The disciples came to Jesus asking who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. Jesus says to them that unless they are converted and become like little children, they will not see the kingdom of heaven. We need to humble ourselves like a child, have childlike faith, and no doubt. We need to not have pride or care about a social hierarchy. Little children believe their parents, they don’t have doubt and they believe the impossible can be possible. The older they get the more tempted they get with doubt, disbelief and pride. We need to convert ourselves back to the little children mentality. We need to have no doubt in God, full trust in Him no matter how supernaturally unbelievable something may seem. We need to not swallow our pride (you still digest it when you swallow it) but spit it out and humble ourselves so we can have this faith in Jesus. Our pride gets in the way of our faith.

            Jesus says that whoever receives like this in His name receives Jesus. Whoever causes one of them to fall into sin, it would be better for them to have a millstone hung around his neck. Whoever causes Jesus little children to turn away will be punished.

            Jesus then warns of temptation, if your foot or hand causes you to sin then cut it off, for it is better to enter into life lame than be cast into everlasting fire. If we know something is a temptation for us, simply get rid of it. If you are tempted to engage in inappropriate conversations with your cell phone, get rid of your cell phone. If you are tempted to get drunk when you have drink, then don’t have a drink. We don’t need to dance with temptation, we need to cut it out and stop giving it a foothold.

            Pay attention that we don’t despise one of these little ones. We don’t loathe, we don’t look down onto others. We are to always see people in love, we can dislike the sin but never dislike the sinner. We are supposed to be christians, this term gets thrown around too loosely now days. To be a christian means to be like Christ. Christ wouldn’t walk around thinking, “ew I don’t like that person or the way they act, its gross. I will pray for them because they are weird to me and gross but I will still love them.” No, He sees them in love, He may not like their actions but He still loves them and He sees them as someone God created. God created us all for a specific purpose, we need to see people for what they were created for and picture them as that, see them as someone struggling but someone we love and want to help despite what they are struggling with. We aren’t supposed to loathe anyone because we don’t like the way they act or talk or what they wear or if they smell funny. It is Gods will for His sheep to not go astray and He rejoices more when one lost sheep finds His way home rather than the other 99 sheep who never went astray. He wants the lost to be found. We need to feel compassion and love for the lost instead of judgment and loathing.

            If your brother sings against you, go tell him is fault privately. Don’t gossip about it and tell your mom, sister, friend, cousin and neighbor meanwhile he is sitting there having no idea what he did wrong. When we gossip and spread the story to others views and opinions, we alter the way others see that person. That isn’t our job to do that. If you have an issue with someone go talk to them, immediately, and put the fire out. If after you talk to him and he hears you, then you have your brother back. If he won’t hear you then take two or three witnesses with you for, ‘by the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established.’ If he still refuses to hear it then tell it to the church, and if he still refuses to hear it let him be like a tax collector or a heathen ( a person who doesn’t belong to a widely known religion). If someone doesn’t believe the way you do its hard for them to see where they might have done something wrong in your eyes if their eyes tell them that behavior is ok. Jesus shows us here how to try to mend a situation with a brother, a fellow believer who sins.

            Whatever we bind on earth will be bound in heaven, whatever we loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. If two of us believers agree on earth concerting anything they they ask, it will be done for them by His Father in heaven. For where two or more are gathered together in His name, He is there and the midst of them. This is why we need to pray together and not feel like we can only pray in private. Praying and fasting in private is good too and needed, but we need to be comfortable to pray with other believers as well.

            Then Peter came to Jesus and asked how many times must he forgive someone who betrays him, seven times? Jesus tells Peter not seven times, but seventy times seven. We get in our own ways with our minds sometimes, telling ourselves we forgave them once and they did it again so now we don’t have to forgive them again. Jesus forgives us every time we ask for it, we need to let go of the grudges and forgive others too, regardless if its the first offense or the fiftieth.

            Jesus shares the parable of a king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. One owed him ten thousand talents which is equivalent to 4.5 billion dollars, which is far more than he could make in his lifetime or the generation after his lifetime. If your generation couldn’t pay your account it would continue to the next, having generations of slaves to pay off a single mans debt. The king told his servant to sell this man and his family into slavery to pay back his debt knowing it would take generations to pay it off. The man fell to his knees and begged the king for patience promising that he would pay that incredible debt if the king would just be patient with him. The king was moved by the mans compassion, so moved that he forgave the man of the debt and told him to be on his way. The servant then went and found one of his fellow servants who owed him 100 denarii (fifty dollars) . The man who was just forgiven of his generational debt went to this man who owed him barely anything and laid hands on him in anger demanding the man pay him back. The servant fell to his feet begging for the same patience that his master had just begged the king for, only he wouldn’t give the patience he had just begged for. Instead he threw him in jail till he should pay the debt back. When the king heard news of this he called the man who he had freed from his ten thousand talents and called him wicked. Because the king forgave him of his incredibly large debt he should have showed the same compassion and forgiven his servant as well, especially when it was such a small debt that he owed. The man was delivered to torturers where they were to torture him till the debt of ten thousand talents was restored. Jesus says this is what His heavenly Father will also do to teach you if each of you, from his heart, does not forgive his brother of his trespasses. We must forgive all who have wronged us or made us feel any type of negative way towards them. We must forgive them and see them with compassion as He sees us.