Stumbling Blocks

Author: Joseph

Date: October 1, 2023

“Woe to the world because of its stumbling blocks!” Yeshua declared to His disciples. The “world” He speaks of is that which is worldly, or opposed to God, including non-believers and the things that inspire evil desires. Truly, woe to those things which take people away from God and are a constant cause for temptation. These things can be anything, but they are all rooted in their opposition to God. How do we identify them and differentiate them from truly good things? Evil veils itself as “good” so this is difficult without God’s help.

The things that cause stumbling are sometimes apparent to our senses. We hear unrighteous words or we see an abuse occur. Other things are not so apparent and are hidden inside a person’s mind and heart such as jealousy, lust, anger, hatred, deception, usury, and other such defiling things. These are also usually stoked to arise by the things that mankind has created from these desires. The things of the world are like parasites with the one who desires them, as they were made from evil desires that sap away at the life of the one who pursues them. One person desires power, so they create a position of authority to abuse others, but they also make that position desirable for others to obtain and so the sin attracts more sin. A person whose desire is for pleasure will be drawn to indulge in things that their flesh lusts after, such as sexual perversion, drug usage, mind-numbing entertainment, and anything that stimulates them physically with a fleshly sense of “joy.” The things this person indulges in are perversions of originally good things; these perversions rooted in either their own heart or another person’s twisted distortion of what was once good. And around and around the cycle goes, keeping the seeker of these evil things caught in a cycle of both indulging in evil and creating more evil for others to indulge in. Woe to the world, which creates these stumbling blocks from its desire to spite God and seek what is evil.

This is no surprise after the world fell into chaos after mankind’s first sin in Eden. Yeshua continues His words to the disciples, saying, “For it is inevitable that stumbling blocks come…” (Matthew 18:7). There is nothing new about this aspect of the world since the fall in the garden of Eden, only that mankind seems to come up with innovative ways of presenting the same sins in various manners and coming up with new ways to cause others to stumble into them. The trap is the same, but the bait is changed often.

"The trap is the same, but the bait is changed often."

No matter how the believer lives, they will face a temptation from these stumbling blocks at one point in their life. In fact, everyone faces these stumbling blocks in their early life, because the world loves to target us when we are the weakest and least likely to defend against these stumbling blocks. Until we are redeemed by God by believing Yeshua and repent from sin, we are unable to defend ourselves, so the ideal time of being targeted is when we are children and have little knowledge of God and little resistance to the various baits that have been laid over the traps of sin.

Children are often the most unruly and recklessly behaved people you will ever meet; and reasonably so. They are new to the world, open to all its temptations, and have to grow into a knowledge of God that takes discipleship and then later turns into personal faith. They are the most easily tempted to sin because evil disguises itself as “good” and is often veiled behind persuasive reasoning. Temptation often has a “pleasure” effect on the flesh and this can create a false sense of happiness that children are so prone to follow. This is why people who are prone to be tricked and follow foolishness are sometimes referred to as “children” in the Bible, since they are seekers of pleasures and despise correction (Examples: Luke 7:31-32; Galatians 4:3; Ephesians 4:14). Stumbling blocks come from every source imaginable and their first target is the child (both the literal and metaphorical person who is prone to seek pleasure).

Stumbling blocks may be inevitable, but “...woe to that man through whom the stumbling block comes” (Matthew 18:7). God is just and righteous to bring judgment upon the wicked man who brings about evil and seeks for others to be caught up in it. The “children” may play with sin, seeking their pleasures, but they will soon learn that their “fun” has been nothing more than foolishness and self-condemning vanity. Was it out of innocence? No. Everyone is afforded the mercy to turn from their wicked ways and to help others do the same. Innocence, rather, is the trait of the child of God. The apostle Saul speaks to the believers in Rome, stating, “...I want you to be wise in what is good and innocent in what is evil” (Romans 16:19). We are to make evil something we are so repelled from seeking that we become practically unaware of how to perform evil towards one another. It is written that we are to “be blameless and innocent, children of God above reproach in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom [we] appear as lights in the world, holding fast to the word of life…” (Philemon 2:15-16). Instead of falling into the traps laid by the children of darkness, we are to be shrewd as children of God and keep away from their stumbling blocks.

Once more looking into the letter to Philemon, we see the answer we have been seeking in how to identify stumbling blocks and avoid them by “holding fast to the word of life,” (Philemon 2:16) that is, God’s Word, the Bible. We have a vast amount of wisdom contained in the Scriptures and with God’s Spirit guiding our understanding, there is no limit to how the words contained within it can be applied to our lives and discern what is truly good and what is evil veiled as “good.”

The stumbling blocks of the world are an inherent part of it since the fall in Eden. We can expect them to come, particularly to those who are most vulnerable. But with the guidance of God’s Word we can discern the traps that have been laid and see evil for what it really is, no matter how thoroughly it has been veiled. With God’s Word as our guide, and His Spirit guiding us, as children of God, we can hold fast to what is really good. Stumbling blocks will come, but we will be ready to uncover them all through discernment and join not into the foolish self-condemnation of this world.

Matthew 18:7

Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. www.lockman.org