Jesus loves the little children

Whoever receives one little child like this in My name receives Me. "Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to sin, it would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck, and he were drowned in the depth of the sea. – Matthew 18.5-6

Jesus loves the little children
All the children of the world
Red and yellow, black and white
They are precious in His sight
Jesus loves the little children of the world

We are going to see more about children in a few days so I almost skipped this, but I was to see just a note about how dear children are to our Lord as well as looking at the teaching in its context.

This is an amazing passage on Jesus and His view of children. It is also a great challenge to us and our attitude toward children.

First we see that our treatment of children reflects how we would treat Christ. ‘Whoever receives one of these children in my name receives me.’ I like how Jesus addresses the importance of even one child. It shows that He sees children as individuals and not just a corporate group. Each child we receive into our lives in the name of Christ is a picture of how important He is to us. The way we treat that ‘snotty nosed little brat’ is important. How are we doing in ‘receiving one of these?’

Then Jesus points to a negative. ‘If anyone causes one of these children to stumble or sin he would be better off if a millstone were tied to his neck and he were thrown in the deepest sea.’

That’s pretty harsh and I am not sure how it plays out. It does however indicate to us how important our treatment of and our example to children is vital. We had better be very, very careful in our treatment of the children in our lives.

I do realise that Jesus is talking about all who are child-like in their faith here. In context He is speaking of those who have exercised that child-like faith in coming to Him.

That is true and all the things I said above apply to folks who are children in the faith, but we also know that Jesus sees literal children as precious to Himself and He does use them to illustrate this spiritual truth.

'Jesus loves the literal children' both physical and spiritual. We need to practice the same love.