[bible]matthew 18:10[/bible]
Can you explain what Jesus intended when He said this?
Observe here, 1. A cautionary direction given by Christ to the men of the world concerning his members; Take heed that ye do not offend one of my little ones; that is, that ye do not undervalue and neglect, much less injure and afflict, them.
2. A reason assigned, Because their angels being constantly and immediately in the presence of God, are perpetually ready to execute his will, by revenging any wrongs and injuries done unto his friends and children.
Learn, 1. What is the office and employment of the glorious angels; namely, to be the immediate attendants upon the royal person of the supreme King and Sovereign of the world.
Learn hence, 2. In what esteem good men are with God, and what a mighty regard he has for the meanest of his children, that he commits the care and preservation of them to the holy angels, who are nearest to him, and in highest favour and honour with him.
It is St. Jerome's note upon this place, That great is the dignity of these little ones, seeing every one of them from his birth hath an angel delegated to preserve him. But though others think that the opinion of a tutelary angel, or of one particular angel's having the custody of one particular saint, as his continual charge, has not a sufficient foundation in the holy scriptures! yet all the angels in heaven are ministering spirits unto them; and though they do not always attend upon their person (for they stand before the face of God) yet it is to to receive his commands, either to help them in their exigencies, or punish those that injure them. - Burkitt Commentary
Another commentator brings up other verses which talk about guardian angels:
Despise not one of these little ones. Not merely one of the children, but those saints whom the world regards as insignificant and unimportant. "To despise" is, literally, "to look down upon," and hence, to neglect. This forbids all caste in the church.
In heaven their angels do always behold the face of my Father. The doctrine of guardian angels is emphatically taught in the Scriptures. See 2Ki 19:31; Ps 91:11; Heb 1:13; Ac 27:23. Who can afford to despise the children who have representatives right at the throne of God? -PNTC
Ps 91:11 - For he shall give his angels charge over you, to keep you in all your ways.
St. Thomas Aquinas stated in his Summa Theologica about the verse stated by Jesus in Matt 18:10: "That every individual
soul has a guardian
angel has never been
defined by the
Church, and is, consequently, not an
article of faith; but it is the "mind of the
Church", as
St. Jerome expressed it: "how great the dignity of the
soul, since each one has from his birth an
angel commissioned to guard it." (Comm. in Matt., xviii, lib. II)."
One can see his whole article at
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/07049c.htm.
I think this subject is interesting, and before this post I have to admit, that I was very skeptical of this doctrine; but it seems to me that the esistence of guardian angels seem to make sense Scripturally speaking.