42
And whosoever shall offend one of these little ones that believe in me, it is
better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and he were cast
into the sea.
The
world’s treatment of children is going to be one good reason for why God is
going to be so harsh on the world at the end. The exploitive, abusive, and
neglectful treatment of children all over the world is wicked. God is coming to
stomp out this world for its wickedness. God is watching. When our sins are
filled up He will come, but in His own time.
To
offend can be something one does against God that draws His wrath. In this
definition it is sins and trespasses against God.
2Chronicles
28:13 And said unto them, Ye shall not bring in the captives hither: for
whereas we have offended against the LORD already, ye intend to add more to our
sins and to our trespass: for our trespass is great, and there is fierce wrath
against Israel.
Offenses
are inevitable from a fallen race of sinful people but...
Matthew
18:7 Woe unto the world because of offences! for it must needs be that offences
come; but woe to that man by whom the offence cometh!
It
can be wrongs that cause a brother to be angry.
Proverbs
18:19 A brother offended is harder to be won than a strong city: and their
contentions are like the bars of a castle.
To
offend can be to cause to stumble to be made to fall in your walk either in the
Law under the Law or with Christ under Grace. Here Jesus is a “rock of offence”
to those people who stumble at His words, which those people who reject Christ
are “appointed” to do.
1
Peter 2:8 And a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offence, even to them which
stumble at the word, being disobedient: whereunto also they were appointed.
If a
person harms the faith of a little child who believes in Christ his or her
suffering shall be legendary. Christ makes a stark statement here about what
their fate will be. It will be a very sad day at the Judgment Seat of Christ
for Pastors and Sunday School teachers who have exploited or manipulated little
children and taken their faith from them. I can think of a long list of names
of people who have sexually exploited or physically abused children who grew up
to form support groups where they talk about how evil Christians are. If saved,
these victimized people have been neutralized in any value for Christ by the
evil work of these men.
It
will be an even more terrible day at the Great White Throne Judgment for
unbelievers for those unsaved Pastors and Sunday School teachers who will stand
before Christ for what they have done to children. Those children’s
appearances, the angels of their presence (Isaiah 63:9), are always before God
the Father in heaven.
Matthew
18:10 Take heed that ye despise not one of these little ones; for I say unto
you, That in heaven their angels do always behold the face of my Father which
is in heaven.
The
Bible has many references to the evil of harming the faith of another.
Romans
14;13 Let us not therefore judge one another any more: but judge this rather,
that no man put a stumblingblock or an occasion to fall in his brother’s way.
14 I know, and am persuaded by the Lord Jesus, that there is nothing unclean of
itself: but to him that esteemeth any thing to be unclean, to him it is
unclean. 15 But if thy brother be grieved with thy meat, now walkest thou not
charitably. Destroy not him with thy meat, for whom Christ died. 16 Let not
then your good be evil spoken of: 17 For the kingdom of God is not meat and
drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost.
When
it comes to children fathers have even been warned not to provoke their
children to anger and wrath lest they become discouraged but, by contrast to
provoking them, raise them in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.
Ephesians
6:4 And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in
the nurture and admonition of the Lord.
Colossians
3:21 Fathers, provoke not your children to anger, lest they be discouraged.
Harming
the faith of a little child is one of the worse of the transgressions a person
can commit and will apparently reserve that person a greater judgment. Be
warned.
43
And if thy hand offend thee, cut it off: it is better for thee to enter into
life maimed, than having two hands to go into hell, into the fire that never
shall be quenched: 44 Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched.
45 And if thy foot offend thee, cut it off: it is better for thee to enter halt
into life, than having two feet to be cast into hell, into the fire that never
shall be quenched: 46 Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched.
47 And if thine eye offend thee, pluck it out: it is better for thee to enter
into the kingdom of God with one eye, than having two eyes to be cast into hell
fire: 48 Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched.
These
verses go with the last verse. Literally.
Jesus
Himself shows that this verse can have a different application than a literal
call to cut off your hand.
Mark
7:21 For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts,
adulteries, fornications, murders, 22 Thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit,
lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness: 23 All these evil
things come from within, and defile the man.
Evil
proceeds from the heart. The hand just does what it’s told.
A
spiritual application can be made here for the Christian today that it would be
better to be without a body part than to use it to unite in sin and wickedness
and that applies not only to hands that touch things they ought not in ways
they ought not, eyes that look at things they ought not, and feet that hastily
take them to wicked places where they should not be.
Modern
versions based on the Alexandrian text-type Codices Vaticanus and Sinaiticus
which underlie Westcott and Hort’s Greek text and all the modern versions
remove verses 44 and 46. And yet, these two verses are found in the Byzantine
text tradition from Antioch where Christians were first called such that the
churches believed through for nearly 2,000 years.
Note
here that the Hell where “their worm dieth not” is to be a physical place on
earth. By any understandable method of interpretation, Hell in the verse 43,
45, and 47 is a place of burning and suffering, where decay is eternal, and the
worm that feeds on the sufferer lives forever, too.
Isaiah
66:22 For as the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make, shall remain
before me, saith the LORD, so shall your seed and your name remain.23 And it
shall come to pass, that from one new moon to another, and from one sabbath to
another, shall all flesh come to worship before me, saith the LORD. 24 And they
shall go forth, and look upon the carcases of the men that have transgressed
against me: for their worm shall not die, neither shall their fire be quenched;
and they shall be an abhorring unto all flesh.
Now
for what I believe the verses are literally about based on the literal context.
Notice that in the context of these passages Christ has referred to offending a
little one who has believed in Him. I think the warning should be obvious for
any church worker or person in authority in the local church who has the
inclination to deal inappropriately with a child.
Three
times, Christ alludes to the passage in Isaiah here. Three times he warns
people that they’d be better off not to have something as a part of them than
to use it against Him to sin. It must be a very important point He wants His
people to learn. Would it were that priests, pastors, Sunday-school teachers,
all church workers, and Christian congregations would look at these passages
and the context. Perhaps there would be fewer survivors’ groups on social
networking sites or books written by those who had “escaped” if they had.
God
is very serious about this one thing in particular among many. Don’t mess with
His children.
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