Matthew 18:11
The context
Matthew 18 gathers teaching on life in the community: humility, warnings about causing others to stumble, and the parable of the lost sheep. Verse 11 sits between that parable and the instruction about confronting a brother who sins. It reads as a summary statement about the Son of Man coming to save what was lost, and it closely echoes Luke 19:10.
What it establishes
Where it stands in the text, it supplies the motive for the search: the sheep is sought because the seeker came for exactly that purpose. Read as part of the chapter, the verse states why the community is told to go after the one that wandered.
What it does not establish
It is not secure in the earliest manuscripts. The verse is missing from major early witnesses and appears to have entered Matthew's text from Luke's Gospel. A reader can cite the idea from Luke with confidence; citing it as Matthew's own wording requires a footnote.
Short note, first pass, October 2026. Corrections welcome.
Cited in these answers
Part of Scripture, Opened — the exegetical layer behind every citation on this site. Scripture quotations are from the ESV.