Do Not Sin Against children!

– Mr. Sam Doherty  

The Lord Jesus gives to every believer a solemn warning concerning believing children:

“But whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to sin, it

would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck, and he

were drowned in the depth of the sea”(Matthew 18v6).   

You and I must never cause one of these little believing ones to stumble. If we do, we leave ourselves open to God’s chastisement.

How can you cause a believing child to stumble? How can you sin against a believing child? 

 By a wrong example

Children imitate you—consciously or unconsciously. What you do, they feel they can do; where you go, they feel they can go; what you say, they feel they can say. “It must be alright, my teacher does it!”

 By wrong teaching 

It is unlikely that you will give wrong teaching or wrong doctrine to the children who have trusted Christ. But on the other hand, if you, for some reason, neglect to teach them the truths which they need to help them grow in their Christian lives, you could be causing them to stumble.

 By a wrong expectation

Undue criticism of the believing child and the setting of unrealistic standards for his life can also cause a child problems and cause him to stumble. The problem comes when we voice our doubts to the child about his salvation, because of what we have seen and heard—and this can cause the child to doubt, and even to be offended.   

 By a wrong attitude

This is probably the greatest danger. If you in any way create doubts in the child’s mind concerning his salvation you could cause him to stumble. These doubts could, for example, be caused by an adult’s obvious disbelief in a child’s conversion, when he says to him quite openly, “You are too young” .

 

You and I must always be careful to feed and help our saved children, and we must be sure not to cause them to stumble. We want to be stepping stones and not stumbling stones!