Receiving God's Word as a Child

Jesus said, “Assuredly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will by no means enter it” (Mark 10:15; Luke 18:17). Mark and Luke both record this, but neither author gives any further context to the statement other than the events that surrounded Jesus saying it: 1) Some children were brought to Jesus so that He might bless them; 2) The disciples rebuked the ones who had brought them; 3) Jesus was “greatly displeased” with this and told His disciples not to hinder the children (Mark 10:14); 4) Jesus encouraged the children to come, because, as He said, “of such is the kingdom of God” (Mark 10:14); 5) Jesus made the above statement and then blessed the children. So, if the context does not explain it, what does it mean to receive the kingdom of God as a child?

I don’t believe there’s only one answer to this question. Whenever we are given a broad, open ended instruction without much context in Scripture, I believe we’re meant to meditate upon it in light of both reason and the rest of God’s revelation and draw as many warranted conclusions as we can. I think one conclusion we should reach relates to the way we receive the seed of the kingdom, the word of God. When we read Scripture, we should attempt to read it as a child would.

I have had the opportunity over the course of my life to read a lot of articles and books about the Bible. Sometimes, I marvel at the conclusions reached or missed by the authors I have read relative to clear, Biblical texts. Sometimes, authors will go to great lengths to deny the clearest, simplest meaning of a given passage. However, I have also had the opportunity on many occasions to sit across the table from someone in a Bible study and see that person reach the clear, simple meaning of a passage he or she had read for the very first time without any help from me. These people have become a living illustration to me of what it means to receive the word of God as a child.

Because Peter was the first, I will be the second to admit that there are some passages of Scripture that are “hard to understand” (2 Peter 3:16). Further, I will also admit alongside of the Ethiopian eunuch that there are some conclusions that are hard to reach “unless someone guides me” (Acts 8:31). When Jesus ascended on high to take the throne of His kingdom (Ephesians 4:8-10; cf. Daniel 7:13-14), the church, He equipped certain individuals for the work of guiding and teaching so that they could teach others (Ephesians 4:11-16; cf. 2 Timothy 2:2). Having said all of this though, there are many passages of Scripture that we can and should take at face value just as a child would.

Each Sunday evening, I am blessed to be able to teach the Bible to a group of children who come early before worship starts. My aim is to get them to learn the books of the Bible by getting them to learn chapter associations. For Matthew, the current book they are studying, they’ve learned to associate “the birth of Jesus” with chapter one, “fleeing to Egypt” with chapter 2, and so on. Before I teach them the association, I overview the chapter with them, which seems to help the association stick a little better.

Some of the harder chapters to overview in this fashion are chapters that contain teachings rather than historical events. It occurred to me though this past Sunday as I tried to boil down the teaching of Matthew 7 that there was actually value in what I was doing for more than just my target audience. By attempting to summarize the chapter for children, I was actually attempting to read the text as a child and take from Jesus’ words the big, simple ideas He was teaching. I drew five simple lessons out of Matthew 7:

• Don’t be harder on others than you are on yourself.
• Ask, seek, and knock for blessings from God.
• Treat others as you want to be treated.
• Look only at what others do and don’t pretend you know what they are thinking.
• Do what Jesus says, not what you think He says.

Is there more to Matthew 7 than this simple list of conclusions that I created? Absolutely. As with the rest of the Bible, there is so much depth and nuance in Jesus’ words! It’s easy though to get caught in the depth and riches of Scripture and lose sight of the big picture. As you might do with a picture on a computer screen, it’s possible to zoom in and examine the pixels of a Bible text for so long that you forget what the picture looks like. It’s hard to do that though when you’re attempting to read Scripture as a child.

I want to offer two lessons therefore in closing. First, before accepting some convoluted explanation of a relatively clear passage of Scripture, ask, “How might a child understand this?” And second, as you study rich passages of Scripture full of meaning, be sure to step back from time to time and think about the big, simple lessons that God is trying to get you to put into your life. Doing this will no doubt help you receive the word of God and the kingdom it proclaims as a little child. 

-Patrick Swayne  
patrick@tftw.org