Matthew 18:7
Welcome
to the study of the Bible, the greatest book in the world. Jesus said in
Matthew 18:7-10, "Woe unto the world because of offenses! For it must needs be that offenses come; but woe to that man by
whom the offense comes. Wherefore if your hand or your foot offend you, cut them off, and cast them from you: it is
better for you to enter into life halt or maimed, rather than having two hands
or two feet to be cast into everlasting fire. And if your eye offend you, pluck
it out and cast it from you: it is better for you to enter into life with one
eye, rather than having two eyes to be cast into hell fire. Take heed that you
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."
On
the subject of individual human responsibility and the sovereignty of God, it
is sometimes difficult to explain the relationship of the one to the other,
especially with our limited ability to see things as God sees them. Some people
end up emphasizing too much the responsibility of man and the free will of man,
to the point of neglecting the great truth of the sovereignty of God and the
power of God over all things. On the other hand, some people end up emphasizing
too much the sovereignty of God, and they neglect the great truth that human
beings have a free will and a free choice.
Of
course, Jesus made neither error. He did not attempt to argue the one concept
against the other. Somehow both are true. God is sovereign and man is free to
choose. The statement of Jesus in Matthew 18:7 manifests both the sovereignty
of God and the free will of man. Jesus said, "Woe to the world
because of offenses! For it must needs be that offenses come;
but woe to that man by whom the offense comes."
Humans
are often bad influences on each other. Too often the sin of one person begets
sin in another. Solomon wrote in the Book of Proverbs and said, "My son, if sinners
entice thee, consent thou not." Be
careful of how others are influencing you and make sure that it is your goal to
influence others for good, and not to be influenced by others for evil.
Jesus
said, "Woe to
the world because of offenses."
When Jesus pronounced this woe to the world perhaps He was thinking of the
consequences of sin. Sin will always bring negative consequences. You will
never benefit from doing wrong. The ultimate result of every wrong deed will be
sorrow and woe. "Be
not deceived God is not mocked. Whatsoever a man soweth
that shall he also reap." How
great is the sorrow and the grief and the suffering
that some people have gone through because of sins! Life will be better when we
learn to have better behavior, because much of what
happens to each of us is simply the
consequences of our own actions.
When
Jesus said, "Woe
to the world because of offenses,"
perhaps He was also thinking of the ultimate judgment that some people will one
day face. The entire universe is proceeding towards the day when all will give
an account to their Maker. "Every knee shall bow, and every tongue shall confess." Logic demands that there must be a hell,
because some people could never be punished enough in this life to give them
what they deserve, compared
to the suffering that they have caused others, the souls that they have
ruined, and the evil into which they have plunged themselves. One of the
reasons that believers do not take vengeance is because they know that God does. "Vengeance is
mine, saith the Lord, I will repay."
Jesus
came into the world to die for the sins of the world. This is the greatest of
all of the acts of love and kindness that God does for us. But those who refuse
to partake of God’s love will be held accountable for their evil deeds. They
will especially be held accountable for how they have wrongly influenced
others, and especially for how they have enticed or caused children to stumble.
To paraphrase what Jesus said in Matthew 18:6, "But
whoso shall entice to sin or cause to stumble one of these little ones that
believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his
neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea."
Several
of the teachings that Jesus gave in the first
10 verses of Matthew chapter 18 were warnings about hell. That is probably why
He said in verse 11, "For the son of man is come to save that which was lost." Jesus could not mention hell without also
mentioning that His great purpose is to keep everyone out of hell. To
illustrate His concern for every soul Jesus said in Matthew 18:12-14, "How think ye? If a man have a hundred sheep,
and one of them be gone astray, does he not leave the ninety and nine, and go
into the mountains, and seek that which is gone astray? And if so be that he
find it, verily I say unto you, he rejoices more of that sheep, than of the
ninety and nine which went not astray. Even so it is not the will of your
Father which is in heaven, that one of these little ones should perish."
