Matthew 18:2-5 And Jesus called a little child to him, and set him in the middle of them,… The question of the disciples brings them very distinctly before us, and makes them very real to us, as men like unto ourselves. Nothing can be more artless, and evidently truthful, than their representation in these Gospels of their own thoughts and conduct. How beautifully does Jesus rebuke all this. What a profound and original idea of greatness does this unfold! I. THE COMMENDATION OF HUMILITY. That humility is not set forth as the sole condition of the heavenly estate, The Saviour's words do not limit the entire range of Christian character to this one quality. It is its secret fountain. What humility is not. 1. Humility is not a weak and timid quality. It must be distinguished from a grovelling spirit. We should think something of our humanity, and not cast it under men's feet. Servants to all; servile to none. 2. It is not to be confounded with that morbid self-abasement which grows out of certain religious views. We may well be humble when we see the infinite love against which we have sinned. 3. Genuine humility is not incompatible with a consciousness of merit; for a secret persuasion of power is the spring of noble enterprise.The consciousness of possessing something is essential to the sense of deficiency which makes us truly humble. 1. Now see how humility lies at the base of all true greatness. We instinctively associate humility with greatness. We always suspect ostentation. 2. The weakness which pride covers, but does not obviate, in the matter of dress and show. It is a great thing for a man to know and feel that he is a man; it is a great thing for him to understand where he is, and to profess what he is. Humility is the spring of all intellectual greatness; also of religious. The man who is convinced that he is perfect, the farthest from being perfect. "God be merciful to me, a sinner," is the spring of all real acquisition in religious things. The child's humility is unconscious; man's humility is reached by experience. 3. The child-like relation in all who in any degree enter into the sphere of Christian faith and feeling. Christ would bring all men to filial dependence upon God. There is no humility without love and confidence; subjection to a tyrant is not humility; but the reverence which I give to a father. (E. H. Chapin, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: And Jesus called a little child unto him, and set him in the midst of them,WEB: Jesus called a little child to himself, and set him in the midst of them, |
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