Christ's Church as an Assembly of Children

When the Lord Jesus paid the temple tribute and then set a little child in the midst of His disciples, He painted a portrait of His true assembly. Matthew 17:24-27 shows the Son who, though free, humbles Himself to give no offense by paying tribute with a coin from a fish's mouth. Matthew 18:1-9 then sets that same humility as the entrance requirement into the kingdom: "Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven" (18:3).

A true church is composed of those humbled, converted, and childlike, in contrast to all who seek greatness and cause "these little ones" to stumble (18:6). This is the distinction John draws between children of light and darkness. He supplies it directly: "God is light, and in him is no darkness at all" (1 John 1:5), and "he that saith he is in the light, and hateth his brother, is in darkness even until now" (2:9). Peter gives the assembly's title outright: a people called "out of darkness into his marvellous light" (1 Peter 2:9). The disciples disputed "who is the greatest" (Matthew 18:1); Jesus answered with a child, for "whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven" (18:4). John says the same of brotherly love: "he that loveth his brother abideth in the light, and there is none occasion of stumbling in him" (1 John 2:10), while the proud man "walketh in darkness, and knoweth not whither he goeth" (2:11).

Christ's warning against offending His little ones is severe, "it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck" (Matthew 18:6), and Peter commands the saints to lay aside "all malice, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil speakings" (1 Peter 2:1), the very works of darkness that offend. The radical self-denial of Matthew 18:8-9, cutting off the offending hand rather than entering "everlasting fire," is the same separation John commands God’s children: "Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world" (1 John 2:15).