Bible Synapse
Should Christians become like little children or put away childish things?
Hard question · The life of Jesus · raised by 1 of the lists sceptics circulate
See the passages joined in the interactive mapThe passages
Unless the disciples turn and become as little children they will not enter the kingdom; whoever humbles himself as a little child is the greatest.
And said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven.
Paul: “When I was a child, I spake as a child”; “when I became a man, I put away childish things.”
When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.
“Be not children in understanding: howbeit in malice be ye children, but in understanding be men.”
Brethren, be not children in understanding: howbeit in malice be ye children, but in understanding be men.
The objection
Jesus says that no one can enter the kingdom without becoming like a little child. Paul says that he put away childish things when he became a man, and tells the Corinthians not to be children. Critics ask whether being childlike is a virtue or a fault.
The answer
Children can be a picture of more than one thing, and each passage says which it means. Jesus was answering the disciples’ question, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” (Matthew 18:1). He set a child among them and named the quality he meant: “Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest” (18:4). A child has no status to boast of and depends on others; that humility and trust is the way into the kingdom.
Paul is speaking about something else: understanding. In 1 Corinthians 13:11 he compares our present partial knowledge with the full knowledge to come, as a child’s speech and thoughts compare with a grown man’s. In 1 Corinthians 14:20 he draws the distinction himself, in the same verse: “in malice be ye children, but in understanding be men”. Be like children in having no skill at evil, but grown up in your thinking. Ephesians 4:14 makes the same point: believers should be “no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine”. That is close to Jesus’ own teaching, for he told the disciples to be “wise as serpents, and harmless as doves” (Matthew 10:16). So the Bible commends childlike humility and trust, and warns against childish thinking.
From the classic commentators
The idea here is, that the knowledge which we now have, compared with that which we shall have in heaven, is like that which is possessed in infancy compared with that we have in manhoodAlbert Barnes, Notes on the Bible, on 1 Corinthians 13:11 (1837)
Sources
- Albert Barnes, Notes on the Bible: 1 Corinthians 13 (1837), at Bible Hub
- Albert Barnes, Notes on the Bible: 1 Corinthians 14 (1837), at Bible Hub
- John Gill, Exposition of the Bible: Matthew 18 (1746–1763), at Bible Hub