Join us as Alan J. Huth shares his personal reflections on the principles found in Matthew 18. From the story of childlike faith to the necessity of avoiding temptation, Alan navigates through each verse with thoughtfulness. We also hear a heartfelt testimony of how a near-death experience awakened a lifelong commitment to daily Bible reading and living a purpose-driven life.
Welcome to Add Bible, an audio daily devotion from the Ezra Project. We join Alan J. Huth as he shares Bible passages and comments from over 30 years of his personal Bible reading journals.
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Today we are in Matthew chapter 18. We’ll listen to Faith Comes by Hearing’s recording of the 35 verses of Matthew 18. Matthew 18
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At that time the disciples came to Jesus, saying, Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?
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And calling to him a child, he put him in the midst of them and said, Truly I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me. But whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin… It would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened around his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea. Woe to the world for temptations to sin, for it is necessary that temptations come, but woe to the one by whom the temptation comes. And if your hand or your foot causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life crippled or lame than with two hands or two feet to be thrown into the eternal fire.” And if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life with one eye than with 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 in heaven their angels always see the face of my Father who is in heaven. What do you think? If a man has a hundred sheep and one of them has gone astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine on the mountains and go in search of the one that went astray? And if he finds it, truly I say to you, he rejoices over it more than over the ninety-nine that never went astray. So it is not the will of my Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish. If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother. But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses. If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector.” Truly I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Again I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them. Then Peter came up and said to him,
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Lord, how often will my brother sin against me and I forgive him? As many as seven times?
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Jesus said to him, I do not say to you seven times, but seventy times seven. Therefore the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his servants. When he began to settle, one was brought to him who owed him ten thousand talents. And since he could not pay, his master ordered him to be sold with his wife and children and all that he had in payment to be made. So the servant fell on his knees, imploring him, “‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you everything.'” And out of pity for him, the master of that servant released him and forgave him the debt. But when that same servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii. And seizing him, he began to choke him, saying, Pay what you owe. So his fellow servant fell down and pleaded with him, Have patience with me, and I will pay you. He refused and went and put him in prison until he should pay the debt. When his fellow servants saw what had taken place, they were greatly distressed, and they went and reported to their master all that had taken place. Then his master summoned him and said to him, You wicked servant, I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. And should not you have had mercy on your fellow servant as I had mercy on you? And in anger his master delivered him to the jailers, until he should pay all his debt. So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother from your heart.
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Chapter 18 opens with the story about childlike faith. And I think I have childlike faith. But then when I thought about it, I thought, what does it even mean? Childlike faith is when a child jumps off of the monkey bars into a parent’s arms. She doesn’t even think about it, and that’s because she trusts the parent. I also think of the bright, wide-open, innocent eyes of a child when hearing a story or seeing something new and simply believing. And then I think about childlike faith, that they try new adventures because they have not yet been discouraged or jaded with failure. So what I mean by childlike faith is that I trust. I trust in the Lord. I believe. And I trust and I believe even after discouragement or failure. The next principle of the chapter is that temptation is necessary. Now, I don’t want to believe that, but that’s what verse 7 says. For it is necessary that temptation come. But the next two verses remind me that I am to avoid temptation as best as I can, because temptation can lead to sin and sin to hell of fire. Now let’s look at verse 10. It says, Now, I don’t know what you think about children having guardian angels, but this verse gives a lot of credence to that, doesn’t it? Again, it does say, See that you do not despise one of these little ones, for I tell you that in heaven their angels always see the face of my Father who is in heaven. And isn’t it cool that our angels always have God’s attention? I also hope that I never grow out of my guardian angel, that it’s not just when I’m a child, but that I also still have angels watching over me this day, and that they have direct access to God Almighty in heaven. In my journal in 2016, I wrote about the next section in this chapter. I titled it, Sin Correction. And I wrote four steps. Step one, go tell him alone. Step two, take one or two others. Step three, tell it to the church. Step four, if there’s still no reconciliation or no repentance or no forgiveness, break fellowship. Is this how we handle sin today? Do we go tell that person alone or share with that person? And if that doesn’t work, then do we take a few others and go visit with them? And if that doesn’t work, do we get the church involved? Or do we just gossip about it through, quote, prayer requests? Hey, we need to pray for so-and-so and then share the story. And next comes this great verse, verse 20. For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them. And what does that tell us? It tells us we ought not be lone ranger Christians. We need to be in fellowship, which means being in the church, which means maybe being in a small group, which means having a core of Christian friends around us that we can gather and pray for one another. But it means don’t be a Lone Ranger Christian. And the chapter closes with forgiveness. In my journal in 2007, I wrote about this passage. We also need to forgive and be forgiving. People will stumble and cause others to stumble. So be forgiving. We will also stumble and cause others to as well. And we need forgiveness too. I have been forgiven a debt I cannot pay by Jesus, so forgive others. And I followed those entries with a listing of my prayer that day. Help me resist temptation. Keep me from falling. Help me be forgiving. Father, thank you for forgiving me more times than I deserve. And therefore, by that pattern, I too am to forgive others more times than maybe I think they deserve. Your forgiveness is unlimited. May mine be also unlimited. Also, Lord, lead me not into temptation, but deliver me from evil. For thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory forever. Amen. Thanks for listening to AdBible today. You might wonder how I became a daily Bible reader. When I was 15 years old, a buddy and me stole his father’s car. We could steal his father’s car because his father was in Vietnam, serving in the war. So he was never home. So we took the car that day. Neither one of us with a driver’s license. And we took off out east of Colorado Springs on a dirt road. We were flying down this dirt road at 60 miles an hour. And he lost control of the car. We began to spin, and we were going down the road, fishtailing, and he spun the wheel of the car 60 miles an hour. The car tumbled, crushed the top, tucked the wheels under, totaled the car. I was on a dirt road. I don’t know if I was thrown out of the car or crawled out of the car, but I looked at that car, and I thought, am I even alive? Am I broken? Am I bleeding everywhere? And I began to pat myself down, and I felt like I was okay. So I stood up, and I was uninjured, amazingly. The sheriff came to draw up the accident. He said, it’s a miracle you guys are alive. I got home that night, went down into my bedroom. My mother came to me and said, you ought to thank God you’re alive. I was laying on my bed, and I was thinking about the day’s activities, and I just thought, wow, I could have been dead today. I wasn’t the driver. I was the passenger. I wasn’t in control, but God was. At that moment, I figured out at 15 years old, God could take my life any time. He could have that day. So as I laid there, I thought, okay, you could take my life any day. So you saved my life today for a reason. For whatever reason that is, I’m going to live for you and that reason. As I said that, I heard a voice say to me, there’s a Bible on your bookshelf. Get it down and read it. I must have heard something, because I got up, I went over to the bookshelf, and I pulled down a Bible. I opened it to the first page, just like I would any other book, and I began to read God’s Word. I read Genesis chapter 1. The next day I read Genesis chapter 2. The next day I read Genesis chapter 3. And a chapter a day, I began to read God’s Word at 15 years old. If you do that, by the way, it’ll take you about three and a half years to finish reading the Bible a chapter a day. And that’s a good plan. So that’s how I became a daily Bible reader. And when I finished going through the Bible the first time, at 18 years or so, I just started over because I thought that’s what Christians did was read their Bibles every day. So that’s how I became a daily Bible reader.
Join us as Alan J. Huth shares his personal reflections on the principles found in Matthew 18. From the story of childlike faith to the necessity of avoiding temptation, Alan navigates through each verse with thoughtfulness. We also hear a heartfelt testimony of how a near-death experience awakened a lifelong commitment to daily Bible reading and living a purpose-driven life.
