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“Your Father in the Heavens Doesn’t Want Any of These Humble Folk to Be Lost”
“Unless you change and become like children, you won’t even enter the Kingdom of Heaven”
1 At that time the disciples came up to Jesus and asked, “Who then is going to be the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven?”
2 Calling a child to himself, Jesus had him stand where they could all see him.
3 And he said, “Amen, I solemnly tell ᵖyou this: Unless you change and become like children, you won’t even enter the Kingdom of Heaven.
4 Whoever humbles himself like this child, therefore, this is who will be the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven.
5 And if someone welcomes a lowly person like this child because he bears my name, it is me whom he is actually welcoming.
“Woe and calamity to the world because of its stumbling blocks!”
6 “On the other hand, if someone causes one of these humble folk who are putting their faith in me to stumble in sin, it would be better for him if a heavy millstone were hung around his neck and he were drowned in the depths of the sea.
7 Woe and calamity to the world because of its stumbling blocks! Yes, stumbling blocks of temptation are inevitable, but how great the calamity that awaits the person through whom the stumbling block comes!
8 Now if it is ˢyour hand or your foot that is causing you to stumble in sin, cut it off and throw it away from you! It is truly better for ˢyou to enter into life maimed or lame than to be thrown into the eternal fire with both hands and both feet.
9 Or suppose it is ˢyour eye that is causing you to stumble in sin—gouge it out and throw it away from you! It is truly better for you to enter life with only one eye, than to be thrown into fiery Gehenna with two eyes.
“If he listens to you, you have regained your brother”
10 “Make sure that ᵖyou don’t look down on any of these humble folk who are my disciples. For I tell ᵖyou this: The angels in the heavens who watch over them see the face of my Father in the heavens continually.+
12 What do ᵖyou think? If someone has a hundred sheep and one of them goes astray, he will leave the ninety-nine on the hillside and go to look for the stray, won’t he?
13 And if he finds it, amen, I tell ᵖyou this: He will rejoice more over it than over the ninety-nine that haven’t gone astray.
14 In the same way, ᵖyour Father in the heavens doesn’t want any of these humble folk to be lost.
15 “If ˢyour brother sins, go and clearly but firmly point out his fault to him while the two of you are alone. If he listens to ˢyou, you have regained your brother.
16 If he doesn’t listen, however, take one or two others along with you, so that ‘every matter may be established firmly on the testimony of two or three witnesses.’+
17 If, in turn, he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the assembly. If he refuses to listen, however, even to the assembly, regard him as ˢyou would a Gentile or a tax collector.
18 Amen, I solemnly tell ᵖyou this: Whatever restrictions or discipline ᵖyou pronounce on the earth will have been pronounced in heaven, and whatever freedoms or pardon ᵖyou pronounce on the earth will have been pronounced in heaven.
19 Again, I tell ᵖyou this: If two of you come to a joint decision on the earth concerning any action they might request, it will be done for them by my Father in the heavens.
20 Where two or three are gathered in my name, you see, there I am in the midst of them.”
“This is precisely how my Father in heaven, too, will treat each of you if you don’t forgive your brother or sister from your hearts”
21 Then Peter came up and asked him, “Lord, if my brother or sister keeps on sinning against me, how many times must I forgive them? Up to seven times?”
22 “I tell ˢyou, not up to seven times,” Jesus replied, “but up to seventy times seven!
23 That is the reason why the Kingdom of Heaven may be compared to a king who wanted to settle accounts with his slaves.
24 Now as he began doing so, a man was brought to him who owed him sixty million days’ wages.
25 But since the man did not have enough to pay back the debt, his master ordered that he be sold—along with his wife and his children and all that he owned—to repay it.
26 At that, the slave threw himself to the ground and prostrated himself before the king and said, ‘Please be patient with me, and I will pay back to you every last cent!’
27 The master of that slave, then, because his heart went out to the man, released him, and the debt forgave him.
28 “Now when that slave went out, he found one of his fellow slaves who owed him a hundred days’ wages, and he grabbed him and began choking him. ‘Pay back what you owe me!’ he demanded.
29 “At that, his fellow slave threw himself to the ground and kept pleading with him, ‘Please be patient with me, and I will pay you back!’
30 But he refused; instead, he went off and had the man thrown into prison until he should pay back what was owed.
31 “Now then, when the other slaves saw what had happened, they were very upset and went and told their master in detail all that had taken place.
32 Then the master summoned the first slave and said to him, ‘You wicked slave! I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me.
33 Shouldn’t you, too, have had mercy on your fellow slave, just as I myself had mercy on you?’
34 And in anger his master handed him over to the prison guards to torture him until he should pay back all that was owed.
35 This is precisely how my Father in heaven, too, will treat each of you if you don’t forgive your brother or sister from your hearts.”