Leviticus 19:14—Romans 14:13
Thou shalt not curse the deaf, nor put a stumblingblock before the blind, but shalt fear thy God: I am the LORD.—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.
JAMES DURHAM (1622-1658): What is a stumbling block?
WILLIAM PERKINS (1558-1602): A stumbling block is properly anything, as wood or stone or such like, that is cast in a man’s way to hinder him in his gait, and to cause him to trip or fall. An offense is anything that causes a man to sin against God, and so to slip or fall or to go out of his way that leads to life.
JAMES DURHAM: A “stumbling block,” or an “offense,” is anything that may be the occasion of a fall to someone—anything that may make him stumble, or weaken or halt in the course of holiness—just as a block would hinder a runner or put him at risk of falling as he runs a race. Some offenses are in doctrine; others are in practice. There are doctrinal offenses, and there are practical offenses. Doctrinal offenses are such as flow from matters of opinion in which people vent some untruth and so lay a stumbling block before others. This is to break a commandment—the commandment against falsehood, and to teach others to do so, Matthew 5:19. Sometimes this also overlaps with matters of practice—that is, when a corrupt practice is defended by false doctrine, as the Nicolaitans attempted to do, Revelation 2:6,15.
WILLIAM PERKINS: An offense given, is any speech or deed whereby a man is provoked to sin. And so was Peter an offense unto Christ, Matthew 16:23.
JAMES DURHAM: There can be no worse effects than those that follow from causing others to stumble. It brings a woe to the world, and Christ reckons it a most grievous plague when it abounds, for it brings destruction with it to many souls…Causing stumbling harms the reputation of the gospel. Sensitivity about giving offense adorns the gospel exceedingly. It convinces those around us of the reality of the gospel. It encourages charity and warms love. By contrast, carelessness about giving offense opens people’s mouths to criticize the gospel and makes both Christianity and Christians a reproach.
J. C. RYLE (1816-1900): We put offenses or stumbling blocks in the way of men’s souls whenever we do anything to keep them back from Christ, to turn them out of the way of salvation, or to disgust them with true religion. We may do it directly by persecuting, ridiculing, opposing, or dissuading them from decided service of Christ. We may do it indirectly by living a life inconsistent with our religious profession and by making Christianity loathsome and distasteful by our own conduct.
D. L. MOODY (1837-1899): Many a professing Christian is a stumbling block because his worship is divided. On Sunday he worships God; on weekdays God has little or no place in his thoughts.
JOHN ANGELL JAMES (1785-1869): Do not give the “sanction of your example,” or the “aid of your influence” to the spread of a diseased religious profession, in which such leprous spots as these are continually breaking out! “Abstain from all appearance of evil,” 1 Thessalonians 5:22. You should be the first to set the example, and to give out a pattern of self-denial!—The eyes of the world will be upon you, and as you conduct yourselves, so will religion be honoured or disgraced.
ALEXANDER MacLAREN (1826-1910): No Christian is blameless if he voluntarily acts so as to lay a stumbling-block or an occasion to fall in another’s path.
JAMES DURHAM: It brings reproach on the profession of Christianity, it cools love among brethren, it begets and fosters contention and strife, it mars the progress of the gospel, and in a word, it makes iniquity to abound…Causing stumbling saps Christian fellowship. Lack of sensitivity about offenses strikes at the root of Christian communion. There can be no freedom in admonitions, little freedom in discussions, and, it may be, no great fervour in prayers with and for others, where offenses abound. And is it possible that religion can be in a healthy condition where we find these problems? From these problems alone it should be obvious why Christ said, “Woe to that man by whom the offence cometh!” Matthew 18:7.
JOHN ANGELL JAMES: Be very careful not to throw stumbling blocks in a Christian’s path, even in little things. I do not now allude to immoralities and vice. But I refer to lesser violations of Christian propriety; such as the indulgence of bad dispositions and offences against love, gratitude, and humility.
C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): The very heaviest conceivable doom were better than to be a stumbling block in the way of the very least of God’s people. Yet I have known some say, “Well, the thing is lawful, and if a weak brother does not like it, I cannot help it—he should not be so weak.” No, my dear Brother, that is not the way Christ would have you talk! You must consider the weakness of your brother—all things may be lawful to you, but all things are not expedient.
MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): We must be afraid of the sin, and very cautious what we say and do, lest we should through inadvertency give offense to Christ’s little ones, lest we put contempt upon them without being aware of it.
C. H. SPURGEON: Remember, we must measure the pace which the flock can travel by the weakest in the flock—or else we shall have to leave behind us many of Christ’s sheep! The pace at which a company must go, must depend upon how fast the weak and the sick can travel, unless we are willing to part company with them—which I trust we are not willing to do. So let us take care that we cause not even the weakest to stumble by anything that we can do without harm to ourselves, but which would bring harm to them! But I am not sure if it would harm the weakest, whether it would not harm us also, because we are not as strong as we think we are.
JAMES DURHAM: Causing stumbling hardens us in sin. Lack of sensitivity and carelessness in giving offense opens the door to all kinds of carelessness in the person who gives offense. This is because that person’s conscience becomes less sensitive to challenges, so they have greater boldness to do things that are materially evil. By this they also become habitually unconcerned and dismissive of others.
MARTYN LLOYD-JONES (1899-1981): Our Lord said to His disciples at the very end, before His arrest: “This is my commandment, That ye love one another,” John 15:12. And He told them that it would be by their love for one another that the world would know that they were His people, John 13:35. This should always be the overruling and overriding consideration in the church. If we depart from this, we are almost certain to go wrong in our decisions. Whatever we are discussing in the church, we should always start with the consideration that we are to love one another because we are brethren together. Whatever differences of opinion may arise, more important than the particular decision is this spirit of love for one another; and I repeat that if we do not have that in the forefront of our minds, hearts, and spirits, we are bound to go astray.
