CARE FOR THE FAITH OF OTHERS

Posted by Pastor Greg Allen on May 26, 2021 under AM Bible Study |

AM Bible Study Group: May 26, 2021 from Luke 17:1-4

Theme: Jesus teaches us to be careful for the faith of others.

(All Scripture is taken from The New King James Version, unless otherwise indicated).

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There are two very sad characteristics of the age in which we live today. One is that of an inordinate focus on self. And the other—as the flip side of the coin—is that of an insensitivity to and lack of compassion for the needs of others. Often, we who are Christians get caught up in the spirit of the age … even to the point of exhibiting those characteristics ourselves.

As we’ve been studying together from the Gospel of Luke, we’ve been gaining a glimpse of our wonderful Savior. And how unlike the spirit of this age He was! No one was more giving and sacrificial of self than He. He gave of Himself so much that—as we’ve been seeing in the story of this Gospel—He set His face to go to Jerusalem to die on the cross for our sins. And as we’ve also seen often in this Gospel, no one was more compassionate toward the people around Him than He was. To read about Him is to lift one’s self above the stifling ‘me-first’ attitude of this world, and to take in the fresh air of His redeeming love.

As we’ve seen from Luke 15:1-2, the Lord Jesus had been lovingly welcoming sinners to Himself. Even the most hardened sinners were drawn to Him. But the Pharisees and scribes—the religious elite of the day—despised the sinners that were being welcomed by Him; and they were even despising Jesus for having accepted them. In Chapters 15 through 16, we’ve seen how Jesus has confronted this hard-hearted self-righteousness that those Pharisees and scribes were exhibiting. And at the beginning of Chapter 17, we find Him teaching His disciples to show careful compassion for those who seek to follow Him.

In Luke 17:1-4, we read;

Then He said to the disciples, “It is impossible that no offenses should come, but woe to him through whom they do come! It would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck, and he were thrown into the sea, than that he should offend one of these little ones. Take heed to yourselves. If your brother sins against you, rebuke him; and if he repents, forgive him. And if he sins against you seven times in a day, and seven times in a day returns to you, saying, ‘I repent,’ you shall forgive him” (Luke 17:1-4).

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There are a couple of things that we need to notice about this passage. First, we read in it some things that we find the Lord saying elsewhere in the Scriptures. But those other Scriptures seem to be describing completely different situations and contexts. As we’ve affirmed before, our Lord didn’t hesitate to use some of the same instructions or parables in different situations and for different instructional purposes. He is, after all, the Master-Teacher; and He knows how to put the same basic truths into our hearts for different applications through several lessons. So; we need to make sure we understand His purpose for speaking them in this specific context.

And that leads us to a second thing to notice; and that is what these things mean in this specific context. There have been some Bible teachers and commentators that have suggested that the words in Luke 17:1-4 don’t have any relation to the surrounding context at all—that they are simply giving us the record of Jesus’ teaching in a free-standing, independent kind of way. But that wouldn’t be in keeping with the man who recorded this Gospel for us. Luke was a careful, analytical man; and at the very beginning of his Gospel, he told us that he was giving us “an orderly account” so that we who read it can know “the certainty of these things” (1:3-4).

It helps to remember who it was that was overhearing these words that He spoke to His disciples. The Pharisees and the scribes who were listening had considered themselves better than the sinners and tax collectors who were coming to Jesus. They were even turning up their noses at Him for receiving them. The effect of this would have been to discourage people from coming to Jesus and from trusting Him. It might have tempted people to think of themselves like the Pharisees and scribes did—sufficiently righteous in themselves, and without any need for repentance. Giving heed to people like them would have turned someone away from Jesus.

And so, in this passage, Jesus warns us—as His followers—not to get caught up in that ‘spirit of the age’. If someone is a very bad sinner—such as were those who were coming to Him—they should not, in any way, be discouraged from coming. No stumbling block should ever be put in their way. And if anyone was trying to learn to walk with Jesus—and if they fail and fall into sin along the way—they should immediately be forgiven and encouraged to keep right on coming to Jesus.

In these four verses, then, we see Jesus giving us two pieces of instruction. And together, they show us that—as His followers—we are to be neither inordinately focused on self or insensitive toward others. Instead, we are to be very, very careful for the tender faith of others.

In other words, we are to be like Jesus toward them.

Notice how Jesus teaches us to be careful for the faith of others …

1. BY NOT CAUSING OTHERS TO STUMBLE (vv. 1-2).

Jesus refers to the idea of “offending” someone, or causing an “offense”. In the original language, it’s the word from which we get our English word ‘scandal’. But it’s not talking about a horrible piece of news in the gossip column. Rather, the idea is that of a ‘stumbling block’—something that causes someone else to trip up in their faith in Jesus. In the New International Version, it’s translated by the idea of ‘causing someone to sin’.

In verse 1, we read that He told His disciples something that we need to understand and accept in this fallen world; “It is impossible that no offenses should come …” It simply can’t be otherwise. This is a world that has been impacted by the sin of Adam; and now fallenness and imperfection permeates it. Those things also permeate us. Try as hard as we may, we cannot avoid the fact that—sometimes—we hurt each other’s feelings, or we do damage to one another in some way. Personally, I hardly feel that I can go through a day without slapping my forehead because of some stupid thing I’ve accidentally or thoughtlessly said or did. If we’re honest about it, we all lay our heads on our pillow at night and think back on two or three things we’d done in the course of the day—maybe more—that we regret. I praise God that the Bible tells us—in 1 Peter 4:8—that “love will cover a multitude of sins”; because I have a multitude of sins that I need for you to cover with your love. And I need to cover your sins with my love too.

