to be the least is the one God
considers to be the greatest. ‘The
greatest among you shall be your servant,’ Jesus told the self-righteous
Pharisees. ‘And whoever exalts himself
shall be humbled; and whoever humbles himself shall be exalted’ (Matt.
23:11-12). The person who is not willing
to humble himself as Jesus ‘humbled Himself’ (Phil 2:8) will have no place in
Jesus’ kingdom. From self-righteous Jews who exalted themselves so highly as to
think God was pleased with them for their own goodness, this was a shattering
blow.”
The
following is a quotation from John MacArthur’s commentary as he quotes “The
great Lutheran commentator R. C. H. Lenski” and what he said about Jesus clear
statement that you rise higher in His kingdom as you go lower. “He who thinks of making no claims shall have
all that others claim and by claiming cannot obtain…Only an empty vessel can
God fill with his gifts. And the emptier
we are of anything that is due to ourselves, the more can God pour into these
vessels his eternal riches, honors, and glories’ (The Interpretation of St. Matthew’s Gospel [Minneapolis: Augsburg, 1943],
683).’”
A
little child will make no claims of worthiness or greatness, as he simply
submits to the care of his parents and others who love him, relying on them for
all that he needs. He knows he cannot
meet his own needs and has no resources to stay alive. So this is the kind of humble submissiveness
that results in greatness in God’s eyes and in His kingdom.
In
his commentary John MacArthur tells a story of what he did earlier in his life,
and I will share that story with you in our next SD.
11/25/2022 10:16 AM
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