# Children of heaven, children under authority

Commentary on Orthodoxy by G. K. Chesterton.

On [CH02.P019](https://glosses.org/orthodoxy/pg16769-r1/CH02.P019/#char=1576,1704): "Thus he believed that children were indeed the kingdom of heaven, but nevertheless ought to be obedient to the kingdom of earth."

The heavenly half closely recalls Jesus’ welcome to children in Matthew 19:13–15, especially ‘of such is the kingdom of heaven’ (19:14, King James Version). Chesterton compresses membership or likeness into the stronger formulation that children *were* the kingdom. The earthly half is not a matching quotation. Ephesians 6:1–4 offers a relevant comparison: it enjoins children’s obedience to parents while also restraining parental conduct. [KJV, Matthew 19:13–15; Ephesians 6:1–4](https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/10).

These passages do not produce a formal contradiction: a child can possess spiritual dignity and owe appropriate obedience. Chesterton’s example therefore makes the paragraph’s preferred ‘balance’ concrete—respecting childhood need not mean abolishing its obligations. Calling those obligations the ‘kingdom of earth’ is his rhetorical framing, rather than the vocabulary of the cited epistle. The witness inspected is Project Gutenberg’s electronic KJV text, not a 1611 facsimile; Matthew is a probable allusion, while Ephesians supplies contextual comparison rather than a demonstrable second quotation.

## Sources

- [The King James Version of the Bible, Project Gutenberg ebook 10](https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/10), Matthew 19:13–15, especially 19:14; Ephesians 6:1–4

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