Verses 1-4
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Entering the kingdom of heaven (being saved) and being great in the kingdom of God are both about being childlike.
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One must be childlike in belief:
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Believe the Word of God like an innocent child believes! They simply trust that what their parents say is true.
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One must be childlike in humility:
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Children are brutally honest (they don't care to flatter, as to win favor, which is pride. Rather, they state truth frankly).
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They always ask many questions, to gain a better understanding; and they know that they're not as intelligent as everyone around them. Children view everybody as smarter or better than them. This is great humility; think this way(Philippians 2:3)!
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To remain humble, always assume you aren't smart (Romans 12:16), and ask questions to gain wisdom from others (Proverbs 8:33).
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Those who neglect to ask for wisdom from others are prideful Proverbs 15:12, 24:21)!
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Verses 5-6
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God deeply values children. It is a greater sin to cause children to go astray.
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Value children, be very careful to be a good influence on children, and this will greatly please God!
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Verses 7-9
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Sins will happen. Be careful not to sin.
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To avoid sin, be serious about repentance, and remove things in your life that cause you to sin.
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Remove sources of temptation while you build your self-control. Eventually, you will not be so easily tempted.
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Build self-control with fasting and prayer, and renew your mind with time in the Word.
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We should be so serious about repentance that we would even be willing to cut off a hand that causes sin, if that were possible.
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No person's hand actually causes sin. How we think causes sin (Matthew 15:19). The point is to be very serious about repenting from sin.
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Verses 10-14
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Every individual person, even to every child, is so valuable to God that He greatly rejoices to see even one of them saved.
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Value people as individuals, and don't neglect a chance to help even one person get closer to Jesus.
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Verses 15-20
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In a church community, if a believer falls into sin, another believer that knows them well should go to correct them and help them to repent. If they will not change, bring correction twice more. Upon the third correction the matter should be exposed to the whole community.
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This is meant to help motivate the person to repent through the greater accountability of the church.
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If the person still does not change they are to be removed from the fellowship of the church and treated as an unbeliever.
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Paul calls this delivering a person over to Satan. The purpose is that they would experience the consequences of their sin more swiftly, being without the protection of the church, so that hopefully they will come to their senses sooner (1 Corinthians 5:4-5).
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Verses 18-19. God will support the decisions and answer the prayers of churches that stand in agreement.
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Understand that whatever believers pray for in agreement, if it agrees with God's will in Scripture, will surely be done, but the timing is up to God.
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Heaven will also support churches that bring discipline to believers that choose to stop repenting (1 Corinthians 5:4).
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Verses 21-35
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Place no limit on how many times you will forgive people.
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We must forgive because of how much we've been forgiven by God.
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No person has hurt us more than we have hurt God. And since God has forgiven us, we have no right to refuse forgiving others.
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As born-again believers, we have already been forgiven (Colossians 3:13).
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But if we come to a point in sin where do not forgive others, we might not immediately lose our salvation, but we could in time if we do not repent (Matthew 6:14-15). Unforgiveness is very dangerous to one's faith.
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For unbelievers, forgiving others is a necessary part of their being saved to begin with. One must forgive to be first forgiven and therefore saved.
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Realize that you've been forgiven of much sin, and you will want to forgive others (Luke 7:47).
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Verse 35. Forgiveness must be from your heart. Don't just say the words that you forgive someone. Mean it from your heart!