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Those who want to misuse scripture almost always take ONE ISOLATED VERSE to build an entire phony doctrine upon. And that's what being done here.

Those who want to misuse scripture almost always take ONE ISOLATED VERSE to build an entire phony doctrine upon"

Misuse? Isolated verse? Phony doctrine?

Switch to decaff, pal. Or ask you doc to triple your Prozac dose!

Absolutly correct. Tbe context of the verse refers to who is the greatest in the kingdom of god, and that all believers should humble themselves as a little child, in that the believer is as a child of god.

These little ones (tôn mikrôn toutôn). In the same sense as "one such little one" mentioned in v5. The child is the type of believers. In v5:

For "one such little child" (any believer in Christ) Luke (Lu 9:48) has "this little child" as a representative or symbol. "On the basis or ground of my name," "for my sake." Very much like eis onoma in Mt 10:41 which does not differ greatly from en onomati (Ac 10:48).

Here again the reference is made to the preceding verse:

This little child (to paidion touto). This saying about humbling oneself Jesus repeated a number of times as for instance in Mt 23:12. Probably Jesus pointed to the child by his side who's presence was established in verse two. It is not that the child humbled himself, but that the child is humble from the nature of the case in relation to older persons. That is true, however "bumptious" the child himself may be. It can be observed that to humble oneself is the most difficult thing in the world for saint as for sinner.

That Jesus is making an analogy is clearly evident in verse three:

Except ye turn and become (ean mê straphête kai genêsthe). Third-class condition, undetermined but with prospect of determination. Straphête is second aorist passive subjunctive and genêsthe second aorist middle subjunctive. The disciples were headed in the wrong direction with their selfish ambition (v1). Jesus' tone at this time is markedly severe, as much as when He denounces the Pharisaism in the bud He had to deal with. The strong double negative ou mê eiselthête means that they will otherwise not get into the kingdom of heaven at all, let alone have big places in it.