Matthew 18:1-14
In that hour the disciples came to Jesus, saying, Who then is greater in the kingdom of Heaven?
And having called forward a little child, Jesus set him in their midst.
And He said, Truly I say to you, Unless you convert and become as the little children, not at all can you enter into the kingdom of Heaven.
Then whoever will humble himself as this little child, this one is the greater in the kingdom of Heaven. See John 1:3:3-8 2 Corinthians 4:6 John 6:35-65 Acts 13:48
And whoever will receive one such little child in My name receives Me.
But whoever causes one of these little ones believing in Me to offend (to stumble) ( to sin), it is better for him that a millstone turned by an ass be hung on his neck, and he be sunk in the depth of the sea.
Woe to the world from its offenses! It is a necessity for the offenses to come, yet woe to that man through whom the offense comes!
And if your hand or your foot offends you, cut it off and throw it from you; it is good for you to enter into life lame or maimed, than having two hands or two feet to be thrown into the everlasting fire.
And if your eye offends you, pluck it out and throw it from you; for it is good for you to enter into life one eyed, than having two eyes to be thrown into the Hell of fire.
See that you do not despise one of these little ones , for I tell you that their angels in Heaven continually look on the face of My Father in Heaven.
For the Son of man has come to save that which was lost.
What do you think? If there be to any man a hundred sheep, and one of them strays away, will he not leave the ninety nine on the mountains, and going, seek the straying one ?
And if he happens to find it, truly I say to you that he rejoices over it more than over the ninety nine not going astray.
So it is not the will before your Father in Heaven that one of these little ones should perish.
Comment– Plucking out one eye out of 2 and cutting off 1 foot out of 2 won’t get rid of the other of the pair. So, the eye and foot and hand must be metaphors for something close to you; physically or mentally that causes you to sin.
Comment– Jesus goes after any one of His sheep the Father gives Him because He came to seek and save all the Father gives. His shed blood and imputed righteousness as His substitutional work and person made their salvation efficacious and effectual.
It is impossible for Jesus to lose one the father gives Him. They all will come to know the truth that sets free through God given generation from above making them a new creation in Christ Jesus.
Jesus said He is The Way, The Truth and The Life. No one comes to The Father except through Him. If the Son sets you free, you are free indeed.
See John 3:3-8 Romans 9:8-11 2 Corinthians 5:17 John 8:36 John 14:6
Comment– Jesus said, in my other words, it would be better to be put to death by drowning in the sea than to cause a little one that believes into Him to stumble ( to offend) ( to cause to sin) or keep them from His Word; which is to sin; trying to trip up their faith. Death must be better than eternal conscious punishment.
Luke 18:13
And standing at a distance, the tax collector would not even lift up his eyes to Heaven, but smote on his breast, saying, God, be merciful to me, the sinner!
Comment– The Tax Collector who asked God for mercy, humbled himself understanding his sin against God while recognizing the righteousness of God through Jesus Christ.
God gives repentance, a change of mind, to His little children such as the Tax Collector. They come to God through Jesus Christ burdened down.
The Tax Collector is one the Father gives to Jesus to be saved. See 2 Timothy 2:25
John 6:37-39
All that the Father gives to Me shall come to Me, and the one coming to Me I will in no way cast out.
For I have come down out of Heaven, not that I should do My will, but the will of Him who sent Me.
And this is the will of the Father sending Me, that of all that He has given Me, I shall not lose any of it, but shall raise it up in the last day.
Matthew 11:27-30
All things were yielded up to Me by My Father; and no one knows the Son except the Father; nor does anyone know the Father, except the Son, and the one to whom the Son wills to reveal Him .
Come to Me ( See John 6:37), all those laboring and being burdened, and I will give you rest. ( See Hebrews 4:2-3)
Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me,(See John 6:45) because I am meek and lowly in heart, “and you will find rest to your souls.” Jer. 6:16
For My yoke is easy, and My burden is light.
Comment– Jesus calls the ones The Father gives to Him His little children.
John 13:33-35
Little children, yet a little while I am with you. You will seek Me; and, as I said to the Jews, Where I go, you are not able to come; I also say to you now.
I give a new commandment to you, that you should love one another; according as I loved you, you should also love one another.
By this all shall know that you are My disciples, if you have love among one another.
John 7:7
The world cannot hate you; but it hates Me because I witness about it, that its works are evil.
Comment– in John 7:7 above, Jesus is talking to his physical brothers. They did not believe into Him. Therefore, they were part of the world that does not hate them because they are in agreement with the world which Jesus refers to in
1 John 2:15-17
Do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him,
because all that which is in the world: the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.
