Matthew 18
18
The Most Important Person in the Kingdom
1At that time the disciples came to Jesus and asked him, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?”
2Jesus called a little child over and had them stand in the middle of the group. 3Jesus then said, “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you’ll never enter the kingdom of heaven. 4Whoever becomes humble like this little child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. 5And anyone who welcomes a child like this one in my name welcomes me.
Don’t Cause People to Sin
6“But what if someone causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin? It would be better for them to be thrown into the sea with a large millstone hung around their neck and drown at the bottom. 7Woe to the world because of the things that cause people to sin! Things like that must come. Woe to the person who causes them! 8If your hand or foot causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It’s better to enter life with only one hand or foot than to go with two hands or two feet into hell, where the fire burns forever. 9If your eye causes you to sin, pull it out and throw it away. It’s better to enter life with one eye than to be thrown into the fire of hell with two eyes.
The Story of the Lost Sheep
10-11“Make sure you don’t look down on one of these little ones. I tell you, their angels in heaven see face to face my Father who is in heaven.
12“What do you think? Suppose a man owns 100 sheep and one of them wanders away. Won’t he leave the 99 sheep on the hills and go look for the one that wandered off? 13Truly I tell you, if he finds that sheep, he’ll be happier about it than about the 99 that didn’t wander off. 14It’s the same with your Father in heaven. He doesn’t want any of these little ones to be lost.
When Someone Sins Against You
15“If your brother or sister sins against you, go and tell them privately what they’ve done wrong. If they listen to you, you’ve won them back. 16But if they won’t listen to you, return with one or two others. Scripture says, ‘Every matter must be proved by the words of two or three witnesses.’ 17If they still refuse to listen, then tell it to the community of believers. And if they refuse to listen even to the community, then treat them the way you would treat an unbeliever or a traitor.
18“Truly I tell you, what you tie up on earth will be tied up in heaven, and what you set free on earth will be set free in heaven.
19“Again, I tell you truly, if two of you on earth agree about anything you ask for, my Father in heaven will do it for you. 20Where two or three people gather in my name, I am there with them.”
The Servant Who Had No Mercy
21Peter came to Jesus and asked, “Lord, how many times should I forgive a brother or sister who sins against me? Up to seven times?”
22Jesus answered, “Not seven times, I tell you, but 77 times.
23“The kingdom of heaven is like a king who wanted to collect all the money his servants owed him. 24First, they brought him a man who owed 10,000 bags of gold. 25Since he wasn’t able to pay, his master ordered the man, his wife, his children, and everything he owned to be sold to pay back the debt.
26“Then the servant got down on his knees in front of him. ‘Give me time,’ he begged, ‘and I’ll pay everything back.’ 27His master felt sorry for him, so he forgave him what he owed and let him go.
28“But then that servant went out and found another servant, who owed him 100 silver coins. He grabbed him and began to choke him. ‘Pay back what you owe me!’ he demanded.
29“The other servant got down on his knees. ‘Give me time,’ he begged him, ‘and I’ll pay it back.’
30“But the first servant refused. Instead, he went and had the man thrown into prison until he paid back what he owed. 31When the other servants saw this, it made them very angry. They went and told their master everything that had happened.
32“Then the master called the first servant back in. ‘You ungrateful servant,’ he said. ‘I forgave you everything you owed because you begged me to. 33Shouldn’t you have had mercy on the other servant, just as I had mercy on you?’ 34The master was so angry that handed him over to the jailers to be punished until he paid back everything he owed.
35“That’s how my Father in heaven will treat each of you if you don’t forgive your brother or sister from your heart.”
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Matthew 18: RAD
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Matthew 18
18
Chapter 18
Who is important in God's kingdom?
1Soon after this, the disciples came to Jesus and they asked him, ‘Who is the most important person in the kingdom of heaven?’
2Jesus called a child to come to him. He made the child stand in the middle of them all. 3He said, ‘I tell you this: You must change and become like little children. If not, you will never come into the kingdom of heaven. 4This little child does not think that he is very important. You must also think as he does. Whoever does this will be the most important person in the kingdom of heaven. 5If anyone accepts a child like this because of me, that person also accepts me.’
6Jesus said, ‘A person who believes in me may not seem important. But you should never make that person do wrong things. #18:6 The person might be someone who does not believe well in God. Or he may be a child. It would be better to die than to cause someone to stop obeying God. Do not do that! It would be better for you if someone tied a big stone round your neck. Then you would sink deep down into the sea and die. 7Some things in this world will cause people to do wrong things. You can be sure that bad things will happen. But it will be very bad for the person who makes these things happen.
