What Does Matthew 18:5 Mean?
And whoever takes in one such little child in my nature takes me in.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
And whoso shall receive one such little child in my name receiveth me.THE KEY
The same Greek verb describes welcoming the child and welcoming Jesus: the welcome itself is the bridge.
THE MEANING
When you welcome one such child in Jesus’ nature, you welcome Jesus himself. The child’s smallness does not make the encounter small; the welcome reaches the person of Jesus.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that Jesus is encountered only through the powerful or prominent: here, his presence meets you in the welcome of a child.
THE ROOT
δέχομαι
dechomai
GROWS FROM
δεχ-
dech-
The Greek stem carries the sense of receiving, accepting, or welcoming.
“takes in / takes me in” in this verse is dechomai. Matthew uses this same verb first for receiving the child and then for receiving Jesus. The repeated word makes the child’s welcome the very form the welcome of Jesus takes.
ALSO GROWS
apodechomai: To receive or welcome.
ἀποδέχομαι
This related form keeps the sense of an offered welcome, showing how receiving can be an act of acceptance.
paradechomai: To accept or receive.
παραδέχομαι
This related form makes the receptive side of the verse clear: the welcome is an opening to another, not merely noticing them.
ὄνομα
onoma
GROWS FROM
ὀνομ-
onom-
Name; in this phrase, the bearer’s identity and nature.
“in my nature” in this verse is onoma. “In my name” reaches beyond saying a name aloud: it means welcoming the child in keeping with Jesus’ nature. The verse binds that nature to how the child is received.
ALSO GROWS
onomazō: To name or identify.
ὀνομάζω
Naming identifies whose nature and identity give shape to the welcome.
epōnymos: Named after another or bearing that one’s name.
ἐπώνυμος
It echoes the idea of receiving someone in another’s name: the welcome bears the character of the one named.
THE PATTERN
Welcoming the small or seemingly ordinary can become a welcome of divine presence.
And he said, My lord, if I have now found favor in your eyes, please do not pass by your servant.Whoever receives one of such children in my nature receives me, and whoever receives me does not receive me but the one who sent me.Do not let slip the opening of your home to strangers, for by it some have sheltered messengers without knowing it.THE THREAD
Whoever takes you in takes me in, and whoever takes me in takes in the one who sent me.Matthew uses the same Greek verb for receiving the sent ones, receiving Jesus, and receiving the One who sent him. Matthew 18:5 places a child at the start of that same movement of welcome.
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