How to Receive the Kingdom of God like a little child: The meaning of Mark 10:15
Mark 10:15 in the NiV says, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.
But what does that mean? Today, we’re going to dig into the Word, and the meaning of Mark 10:15. I’ll give you practical steps to receive the Kingdom of God like a little child so that you can grow in your faith and receive all that God has for you.
During Bible college, we were each assigned a mentor. My mentor shared with me the importance of having a childlike faith, and how having this kind of faith was a precious thing. I didn’t really get what she meant right away. But I learned later, the importance of coming to the Heavenly father as His child and receiving the Kingdom of God as a child.
The Hebrew Meaning to Receive in Mark 10:15
One of the Hebrew and Greek meanings of the Word receive, is to welcome, to receive favorably.
And if you think about it, the opposite of welcome is to reject.
So, if you’ve already received Jesus as your Savior you have taken the first step of welcoming the Kingdom of God into your life.
Another Greek and Hebrew Meaning
One of the other Hebrew and Greek meaning of the Word receive in Mark 10:15 is to give ear to, to learn. It speaks of being taught and instructed.
When we first come to Christ, we are referred to as a baby Christian. Yet as we learn and grow, we become more mature in Christ.
Physically, as a child, this comes naturally.
But to grow spiritually, we mature through reading God’s word and applying it to our lives.
In John 2:12-13 in the NIV we can see the different levels of maturity this passage talks about:
I am writing to you, dear children,
because your sins have been forgiven on account of his name.
13 I am writing to you, fathers,
because you know him who is from the beginning.
I am writing to you, young men,
because you have overcome the evil one.
When we’re a baby Christian, we don’t know the way we should go. We know we have received Jesus as our savior, but we don’t know much else.
When we receive the kingdom as a little child, we come willing to learn, to be inquisitive, to grow up and become mature in the body of Christ.
It’s important that when we read the Word for ourselves, we apply what we’ve learned to our lives so that we don’t just know about the Word, but we are living out the Word.
Coming Under God’s Authority
The third way of receiving the kingdom of God as a child is to Come under God’s authority.
When we are receiving, or welcoming the Kingdom as a little child, we are choosing to live under the authority of our heavenly Father.
Now, some of us, including me, did not come from homes where our father figures were great examples of what our Heavenly Father is really like. Some of us were hurt, abused, or wounded by our father figures, so the words, come under God’s authority, can be very scary to us.
So, if that’s you, when you think of coming under God’s authority, I want you to think of a good dad you know. Maybe it’s a friend’s dad, or a man in the church, someone who is a good example.
Pray and ask God to help you to see Him like you see that good example of a father, to learn how to trust God like you would trust that good father.
Mathew Henry, a wonderful commentator of the bible, discussed the meaning of Mark 10:15 and put it this way, “Little children depend on their parents love and care, are carried in their arms, go where they send them, and receive what they provide for them.”
When we come under God’s authority, we see Him as our Heavenly Father, come to Him as his precious child, and receive from Him everything we need to fulfill our purpose on this earth.
When you do this, you open the door for God to work mightily in your life, to work in you and through you, so that the Kingdom of God is alive in your life and you can fully walk out God’s purposes for you on this earth.
Today’s Message was inspired by Day 19 of my Bible Study Healing the Father Wound.
