Friday March 10, 2023
Matthew 18:6
“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.”
I doubt that Jesus at any other time ever spoke such sharp words as those we read just now.
It is our responsibility toward children that Jesus would impress upon us. He says that it would be better for a person to be put to death than to cause a child to stumble.
These words apply to all of us. Not only to fathers and mothers, but to sisters and brothers, companions and servants. Oh, that they might pierce us all to the very marrow and make us all feel our responsibility to the little folk!
Be careful lest you entice little ones into sin! Be careful lest your life entice little ones into sin!
But our passage today applies especially to fathers and mothers.
No one can help a child as can its father and mother. But neither can any one lead it astray as can they.
We think of the many parents who never tell their children about Jesus, never teach them to fold their little hands in prayer; who never send them to Sunday school, but instead perhaps withhold permission even when the children themselves desire to go.
From the time some children are small they hear father and mother curse and take the name of the Lord in vain. Yes, they even hear them lie and use foul language.
And if the children are awakened by the grace of God from the life in sin into which they have been led by their parents, they often encounter opposition and persecution in their own home.
You father and mother, you who are living without God, hear the earnest words which Jesus speaks to you this day!
You are ruining not only your own soul, but also the souls of the children whom you love, are you not? Remember the words of Jesus about the millstone. And be saved today!
FOR THE LOVE OF GOD 