Matthew 18 Commentary
Please choose a passage:
Matthew 18:1-5
The disciples enter the house and Jesus asks them about who the greatest is in the kingdom of heaven? He holds a child and tells them that they must become like this humble child if they are to enter God’s kingdom.
Matthew 18:6-7
Having taught about greatness in the kingdom, Jesus now teaches about failure. He teaches that becoming a stumbling block to little ones is an immediate disqualifier for the rewards of the kingdom.
Matthew 18:8-9
Jesus repeats a metaphor from the Sermon on the Mount warning His disciples that it is better for them to lose part of their body now and enter His kingdom, than to keep all of their body now and miss entering His kingdom.
Matthew 18:10
Jesus warns His disciples not to dismiss or mistreat one of these little ones because their angels are always telling the King of Heaven how they were being treated.
Matthew 18:11-14
In the context of showing how much these little ones mean to Jesus and His Father, Jesus shares that the very reason He came as the Messiah was to save them. He then tells His disciples the parable of the lost sheep as a depiction of His deep concern for these little ones.
Matthew 18:15-17
Jesus teaches His disciples a practical way to help and confront a brother who has become ensnared by sin. It seeks to keep his reputation intact while offering him a chance for repentance.
Matthew 18:18-20
Jesus reminds the disciples that they have been granted the keys of heaven to call upon God’s power to work in them as they proclaim His kingdom on earth, and they have the capacity to redeem things on earth for the kingdom in heaven.
Matthew 18:21-22
Peter asks Jesus where he should set the limits of his mercy toward his brother and suggested that he should forgive him up to seven times. Jesus said no, do not put limits on your forgiveness, and told Peter to forgive his brother as many times as needed without any limitation whatsoever.
Matthew 18:23-35
Jesus tells Peter a parable to emphasize the importance of unlimited forgiveness. It is about how the king forgives an absurdly unpayable debt of one of his ministers when the minister begs for mercy.
Additional Resources
The Gospel of Matthew was written to demonstrate to the Jews of Jesus, the Messiah’s generation that He was indeed the Christ. Matthew thematically substantiates the Messianic identity of Jesus beginning with the genealogy of Jesus, which ran from Abraham, the father of Israel’s people through King David who was promised to have a son who would be on Israel’s throne forever. Throughout his Gospel account Matthew makes use of numerous prophecies both explicitly stated and by way of subtle allusion to support his thesis. Matthew further makes use of parallel events in Jesus’s life to those of Messianic figures from the Old Testament (Moses, Joseph, David, etc.) to bolster his argument.
Jesus came to offer the Jews the chance to participate in the inauguration of the Messianic Kingdom. To do this, they would have to receive and follow Him as their Messiah. Jesus’s message was “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matthew 4:17). Ultimately, they rejected Him as their Messiah and condemned Jesus to death by crucifixion. The Jews’ rejection of the Messiah opened the door for Gentiles to enter the kingdom (Matthew 8:11-12, 22:1-10). Matthew’s Gospel is therefore a call for the Jews repent of their murder of Jesus and to embrace Him for the divine Messiah He is.
Matthew shows how their rejection of Him and His brutal death was predicted not only by Jesus Himself, but also was foretold in the Jewish scriptures of the Messiah.
The main proof that Jesus was the Messiah was “the sign of Jonah” (Matthew 12:39, 16:4). This was Jesus’s death and resurrection from the dead. “Just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the sea monster, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth” (Matthew 12:40).
Because Matthew’s Gospel was written to people who were already members of God’s eternal family by virtue of their faith in God’s promise to send the Messiah, Matthew emphasizes the “reward of eternal life” (aka “The Prize of Eternal Life”) rather than “the Gift of Eternal Life”. In other words, Matthew’s Gospel focuses on how to “enter the kingdom” rather than how to “be born again”.
Matthew’s Gospel demonstrates how Jesus came to fulfill the law and open a way for God’s people to participate in the Messianic kingdom if they would follow His example of worshiping God from the heart by forgiving and serving others.
For “the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many” (Matthew 20:28). If we have faith to follow the example set forth by the resurrected Messiah, whom all authority on heaven and earth has been granted (Matthew 28:18) and take up our cross for His sake (Matthew 16:24-25), then we will become great in His kingdom (Matthew 20:26).
Finally, Matthew provides extensive samples of Jesus’s teachings including “the Sermon on the Mount”, “the Little Commission”, and “the Olivet Discourse” and many parables, alongside accounts of numerous miracles and wonders, personal moments with His twelve disciples, interactions with seekers, and increasingly as his Gospel account progresses: challenges and confrontations with His adversaries – the Pharisees, Scribes, and Priests.
The disciples come to Jesus and ask Him who will be the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. He answers their question by telling them that the greatest in heaven will be like a child. He elaborates His answer. Christ states that the reason He was sent to earth was to save the lost, which meant showing forgiveness. The Messiah expects His disciples to do the same and teaches them how to confront a brother in sin. Peter asks Jesus what the appropriate limit is for offering forgiveness to a repeat offender. Jesus answers with a euphemistic hyperbole that indicates an unlimited number of times. He then shares a parable about a king who forgave a great debtor who would not forgive his own servant, to demonstrate that we should forgive others without limit.
View Matthew on the Timeline