The Hard Sayings: Matthew 18:3

Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

This article is part of a series explaining the sayings of Jesus that are hard to understand from a list put together by Lord's Library. To see their list of these verses, go to this page.

This verse was spoken to the apostles in Galilee. Entering into Capernaum, Jesus ask Peter who pays taxes, strangers or the children of kings. Peter says, “strangers.” Jesus responds saying (Matthew 17:26) “Then, the children are free.”

Following this, his students asked Jesus who is the “greatest” in the kingdom of “heaven” (Matthew 18:1). Jesus put a child into the middle of his students and answers this question about the “greatest” with Matthew 18:3:

NIV: Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

The words in boldface are those that need explanation.

“Higher” not “Greatest”

To understand this verse, we have to understand what his disciples asked. They did not ask who is “greatest” in the kingdom. The word they used was “greater” not “greatest,” but the Greek word has a wide variety of meanings. It means "bigger," "higher," and "longer," as well as "greater."

His students were talking about “the kingdom of the skies,” not our idea of “heaven” (see this article), so the context was “higher.” The kingdom is different from earthly realms because it is “higher” than they are. Since “greater” and “higher” are the same word, both ideas mean “better” in a comparison. This concept of “higher” inspired Jesus to humorously use a child as an illustration for his point.

This “higher” is a setup line for the next several verses, which often compare a child’s height to that of an adult. In the next verse, (Matthew 18:4), we are told to “humble” ourselves as a child, but the Greek verb translated as “humble” means “lower.” We must lower ourselves to the height of a child. And six verses later (Matthew 18:10) Jesus said that we should not “despise” a child, but the Greek verb translated as “despise” means “look down upon,” a play on the differences in height between children and adults. Adults must necessarily look down on children because of their difference in height, but Jesus tells us not to see them as lesser in value. All these connections are lost in the less than accurate translations we see in the Bible.

Children Under Seven

Jesus uses the word “little children” to emphasize this physical lack of height. The Greek means "a young child" or "little child." It specifically refers to children under seven-years-old. It is one of several words that Jesus uses that are translated as "child" or "children" (see this article). Another aspect of this word is that it is neither masculine or feminine, but neuter. Six and below is an age before the gender of a child shows itself. The term also refers to a “young slave,” an idea we will come back to a the end of this article.

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