Mat 18:14 Even so it is not the will of your Father which is in heaven, that one of these little ones should perish.

This connects the previous verses about going astray with the general theme of the chapter: having to become like a child to enter the kingdom of heaven. We are all children. We can all be led astray. People are free so they creating the misleading pressures of society. We can be misled because if we couldn't, we wouldn't be free, but that is not God's will or plan for us or at least his foremost desire for us. Do you see the conflict? He wants us to be free, which is his will. But he also wants us to follow the right path. The later is his foremost desire. That idea is lost because the words used to clarify the idea of foremost (emprosthen) is simply translated as "of" which glosses over its presence in the sentence.

Alternative version: This is why it is not the primary desire of your Father who is in heaven, that one of these little ones should be lost.


"Will" is from thelêma, which means "will." It is a prolonged form (only found in NT) of thelô, which means "to be resolved to a purpose" and "to desire" and has most of the uses of our English "will" including meaning future action.

"Of" is from emprosthen, which means "in front of," "before," "facing," "opposite," and "in front." It also denotes a ranking.

"Little ones" is from mikros, which means "small," "little," and "young."

"Perish" is from apollumi, which is a very string form of "to destroy," "to kill," "to slay," and "to lose." It is translated as "lost" earlier in this chapter. It means "to destroy utterly." It also means "to ruin" a woman.