Matthew 18
Humility and Greatness in the Kingdom 1–5
Warnings Against Causing Others to Stumble 6–9
The Value of the Little Ones (The Lost Sheep) 10–14
Addressing Sin in the Community 15–20
The Parable of the Unforgiving Servant 21–35
Bible text: King James Version (1769 Blayney text) · Public domain
Study Notes for Matthew 18
Verse 1
Who is the greatest — Mark 9:34 records the setting: on the way ‘they had disputed among themselves, who should be the greatest’, and they ‘held their peace’ when asked. The strife returns at the Supper (Luke 22:24). Christ answers with a child (v.2) and with his own example: he ‘came not to be ministered unto, but to minister’ (Matt 20:28).
Verse 3
Except ye be converted — Strepho is to turn right round, here in the passive: the disciples are to be turned from the question of rank itself. ‘Become as little children’ (paidia, the word of v.2) restates the condition of Mark 10:15, ‘Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child, he shall not enter therein.’
Verse 6
offend one of these little ones — Skandalizo is to cause to stumble. The ‘little ones’ are described as those ‘which believe in me’, so the phrase reaches beyond children. The millstone is mylos onikos, one so large that a donkey turned it. The saying is repeated in Mark 9:42 and Luke 17:2.
Verse 7
Woe unto the world because of offences — Skandalon is whatever makes a person fall. Luke 17:1 gives the same two sayings: ‘It is impossible but that offences will come: but woe unto him, through whom they come!’ The woe falls twice, on the world that stumbles and on the man by whom the stumbling block comes.
Verse 8
cut them off, and cast them from thee — The same saying is given of the hand and the right eye in Matt 5:29–30, and Mark 9:43 adds ‘the fire that never shall be quenched’. ‘Everlasting fire’ (aionios pyr) is the fire ‘prepared for the devil and his angels’ (Matt 25:41). ‘Halt’ (cholos) is lame and ‘maimed’ (kyllos) crippled.
Verse 10
their angels — The little ones have angels who always ‘behold the face of my Father’. Scripture speaks elsewhere of angels sent to those who fear God: ‘The angel of the LORD encampeth round about them that fear him’ (Ps 34:7), and they are ‘ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation’ (Heb 1:14).
Verse 11
to save that which was lost — Apollymi is to lose or destroy, the verb translated ‘perish’ in v.14. Luke 19:10 gives the same declaration in fuller form: ‘the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.’ It supplies the reason for the shepherd’s search in the verses that follow.
Verse 12
gone astray — Planao, to wander from the way. The shepherd ‘goeth into the mountains, and seeketh’ the one, as the LORD says of his flock in Ezek 34:12, ‘As a shepherd seeketh out his flock… so will I seek out my sheep’. Luke 15:4–7 gives the same parable, with joy in heaven over one sinner that repenteth.
Verse 14
not the will of your Father — ‘Will’ is thelema, what God wills, and ‘perish’ is apollymi, the ‘lost’ of v.11. Peter states the same of God: he is ‘not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance’ (2 Pet 3:9). ‘Your Father’ answers ‘my Father’ in v.10.
Verse 15
thou hast gained thy brother — Kerdaino, to win; Paul uses it of winning people, ‘that I might gain the more’ (1 Cor 9:19). The private word ‘between thee and him alone’ follows Lev 19:17, ‘thou shalt in any wise rebuke thy neighbour, and not suffer sin upon him’. Elencho, ‘tell him his fault’, is to show a person his error.
Verse 16
in the mouth of two or three witnesses — The rule is Deut 19:15: ‘at the mouth of two witnesses, or at the mouth of three witnesses, shall the matter be established’. Paul quotes it in almost the same words of his third visit to Corinth (2 Cor 13:1). ‘Word’ (rhema) is a spoken matter, the thing alleged.
Verse 17
tell it unto the church — Ekklesia, an assembly, is found in the Gospels only here and in Matt 16:18, ‘upon this rock I will build my church’. The ‘publican’ (telones) is the outsider of Matt 5:46–47, and ethnikos, ‘heathen man’, is found only here and in Matt 6:7. Yet the Twelve include ‘Matthew the publican’ (Matt 10:3).
Verse 18
bind… loose — Deo and lyo, to tie and to untie. The words were first spoken to Peter with ‘the keys of the kingdom of heaven’ (Matt 16:19); here ‘ye’ is plural, addressed to the disciples together. John 20:23 gives the same authority over sins: ‘Whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them’.
Verse 20
gathered together in my name — Synago, to assemble. ‘There am I in the midst of them’ joins the Gospel’s first promise, Emmanuel, ‘God with us’ (Matt 1:23), to its last, ‘lo, I am with you alway’ (Matt 28:20). Paul speaks of the Corinthians ‘gathered together’ in ‘the name of our Lord Jesus Christ’ (1 Cor 5:4).
Verse 21
till seven times? — Peter takes up the brother who sins ‘against’ him (v.15) and asks how far forgiveness goes. Luke 17:4 records the same number from Christ, ‘seven times in a day’. Aphiemi, ‘forgive’, is the verb that runs through the chapter, in vv.21, 27, 32 and 35.
Verse 22
seventy times seven — Hebdomekontakis, ‘seventy times’, occurs only here in the New Testament. It recalls Lamech’s ‘seventy and sevenfold’ (Gen 4:24), the measure of his vengeance, and sets pardon at that measure beyond Peter’s ‘seven times’ (heptakis).
Verse 24
ten thousand talents — Myrioi, ten thousand, is set against the ‘hundred pence’ of v.28, and a penny is a day’s wage (Matt 20:2). ‘Owed’ is opheiletes, a debtor, the word of the prayer ‘as we forgive our debtors’ (Matt 6:12). The reckoning that begins here ends with the payment demanded in v.34.
Verse 27
moved with compassion — Splanchnizomai, from the word for the inward parts, is the verb of Christ’s own pity in Matthew (Matt 9:36; 14:14; 15:32; 20:34) and of the father in Luke 15:20. The lord ‘loosed’ (apolyo) the servant and ‘forgave’ (aphiemi) the ‘debt’ (daneion, a loan, found only here in the New Testament).
Verse 28
took him by the throat — Pnigo, to choke. ‘Fellowservants’ (syndoulos) is the parable’s repeated word (vv.28, 29, 31, 33), putting the second debtor on the same footing as the first. A hundred pence (denarion) is a hundred days’ wage by the reckoning of Matt 20:2, and opheilo, ‘owed’, is used of this debt in vv.28 and 30 and of the first in v.34, ‘all that was due unto him’.
Verse 34
delivered him to the tormentors — Basanistes, a torturer, occurs only here in the New Testament. The terms, ‘till he should pay all’, match Matt 5:25–26, where the one handed over is cast into prison and ‘shalt by no means come out thence, till thou hast paid the uttermost farthing’.
Verse 35
from your hearts — Forgiveness is asked from the kardia, the heart. ‘Trespasses’ (paraptoma) is the word of Matt 6:14–15: ‘if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses’. ‘My heavenly Father’ recalls vv.10 and 14, and ‘his brother’ recalls Peter’s question in v.21.