Matthew 18:10

PARABLE OF THE LOST SHEEP, Matthew 18:10-14.

10. One of these little ones Those whom my grace has made to be as little children. Despise Undervalue them. Esteem it to be a small matter to destroy their souls. Their angels Of the existence of angels the Bible furnishes abundant proof. See note on Matthew 1:20. That these angels, as messengers of God, do minister to his people, Paul expressly affirms, by asking: “Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation?” Hebrews 1:14. And so the Psalmist says: “The angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear him.” Psalms 34:7. That individual Christians have particular angels is clearly implied by the words of Peter’s friends: “It is his angel.” Acts 12:15. And so the little ones here mentioned have “their angels.” These angels are said to behold the face of God. This, if not taken from the fact that the prime ministers and favourites of kings are familiar with the face of their royal masters, as having free access to them, is at least an analogous fact. So in Esther 1:14: “Next unto king Ahasuerus were the seven princes of Persia and Media, which saw the king’s face.” And so in Luke 1:19: “I am Gabriel that stand in the presence of God.” The doctrine is, then, that of every humble Christian the angel is God’s favourite and presence-angel. A glorious reason why we should not despise them! We presume not to say how far this is figure, and how far it is literal fact. That angels did often, by special mission, minister visibly to the saints of the Old Testament and the New, is matter of sacred history. That their salvation, through Christ, is matter of interest to angels we are told in 1 Peter 1:12. Still the idea that every Christian’s special angel enjoys the direct view of the Divine Being, as a special favourite in heaven, may be rather more safely viewed as a beautiful symbol borrowed from earthly courts. It may represent that favour which the merits of Christ procure for the redeemed before God. Christ is as a host of angels in their behalf, before the face of God.

The idea of Mr. Watson, that a person’s angel is his disembodied spirit, seems not well founded. The friends of Peter (Acts 12:15) imagined the person at the gate to be his angel, from the popular notion that a man’s guardian angel or genius in person resembled himself.