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Mat_18:14. Accordingly, as it is not the will of that man that one of his sheep should be lost, so it is not the will of God that one of those μικροί should be lost (should fall into eternal perdition). The point of the comparison therefore lies in the unwillingness to let perish; in the parable this is represented by the case of a strayed sheep, for the purpose of teaching the disciples that if a μικρός happens to err from the faith and the Christian life, they should not abandon him, but try to induce him to amend.
What is said in regard to the μικροί is therefore put in the form of a climax: (1) Do not despise them, inasmuch as you would cause them to go astray, and be the occasion of their ruin (Mat_18:6-10); (2) On the contrary, if one does go wrong, rescue him, just as the shepherd rescues his wandering sheep, in order that it may not be lost (Mat_18:12-14).
ἔμπροσθεν ] coram (Mat_11:26; Luk_15:10). There is not before God (before the face of God) any determination having as its object that, etc.; consequently, no predestination to condemnation in the divine will. On the idea involved in θέλημα , comp. note on Mat_1:19. For the telic sense of ἵνα , comp. Mat_7:12; Mar_6:25; Mar_10:35, al., and the ἐθέλειν ὄφρα of Homer; Nägelsbach’s note on Iliad, i. 133.
ἕν ] See critical notes. The idea of the sheep still lingers in the mind.