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Articles
The Danger of Taking Others With You (1)
When Jesus was on the earth, teaching in Palestine, the Pharisees were constantly on the fringe of every audience listening to Jesus – but most of them were not listening to learn; they were listening to criticize. They did not like Jesus; considered Him to be a threat to the religious and political power they enjoyed. So they would gather in the audience; they would be there, and they would listen – but not with good and honest hearts. There were but few exceptions to this.
Also, if you read carefully in the accounts of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, I believe you will see that the Pharisees not only condemned Jesus, they sought to influence others to deny Him. They would act and speak and react to Jesus in such a manner as to cause others to reject Him. So, it was wrong for these men to attack Jesus and find fault with the spotless Son of God, but it was also serious and contemptuous for the Pharisees to deliberately subvert the faith of others and cause people to stumble.
Jesus spoke directly to this in Luke 17:1-4, where He said, “It is impossible that no offenses should come, but woe to him through whom they do come! It would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck, and he were thrown into the sea, than that he should offend one of these little ones. Take heed to yourselves. If your brother sins against you, rebuke him; and if he repents, forgive him. And if he sins against you seven times in a day, and seven times in a day returns to you, saying, 'I repent,' you shall forgive him.”
It is one thing, to decide you will reject the Son of God and live in sin. It is one thing to make your own choice to be lost and die without Christ. This is about taking others with you, in that fatal journey away from God and into eternal punishment! The unbelieving Pharisees were guilty of this. But they do not stand alone under this charge. This was written for us as well, and we cannot afford to take it lightly.
In the first two verses there is a warning to offenders. In the next two verses there is teaching about how to handle offenders. All of this is teaching we need.
Jesus said, “It is impossible that no offenses should come.” Sin is a fact. We know that. We believe we have sinned; our guilt was part of what brought us to Christ, to be saved. We have read passages like Romans 3:23, where Paul said that all sin and do fall short of the glory of God. And we do not dispute that. We struggle with temptation – we see others around us everyday who sin; we are convinced that the devil is alive and well and working to seduce souls. So, no arguments are necessary here; I need not offer proof to anyone in this readership – sin is a fact in the human race.
Well, if anybody knew that, Jesus knew it well. When Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil – as He survived that assault without sin – He was certainly aware of the work of the devil and the reality of sin. One of the first things recorded Jesus ever said was: "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." In His “sermon on the mount” He said things like, "broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who so in by it." He said, "Beware of false prophets." And He said the man who doesn’t hear and obey is like the man who built his house on the sand, "and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it fell..." Jesus knew about sin. In John chapter eight He said to His enemies, "You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do." Sin is a fact in the human race, and Jesus knew that well.
That’s why He said, "It is impossible that no offenses should come." If the devil is doing his work; if people are guilty of sin THIS WILL HAPPEN; this is inescapable. Some who are involved in sin will involve others in sin! Some who are careless and defiant will cause others to stumble. As I implied earlier, some will not only rush to eternal damnation themselves, they will take others along with them and Jesus speaks about that here.
And to make his point, about how bad this is, Jesus said this: woe to him through whom they do come! It would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck, and he were thrown into the sea, than that he should offend one of these little ones.
Jesus gives us this picture so that we will know how bad this is; how serious it is to cause someone to stumble. Jesus knew this would happen – but He said, “woe to him” who is guilty of this!
Yet, He goes further by giving us this dramatic picture: It would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck, and he were thrown into the sea. I do not believe Jesus is recommending suicide. I do not believe he is telling us to try and figure out who might do this in the future, and go throw them in the Gulf of Mexico today. No, that’s not it. These words were spoken and written to impress us with HOW SERIOUS AND TRAGIC THIS IS to cause somebody to stumble.
I ought to read this and be afraid. I ought to read this and be so impressed by it that I conduct myself with greater care and diligence, lest I cause someone to stumble. I ought to read this and know how much Jesus cares for each little disciple; each one of us mean so much to Him. He is stern and explicit when He warns those who might cause offenses.
This is like what Jesus said over in Matthew 13:40-42: “Therefore as the tares are gathered and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of this age. The Son of Man will send out His angels, and they will gather out of His kingdom all things that offend, and those who practice lawlessness, and will cast them into the furnace of fire. There will be wailing and gnashing of teeth.”
How very careful we should be in what we say; in our general demeanor; in how we act and react; in our general example and influence – lest we offend one of these little ones. All things that offend will be cast into the furnace of fire.
What does this mean? It means if I become depressed, or bitter or discouraged – I not only need to use the word of God to deal with my condition, I need to be very careful what I say to others and how I behave lest I offend one of these little ones. This means, when I go through a period of doubt I need to keep my mouth shut. Perhaps there is some tragedy or cause of grief in your life and your emotions are so charged, you may over-react; you may say more than what needs to be said ... BE CAREFUL.
This means when you talk to folks about the Word of God; when you are responding to someone’s question; when there are temptations to involve yourself in gossip or anything like that you stop and remember what the Lord said! It would be better to drown than to cause someone to stumble.