Sometimes
we talk about being saved and we talk about when we found God, but it would be
much more accurate to say that when we were saved, God found us. God does the
saving, and He does the seeking and the finding of the lost. Be careful of
telling someone that they are saved just because they repeated some words or
repeated some prayer that you give them. No one gets saved until Jesus visits them and finds them, and then they
respond by surrendering to Him.
One
of the great things that Jesus is doing in the world is seeking and finding
lost souls. Perhaps
sometimes God allows bad or unpleasant things to happen to people in order to
help wake
them up to their need to seek God’s
help. Sadly, some
people will only look up when they have reached the
bottom. For a similar reason God allows good or pleasant things to
happen to people: to help wake them up to the goodness of God so that they will
want to serve Him and know more about Him who has blessed them so much. God
gave us a conscience so that we would agree with our conscience and admit that
we have need of forgiveness. Romans 2:4 says, "the goodness of
God leads you to repentance."
In
verse 13 Jesus emphasized the great joy that is felt in heaven whenever one
sinner becomes saved from their sins. Salvation is the
best thing that can happen to anyone, because what is more valuable than
a human soul and what is more important than that which will last for eternity?
God
is in the business of saving souls. That is why Jesus came into the world.
After being saved believers are left in the world to help spread His Word so
that others will also be saved. One of the measures of your spiritual condition
and your closeness to God is how concerned you are for lost souls. Jesus said
in Matthew 18:14, "Even so it is not the will of your Father which is in
heaven, that one of these little ones should perish." We should all pray and ask God to give us
less of a critical spirit and more of a compassionate heart for lost souls.
Beware of anyone who sounds antagonistic or too critical against the lost
people of this world. The gospel of Christ is the good news of God’s offer of
acceptance and forgiveness to all who are lost, no matter what have been their
failures or sins.
Jesus
said that God is not willing that one of the little ones should perish.
Sometimes when a child dies there are questions as to why such a thing should happen.
Perhaps it is because God loves children so much that He wants some of them in
heaven as well as on earth. Or perhaps it is because God knows the end from the
beginning, and God is not willing that any should perish, and God knows that
for some people their best chance of going to heaven would be to die as a
child. Wouldn’t it be better to die as a child and go to heaven than to live a
long life and then perish forever?
Starting in Matthew 18:15 Jesus teaches us on the subject of
human relationships. He had just finished teaching us how to
become rightly related to God. Jesus told us that it is important that we have
the same attitude as that of a child when we
call upon the name of Christ. We need to see ourselves as weak and unable, and
we need to totally trust in Him as a small child trusts in his or her parent.
Being rightly related to God is extremely important because it will be the
difference between heaven and hell. And being rightly related to other humans around us is also important, according to Jesus.
Jesus said in Matthew 18:15-17, "Moreover if your brother shall trespass against you, go
and tell him his fault between thee and him alone: if he shall hear thee, you
have gained your brother. But if he will not hear you, then take with you one
or two more, that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be
established. And if he shall neglect to hear them, tell it unto the church: but
if he neglect to hear the church, let him be unto you
as a heathen man and a publican."
Out
of the four gospels, the only time that Jesus mentioned the church is here in
the book of Matthew. In Matthew
In Matthew chapter 16 Jesus indicates to us what should be the
central theme and the central doctrine of the church. Jesus did so by putting
His stamp of approval upon the confession made by Simon Peter when Peter said, "Thou
art the Christ, the Son of the living God." Jesus
is our Savior, Jesus is our example, and Jesus is our leader. There are many
reasons for the church to gather together, and these reasons all have to do
with Jesus Christ, the Son of God. For example,
believers gather to talk about Jesus, to teach about Jesus, to sing
about Jesus, to worship Jesus, to think about Jesus, and to remind each other
of the wonderful things that Jesus has done for us and that He will do for us
in the future.
The
church is founded upon who Jesus is and what He has done. The church is also
made up of people: people who need each other and
people who need to work together as a team in order to achieve their
greatest effectiveness as followers of Christ. In the few verses of Matthew
chapter 18 where Jesus talks about the church, His emphasis is on believers
doing what they can do in order to retain the proper relationship with each
other as fellow believers in their Savior Jesus Christ. Your relationship with
God is important, and according to Jesus, your relationship with other
believers is also important.
