12  The Danger of  Causing a Christian  to Sin  (18:5-9)

“And whoever receives one such child in My name receives Me; but whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to stumble, it is better for him that a heavy millstone be hung around his neck, and that he be drowned in the depth of the sea.

“Woe to the world because of its stumbling blocks! For it is inevitable that stumbling blocks come; but woe to that man through whom the stumbling block comes! And if your hand or your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it from you; it is better for you to enter life crippled or lame, than having two hands or two feet, to be cast into the eternal fire. And if your eye causes you to stumble, pluck it out, and throw it from you. It is better for you to enter life with one eye, than having two eyes, to be cast into the fiery hell. (18:5-9)

I have four children who are precious to me. I love them deeply and am zealous for their welfare, especially their spiritual welfare. My deepest desire is that they continually grow into Christlikeness, conforming to the mind and will of the Lord. I feel an almost painful sense of responsibility and commitment to protect my children from every form of harm and danger. From time to time, when people and influences have come into their lives that I know would be harmful to them, I have done my best to shield them from those dangers. As any normal parent, I have great appreciation for those who help my children and great indignation for those who harm them.

Most parents are more grateful for what is done on behalf of and for the benefit of their children than for anything that could be done for themselves. Likewise, most parents find it easier to forgive an offense against themselves than one against their child. Parents are grateful to friends, teachers, and others who encourage, support, and build up their children. They are incensed, however, by a young man who makes their daughter pregnant, a supposed friend who induces their son to try drugs, or an unbelieving professor who tries to lead their son or daughter away from their Christian faith.

God is the perfect model of this kind of parental concern, because He has always been deeply concerned about the way His children are treated. It is of utmost importance to Him that they be protected and nurtured. He therefore promises blessing to those who treat His children well and gives dire warning to those who cause them harm.

This attitude of God toward His children goes all the way back to when He first called out a nation for Himself from the loins of Abraham and said of him and his descendants, “I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse” (Gen. 12:3). The Lord has always demanded good treatment of His people, commanding unbelievers to treat them well and commanding them to treat each other well.

As Jesus continued to hold the young child in His arms, He taught a lesson about mutual caring among His children.

THE PRINCIPLE

And whoever receives one such child in My name receives Me; (18:5)

The basic truth of that verse is that it is impossible to separate Christ from His people and that, consequently, whatever affects believers, affects Him. Specifically, whoever receives a child of God in Christ’s name receives Christ.

As is clear from the context, Jesus was using the child He held in His arms only as an illustration. One such child identifies the specific child being referred to in the context. This can only mean the one who spiritually becomes a little child, as described in verses 3-4. Jesus was not speaking of the toddler himself but was using him to represent the children of God. That physical child symbolized the spiritual child of God, who becomes childlike in his faith and who humbly accepts the gospel and is converted (v. 3). Such converted people are the “little ones who believe in Me,” Jesus explained (v. 6). And no matter how lowly, unsophisticated, immature, or weak a believer is, he must be treated as the precious child of God he truly is. There is solidarity and unity between the Lord and all who share His life by the indwelling Holy Spirit.

Christianity is not a system of religion but a redeemed people who are united with God, one with Him through His Son, Jesus Christ. Christians not only follow Jesus’ teachings but Jesus Himself and are totally and intimately identified with Him. He is the Head and they are the Body (1 Cor. 12:27); He is the Vine and they are the branches (John 15:5); He is the Bridegroom and they are the bride (Rev. 21:2, 9).

