WARNINGS AGAINST THOSE WHO CAUSE THE LITTLE ONES TO SIN
The first step towards entering into the kingdom of God is to become like little children...
They came to Capernaum. When he was in the house, he asked them, ‘What were you arguing about on the road?’ But they kept quiet because on the way they had argued about who was the greatest. Sitting down, Jesus called the Twelve and said, ‘Anyone who wants to be first must be the very last, and the servant of all.’ MARK 9:33-35.
At that time the disciples came to Jesus and asked, ‘Who, then, is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?’He called a little child to him, and placed the child among them. And he said: ‘Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever takes the lowly position of this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me.‘If anyone causes one of these little ones – those who believe in me – to stumble, it would be better for them to have a large millstone hung round their neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea. Woe to the world because of the things that cause people to stumble! Such things must come, but woe to the person through whom they come! If your hand or your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life maimed or crippled than to have two hands or two feet and be thrown into eternal fire. And if your eye causes you to stumble, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into the fire of hell. ‘See that you do not despise one of these little ones. For I tell you that their angels in heaven always see the face of my Father in heaven. MATTHEW 18:1- 10.
Christ’s teaching here is very stern and harsh against any who cause “the little ones” to stumble and is recorded in all 3 Synoptic Gospels. When the other eleven disciples came to a house in Capernaum to join Jesus and Peter, they all had the same thoughts in their hearts. All of them were being gripped by questions of rank and status in His kingdom as well as in this world, which normally played an important role in their Jewish lives. They all wanted to be the one to be advanced to the highest, most honourable post next to the Messiah, Christ in His kingdom. Jesus, of course perceived their thoughts and used it as an opportunity to convince them of His kingdom’s completely different value system. Christ not only used helpless, unspoiled children as an example of submission and humility needed to enter the kingdom of God, but He also warned never to cause such little ones to stumble. “The little ones” meant both literally those young in age and also metaphorically those that were regarded as being lowly and less important.
The first step towards entering into the kingdom of God is to become like little children, who are wholly dependant on their Father in heaven, free from pride, ambition, and envy. However, the following remark of the Lord is serious:
“If anyone causes one of these little ones – those who believe in me – to stumble, it would be better for them to have a large millstone hung round their neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea.
He meant that it would be much better for a man to endure the severest temporal punishment on earth, rather than offending the little ones and ending up in everlasting destruction. It reminds us of the serious consequences of causing them to stumble and fall, or tempting them to deny the truth, or deterring them from their service of Christ and so on. Above all, in our recent quickly popularised genderless society the first victim must be the little one.
Hebrew 1:14 tells us:
Are not all angels ministering spirits sent to serve those who will inherit salvation?
which appears to biblically support the concept of “guardian angels” for the believers and all children. If guardian angels, excellent creatures in heaven who are always in the presence of God are to be sent for those who are saved, all kids would be included among the saved. This means how precious each of them are to the Lord. There is also another and stronger reason, why these little ones should not be despised, as Christ told in verse11 Ma.18 (some manuscripts): ‘The Son of Man came to save what was lost’. He came to this world, endured the sorrows, sufferings and death for those who are not only little but also lost in Adam. The Apostle Paul also warned against destroying the weak by despising, grieving, offending or causing injury in any form but, taught instead, that the utmost care should be taken of them:
So this weak brother or sister, for whom Christ died, is destroyed by your knowledge (1 Co.8:11).
The following article (excerpted) is Clifford Hill’s reflections over depression on Friday, 19 Feb.2016, which reminds us of the dire consequence of abandoning our right relationship with our Heavenly Father in Britain, which could be applied to all other Christian nations.
The Cost of Family Breakdown
The suffering caused by family breakdown is immeasurable. The effects upon physical health and mental and emotional well-being are having life-changing outcomes for millions of children. More than half of all children in Britain will experience a broken home before they leave school.
The unsettling effects of domestic disputes and the disruption of family life affect educational attainment and future life-chances. They also create psychological problems such as aggressive behaviour, which teachers have to deal with in school, and barriers to relationships of love and trust with others that can affect their adult life. …
The cost of family breakdown to the national economy is a staggering £48 billion annually - and its impacts on physical, mental and emotional well-being are life-changing for millions of children.
It is in the family that character and personality are developed. If family life is unstable or aggressive it will inevitably affect the children and their relationships with other children. It is no wonder that, with family breakdown so prevalent in Britain, half of all mental health problems are established by age 14, rising to 75% by age 24.
Rise in Cyber-Bullying
It is quite incredible how cruel children can be to each other and sadly, social media now gives them even more opportunity to spread mischief, lies and hate messages. …
Social media often encourages aggressive behaviour by providing an anonymous environment in which cyber-bullies can operate. The faceless senders feel they can swear, insult, threaten and intimidate their victims, with no thought of the extreme damage and distress being caused. Victims often become frightened and withdrawn – not knowing for sure who is threatening them, and feeling powerless to prevent it. They often suffer depression and related mental health problems - their 'real' relationships suffer – and some are even driven to commit suicide.
Pippa Smith of SaferMedia, in a statement for this magazine, said:
The Internet is a breeding ground for abusive trolls, pornographers and paedophiles, yet children are spending several hours a day on their mobile phones and have easy access to social media sites which is making them vulnerable to dangerous messages. From the comfort of their own bedrooms, unbeknown to their parents, they can be groomed for sex, bullied and even driven to suicide by anorexia sites, suicide sites, and by those who hide behind anonymity to attack and exploit. Facebook, Twitter and others need to act urgently to introduce tighter security settings such as proper vetting and a tougher registration process to protect the vulnerable.
