Woe

Woe

“And whoever welcomes a little child like this in my name welcomes me.  
But if anyone causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a large millstone hung around his neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea. 
“Woe to the world because of the things that cause people to sin! Such things must come, but woe to the man through whom they come!  
If your hand or your foot causes you to sin 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 sin, 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.” 
Matthew 18:5-9
Here is a warning from Jesus I think we as Christians in particular need to heed. We need to be careful how we treat people and what we teach.
A friend of my soon to be daughter in law has a child about eight. She is visibly disabled.
The child grew up in church and heard much about a specific preacher. She wanted her mother to take her to this man to be healed.
They got there and were told to sit a the back. During the alter call, a call for those in need of a healing touch, the child asked her mother to take her forward.
To the horror of the mother they were intercepted on there way down to the front and asked to go to their seat.
It totally devastated the child, and the two went away disillusioned.
The mother also noticed at the time that there were no people at the front with extreme disabilities.
Here is an extreme example of how someone can cause someone’s faith to be questioned. To cause someone to sin.
Fortunately as I understand it the little girls faith rebounded because it was in Jesus not in the preacher.
Not all such encounters have such a happy ending.
The warning Jesus give in this passage is not only a warning about making children sin, but about making all people sin.
All believers I’m sure know of pastors, and evangelist that have cause people to fall away from God.
We not only as pastors and evangelist, but as individuals need to be careful what we say and how we say it.
We need to be conscious of how we act.
People are watching our lives and they need to see the truth of Jesus in it.
Think about it.