But whosoever shall offend one of these little ones who believe in me, it were profitable for him that a great millstone had been hanged upon his neck and he be sunk in the depths of the sea.
Matthew 18 opens with a question about rank: who is the greatest? The Lord answers by setting a child in front of the disciples, then warns them sharply about how they treat the smallest and weakest believer.
Who the Little Ones Are
The phrase is not just decoration. One writer looks at the word behind it and points to a specific group.
The word used here for "little ones" is "mikroon," one who has not yet grown up and is not necessarily a child. It is the same word used of Zacchaeus — he was small, "mikroon," not grown in height. In verse 6, where the word first appears, the Lord says of these, "who believe in Me." He means those who had believed in the Lord but had not grown much in the truth — what we may call new converts. We believe the Lord's word to Peter in John 21:15, "Feed my lambs," is close to this passage.
What It Means to Cause Sin
Older translations read "offend," which can be misread as hurt feelings. One commentator draws a line between wounding someone's pride and damaging their faith.
There may be the very opposite of this — "Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to sin." What does this mean? It means anything likely to shake their confidence in Christ, anything that puts a stumbling block in their way. It does not mean anything said in faithful love to their soul. People may be hurt by that, but that is not what the Lord means here. It is what tends to shake the confidence of the little one in God Himself.
Done to Them, Done to Him
The severity of the punishment makes sense only if the Lord counts Himself involved.
The great thought set before us here is that the Lord identifies Himself with every little one — with everyone who has become a little child, that is, born again. He is their Father and their Lord, closely identified with them. It reminds us of that beautiful word "Whoever touches you touches the apple of His eye" (Zech. 2:8)… And so honour done to one of the little ones is done to Him, injury done to one of them is injury done to Him. What glory of the believer this reveals! This fact should teach us how to behave toward one another, and not to look down on anyone who belongs to Christ. How quick we are to do that! We say one person knows so little of the Word, and another is so ungracious. With all our criticism we forget that he is, after all, one of Christ's own.
The Tone of the Warning
Notice the heat in the language. One writer hears a protective love in it, not cold legal measurement.
So this love wraps itself around the ones it loves, like a mother with a baby. It grows, you might say, fierce in condemning anyone who would hurt them. "But whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened around his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea." That is how God cares for the weakest of His own!
How It Happens in Practice
A stumbling block is rarely deliberate cruelty. More often it is simply the way we live. One commentator applies the verse to that kind of inconsistency, writing about Gehazi — the servant of the prophet Elisha, who chased money from Naaman, an army commander God had just healed.
Gehazi chose the lure of riches over the eternal well-being of a soul. He is one of those who cause one of these little ones to sin — the people of whom it is said that it would be better for them to have a great millstone fastened around the neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea. Do we think enough about how the worldliness of our life may do lasting harm to these little ones in the faith? How this thought should cause us to give heed to all our conduct!
A common defence is that the offended person was oversensitive. That excuse is turned around here.
Take care you are not a stumbling-block. You may say that a person must be very weak to feel such a thing, but that is the very reason he should be cared for. May the Lord keep us from ever hindering the weak, and make us help them!
Grace Outward, Severity Inward
The verses that follow tell the disciple to cut off hand or foot. Together the two halves set a double standard — one for others, one for oneself.
As for the disciples, if the thing they valued most became a trap to them, they had to pluck it out and cut it off. They were to take the greatest care, in grace, not to become a trap to a little one who believes in Christ. And they were to be utterly severe with themselves about anything that might trap them.
Summary
- Little. The "little ones" are believers who have not grown much yet — new converts, the lambs Christ told Peter to feed.
- Linked. Christ identifies Himself with each of them, so injury done to one of them is injury done to Him.
- Loved. The warning has the heat of a mother guarding a baby; God cares for the weakest of His own.
- Lethal. To cause a little one to stumble is to shake a weak believer's confidence in Christ — and a worldly life is the usual way it happens.
- Lowly. The remedy runs two ways: full grace toward others, unrelenting severity toward whatever ensnares us.