Matthew 18 begins a more concentrated focus on Jesus’ teaching of the disciples, hinted at already in His discourse on kingdom mysteries (Matt 13:16–17). This chapter presents the fourth of the five major teaching blocks of Jesus.¹ Some of Jesus’ most important teachings surface in this chapter, including sayings on who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven (Matt 18:4), seeking and saving the lost (Matt 18:11),² dealing with an offending brother (Matt 18:15–17), and the need to forgive “seventy times seven” (Matt 18:22),³ as well as two well-known parables. Opinions differ as to how this chapter is organized. Some divide it into five sections, while others divide it into six (by considering verses 21–22 as a separate unit).⁴ But it actually seems to divide more naturally into three sections: 1) “Who then is greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” 2) Preserving unity in the church, and 3) “How often shall my brother sin against me and I forgive him?” It will be helpful for us to understand the structure of this teaching block in more detail before considering its individual units.

Structure of the Discourse on the Kingdom and the Church

Similar to the teaching block on kingdom mysteries (Matt 13) that had some dialogue between Jesus and the disciples (Matt 13:10, 36, 51), this block unfolds in response to two questions. The first question is from the disciples and introduces this teaching block: “Who then is greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” (Matt 18:1). The second question is from Peter midway through: “Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? Up to seven times?” (Matt 18:21). Between the two sections (roughly equal in length) that answer these questions is a shorter but pivotal middle section that picks up and develops Jesus’ teaching on the church first introduced in His response to Peter’s confession (see Matt 16:18–19). In a sense, this middle section on the church helps to characterize what precedes and follows it. Important images for understanding the church that appear in the first half include “children” (Matt 18:3), “little ones” (Matt 18:6, 14), and “sheep” (Matt 18:12). Important terms connected with the church in the last half include “brother” (Matt 18:21, 35), “servant(s)” (Matt 18:23, 26–28, 32), and “fellow servant(s)” (Matt 18:28–29, 31, 33). Interestingly, both of these sections conclude with parables that illustrate key ideas—seeking lost sheep and showing forgiveness. The entire chapter, then, elaborates on relationships within the church and can be outlined in three sections as follows:

Structure of Matthew 18

1. Question: “Who then is greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” (Matt 18:1–14)

• Conversion and humility (Matt 18:1–5)

• Warning of offenses (Matt 18:6–9)

• Seeking and saving the lost (Matt 18:10–11)
  Parable: the lost sheep (Matt 18:12–14)

2. Preserving unity in the church (Matt 18:15–20)

3. Question: “How often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him?” (Matt 18:21–35)

• Showing forgiveness (Matt 18:21–22)
  Parable: the unforgiving servant (Matt 18:23–35)

Interpretation of Matthew 18

1. Verses 1–14

• Like the third teaching block, the setting for this discourse is a private one (Matt 13:36). Jesus and the disciples are alone in the house (cf. Matt 17:24–25)—probably Peter’s house in Capernaum (Matt 8:5, 14). Jesus, in spending more focused time teaching His disciples, draws valuable lessons for every member of the church, beginning with conversion and humility in response to the disciples’ question as to who is greatest in the kingdom of heaven. According to the parallel accounts, this question did not arise in a vacuum. On the way back to Capernaum, the twelve had been arguing about which of them would be the greatest in the kingdom (Mark 9:33–34 // Luke 9:46).

• To answer the disciples’ question about greatness, Jesus calls a young child to come to Him. The readiness and simplicity with which the child responds in humble obedience to His call becomes an acted parable of how believers (cf. Matt 18:6: “these little ones who believe in Me”) are to relate to Him as well as to God as their heavenly Father (Matt 18:10).

• Being “converted” (literally, the Greek word means “turning around”) and humbly responding as the child did is identified by Jesus as essential for entering the kingdom of heaven. Greatness is found in accepting a humble position of service (which was the role many children filled at that time) rather than seeking a higher one.

• Jesus also suggests that the way we respond to children, whether we treat them kindly and respectfully, is indicative of our response to Him (Matt 18:5; cf. 25:40). On the other hand, if we lead them astray and into sin, He says in so many words, it would be better to die without any hope of resurrection— pictured as having a large, heavy millstone hung around one’s neck and being cast into a watery grave never to be seen again.

• The word translated “cause to sin” (skandalizō) or “cause to stumble” (NAS95) literally refers to setting a trap to catch something or someone. By extension, then, it refers to putting something in someone’s way that leads them to lose faith, causes damage to their spirituality, or influences them to do wrong or believe error.

• The image of cutting off one’s hand or foot (Matt 18:8–9), like the related idea of plucking out one’s eye rather than looking at someone with lust in one’s heart (Matt 5:28–29), starkly portrays the seriousness of sin and the extreme means that may be needed to cut it out of one’s life—not literally by dismemberment, but by a sanctified mind shutting down all avenues of temptation. Better even to lose a limb than have the entire body destroyed forever in the fires of hell.⁵

• The parable of the lost sheep applies not just to those outside the church and in need of salvation (Luke 15:4–7), but also to estranged or offended members within the church who need our love and attention in order to find healing and restoration to the fellowship of faith. They need to be sought out and ministered to as diligently as those who do not know Jesus or the message for this time. Otherwise, they may likewise perish (Matt 18:14).

• The reference to “their angels” (Matt 18:10) is one of the verses on which the concept that each person has a “guardian angel” is based (see also Ps 34:7; 91:11; Heb 1:14). Additional biblical support for this are references to the angel who ministered to Elijah during his escape to Horeb (1 Kgs 19:5–8), the angel who protected Daniel in the lion’s den (Dan 6:22), the angel who rescued Peter from prison and certain death (see Acts 12:5–11, and the exclamation of the disciples in 12:15), and the angels who ministered to Jesus after His temptation in the wilderness (Matt 4:11) and in Gethsemane (Luke 22:43).

