Unless you become like little children
 

I am interested in interpreting and understanding scripture. This particular scripture fascinates me.

Matthew 18:3-4......."And he said: 'I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.'

For me this is a call to simplicity. We consume ourselves with focusing on the intricacies of faith, attempting to develop a rationale and a faith that is ironclad and without fault. This scripture is a call to revert to that which has been lost to us......the innocence of a child. Note that the word 'change' is used.....indicating that we have changed into something that is an impediment to our spiritual journey. I used to think about this scripture and thought that this means, among other things, that the development and increasing influence of the ego as we become older is the unstated culprit. And perhaps it is to a large extent. This understanding was based largely on verse 3......I was guilty of ignoring somewhat the following verse 4.....i.e. 'whoever humbles himself'. This can be an explanatory verse.

My attention was drawn to this by 2 recent quotes I discovered by Hans Urs von Balthasar.

First......"To be a child means to owe one's existence to another, and even in our adult life we never quite reach the point where we no longer have to give thanks for being the person we are."

Second(and similar)....."Only the Christian religion, which in its essence is communicated by the eternal child of God, keeps alive in its believers the lifelong awareness of their being children, and therefore of having to ask and give thanks for things."

These 2 quotes seem to point to something that can be easily overlooked as we pursue what seem to be greater things. It is a call for returning to the most basic things and allowing those basics to be a foundation for our spiritual quests. What do others think? I am curious........

On being a child, this verse comes to mind;

1 Corinthians 13:7. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

I love these verses.

Jesus set the Little child in the midst of them.

So I am guessing around 5 or under. Since he was a size to pick up and set. Also little child.

So I have to go back in my childhood and I remember the:
Trust (in parents)
wonderment of life.
The sponge for learning.
Comfort.
Love and dependency.
The whole fascination with new things like nature.
The present moment oneness I felt.
The excitement of an upcoming event.
The time difference.(time was slow)
The joy of innocence.
The joy of no responsibility. (not that I knew what that even was)
So on and so forth.

ImthatIm,

I love your response, thanks.....:) The very things that you mentioned seem to capture so much of the essence of childhood. They all seem to be things that can give us direction in our adult pursuits.

What is the kingdom of heaven?

sky123,

Not quite sure if this is meant to distract to the subject in hand or not. I would logically assume that with 5,000+ postings that you have a concept of the kingdom of heaven.....:) It is just that I see so many threads go astray over the defintion of terms or even one word. Nevertheless, I will give a very short answer(my opinion, you understand, not to be verified or contradicted by other source material).

First, because this is the Christianity forum, we are reminded that Jesus said...."My kingdom is not of this world". Furthermore, Christians generally make the assumption that if God, in fact, has a domicile it would be what we call 'heaven'. Every kingdom, by definition, has A king. For us to be part of a kingdom we are expected to owe allegiance and obedience to the king. If we do we remain as citizens in good standing......:) If not, we are either punished, exiled or deposed. As long as we remain in good standing we come under the protection of the king and can enjoy the privileges of being in his kingdom.

This is the short answer.....for particulars check with God......:)

paradise, a beautiful place, the opposite of this world, where we have to have locks on our doors and wars. it doesn't sell out to this world and go along with it

Jesus said that the kingdom of heaven is within , sometimes it's described as within and without, so what /where is the kingdom of heaven?

I personally think it's a state of mind, so I was trying to work out what ' Become like Children ' means in regards to a state of mind. I have heard children describe heaven as a magical place in the sky :smile:

Mybe it's wherever/whatever you perceive it to be as perceptions influence our realities.

With regards to the kingdom of heaven. I would say it is as much a place as one's own mind or heart is a place. After all; where does the heart and mind exist? They must exist somewhere.

People say the kingdom of heaven lies within - where is 'within'? You need to have a place for there to be any 'within'...

It's obvious the heart exists inside the physical body, you can see a heart but can you see a mind?

The mind is the spiritual Self’s personal domain, you can't see a mind nor can you see your spirit. When you realize that your true nature ' self realization ' is a spiritual being then that to me is heaven.

Hello all.

Walk, sing and dance with the child within you and all the other children.

Xxx pete

What I was getting at is; where does the spiritual heart and mind exist? Where does spirit exist? If spirit exists in a place then there can be a place called heaven.

Jesus was referring to the humbleness of a child. when we speak to a child, they will usually sit, listen, ask questions, once they understand, they try to obey. spiritually adults, tend to want to believe what they want. even when Jehovah God's words says something else ,(Pro. 3:5,6 Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths). some of us refuse to believe "Gods" words, because we want to follow our own selfish course.

which can lead to our destruction ,(James 1:14,15 But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. Then when lust hath conceived, it bring forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bring forth death). we claim to follow Jesus, but do we really?, (Luke 6:46 And why call you me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?). we may be adults, but we have a lot to learn from the humbleness of a child. peace

little children wouldn't know what your talking about so they are blessed!

religious legalism is God's enemy

I like this one weareunity.

"become like little children" is the antithesis of what life asks of us. Life is so hard one needs to be supremely competent to survive. It is odd that heaven asks for the opposite of what life asks of us.

Honza,

Yes, it might seem counterintuitive but the same thought is illustrated in the story of the Prodigal Son.......it depicts a return to the Father and a return to home. If we believe in eternal life we realize that eternity does not begin with our physical birth in this world. Eternity, by definition, precedes our birth. Our mission, in effect, is our rejoining of eternity. Some might say, in a way, a return to Eden. It is symbolically representing a new start.....which, by the way, is the same call that we hear with the injuction "that ye must be born again".

Originally Posted by Honza
"become like little children" is the antithesis of what life asks of us. Life is so hard one needs to be supremely competent to survive. It is odd that heaven asks for the opposite of what life asks of us."