In profound terms, Jesus affirmed this amazing reality to His disciples, “The one who listens to you listens to Me, and the one who rejects you rejects Me; and the one who rejects Me rejects the One who sent Me” (Luke 10:16; cf. John 13:20). When Saul was persecuting Christians, the Lord confronted him on the Damascus Road with the words, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?” (Acts 9:4). In his first letter to the Corinthian church, Paul negatively confirmed the oneness between Christ and each believer when he strongly rebuked them for sexual immorality involving prostitutes. It was spiritually defiling in a unique way, because it made Christ Himself a kind of participant in the sin. Because the believer is spiritually united with Christ, when he sexually unites himself with a prostitute he involves the Lord in his sin. “Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ?” the apostle asked. “Shall I then take away the members of Christ and make them members of a harlot? May it never be!” (1 Cor. 6:15). It is not that Christ Himself is made impure by the impurity of His followers but that His name is stained. He is not personally contaminated by believers’ sins any more than sunlight in contaminated by shining on a garbage dump. But His name is maligned and His work is hindered when His people sin, just as His heart is blessed when His people are received.

Receives is from dechomai, which means to deliberately and readily take something or someone to oneself. The term was often used of welcoming honored guests and meeting their needs with special attention and kindness. Jesus’ primary point here is that the way a person, believer or unbeliever, treats Christians is the way he treats Jesus Christ. When anyone welcomes with an open heart a Christian as an honored guest and friend, he welcomes Christ as his guest and friend. When he treats any Christian with tenderness and kindness, he treats Christ in the same way.

Our Lord emphatically taught this unity between Himself and His people when He said, “When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him,” Jesus said, “then He will sit on His glorious throne.” After placing believers, the sheep, on His right and unbelievers, the goats, on the left,

the King will say to those on His right, “Come, you who are blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry, and you gave Me something to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger, and you invited Me in; naked, and you clothed Me; I was sick, and you visited Me; I was in prison, and you came to Me.” Then the righteous will answer Him, saying, “Lord, when did we see You hungry, and feed You, or thirsty, and give You drink? And when did we see You a stranger, and invite You in, or naked, and clothe You? And when did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?” And the King will answer and say to them, “Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me.” (Matt. 25:31-40)

Believers are to receive one another with tenderness, care, kindness, and love, opening up their hearts to welcome fellow believers no matter who they are. In so doing, they embrace the Lord Christ who lives in them. We are to care for each other like precious children. What a vital message to the church!

THE PERIL

but whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to stumble, it is better for him that a heavy millstone be hung around his neck, and that he be drowned in the depth of the sea.

“Woe to the world because of its stumbling blocks! For it is inevitable that stumbling blocks come; but woe to that man through whom the stumbling block comes! (18:6-7)

Next Jesus presents the negative side of the previously mentioned truth: When a person mistreats a Christian he mistreats Christ. This side of the truth also applies to believers and unbelievers. Whether the person is the worst persecuting pagan who causes harm to a Christian or whether he is a believer who causes harm to a fellow Christian, the result is the same: Christ Himself is attacked.

It is obvious that our Lord is not referring to physical but to spiritual children. The phrase these little ones who believe in Me makes clear that He has in mind the children He had just spoken of in the phrase “one such child” (v. 5), which refers to the children mentioned in verses 3-4.

Jesus is speaking of moral and spiritual stumbling, that is, of sinning. The verb skandaliz (to stumble) literally means “to cause to fall,” and the Lord is therefore speaking of enticing, trapping, or influencing a believer in any way that leads him into sin or in any way makes it easier for him to sin. A person who is responsible for causing a Christian to sin commits an offense against Christ Himself as well as against the Christian.

In the most vivid and sobering language indicating the seriousness of such an act against one of God’s children, Jesus declared that a person who does such a thing would be better off dying a terrible death. It would be better for him, in fact, that a heavy millstone be hung around his neck, and that he be drowned in the depth of the sea.

Heavy millstone translates mulos onikos, which refers to the large upper millstone that was turned in a grinding process by a donkey and often weighed hundreds of pounds. The Romans sometimes practiced this form of execution by tying a heavy stone around a criminal’s neck and dropping him overboard in deep water. Such a pagan form of execution was unimaginably horrible to Jews, perhaps in some respects more fearful even than crucifixion. Yet Jesus said that suffering such a terrifying death would be better than causing even one of His people to sin.

