In my previous post, I mention that we shall not be easily stumbled by others for if we know our purpose, have a strong foundation and is fixing our eye on Jesus and not others then we will never be stumbled so easily and would be able to recognise that it is the work of Satan. We should follow Jesus example in Matthew 16: 21-23
“From that time on Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.
Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. “Never, Lord!” he said. “This shall never happen to you!”
Jesus turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men.”
Note that Jesus actually recognise it was Satan that is trying to stumble Him and not Peter because Jesus have in mind the things of God and not things of man. In short if we are in tune with God and fixing our eye on Jesus instead of man then we will be able to recognise that it’s the work of satan and turn to God and not allowed Satan to stumble us easily.”
Now the question that I want to post is, if we already have a solid foundation and we know our stand and won’t be stumbled so easily does that mean we can do whatever we like?
Well the answer is obviously no. Why? Because we should know that not everyone is standing on solid ground yet and we cannot assume that everyone is as mature as we are, we cannot put people in our shoes; instead we must put ourselves in the shoes of other.
Many times we are too insensitive to our surrounding; we do not realize that there’s new Christian around us that will be stumbled by our small actions and people are actually looking up to us. Just imagine what will happen if an elderly Christian were to curse while talking with his peers while there are younger Christian around them, obviously the younger (referring to spiritual age) one will tend to be stumbled and feel disappointed toward the older one for they are the one that they are looking up to. Well I will just take the example from the bible and may the Holy Spirit speak to you
“Be careful, however, that the exercise of your freedom does not become a stumbling block to the weak. For if anyone with a weak conscience sees you who have this knowledge eating in an idol’s temple, won’t he be emboldened to eat what has been sacrificed to idols? So this weak brother, for whom Christ died, is destroyed by your knowledge. When you sin against your brothers in this way and wound their weak conscience, you sin against Christ. Therefore, if what I eat causes my brother to fall into sin, I will never eat meat again, so that I will not cause him to fall.” 1 Corinthians 8:9-13
“Do not destroy the work of God for the sake of food. All food is clean, but it is wrong for a man to eat anything that causes someone else to stumble. It is better not to eat meat or drink wine or to do anything else that will cause your brother to fall.
So whatever you believe about these things keep between yourself and God. Blessed is the man who does not condemn himself by what he approves. But the man who has doubts is condemned if he eats, because his eating is not from faith; and everything that does not come from faith is sin.
We who are strong ought to bear with the failings of the weak and not to please ourselves. Each of us should please his neighbor for his good, to build him up” Romans 14:20 – 15:2
And let 2 Corinthian 6:3 draw us the conclusion:
“We put no stumbling block in anyone’s path, so that our ministry will not be discredited.”