8If your hand or your foot causes you to do wrong things, you should cut it off. You should throw it away. It is better to have only one hand or one foot and to have God's true life. It will be much worse to keep both your hands and both your feet and still do wrong things. Then God will throw you into hell, where the fire always burns. 9If your eye causes you to do wrong things, then you should take it out. You should throw it away. It is better to have only one of your eyes and to have God's true life. It will be much worse if you keep both your eyes but then God throws you into hell. There the fire always burns.
10Be careful! Do not think that any of these little people are not important. I tell you this. They have angels who watch over them. Those angels are always standing in front of my Father in heaven. #18:10 God's word teaches us that there are angels. And these angels are servants of God, who watch over his people.
11[I, the Son of Man, came to look for those who are far away from God.] #18:11 Verse 11 is in old Bibles. Many Bible students think that someone put it into Matthew's book later.
12Think about a man who has 100 sheep. He discovers that one of his sheep is not there with the others. What does he do? He leaves all his other sheep on the hills. He goes to look for the one lost sheep. 13And I tell you this: If he finds that lost sheep, he will be very happy. All the other sheep are safe together. But they do not make him as happy as this one sheep does. 14God, your Father in heaven, is like that shepherd. He does not want any of these little people to be lost, not even one of them.’ #18:14 In this story, God is like the man who takes care of the sheep. The lost sheep is like a person who is not obeying God. God cares that he is lost. He wants to bring him back to himself.
A friend does wrong things against you
15Jesus said, ‘If your Christian friend has done something wrong against you, you must go and speak to him. When you are alone with him, tell him what he has done that is wrong. He may agree with what you say. If he does, then you can call him your friend again.
16But maybe he does not want to listen to you. Then take one or two other people with you to speak to him. They will then know what wrong things your friend has done. Remember what the Bible says: “There must be two or three people to say certainly that another person has done something wrong. Two or three people must agree what has happened.” 17If your friend still will not agree that he has done something wrong, then go and tell the church leaders. #18:17 The word ‘church’ means a group of Christians. They meet together because they are obeying Jesus. It does not mean the building where they meet. If he does not agree with the leaders, stop being his friend. He is like somebody who refuses to obey God. #18:17 This does not mean that we should only be friends with other Christians. We can be friends with other people too. But perhaps a person says that he follows Jesus. But he does not obey Jesus. Then we should not be a special friend of that person.
18I tell you this: You will tell people here on earth what is right for them to do. And you will tell them what is not right for them to do. God in heaven will give you this authority. He will agree with what you say.
19Two people may agree together to ask God for something. If they agree like that, then my Father in heaven will give them what they ask for. #18:19 People must ask God for the right things. They must be things that God wants to give to them. 20Two or more people may meet together because they believe in me. If they do that, I will be there with them.’
Jesus tells the people about the servant who did not forgive
21Then Peter came to talk to Jesus. He asked, ‘Lord, if my friend does wrong things against me many times, how many times should I forgive him? Must I forgive him as many as seven times for the wrong things that he has done against me?’
22Jesus replied, ‘I do not say only seven times. I say you should forgive him 77 times!’ #18:22 Jesus is saying that we must continue to forgive people many, many times.
23Jesus then said, ‘I will tell you a story to show what the kingdom of heaven is like. A king wanted to check how much money his servants should give to him because of their debts. 24So the king began to check. His men led a servant to him who had a big debt. He must pay back 10,000 gold coins to the king. #18:24 This was a very large amount of money. No man could ever pay all this money to the king.
25The servant could not pay his big debt to the king. So the king said to his men, “Sell the servant and his wife and his children and all his things. Then I will keep the money to pay his debt.”
26Then the servant went down on his knees in front of the king. He said to the king, “Please, please give me some more time, then I will pay you everything.” 27The king felt sorry for his servant. He forgave him for all the debt and let him go free.
28But then that same servant went away and he met another servant of the king. This other servant had to pay back a debt of 100 silver coins to the first servant. The first servant took hold of the neck of the other servant to hurt him. He said, “Give me the money that is mine.”
29The other servant went down on his knees in front of the first servant. He said, “Please, please give me some more time, then I will give you the money.”
30But the first servant would not agree. He put the other servant in prison until he could pay his debt to him. 31The other servants of the king saw what had happened. They were very upset about it. So they went to see the king. They told him about everything that had happened.
32When the king heard this, he told the first servant to come to him. “You are a very bad person,” the king said to the servant. “I forgave you the whole of your big debt to me. I did this because you asked me very strongly. 33I was kind to you. You should have been kind to that other servant in the same way.” 34The king was very angry with the first servant. He told his men to put him in prison. They punished the servant there very much, until he could pay all his debt to the king.’
35Then Jesus finished the story and he said, ‘You must forgive your friends completely. If you do not agree to forgive them, then my Father in heaven will do like that king did. He will not forgive you.’
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