But there is a kind of offense for which Jesus went on to say, “but woe to him through whom they do come!” This speaks of the kind of offense—the kind of cause for stumbling—that comes from self-righteousness and prideful contempt for others who need the forgiveness and love that only Jesus can give. It can come in the form of actual mocking or ridiculing the whole idea of faith in Jesus—a belittling of the ideas of sin and guilt and redemption—a mocking of the cross. It can come in the form of placing so much of a focus on ourselves that we don’t care about the moral weaknesses of others—or of how our actions may be causing other people to stumble and fall into sin. It can come in the form of actually enticing someone else to participate in some sinful action; or in tempting them to violate their own conscience before God in some way. It can even come in the form of physically harming those who want to come to Jesus.

Jesus warned that such ‘offenses’ will come—whether unintentionally or very intentionally. But woe to that person by whom they come! And in the most immediate context of this passage, we find the Pharisees and scribes looking with contempt upon those who are coming to Jesus—perhaps persuading them to turn from Him. Jesus went on to say, in verse 2, “It would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck, and he were thrown into the sea, than that he should offend one of these little ones.” A millstone was one of the large stones used for grinding grain. It had to be very heavy to do its job; and it usually had a hole in the middle into which grain was poured—just perfect for a rope to be slipped through!

The only other mention of this kind of thing is found in Revelation 18. That chapter speaks prophetically of the great Babylon—the wicked city that would cause the downfall of the world in the later days. And in verse 21, we’re told;

Then a mighty angel took up a stone like a great millstone and threw it into the sea, saying, “Thus with violence the great city Babylon shall be thrown down, and shall not be found anymore” (Revelation 18:21).

It’s a picture of a violent death—sunk to the bottom—never again to rise. Jesus could have said that it would have been better for such a person if they had simply died and early death. But no! He chose to describe an intentional act of dreadful violence; and said that that would have been a much preferable way to go than to have dared to make one of His little ones to stumble!

Now; let’s remember. He’s talking to His disciples—not to those who are destined to suffer that horrible end. But what this teaches us as His followers is that if He feels that strongly about the matter, then we need to be very careful how we protect the faith of others—even the tenderest faith of the very least of those who love Him. As the apostle Paul put it in Romans 14:21;

It is good neither to eat meat nor drink wine nor do anything by which your brother stumbles or is offended or is made weak (Romans 14:21).

So; even though we’re in a fallen world in which offenses come, we’re not to be the ones from whom those offenses come. As Jesus said in verse 3, “Take heed to yourselves.” We’re to be very careful not to be a cause for another believer to stumble.

But what happens when we blow it and offend another believer? Or what happens when another believer blows it and offends us? Jesus goes on to tell us that we’re to protect one another’s faith …

2. BY ALWAYS BEING READY TO FORGIVE (vv. 3-4).

Our Lord’s words about ‘taking heed to ourselves’ may also be intended to call us to a readiness to forgive whenever another brother or sister offends our faith or hurts us in some way; and to make sure we don’t withhold forgiveness. We’re not to be a ‘grudge-holding’ people.

In verse 4, Jesus—still talking to His disciples—said, “If your brother sins against you, rebuke him …” To ‘rebuke’ doesn’t mean to speak harshly or to scold another brother or sister in a humiliating way. It simply means to—in genuine love—tell them the truth about what they did wrong and to call them to repentance.

Jesus gave us a very clear pattern to follow in Matthew 18. He told His disciples;

“Moreover if your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone. If he hears you, you have gained your brother. But if he will not hear, take with you one or two more, that ‘by the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established.’ And if he refuses to hear them, tell it to the church. But if he refuses even to hear the church, let him be to you like a heathen and a tax collector” (Matthew 18:15-17).

The goal is to ‘gain our brother’ and restore the relationship that was broken by an offense or a sin. And Jesus goes on to tell us in verse 3, “and if he repents, forgive him.” To ‘forgive’, in the original sense of the word, means to ‘release’ someone from something. It means that we no longer hold the offense against them—that we set them free.

And one of the ways our Lord wants us to protect the faith of one another is by making sure that we don’t put any limits on that forgiveness. He goes on to say, in verse 4, “And if he sins against you seven times in a day, and seven times in a day returns to you, saying, ‘I repent,’ you shall forgive him.” Most of us might be tempted—in our fallenness—to maybe forgive a first time in a day, and then maybe even a second time, but withhold forgiveness after a third in the same day. But Jesus said that we’re even to forgive even if they came back seven times!

In fact, we’re to be prepared to forgive far more times than that. Peter—in Matthew 18—once asked the Lord;

“Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? Up to seven times?” Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven” (Matthew 18:21-22).

In other words, we’re not to keep count. We’re to perpetually forgive whenever our brother or sister comes to us in repentance. And we’re to be forgiven by them in the same way. Why? Is it because we or they deserve it? No. Rather, it’s because that’s what our Lord does to us. He forgives us every time we come to Him. And what a wonderful thing that is! As it says in Ephesians 4:31-32;

Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice. And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you (Ephesians 4:31-32).

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The attitude of this world is self-focused, and as a result insensitive—two sides of the same coin. But we’re of a different coinage. By God’s grace, let’s show care for the faith of others by being careful not to be a cause for stumbling in others, and by always being ready to forgive.

To protect one another’s faith in Jesus, in this way, is to behave more like Jesus Himself.

EA