January 24, 2021
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. 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 18:1-7 NIV)
This morning I was reading Matthew 16:13-20 which is the account of Jesus asking his disciples who they and others said he was. When Peter replied, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God” Jesus told him, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in heaven. And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”
As I was pondering the statement of “whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven” an image came to my mind of bricks being laid out on the ground to provide a pathway. The image included a heavy tamping tool being used to make the pathway of bricks level so that no one would stumble over an unlevel brick. This was followed by me hearing in my mind the phrase, “make level paths for your feet”. I later discovered this phrase was from Hebrews 12:13-15 which states, ““Make level paths for your feet,” so that the lame may not be disabled, but rather healed. Make every effort to live in peace with everyone and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord. See to it that no one falls short of the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many.”
Jesus came from his Father full of grace and truth with a mission to reveal to us the true nature of our Father in heaven (John 1;14-18). Yet his life and teaching offended many people, especially those who taught other people what they thought was an accurate understanding of the nature of God. They refused to believe that their understanding about the nature of God was not accurate.
Jesus has told us that unless we become like little children we shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven (Matthew 18:3). Children have a special place in Jesus’ heart because they were willing to believe what he tells them because he demonstrates the goodness of God. Our Father is good and his loves endures forever and Jesus only does what he sees his Father doing and only says what he hears him speak (John 8:28).
Children by nature are willing to trust people and to believe them. They are especially capable of believing in the goodness of God their Father, even if they do not yet know him. They also willingly respond to the goodness of God when it comes through people. A crying infant will be instantly comforted if its mother holds it and allows it to nurse from her breast. Unbelief is unnatural to them….they learn unbelief from the adults in their lives whose hearts have become hardened.
Jesus spoke about the binding and loosing of things here on the earth having the same effect in heaven. To bind something is to restrict it and to loose something is to not restrict it. If I bind someone’s hands with a rope, then the use of their hands is restricted. If I unbind their hands, then they have unrestricted use of their hands. Jesus stated that he came to set the captives free. Free from what? From the lies of Satan, which have restricted people from knowing the goodness of God and binding them from living in the fullness of the children of God. For all who believe in Jesus are given the right to be called the children of God (John 1:12-13)!
Jesus has been seated at the right hand of our Father in heaven where all authority and heaven and earth has been given to him (John 1:20-22). He has defeated and disarmed the evil spiritual forces that stood against us and oppressed us (Colossians 2:15). Yet Ephesians chapter 6 tell us that we wrestle against the same spiritual forces that Jesus defeated and disarmed. How can this be if he disarmed them? Because we can rearm them by believing their lies. We give authority to whatever we give agreement to. When we agree with their lies, we grant them authority and power to oppress us! Jesus is the truth and when we believe what he speaks he sets us free!
When we believe and speak the lies, we loose the spiritual forces behind those lies to do their evil work against us and others. When we believe and speak what Jesus says then we bind those same spiritual forces and restrict their freedom to do their evil work.
All of my pondering this morning led me to a very sobering understanding of the times that we live in. Please scroll back to the top of this post and read Jesus’ words about the consequences for those who cause children and others to stumble. The Greek word for stumble, skandalon, means to ensnare someone by setting a trap with bait that will draw them into triggering the trap. There are many types of bait which include teaching a wrong understanding of God that is not expressed by Jesus. Other bait comes through wounds that people receive from others which causes them to question if God exists and if he does, then why do bad things happen. One of the most effective baits is to call good what God calls not good (evil).
As a country, we are on a path of embracing more and more what is evil by calling it good. There is nothing good about racism, white supremacy, killing of unborn children, oppression of the poor or sexual immorality in all its various forms. Every person has some level of authority whether it is due to relationships or positional authority in government, work, schools or the military. Jesus indicated that it is an awfully bad thing, with serious consequences, for someone to use their authority to cause any person to stumble into a trap of Satan. It is also true that the greater the level of authority, the greater the level of accountability and consequences for those causing people to stumble.
It would be easy for me to apply these words only to others, who in varying degrees, are advocating for the acceptance of racism, white supremacy, killing of unborn children, oppression of the poor or sexual immorality, etc. However, I must first ask Jesus to search me and try me and show me whatever wicked or hurtful ways are in my own heart (Psalm 139). I must then ask him to remove the log in my own eye before I do anything to remove the speck of sawdust, from the same log, that I see in someone else’s eye (Matthew 7:3-5). Then I can pray with a pure heart and with power for those who are in positions of authority who are advocating for what is evil.
For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again. So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. (2 Corinthians 5:14-21 NIV)
Blessings,
Kevin