And the world is passing away, and its lust. But the one doing the will of God abides forever.
John 3:19-20
And this is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness more than the Light, for their works were evil.
For everyone practicing wickedness hates the Light, and does not come to the Light, that his works may not be exposed.
Matthew 13:11
And answering, He said to them, Because it has been given to you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of Heaven, but it has not been given to those.
Comment– All the Father gives, His little children, to Jesus to be saved are given knowledge that the reprobate does not receive from God.
John 15:18-27
If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it has hated you.
If you were of the world, the world would love its own. But because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, for this reason the world hates you.
Remember the Word which I said to you, A slave is not greater than his lord. If they persecuted Me, they also will persecute you. If they kept My Word, they also will keep yours.
But all these things they will do to you on account of My name, because they do not know the One who sent Me.
If I had not come and had not spoken to them, they had no sin. But now they do not have excuse as to their sin.
The one hating Me also hates My Father.
If I did not do the works among them which no other did, they had no sin. But now they both have seen and also have hated Me and My Father.
But that may be fulfilled the Word that has been written in their Law, “They hated Me without a cause.” Psa. 69:4
And when the Comforter comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, that One will witness concerning Me.
And you also witness, because from the beginning you are with Me.
Matthew 11:25
Answering at that time, Jesus said, I praise You, Father, Lord of Heaven and of Earth, because You hid these things from the sophisticated and cunning and revealed them to (little children) babes.
1 John 1:10
If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us.
1 John 2:1
My little children, I write these things to you so that you do not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.
1 John 2:12
Little children, I write to you because you have been forgiven your sins through His name.
1 John 2:13
Fathers, I write to you because you have known Him from the beginning. I write to you, young men, because you overcome the evil one. I write to you, young ones ( Little Children KJ3), because you have known the Father. (See John 10:27-30) ( John 10:5)
1 John 2:18
Young ones (Children KJ3), it is a last hour, and as you heard that the antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have risen up, from which you know that it is a last hour
1 John 2:28
.And now, little children, abide in Him, that when He is revealed we may have confidence, and not be shamed from Him in His coming.
1 John 3:7
Little children, let no one lead you astray; the one practicing righteousness is righteous, even as that One is righteous.
1 John 3:8
The one practicing sin is of the Devil, because the Devil sins from the beginning. For this the Son of God was revealed, that He undo the works of the Devil.
1 John 3:18
My little children, let us not love in word, or in tongue, but in deed and in truth.
1 John 4:4
Little children, you are of God and have overcome them, because He in you is greater than he in the world.
1 John 5:1-21
Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God. And everyone who loves Him who begets also loves the one who has been born of Him.
By this we know that we love the children of God: when we love God and keep His commandments.
For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments; and His commandments are not heavy.
Because everything having been born of God overcomes the world, and this is the victory overcoming the world, our faith.
Who is the one overcoming the world except the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?
This is the One coming through water and blood, Jesus Christ; not by the water only, but by the water and the blood. And the Spirit is the One witnessing, because the Spirit is the truth.
For there are three bearing witness in Heaven: the Father the Word, and the Holy Spirit; and these three are one
And there are three who bear witness on the earth: The Spirit, and the water, and the blood; and the three are to the one.
If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater; because this is the witness of God which He has witnessed about His Son:
The one believing in the Son of God has the witness in himself. The one not believing God has made Him a liar, because he has not believed in the witness which God has witnessed concerning His Son.
And this is the witness: that God gave us everlasting life, and this life is in His Son.
The one having the Son has life. The one not having the Son of God does not have life.
I wrote these things to you, the ones believing in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have everlasting life, and that you may believe in the name of the Son of God.
And this is the confidence we have toward Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us.
And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests which we have asked from Him.
If anyone sees his brother sinning a sin not unto death, he shall ask; and He shall give life to him, to the ones not sinning unto death. There is a sin unto death. I do not say that he should ask about that. ( See Matthew 12:31)
All unrighteousness is sin, and there is a sin not unto death.
We know that everyone having been born of God does not sin, but the one born of God keeps himself, and the evil does not touch him.
We know that we are of God, and the whole world lies in evil.
And we know that the Son of God has come, and He has given to us an understanding that we may know the true One , and we are in the true One , in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and the life everlasting.
1 John 5:21
Little children, guard yourselves from idols. Amen.
Highlights italics added for emphasis by me unless match scripture
Literal Translation Jay P Green 1993
KJ3 literal translation Jay P Green 2006-2010
God’s Word Interprets God’s Word 
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