Context No. 2986 of 4322 · Matthew

Matthew 18:7-11: in context

7“Woe to the world because of occasions of stumbling! For it must be that the occasions come, but woe to that person through whom the occasion comes! 8If your hand or your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off and cast it from you. It is better for you to enter into life maimed or crippled, rather than having two hands or two feet to be cast into the eternal fire. 9If your eye causes you to stumble, pluck it out and cast it from you. It is better for you to enter into life with one eye, rather than having two eyes to be cast into the Gehenna of fire. 10See that you don’t despise one of these little ones, for I tell you that in heaven their angels always see the face of my Father who is in heaven. 11For the Son of Man came to save that which was lost.

Jesus speaks with startling seriousness. Woe to the world for its temptations to sin, and woe to the one through whom they come. If your hand or foot or eye causes you to stumble, he says, cut it off, tear it out; better to enter life maimed than to be thrown whole into the fire. Then, tenderly: do not despise one of these little ones, for their angels always see the Father's face, and the Son of Man came to save the lost.

Two urgent concerns sit together. First, the deadly seriousness of sin. Jesus uses shocking hyperbole, cut off the hand, tear out the eye, to say that nothing is worth clinging to if it drags us to ruin; we must be ruthless with whatever leads us into sin. And second, a tender protectiveness toward the little ones, the lowly and vulnerable, whom we must never cause to stumble or look down on, because heaven itself watches over them and Christ came to save them. Ruthless with our own sin, gentle with the weak.

Am I ruthless with what causes me to sin, and gentle with the vulnerable "little ones" God so carefully watches over?

Sources

Matthew 18:8: "It is better for you to enter into life maimed or crippled, rather than having two hands or two feet to be cast into the eternal fire."
Matthew 18:10: "See that you don't despise one of these little ones, for... their angels always see the face of my Father."
Matthew 18:11: "For the Son of Man came to save that which was lost."