“And said, verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.”
As a child, I grew up hearing countless explanations to what Jesus meant when He said, “become as little children”. I was taught this was an achievable task by something of my own doing. Hold on to your youth with all your might! As an adult, I will admit, I have stared into a face of a child and carried with me this same mindset that it is something within the nature of small children that inherits the kingdom of God. I would study that nature of seemly goodness attempting to grasp what it was a child possessed. While there is much to be said for the trust and faith of a child, it is not necessarily the qualities of a child Jesus was referring to, but rather a new birth.
“Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.
Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born when he is old? can he enter the second time into his mother's womb, and be born?
Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.
That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again.
The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit.”
To inherit the kingdom, we must become as a little child. We must be born again. It is not in how we act, carrying a presence of some of the admirable qualities of a child. It is not some quality we possess that causes us to be born again, but by the Spirit. The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh...
(Matthew 21) “And when the chief priests and scribes saw the wonderful things that he did, and the children crying in the temple, and saying, Hosanna to the Son of David, they were sore displeased, And said unto him, Hearest thou what these say? And Jesus saith unto them, Yea; have ye never read, Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings thou hast perfected praise?”
(1 Corinthians 3: 1) “ And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ.”
(1 John 2:28) "And now, little children, abide in him; that, when he shall appear, we may have confidence, and not be ashamed before him at his coming."
