Matthew 18:3

ἐὰν μὴ στραφῆτε : unless ye turn round so as to go in an opposite direction. “Conversion” needed and demanded, even in the case of these men who have left all to follow Jesus! How many who pass for converted, regenerate persons have need to be converted over again, more radically! Chrys. remarks: “We are not able to reach even the faults of the Twelve; we ask not who is the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven, but who is the greater in the Kingdom of Earth: the richer the more powerful” (Hom. lviii.). The remark is not true to the spirit of Christ. In His eyes vanity and ambition in the sphere of religion were graver offences than the sins of the worldly. His tone at this time is markedly severe, as much so as when He denounced the vices of the Pharisees. It was indeed Pharisaism in the bud He had to deal with. Resch suggests that στραφῆτε here simply represents the idea of becoming again children, corresponding to the Hebrew idiom which uses שׁוּב = πάλιν (Aussercanonische Paralleltexte zu Mt. and Mk., p. 213). ὡς τὰ παιδία, like the children, in unpretentiousness. A king's child has no more thought of greatness than a beggar's. οὐ μὴ εἰσέλθητε, ye shall not enter the kingdom, not to speak of being great there. Just what He said to the Pharisees (vide on chap. Matthew 5:17-20).