The thought must have been especially sobering to the disciples, because they had just been indulging in a heated argument over who was the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. The dispute doubtlessly caused everyone’s anger and resentment to rise, as one after the other gave reasons he was due the honor. The Twelve not only were sinning because of their own pride and boasting but also because they were inciting each other to envy, jealousy, and anger.

Every believer is a child of God and, like all children, needs protection, care, and understanding. It is an enormous crime to harm even one of them by leading him to sin. To ruin the character of a saint or to retard his spiritual growth is heinous in God’s sight, because it amounts to attacking His beloved Son, Jesus Christ.

Zechariah declared that whoever harms God’s people Israel “touches the apple of His eye” (Zech. 2:8). “The apple of the eye” was an ancient figure for the cornea, the most delicate and sensitive exposed part of the body. The idea is that whoever harms God’s people pokes his finger in God’s eye, causing serious irritation to the Sovereign.

One of the reasons the Bible speaks so forcefully against false teachers is that they not only believe and practice evil but also lure others, including God’s saints, into their wicked beliefs and practices. People in the church who live ungodly lives and lure others into their sinful ways are sticking their finger in God’s eye, as it were, and would be better off dead. How we treat fellow believers in the church is a matter of immense importance, and to lead them into sin, thus irritating Almighty God, is unthinkable.

There are many ways persons can be caused to stumble into sin. The most obvious way is by directly tempting them to sin, and Satan and the world can use even believers to tempt other believers to sin.

Eve provides the first and classic example of one who directly tempted another person to sin. After succumbing to Satan’s temptation herself she immediately seduced Adam into joining her in disobeying God. Aaron, the first high priest of Israel, caused the whole nation to sin by molding and then worshiping the golden calf while Moses was on Mount Sinai receiving the commandments from God. King Jeroboam was so flagrant in leading Israel into idolatry that his name became a byword for idolatrous rebellion against God. He was the supremely sinful king who set an example of wickedness into which other sinful kings followed and to whom they were thus compared by being described as walking “in the sins of Jeroboam” (see, e.g., 1 Kings 16:31; 2 Kings 3:3; 17:22).

Jesus charged the Jewish leaders not only with being hypocritical and sinful themselves but with leading others into sin through their man-made traditions. Although they were not guilty of adultery in the sense of having an extramarital affair, many of them became adulterers themselves and promoted adultery by others through their tradition of permitting a husband to divorce his wife without legitimate cause. Whoever “divorces his wife, except for the cause of unchastity,” Jesus declared, “makes her commit adultery; and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery” (Matt. 5:32).

The church at Pergamum was indicted by the Lord because it tolerated members who held “the teaching of Balaam, who kept teaching Balak to put a stumbling block before the sons of Israel, to eat things sacrificed to idols, and to commit acts of immorality” (Rev. 2:14). The church at Thyatira had a similar sin, the toleration of “the woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess, and she teaches and leads My bond-servants astray, so that they commit acts of immorality and eat things sacrificed to idols” (2:20). Both churches tolerated the teaching of false doctrine and the practice of wicked standards of living.

A husband today may suggest to his wife, “Let’s add this deduction to our income tax return. It really doesn’t qualify, but no one will ever know, and besides everyone else does it.” In doing that he commits a double sin by inducing his wife to join him in the fraudulence. A person may talk a co-worker into joining him in inflating company expense reports and pocketing the difference. That person, too, commits the double sin Jesus is warning against here. A man may seduce a Christian woman or lead her to watch immoral entertainment while on a date.

Those examples and many more would qualify as ways of leading a child of God to sin. It is amazing how reluctant we are to expose our physical children to evil and how eager we are to protect them. But frequently we are not as eager to protect all other children in the Lord’s family.

