January 27

The Danger of Causing a Christian to Sin

Everyone desires significance. Even the disciples wanted importance. They approach Jesus and ask the question everyone else is afraid to voice. “Who then is greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” ~Matthew 18:1. Notice what they are not saying. They aren’t asking how to be faithful; they are asking how to rank. Jesus doesn’t launch a lecture. He simply presents a child.

He takes a child, sets him among them, and says this “Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven” ~Matthew 18:3. The word converted means turned around. Jesus is teaching that you don’t climb into God’s kingdom. You turn yourself into it. Entrance into God’s family is addressed before greatness in His kingdom is even mentioned. Pride shuts the door. Humility unlocks it.

A child cannot negotiate. A child walks in with no credentials or history. That is the position of humility that God blesses. Jesus declares “and whosoever shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven” ~Matthew 18:4. Low status is high in God’s eyes. Least is best. When you quit trying to impress people, you become impressible to God. God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble ~James 4:6, grace that propels you forward.

Jesus then ramps up the intensity and lays down an alarm. Watch out he says, if anyone causes one of these little ones who believe on me to stumble ~Matthew 18:6. Jesus says it would be better for a large rock to be tied around your neck and dumped into the ocean than to lead a child of God down into sin. Wow! That should get your attention. Listen closely. You are either building up believers or tearing them down. There is no neutrality.

Notice how Jesus uses hyperbole about cutting off hands and plucking out eyes ~Matthew 18:8-9. He is not promoting violence. He is encouraging decisiveness. If your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off. If your eye causes you to sin, gouge it out. Don’t waste eternity away being comfortable. Sin is not harmless. It kills fellowship and disables your love.

Then Jesus reveals a picture of heaven. A shepherd leaving the ninety nine to pursue the one that is lost ~Matthew 18:12. Does God want math to work in our favor? Or does He have the heart of a Father who relentlessly loves His children? When someone goes astray God’s attitude is not, “Oh well.” He goes after them. He searches. He rejoices when they return. “It is not the will of your Father which is in heaven, that one of these little ones should perish” ~Matthew 18:14. God’s holiness does not negate His love. His love does not negate His holiness. They work together.

That same mindset is found when Jesus instructs us how to help someone back onto their knees. Go one on one first ~Matthew 18:15. That’s meekness. Then if needed take two or three ~Matthew 18:16. That’s wise. If they will still not listen tell it to the church ~Matthew 18:17. That’s submitting someone to the authority of the Lord Jesus. This isn’t righteous punishment. It is loving rescue. Listen, open rebuke is better than hidden love ~Proverbs 27:5. Sometimes kindness remains silent and people perish.

He goes on to talk about binding and loosing and agreement ~Matthew 18:18-20. Notice these do not come without rules and boundaries. When the church binds or looses it had better be based on what Jesus said. But if we do agree as believers what Jesus says, heaven listens. Agreement is not loud voices agreeing. It is unity in submitting to the Word of God. When believers get together under the authority of Christ, Jesus promises He will be there with them.

That is how different Jesus’ church is from today’s religion. We seek importance rather than chasing humility. We tolerate sin rather than confronting it. We say we want fellowship but we don’t want anyone to correct us. Jesus is calling His church to embrace childlikeness. Dependable faith. Serious holiness. Radical love. And a submissive spirit that agrees with His Word.

If you want to be great, stop striving to be great. Get on your knees. Our look at verse 18 tomorrow because Jesus has nothing to negotiate with pride.

Be cautious of those who identify as Christians but whose beliefs stem from personal opinions and emotions rather than the teachings of God’s word.

Matthew 18:1-20
Exodus 4:1-5:21
Psalm 22:19-31
Proverbs 5:15-21

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New Testament: Matthew 18:1-20

Summary:
Who Is the Greatest?
Temptations to Sin
The Parable of the Lost Sheep

We must not only do no evil in our own lives but we must never cause another Christian to sin. That is the specific message of this passage.

it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened around his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea. ~ Matthew 18:6

You know in those days they crushed corn to make the flour, to make bread and things. And they would have in the home a little stone and it would be sort of bowled out. And another stone and they would just go around and around until they crushed the corn. That is not the stone that is referred to here. This is the millstone, literally in the Greek mulos onikos, the mule stone, or the asses’ stone. This is not the little one you had in the house. This is the one that was pulled by the mule, the one that Samson was tied up to when he was grinding grain in his blindness. A beast had to pull it. A massive, huge stone, weighing tons, huge, would come into their minds when they heard mulos onikos. It would be better if you took a stone like that, tied it around your neck, and literally in the Greek it says drowned far out in the open sea, taken way out with a stone weighing tons around your neck and plunk. And I mean you’d go to the bottom like a rocket. Jews didn’t drown people for any kind of crime; it was to them a horrible, unimaginable punishment. And to be drowned all alone with a millstone around your neck in some far-off region of the ocean was terrifying. The Romans did that; the Jews didn’t. And that’s what Jesus says would be better for you, a lonely, terrorizing, shocking, painful end to your life. You would be better off dead with the worst kind of death imaginable than to offend a Christian, to cause that Christian to sin.

But whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened around his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea. “Woe to the world for temptations to sin! For it is necessary that temptations come, but woe to the one by whom the temptation comes! ~ Matthew 18:6-7

Overview: Matthew 14 – 28 – Click Here

The Childlikeness of Believers, Part 1

Matthew 18:1–10

The Danger of Causing a Christian to Sin

Matthew 18:5–9

Verse 6 says, “But,” – now here’s the adversative, the other side of it – “whosoever,” in or out of the church, folks, saved or unsaved, Christian or non-Christian, “whoever,” doesn’t matter, “shall offend,” to cause to stumble. How do you offend a Christian? By causing them to do what? To sin. It’s the only thing it could mean. To trap them, to catch them in a trap, a death trap, a sin trap, to make them stumble into evil.

When you cause them to sin, it were better, or it would be preferable, or it would profit you instead of that, that a millstone were hanged about your neck and you were drowned in the depths of the sea. You’d be better off dead than alive offending a Christian, making him sin. You see God is not only concerned that we not sin but that we not make other people sin. Better you should be dead, beneficial you should be dead, profitable that you should be dead rather than do that, preferable. Now the language here is really vivid.

Jezebel is condemned because she seduced people into sin. Balaam was condemned because he seduced Israel into sin. Jeroboam was condemned because he seduced Israel into sin as well. God does not look favorably on those who make his people sin. Now it is not to say that they are not responsible on their own, but it is to say that when the judgment is passed out, not only the one who did the sin will be held culpable but the one who led that one into sin.

So the principle is this: Every Christian is one with Christ, and when you receive a Christian, you receive Christ. The peril is that if you offend a Christian by causing them to sin through your seduction, through your indirect provocation, through your example of evil, through your misused liberty, or through your failure to give righteous direction to that life, if you cause them to sin, it would be better for you to be drowned immediately than to do that because the price for doing that is so high. Instead of doing that, take drastic measures to deal with your own sin. The bottom line is this: Why would a Christian want to assist Satan in his work of tempting God’s children to do evil? You wouldn’t, would you? I wouldn’t.

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