Notice
first of all that Jesus used the word "brother" in
Matthew 18:15 in talking about another believer. The church is meant to be a
family of brothers and sisters. This is a spiritual family because we all have
the same Spiritual Father, who is our God. We have all been made children of
God by the same means: through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
There
is a tremendous equality between believers. We become members of His church in
the same way: by repenting of our sins and believing in Jesus as the Son of the
living God. We are all sinners saved by grace, and therefore we have an equal
status and equal standing before God. We all have a common destiny: to live
forever and serve God in the eternal bliss of the
First
Corinthians 12 combines the subject of spiritual gifts with the teaching about
the unity of all believers. It says in First Corinthians 12:4-10, "Now there are
different gifts, but the same Spirit. And there are different services, but the
same Lord. And there are different works, but it is the same God who works all
in all. For to one is given by the Spirit the Word of wisdom; to another the
word of knowledge by the same Spirit. To another faith by the same Spirit; to
another the gifts of healing by the same Spirit; To
another the working of miracles; to another prophesy; to another discerning of
spirits; to another different kinds of languages; to another the interpretation
of languages."
The
rest of First Corinthians chapter 12 goes on to present the church as the body
of Jesus Christ. We know that the church is spiritual, that it is founded by
Jesus, that it is a worldwide church made up of all the true believers in Jesus
Christ, and that each believer has been given one or more gifts. The church is
called the body of Jesus Christ, because each believer is a member of the body.
Our bodies have arms and legs, eyes and ears, and many other parts. Each part
of the body is necessary and important. Each believer has his or her own unique
place in the body of Christ.
One
of the reasons that each member of the body of Jesus Christ is important is
because we all have gifts and abilities that can be used for the spiritual
benefit of everyone else. We are reminded in First Corinthians 13 that the
greatest gift of all is love, and all the other gifts are of no benefit unless
they are exercised with love. First Corinthians 13:1-2 says, "Though I speak
with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not love, I am become as
sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophesy,
and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith,
so that I could remove mountains, and have not love, I am nothing."
It
was obviously very important to Jesus that His believers be able to retain
their relationship with one another as spiritual brothers and sisters, with the
same goals and the same destiny. And Christians
should be always united in love because
of the common love of Christ of which they are all recipients. Jesus prayed for
the unity of all the believers in John 17:20-21 and said, "Neither pray I for
these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word;
that they all may be one; as you Father are in me, that they also may be one in
us; that the world may believe that you have sent me."
Unity
among believers is very important. Therefore, believers must be able to deal
with the situations that will arise when things go wrong between them, because things will go wrong from time to time. We
are all still sinners. We are not perfect yet. Therefore, Jesus gave us very
clear instructions on how to deal with a matter when we feel that we have been
sinned against by a brother or a sister in Christ. Don’t get mad, don’t hold a
grudge, and don’t get revenge. Do the three things
listed below that Jesus said to do in order to
maintain the relationship between you and your brother.
First, Jesus said to go to them in private and talk to them about it. Make sure that it is done in the spirit of Galatians 6:1 that says, "Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, you which are spiritual, restore such a one in the spirit of meekness; considering yourself, lest you also be tempted." If the relationship with your brother or sister in Christ is not restored by the means of going to him or her in privacy, then Jesus said that the second thing to do is to take one or two others with you to talk to him or her again. And if that still doesn’t work, then Jesus said that the third thing to do is to bring the matter up before the entire congregation. Your goal must be to restore the relationship between you and your brother or sister in Christ, because according to Jesus unity among believers is very important. It takes a spiritually-minded person to help resolve issues and create unity with a spirit of love among true believers. Why is there such terrible division among Christians in these last days? Maybe it’s because there really are not very many spiritually-minded people in the “Christian” organizations of our day. But please remember that we are not to try to obtain unity at all cost. This Christian unity must be based upon the principles of Scripture. No one should compromise truth for the sake of unity.
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Copyright; 2007 by Charles F. (Rick) Creech
All Rights Reserved