God’s children can also be caused to stumble indirectly. That is the broad category of danger about which Paul specifically warns parents, saying, “Do not provoke your children to anger” (Eph. 6:4). By such things as showing favoritism, demanding unrealistic achievements, being critical, overprotective, or overpermissive, parents can frustrate and exasperate their children and drive them to angry reactions that are emotionally and even spiritually damaging. Not allowing children to make their own mistakes now and then, neglecting them (sometimes because of church commitments), and showing little interest in their opinions and concerns can bring the same tragic result. In rebelling against their parents’ attitudes and practices in such matters as those, children often rebel against their parents’ beliefs and moral standards as well, siding against them on virtually every issue simply to vent their resentment and assert their independence. Spouses, friends, co-workers, and fellow church members can also be indirectly caused to stumble into sin by being treated in insensitive, unloving, and unkind ways.

A third manner of causing God’s children to stumble is through sinful example. Without having a word said to them, believers can be led into sinful attitudes and practices simply by following the bad example of others. Here again, parents need to be on guard, because they are continually setting examples, both good and bad, for their children to follow.

The story is told of an alcoholic father who stole out of the house one winter night to go to his favorite tavern. He had not gone far when he heard a soft crunching noise in the snow behind him. He turned around to see his five-year-old boy a few yards behind him. When he asked his son what he was doing, the boy replied, “I’m trying to follow in your footsteps, Dad.” According to the story, the man never took another drink.

Timothy succeeded Paul as leader of the church at Ephesus, and in the first letter to his successor the apostle admonished him that “in speech, conduct, love, faith and purity” he was to show himself “an example of those who believe” (1 Tim. 4:12). A church leader—whether pastor, youth worker, Sunday school teacher, or whatever—cannot escape being an example that, for better or worse, consciously or unconsciously, is going to be followed by those given into his care.

Even when a person himself is not sinning, it is possible for him to lead others into sin. By carelessly flaunting one’s liberty in Christ by participating in an activity that is not itself a sin and is perfectly appropriate for a strong Christian, it is possible to cause weaker brothers and sisters to stumble. If they follow the mature believer’s example while still being convicted in their own immature consciences that the practice is wrong, they are led into sin. Although the practice itself may not be sinful, it becomes sinful for the weaker Christian because it is done against what he believes to be right, and therefore against his conscience.

Many believers in the early church came out of strict Judaism, in which the eating of pork in any form was forbidden. They were also used to observing numerous holy days, especially the Sabbath. After becoming Christians it was difficult to break with those Old Covenant ceremonial regulations that had been instilled in them as required by God, and many could not bring themselves to eat pork or to work on the Sabbath. Many other believers, on the other hand, came out of rank paganism, where demonic practices and the worst sorts of immorality were integral parts of their religion. For them, anything associated with those pagan rites was abhorrent and repulsive, and to eat a piece of meat that had once been offered on a pagan altar was unthinkable.

That is the issue Paul fully covers in Romans 14 and 1 Corinthians 8 (see the volume 1 Corinthians in this commentary series), an issue compounded by judgmental self-righteousness on both sides. The Gentile believers criticized weaker Jewish believers for still refusing to touch pork or do any work at all on the Sabbath, emphasizing the truth that, in Christ, they had been freed from such ceremonial restrictions. The Jewish believers criticized weaker Gentile believers for refusing to eat meat offered to pagan idols, emphasizing the truth that they now knew those pagan deities were not gods at all and that, in any case, the meat itself could not be spiritually or morally contaminating.

The important concern, Paul told both sides, was neither eating or not eating certain foods nor observing or not observing certain days. More important by far were the consciences of their fellow believers. As long as someone believes a practice is wrong, for him it is wrong, because his intent is to do wrong, even though the practice might not be wrong in itself. Until his conscience grows to the place where he can honestly accept doing it, the practice should be avoided. Not only that, but those who do not share that particular inhibition should respect those who have it. Otherwise they may cause their brother to commit sin by going against his conscience. In fact, the stronger Christian should himself refrain from the practice if doing so would help protect the conscience of a weaker believer. In summary Paul says, “All things indeed are clean, but they are evil for the man who eats and gives offense. It is good not to eat meat or to drink wine, or to do anything by which your brother stumbles. The faith which you have, have as your own conviction before God. Happy is he who does not condemn himself in what he approves. But he who doubts is condemned if he eats, because his eating is not from faith; and whatever is not from faith is sin” (Rom. 14:20-23; cf. 1 Cor. 8:1-13).