' Life is so hard one needs to be supremely competent to survive.'

It depends on what way you look at it.



" It is odd that heaven asks for the opposite of what life asks of us."


Heaven asks ???? :D
Didn't no heaven asked anything, what do you mean...

Like most of your questions this one would require a whole book on the subject to answer it.

In the first place it is obvious that heaven did not 'ask' anything. I was using a figure of speech. You need to spend time to try and understand what other people are saying.

I was trying to say that the requirements to enter heaven are very different to the requirements to staying alive...

I understand you can't answer my question, no problem :smile:
Mybe this one you can answer,

What are the requirements to enter Heaven? If you see it as a place.

Hello ImthatIm. ☺. pete

Hello all.

An aspect of the relationship between the adult of today and the child of yesterday within is that the child of yesterday remains within as creator of some of the patterns of behaviour which the adult of today continues to be in some sense forced to follow.

Bringing the adult of today together with the inner child of yesterday provides an opportunity for this dependence to become recognised, then understood. With such understanding there comes I think the possibility of the adult of today finding a freedom of choice regarding future behaviour.

pete

For the requirements for entering heaven...(the holy kingdom..not speaking here of the natural love heavens..anyone can enter the natural love heavens at any moment)...BUT you can not access the requirements by your own voilition, to gain entry into the HOLY KINGDOM.
_______________________
volition
/vəˈlɪʃ(ə)n/
noun
noun: volition
the faculty or power of using one's will.
"without conscious volition she backed into her office"
Phrases
of one's own volition — voluntarily.
_______________________

The requirements are brought about by the new birth of soulself, which can only arise from having a constant desire for the HEAVENLY FATHERS love and very essence to constantly flow into you, and consequently slowly but surely reconstructing the soulself into a christed being...which then has the affect on a person of humbling them, they become an adult with an all holy all loving and all merciful way of being. And like a child, and they will then hold no grudges nor malice, etc etc.
It is simply the way one becomes, like a child is simply just an expression or one way of putting it.

You cannot not self endeavour to be as a child to gain entrance into the holy kingdom, and simply being that way will not gain one access...but the receiving in full of the HEAVENLY FATHERS great transforming love and very christ essence in sufficient quantities... is the only key to ones access therein.

"The new birth"....literally becoming a humble child of "GOD the HEAVENLY FATHER"....you become a chosen one...there are no exceptions, any one of "us" can become a chosen one...not just the Jewish peoples, but all of us can become a chosen one.

I thought I just did answer your question.

I'll write a book on your second question.

So, what are the requirements Honza ?. No need for a book just your own ideas :smile:

Sorry, I don't know.

But you posted,

' It is odd that heaven asks for the opposite of what life asks of us. '
so I presumed you had some idea :D

Not to worry, people do say things without thinking :smile:

I was not saying things without thinking. I told you already that the subject about what is required to enter heaven is big. I don't have a fixed policy on the matter.

However it does seem to be at odds with what is required to survive on earth.

I'll tell you exactly what is required from experience...purity.
This doesn't mean you must be every second of your life...but after sitting for hours and hours
and hours in complete stillness...you reach 'the Secret Place'...of purity...this is where Heaven is within....
this is where God visits you personally. :notworthy:

This is also where your life is ruined forever, LOL.:tongue:
You can never truly settle for anything else, for, now, you know what we were made for.

I often wonder if God is playing a practical joke upon all of us. Each of us have different experiences, outlooks, hopes, fears etc. Each of us WANT what is best for one and all. We all want God. Yet He is not here yet.

I wonder if He could turn up if He wanted to and save the day.... put us out of our misery so to speak. I have never experienced inner bliss and to be honest the subject does not appeal. Instead I have experienced Judaic euphoria and Christian magic.

Others have experienced the Tao. Or soul orgasm, or social ecstasy etc.

We are all searching....we are all desiring. He will come in the end.

It could be our collective, inherited history which we learn as we grow up in the society around us blinds us to spiritual truths and that could be intentional. Then, special status would go to those who say they can see
Its hard to know without rising above it all
The hard edge of the world is certainly reinforced by dogmatic and religious concepts. There's not many holy men/women around.

Honza,

A couple of ways of viewing this. First of all.......yes.....we are all different. You must believe that there are many paths to God. There will not be one that is best for one and all. What does that mean? It means that you are unique in the kingdom of God and He recognizes that. Think of it as a customized path waiting for you......:) Finding it is our personal dilemma. Think also of Matthew 7:14...."But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it." What does this tell us? If the gate is small and the road is narrow we had better start getting rid of baggage. I will let you ponder metaphorically what constitutes 'baggage'.

“Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth."

' I have never experienced inner bliss and to be honest the subject does not appeal '

How do you know it doesn't appeal if you haven't experienced it? :smile:


What is J E and C M ?


'He will come in the end.'

If you wait for a 'coming' you must feel a separation.....

Of course I feel a separation. Everybody I know does too. I'm not in a state of 'union with God'.

That is another book I need to write.

When you speak of writing books to answer then I see that you don't have an answer :biggrin:
I have noticed that people use words that they have heard/seen quoted by others but when it comes down to the nitty gritty they cannot go any further. It's all about ' Self Realisation ' and if you don't realize it yourself words are worthless...

Yes some people do feel separated but as its a state of mind a shift is possible.

…..ummm. Right.

If someone throws a party and informs that only people with a green hat are allowed to enter, that's the code to those who have been invited and accepted the instruction.

To enter the sea one has to turn into a fish, to enter the sky one has to turn into a bird, to enter the Earth one was to turn into a human, and to enter the realm that Christ was referring to one has to turn into a child.