^“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!” (Matthew 18:7).

I sincerely hope you will read this devotional in the context of the preceding four devotionals on temptations, trials, and testing. It makes sense regardless, but the message is so much more powerful in context.

The Greek word for stumbling block is “skándalon” which literally means the trigger of a trap or a means of causing one to stumble.

As believers, we never want to be the cause of someone else’s sin or falling away. I mostly teach adults now, but way back I taught children and young teens. I was very diligent as a teacher of these youngsters, taking to heart the following admonition: “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 around their neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea” (Matthew 18:6).

The little ones referred to in the above verse are not necessarily young in years; it really refers to baby Christians. As staff at Nashville Rescue Mission, immature Christians surround us; and we should understand the great responsibility we have as believers to model, mentor, and teach those we also serve.

But even when living in relationship with more mature Christians, we must be discerning about our conversation. Even when we mean well, we may very well be offering comfort when we should be challenging, challenging when we should be offering comfort, or advising something that sounds scriptural when it is not. In fact, Jesus used this word “stumbling block” when speaking to Peter because Peter objected to the suffering that Jesus told his disciples that he would soon experience. “Jesus turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns” (Matthew 16:23).

Obviously, Peter meant well; but what he was saying was not biblical. A good example is what we like to say to someone who is going through a crisis: “God will never give you more than you can manage.” The problem is that this is obviously not true because we’ve all experienced overwhelming burdens. God never promised us that the Christian life would be free of suffering; in fact, He promised quite the opposite. The more accurate word of comfort is that “God will never give you more than He can manage.” And that subtle but meaningful change forces the believer to call on the Holy Spirit and to abide in Him, which is right where we all need to be. We must take extreme pains to avoid being a stumbling block or to stumbling ourselves. It is human nature to hear what we want to hear and say what we think others want to hear. “For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions” as Paul warned us in 2 Timothy 4:3.

If you take this seriously, you will be concerned, perhaps even terrified, as I am about getting it wrong. However, we can be comforted by these verses:

• “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” (1 John 13:34-35).
• “Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins” (1 Peter 4:8).

God knows our hearts. We must make every effort to study God’s Word and pray to the Holy Spirit for guidance, as well as to obey the two great commandments to love God with all our heart and soul and mind and then to love your neighbor as yourself. Then we can “know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose” (Romans 8:28).

“Anyone who loves their brother and sister lives in the light, and there is nothing in them to make them stumble:” (1 John 2:10).

Judy