Matthew 18:11

For the Son of man is come to save that which was lost.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(11) For the Son of man is come.—The words are wanting in many of the best MSS. Assuming their genuineness, two points call for special notice. (1.) The work of the Son of Man in saving that which was lost is given as the ground of the assertion of the special glory of the angels of the little ones. They are, in their ministry, sharers in His work, and that work is the highest expression of the will of the Eternal Father. To one at least of the disciples the words that he now heard must have recalled words that had been addressed to him in the most solemn crisis of his life, when he had been told that he should one day “see the heavens opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man” (John 1:51). In that ascent and descent they were not only doing homage to His glory, but helping Him in His work. (2.) The words seem chosen to exclude the thought that there was any special grace or saintliness in the child round whom our Lord had folded His arms. To Him the child’s claim was simply his need and his capacity for all that is implied in salvation. The words which He spake were as true of any “wastrel” child of the streets as of the offspring of the holiest parents.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

18:7-14 Considering the cunning and malice of Satan, and the weakness and depravity of men's hearts, it is not possible but that there should be offences. God permits them for wise and holy ends, that those who are sincere, and those who are not, may be made known. Being told before, that there will be seducers, tempters, persecutors, and bad examples, let us stand on our guard. We must, as far as lawfully we may, part with what we cannot keep without being entangled by it in sin. The outward occasions of sin must be avoided. If we live after the flesh, we must die. If we, through the Spirit, mortify the deeds of the body, we shall live. Christ came into the world to save souls, and he will reckon severely with those who hinder the progress of others who are setting their faces heavenward. And shall any of us refuse attention to those whom the Son of God came to seek and to save? A father takes care of all his children, but is particularly tender of the little ones.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

For the Son of man ... - This is a second reason why we should not despise Christians. That reason is, that the Son of man came to seek and save them. He came in search of them when lost; he found them; he redeemed them. It was the great object of his life; and, though they may be obscure and little in the eye of the world, yet that cannot be an object of contempt which the Son of God sought by his toils and his death.

Son of man - See the notes at Matthew 8:19-20.

That which was lost - Property is lost when it is consumed, mislaid, wasted, sunk in the ocean, etc. - when we have no longer the use of it. Friends are lost when they die - we enjoy their and happiness. He is useless to society. So all people are "lost." They are wicked, miserable wanderers from God. They are lost to piety, to happiness, to heaven. These Jesus came to save by giving his own life a ransom, and shedding his own blood that they might be recovered and saved.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

11. For the Son of man is come to save that which was lost—or "is lost." A golden saying, once and again repeated in different forms. Here the connection seems to be, "Since the whole object and errand of the Son of man into the world is to save the lost, take heed lest, by causing offenses, ye lose the saved." That this is the idea intended we may gather from Mt 18:14.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

We find the same in Luke 19:10, but applied upon another occasion. Our Saviour here riseth higher in his argument against giving offence to his little ones. All scandal tendeth to the ruin and destruction of him to whom it is given. Scandalum non est nisi malae rei aeidificans ad Gehennam, saith Tertullian; and a greater than he hath taught us the same lesson, Romans 14:15 1 Corinthians 8:11 Now, saith our Saviour, I am

come to save that which was lost; you ought therefore to take care that you be not the causes and instruments of any being lost. Or thus; You look upon poor humble souls, that believe in me, as mean, contemptible creatures, therefore you think you may despise them: were not all those whom I came to redeem in as mean and despicable a condition? Yet I did not despise their souls. Did I come to save them, and shall it be your work to destroy them?

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

For the Son of man is come to seek that which was lost. This is another, and stronger reason, why these little ones should not be despised; because Christ, who is here meant by the Son of man, came into this world to save these persons; who were lost in Adam, and had destroyed themselves by their transgressions, and carries great force in it: for if God had so great a regard to these little ones, as to send his Son to obtain eternal salvation for them, when they were in a miserable and perishing condition; and Christ had so much love for them, as to come into this world, and endure the sorrows, sufferings, and death itself for them, who were not only little, but lost; and that to obtain righteousness and life for them, and save them with an everlasting salvation; then they must, and ought to be, far above the contempt of all mortals; and the utmost care should be taken not to despise, grieve, offend, and injure them in any form or shape whatever; see Romans 14:15. Beza observes, that this whole verse is left out in some Greek copies, but it stands in others, and in all the Oriental versions, and in Munster's Hebrew Gospel; nor can it be omitted; the following parable, which is an exemplification of it, requires it.