2. Verses 15–20

• This famous passage about how to deal with a brother (or sister) in the church who has sinned is easier to understand than to practice. The words “against you” are missing from some important manuscripts but the omission could be due to the confusion of similar-sounding endings.⁶ Therefore, as Matthew 18:15 suggests, the passage specifically focuses on individual relationships between believers, though reproving sin is also a biblical principle (Prov 27:5–6; Gal 6:1).

• This passage does not deal with minor offenses or annoyances because the step of last resort is exclusion from fellowship (Matt 18:17; cf. 1 Cor 5:11). Public, open sin, such as flagrant immoral or illegal conduct, should be publicly rebuked (1 Tim 5:20),⁷ but always in the context of preserving relationships within the spiritual family that is the church (1 Tim 5:1–2).

• The principle of confronting the offending person privately has its precedent in the wisdom literature of the Old Testament: “Debate your case with your neighbor, and do not disclose the secret to another” (Prov 25:9). As the context in Proverbs indicates, there are two sides to every conflict and impartial observers may consider one person, and not the other, at fault. Listening to the other person’s point of view may reveal our own blind spot. Then again, the conversation may help them see their mistake. If so, “you have gained your brother.” The Greek word kerdainō (“gain”) is used in connection with winning people to Christ (1 Cor 9:19–22), including in one’s immediate family (1 Pet 3:1), and even gaining Christ Himself (Phil 3:8). In reality, by restoring relationships within the church we retain people for Christ.

• The Greek word translated “church” is ekklēsia, used also in Stephen’s speech for “the church in the wilderness” (Acts 7:38, ASV), referring to Israel. The usage by Jesus shows the unbroken continuity of the people of God throughout both Old and New Testaments, the intention to build His church with the twelve apostles as its initial leadership structure, and that their collective decisions as well as those of the Spirit-guided church going forward are to have been bound and loosed in heaven.⁸ That is, the decisions are made first in heaven, and if church decisions are Spirit-led they will be in harmony with heaven.

• Concluding this central section is one of the most important statements about the unity of the church, based on Christ’s continuing presence with His people. Agreement and unity within the church is powerful because nothing can stand in the way of the kingdom’s advance (cf. Matt 16:18). When even just two believers agree, guided by Christ’s personal presence through the Spirit, they can be assured of answered prayer.

• One of the clearest statements of the deity of Christ is also found here: “For where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them” (Matt 18:20)—through His Spirit (Rom 8:9; Phil 1:19; 1 Pet 1:11).

3. Verses 21–35

• Peter’s question about the number of times one is obligated to forgive (and which assumes a positive reply) seems related to the principle taught by Jesus about forgiving someone who sins against you and repents “seven times in a day” (Luke 17:4). But the answer, alluding to the Jubilee-based prophecy of “70 weeks” (seventy times seven) in Daniel 9:24,⁹ describes a forgiveness that is full and complete and grounded in the atoning death of Christ, the Messiah (Dan 9:26).

• Jesus concludes the section and this discourse with a warning by way of a parable, the interpretation of which is explicitly given: “So My heavenly Father also will do to you if each of you, from his heart, does not forgive his brother his trespasses” (Matt 18:35, emphasis supplied).

• As is often seen in Jesus’ parables, the point is brought home by way of contrast: the abundant forgiveness of a debt impossible to pay with the petty demand of a small debt and refusal to forgive. Ten thousand talents is the equivalent of a national debt, not a personal one, its value being estimated at 60–100 million denarii,¹⁰ with a denarius representing a common laborer’s daily wage (Matt 20:2). Assuming about three hundred workdays a year, a laborer would have to work between two hundred thousand and three hundred thousand years to pay off the debt.

• Even this enormous debt of 10,000 talents does not come close to approximating the debt each of us owes as sinners, the only just wages of which is death (Rom 6:23). Having been forgiven so much, we, as “unprofitable servants” (Luke 17:10), can claim no merit for anything we do as followers of Christ, but will not be excused if we fail to forgive others.

• God’s forgiveness is predicated on our acceptance of that forgiveness, which issues in a changed heart and life—something that will be examined in the course of the heavenly judgment that has been ongoing since 1844. Should it be shown that we have only pretended to accept God’s gift of salvation (cf. Matt 7:21), our pardon will be removed, our sins will not be blotted out, and we will receive the “wages of sin”— death and destruction in the lake of fire (Rom 6:23; Rev 20:11–15).

Application of the Chapter

Some important lessons we may glean from Matthew 18 include:

1. The disciples’ desire for position was rooted in pride and selfishness, rather than the love of God and service for Him. It reflects not the principles of God’s kingdom, but the same lust for power that led to strife in heaven. Conflict will result wherever this spirit is seen.

2. Humility, service, and faith are childlike qualities that make one great in the kingdom of heaven.

3. Jesus grounds the counsel of Matthew 18:15–17 in Scripture (quoting Deut 19:15) as the basis for the examination of wrongdoing within the church. Such was Jesus’ standard method for discerning and explaining God’s will and established the hermeneutical practice for the apostles and the other New Testament writers. It should also guide our interpretation of Scripture.

4. It should be remembered that even those who have been removed (or who removed themselves) from church membership are not thereby cut off from the mercy and love of God, nor should they be cut off from our love and sympathy. To the contrary, they need it even more.

5. Since we all have been freely forgiven through faith in Christ by virtue of His atoning death for sin, His resurrection, and His mediatorial ministry in heaven, we are liberated to forgive others (cf. Matt 10:8). Having been forgiven much and accepted that forgiveness, we are enabled to love much (Luke 7:47).