Except Ye Be Converted

In Matthew 18:3 Jesus answered a question of who is greatest in the kingdom of heaven saying, “Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.”  To be converted is to change.  What must change? That which “offends” (verses 8, 9) must be removed.  The removal may not be easy, it might even be painful as the cutting off a hand or foot indicate.  What might these be?  Friends or activities may be indicated.  I know a person who, after conversion, had to stop his association with several friends on a softball team.  These friends could not accept his decision to live differently, so they pressured him to engage in old sinful activities. These old friends became a source of offense, the solution was cutting off, removal from a place of influence.

One might need to “cut off” a job.  If the place where a Christian works requires him or her to engage in unethical activities, it must be “cut off” and a new job sought.  If, for example, the job requires lying to customers, misrepresenting a product, or keeping financial records which are not accurate; the employee is acting unethically.  The child of God does not conduct business in such a way.

Old attitudes may need cutting off.  Negative, faultfinding, murmuring, and complaining are not the ways of those traveling the straight and narrow way.  Paul addressed this attitude among several other sinful actions in I Corinthians 10:1ff, using the example of Israel in their wilderness wanderings.  Note the following from verse 10, “Neither murmur ye, as some of them also murmured.”

But is this all that is involved in conversion?  No!  When the things that offend are cut off, the process of conversion is only half completed.  Once that which is not needed is removed, there must be some things brought in to replace that which was removed.  So what must the converted bring in?

The attitude of a little child.  Several aspects of a child are needed. First, there must be respect and trust for the Father.  In the life of a child there is no one quite like mom and dad.  The parents see to it that the well-being of their child is provided.  They take care of the feeding, clothing, and providing shelter from the elements.  God, through Jesus, has promised the same for His children:

And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin:  And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is, and to morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith? Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed?  (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things.  But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you (Matthew 6:28-33).

More on this next week.

—Denny