A weak Christian who is continually offered an activity that offends his conscience is likely either eventually to go along and do what he believes is wrong, and thus reveal a motive of disobedience and thereby go against his conscience, or to overreact against the activity and go deeper into legalism. In either case, he is caused to stumble spiritually, and anyone who contributes to his stumbling, Jesus says, would be better off dead.

Just as many in the last days will be surprised that they had served the Lord through serving His people, many others will be surprised that they had opposed the Lord by not serving His people. To the unbelieving goats on His left the Lord will say,

“Depart from Me, accursed ones, into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels; for I was hungry, and you gave Me nothing to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me nothing to drink; I was a stranger, and you did not invite Me in; naked, and you did not clothe Me; sick, and in prison, and you did not visit Me.” Then they themselves also will answer, saying, “Lord, when did we see You hungry, or thirsty, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not take care of You?” Then He will answer them, saying, “Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.” And these will go away into eternal punishment. (Matt. 25:41-46)

It is even possible to cause someone to stumble into sin by failing to lead them into righteousness. That may, in fact, be the most common way in which believers contribute to other believers’ sin. To keep God’s truth and goodness to ourselves and not share our spiritual insights and experiences is to withhold from others what can help them grow. It is tragic that many believers starve for spiritual food while living in a Christian family and attending an evangelical church.

Throughout the New Testament, believers are admonished to encourage each other in righteousness. They are called “to stimulate one another to love and good deeds” (Heb. 10:24). God leads His people away from sin and to righteousness, and that is what every Christian should seek for himself and for his fellow Christians. In His model prayer, Jesus calls us to ask our heavenly Father “not [to] lead us into temptation,” knowing that He would never do such a thing, because it is His supreme desire to “deliver us from evil” (Matt. 6:13). James assures us that “God cannot be tempted by evil, and He Himself does not tempt anyone” (James 1:13). The person who lives a godly life follows God’s example. Like God, he never leads others into sin but helps protect them from it and builds them up in holiness.

Instead of inducing others to sin, we should induce them to grow in righteousness. Instead of misusing our liberty for our own satisfaction, we should be willing to restrict our liberty whenever so doing might help a weaker brother. Instead of setting an evil example, we should set a Christlike example. Instead of provoking others to the point of anger and rebellion, we should stimulate them to love and good works.

William Barclay tells the story of an old man on his deathbed who was terribly distraught. When asked what was bothering him, he replied, “When we were boys at play, one day at a crossroads we reversed a signpost, and I’ve never ceased to wonder how many people were sent in the wrong direction by what we did.” Such acts go on all the time in the life of the church as believers send other believers signals that lead them on the road to sin. This is extremely serious. Just how serious is seen in the next verse.

“Woe to the world because of its stumbling blocks!” Jesus went on to warn. “For it is inevitable that stumbling blocks come; but woe to that man through whom the stumbling block comes!”

Woe was a word of cursing and condemnation. The world is under God’s curse not only because of its own sinfulness but because of the spiritual and moral stumbling blocks it puts in the paths of His children. There seems to be no end of books, magazines, movies, TV programs, and commonly accepted practices and attitudes to mislead and corrupt those who belong to God. The world is constantly setting sin traps, and its favorite victims are God’s children.

That is characteristic of the world’s fallenness, and it is inevitable that such stumbling blocks come and continue to come until the Lord returns. But woe to that man through whom the stumbling block comes! Jesus had already established the gravity of that offense by declaring it would be better for the guilty person to have been thrown into the sea and drowned. Better off dead than to lead one of the Lord’s little ones astray. Now He adds that such offenses bring the judgment of God.