Rev Lynda Rose, Convener of the Lords and Commons Family and Child Protection Group also gave us a statement:
It's a difficult crime to pin down and police powers are inadequate, while the social media has been notoriously slow to respond to complaints and protect victims. This is why the Parliamentary Group is calling for Parliament to strengthen the law governing social media. We want to see victims protected, with dedicated police units set up to deal quickly and efficiently with offenders.
Civilised Society?
Protecting children should be one of the chief objectives not only of government but of the whole population in a civilised society. … He specifically spoke about those "who cause little ones to sin" (Matt 18:6). Clearly Jesus was speaking about those who harm the minds of children: what today we would call 'grooming', so that their understanding of right and wrong becomes blurred.
Some of the hardest words Jesus ever spoke were directed against those who cause harm to children.
Many of the different forms of depression afflicting millions of people in the nation result from the enormous pressures we put upon each other in a competitive, acquisitive and affluent society. The whole of our Western civilisation has become self-centred. We view everything from the standpoint of our own self-advantage, which affects all our human relationships. When sinful human relationships get into the family, family life breaks down.
This is where dealing with many forms of depression really starts. We should all be taking the family relationships test to discover how much we care for others. Paul describes ideal relationships within the family. He says:
Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails.
Does this describe your love relationship with each member of your family? When family relationships are right, righteous relationships in the nation are restored and so too are the health and welfare of each individual.
Finally, the widespread prevalence of depression in the nation should lead us to recognise how we have abandoned our Judaeo-Christian heritage and that only by embracing the word of God will we be brought into a right relationship with our Heavenly Father. The apostle John says, "How great is the love the Father has lavished upon us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!" (1 John 3:1). Being firmly in the Father's love gives us the security to deal with anything that happens to us.
Considering Christ's deep concern and value over his children’s genuine faith in Him, any misguided teaching of the Bible especially against children might be concluded that such a teaching could not be drawn from His own teachings, as the author of the following article was himself convinced of it. Brian Hennessy put it in his commentary: ‘Is Jesus the Thief in the Night?’ issued on Thursday, December 10, 2015.
I remember years ago watching the popular 1970’s rapture movie, “Thief in the Night,” with my two oldest children. A week later they came home early from school and their mother and I were not there. They told us later how frightened they became thinking we’d been raptured and left them behind.
That’s when I realized something wasn’t kosher about a teaching that could create such fear in children. Especially when you add in all the chaos that would ensue when pilots and bus drivers suddenly disappear.
As most know, this Rapture teaching was popularized by John Nelson Darby in the early eighteen hundreds. To his credit he departed from Replacement Theology after seeing the prophets had promised a future restoration of Israel. But he stumbled in believing the Church and Israel would remain two separate people of God with different inheritances. He believed Christians would go to Heaven and the Jews would inherit the Promised Land.
To fulfill his understanding he taught Jesus would come secretly like a “thief in the night” to snatch away all Christians before the Tribulation, no matter how worldly, and bring us to Heaven. The Jews, after being brought to repentance as a result of the Tribulation, would set up their Davidic kingdom in Israel to rule the world for the Millennium.
But Darby’s theology was fundamentally flawed because it divided the body of Messiah in half based on ethnicity. For we know “there is neither Jew nor Greek…for you are all one in Messiah Yeshua” (Gal 3:28). He did not see God had only one kingdom, one people, and that all who were chosen in Messiah will reign with him here on earth!
As for Yeshua coming suddenly upon us as a thief at night, that is the last thing a believer would want to experience. Paul’s warning couldn’t be clearer: “For you yourselves know full well that the day of the Lord will come just like a thief in the night… but you brethren, are not in darkness, that the day should overtake you like a thief...so then, LET US NOT SLEEP AS THE OTHERS DO, but let us be alert and sober” (1Thess. 5:2-4,6).
It is the inattentive, unprepared believer deceived by a world system with its strong religious component, along with the unbelievers, who will be caught napping. Yeshua likened that believer to the head of the house, who, if he had stayed awake, “would not have allowed his house to be broken into” (Matt: 24:42-44). The same warning was given to the dozing saints at Sardis: “If you do not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know what hour I will come upon you” (Rev. 3:3-5).
The one thing we know for sure about the Lord’s coming is we won’t know for sure when he is coming. Even he didn’t know when he’d be back! Pre-trib, mid-trib, post-trib? Who knows? Only the Father. That’s why we are “to be dressed in readiness and keep our lamps lit” (Luke 12:35) – listening daily to His voice, and walking in love, faith and obedience.
Although we won’t know the day or hour, multiple signs will alert us “that he is near, even right at the door” (Matt 24:33). Yes, the worldly ones will be taken by surprise “as in the days of Noah,” but Noah and his family were literally on board with it all before God shut the door. In the same way, Peter tells us to expect a salvation “ready to be revealed in the last time… and to fix your hope completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ” (1 Pet. 1:5, 13).
Darby was right that the Lord will come for his own before he returns to visit fiery judgment upon the nations and sets up his kingdom. But this salvation will not beam us up to Heaven. Nor will it be for carnal Christians. Nor will it be in secret. It will be for those who are ready, and will take place in front of the whole world as a witness to the truth about Yeshua. “The Lord has bared His holy arm in the sight of all the nations, that all the ends of the earth may see the salvation of our God” (Isa. 52:10).
I believe it will be seen as nothing less than the long-awaited restoration of Ephraim with Judah in Messiah. “Then it will happen on that day that the Lord will again recover the second time with His hand, the remnant of His people who will remain” (Isa. 11:11)
But nobody is going anywhere until “the apostasy comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed” (2 Thess. 2:4). (http://www.israeltoday.co.il/Default.aspx?tabid=178&nid=27941)