Geneva Study Bible

For the Son of man is come to save that which was lost.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Meyer's NT Commentary

Matthew 18:11 f. Omitting Matthew 18:11, which is not genuine (see critical notes), we come to the parable Matthew 18:12-14, which is intended to show that it would be in direct opposition to God’s desire for human salvation to lead astray one of those μικροί, and to cause him to be lost, like a strayed sheep. Luke 15:4 ff. records the same beautiful parable, though in a different connection, and with much tenderer, truer, and more original features. But the time-hallowed parable of the shepherd came so naturally to Jesus, that there is no reason why He should not have employed it more than once, in a shorter or more detailed form, according as it happened to be appropriate to the occasion.

τί ὑμῖν δοκεῖ] “suavis communicatio,” Bengel.

ἐὰν γένηται, κ.τ.λ.] if a hundred sheep have fallen to a man’s lot, if he has come into the possession of them (Kühner, II. 1, p. 364). The contrast to ἕν requires that we should conceive of ἑκατόν as a large number (not as a small flock, Luke 12:32). Comp. Lightfoot.

It is preferable to connect ἐπὶ τὰ ὄρη with ἀφείς (Vulgate, Luther), because the connecting of it with πορευθείς (Stephanus, Beza, Casaubon, Er. Schmid, Bengel) would impart an unmeaning emphasis to ἐπὶ τὰ ὄρη. The man is pasturing his sheep upon the hills, observes that one of them is amissing, therefore meanwhile leaves the flock alone upon the hills (for the one that has strayed demands immediate attention), and, going away, searches for the one sheep that is lost. The reading of Lachmann represents the right connection.

ἐπὶ τὰ ὄρη] ἐπί is not merely upon (as answering the question: where?), but expresses the idea of being scattered over the surface of anything, which corresponds exactly with what is seen in the case of a flock when it is grazing, and which is likewise in keeping with ἀφείς, which conveys the idea of being let out, let loose. Comp. notes on Matthew 13:2, Matthew 14:19, Matthew 15:35.

ἐὰν γένηται εὑρεῖν αὐτό] if it should happen that he finds it. Comp. Hesiod, Theog. 639; in classical Greek, found mostly with, though also without, a dative. Xen. Mem. i. 9. 13; Cyr. vi. 3. 11; Plato, Rep. p. 397 B; Kühner, II. 2, p. 582. This expression is unfavourable to the notion of irresistible grace.

χαίρει, κ.τ.λ.] This picture, so psychologically true, of the first impression is not applied to God in Matthew 18:14 (otherwise in Luke 15:7), although, from the popular anthropopathic point of view, it might have been so. Luke’s version of the parable is characterized by greater freshness.

Expositor's Greek Testament

Matthew 18:11 an interpolation from Luke 19:10.

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

11. This verse is omitted in the Sinaitic and the Vatican MSS., and is consequently rejected by Lachmann, Tischendorf, and Tregelles. However, it falls in precisely with the train of thought, and is almost required to connect Matthew 18:10; Matthew 18:12.

The expression and the imagery of the parable recall Ezekiel 34; comp. also ch. Matthew 15:24. In Luke the parable is spoken with direct reference to publicans and sinners, whom the Pharisees despised, and who are the “little ones” of these verses. Such differences of context in the Gospels are very instructive; they are, indeed, comments by the Evangelists themselves on the drift and bearing of particular sayings of Christ.

Bengel's Gnomen

Matthew 18:11. Γὰρ, κ.τ.λ., for, etc.) Infants are objects of Divine care, not because they have not been under the curse like others, but because they have been rescued from it.—τὸ ἀπολωλὸς, that which was lost) The human race was one mass of perdition, in which infants, even those of better disposition, are also included, on account of original sin, but the whole of it has been redeemed. If a king were to say that he would rebuild a city which had been consumed by fire, he would not wish his words to be understood of a single street. The loss of a sinner is, in the sight of God, something as it were contingent. Therefore foreknowledge does not imply necessity.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 11. - This verse is omitted by the Sinaitic and Vatican Manuscripts, and many modern editors, e.g., Lachmann, Tischendort, Tregelles, Westcott and Hort, and the Revised Version; but is retained in many good uncials, nearly all the cursives, the Vulgate, Syriac, etc. It is supposed to be an interpolation from Luke 19:10; but one does not see why, if this is the case, the inter-polater should have left out the striking verb "to seek," which would naturally have coincided with "seeketh" in ver. 12. For expository use, at any rate, we may consider the verse as genuine, and take it as the commencement of the second argument for the dignity of the little ones - the simple and humble, whether children or others. This proof is derived from the action of God towards them. The Son of man is come to save that which was lost (τὸ ἀπολωλός). How can ye despise those whom Christ hath so loved and deemed so precious that he emptied himself of his glory and became man in order to save them? The general term, " that which was lost," is expressed by the neuter participle, to show that there is no exception to the wide scope of Christ's mercy. The race of man is lost; infants are born in sin; all need redemption. Everybody, poor, helpless, ignorant, tempted, comes under this category, and to save such Christ came down from heaven. Therefore their souls are very precious in his sight. Matthew 18:11