One of the young men in our church handicapped ministry came to me one Sunday and said he had done a bad thing. “I got drunk,” he explained remorsefully. Upon questioning him, I discovered that, as a prank, his brother and some friends had forced alcoholic beverages down his throat until he was drunk. But the worst tragedy was not his drunkenness but the guilt he was made to suffer. He thought he was responsible for becoming drunk and had asked Jesus for forgiveness, but he was so ashamed that he wondered if the Lord would forgive him. I assured him that Jesus fully understood and had forgiven him, though, of course, the guilt was not his at all. And those who were guilty for his drunkenness and stricken conscience were in danger of God’s judgment.

THE PREVENTION

And if your hand or your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it from you; it is better for you to enter life crippled or lame, than having two hands or two feet, to be cast into the eternal fire. And if your eye causes you to stumble, pluck it out, and throw it from you. It is better for you to enter life with one eye, than having two eyes, to be cast into the fiery hell. (18:8-9)

The Lord is obviously speaking figuratively, because no part of our physical bodies causes us to sin, and removing any part of it would not keep us from sinning. The point was that a person should do whatever is necessary, no matter how extreme and painful it might be, to keep from sinning himself or to keep from causing others to sin. Nothing is worth keeping if, in any way, it leads to sin. And the implication here is that there is overcoming grace available for victory over temptation and sin.

This is a repetition, with slight alteration, of the exhortation our Lord gave in Matthew 5:29-30. In 5:29-30, the reference is to the right eye and then the hand and foot, whereas here it is reversed and no mention is made of which eye. And whereas 5:29-30 refers to hell, here Jesus adds the terms fire to show the nature of hell and everlasting life to show the contrast to hell. All those details fade when we focus on the intent of the words. My own comments on the Matthew 5:29-30 text are repeated here:

Here Jesus points the way to deliverance from heart sin. At first His advice seems incongruous with what He has just been saying. If the problem is in the heart, what good is plucking out an eye or cutting off a hand? If the right eye were lost, the left would continue to look lustfully, and if the right hand were cut off, the left would still remain to carry on sinful acts.

Obviously, Jesus is speaking figuratively of those things, physical or otherwise, that cause us to be tempted or make us more susceptible to temptation. In Jewish culture, the right eye and right hand represented a person’s best and most precious faculties. The right eye represented one’s best vision, and the right hand one’s best skills. Jesus’ point is that we should be willing to give up whatever is necessary, even the most cherished things we possess, if doing that will help protect us from evil. Nothing is so valuable as to be worth preserving at the expense of righteousness. This strong message is obviously not to be interpreted in a wooden, literal way so that the Lord appears to be advocating mutilation. Mutilation will not cleanse the heart. The intent of these words is simply to call for dramatic severing of the sinful impulses in us which push us to evil action (cf. Matt. 18:8-9; John F. MacArthur, Matthew 1-7, The MacArthur New Testament Commentary [Chicago: Moody, 1985], p. 304.)

If any habit, situation, relationship, or anything else causes you to stumble, Jesus said, it should be permanently forsaken. Great danger often requires drastic measures. Even if a sacrifice causes a person to be figuratively crippled and to be blind in one eye—financially, socially, professionally, or in any other way—that is infinitely better than being cast into the eternal fire of hell.

This almost proverbial statement is a general exhortation calling for drastic action against sin. Although only unbelievers are in danger of hell, believers can understand from this statement the seriousness of sin and of leading others to sin. The best prevention against causing others to sin is making whatever sacrifice is necessary to protect oneself from sin. “I buffet my body and make it my slave,” Paul said, “lest possibly, after I have preached to others, I myself should be disqualified” (1 Cor. 9:27). The person who deals decisively with his own temptations and sins will be in the least danger of causing others to sin. If he is genuinely and humbly concerned that he himself not stumble spiritually, he will also be prepared and motivated to help others not to stumble.