Care for One Another's Souls

Let’s imagine someone. Let’s imagine a fellow church member named Hank.

Hank won’t miss a doctor’s appointment, but he regularly misses church. Hank meticulously cares for his health - exercising daily and eating well. But his Bible reading is sporadic and his prayers are rare. Hank is passionate about his favorite sports team, knows all their statistics, but hasn’t memorized a passage of Scripture since elementary school. He meditates, for sure, but his meditations are on his work, his career, his future retirement; not on God, and his word, his will. Hank is focused on his career, and is busy, and it’s a regular excuse for him to not be involved in the life of the church. Hank is engaged in politics, and his pastor wishes he was as engaged in the church as he is in politics. Hank believes in the doctrine of sin, but is quick to defend himself when accused of anything.

You’ve gotten to know Hank. He’s professed to be a Christian for a long time. He’s got his theology down pretty good. There’s no big scandal or obvious sin in his life. But you sense something is missing. He’s gradually becoming less engaged. He seems to be flirting with worldliness in subtle ways. There seems to be a lack of spiritual vibrancy, not enough to sound the alarm, but enough to grab your attention. You’re concerned.

Should someone say something? Who should say something? Or do we pray and hope Hank figures things out? Do we say, “Welp, that’s just Hank being Hank”? Or are we in any way responsible to do something about his concerning drift?

These lead us to much deeper questions. How much responsibility do church members really have for one another? How much should they concern themselves with the struggles of others?

Or looking at it from another angle, What does your personal Christian life have to do with the lives of those other Christians around you? Do you need to take their thoughts, sensibilities, needs, concerns, sins, and struggles - into consideration as you follow Jesus?

Do you agree with the author who critiqued the modern way typical Christians think about the church when he said: “If you are a Christian living in a Western democracy, chances are that you need to change the way you think about your church and how you are connected to it. Most likely, you underestimate your church. You belittle it. You misshape it in a way that misshapes your Christianity.” And then goes on to state explicitly the way we do it: “The basic disease...is the assumption that we have the authority to conduct our Christian lives on our own. We include the church piece when and where we please.”

In other words, let me unpack what he’s saying: Typical Americans have a distorted way of viewing the church which leads to a distortion of their own Christian lives. And the basic, fundamental problem is that we think we are not accountable to anyone or for anyone. Church is an optional add-on that we can use if we need it.

So do you think the Bible leads us to take more responsibility for the lives of other Christians, or leads us to move away from taking responsibility for the lives of other Christians?

The text we’re going to look at in depth this morning might help correct our misshapen view of the church that misshapes our Christianity. In this passage, Jesus helps us to understand what our responsibilities are toward other believers.

We’re going to look at Mark 9:42. Just one verse. “Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him if a great millstone were hung around his neck and he were thrown into the sea.”

There are three whoever statements in these sections. In verses 33-37 they get caught talking about who’s the greatest and Jesus has to correct them and he says “Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me.” That’s statement # 1. In verses 38-41, Jesus teaches them to appreciate the ministry of another man who is not part of their group but is serving Jesus still. “Whoever” statement # 2 is verse 41 “whoever gives you a cup of water to drink because you belong to Christ will by no means lose his reward.” And in saying that, he validates all true ministry - big or small - that is done for Christ. They are not to stop this other man from doing his ministry, they should have affirmed it and encouraged him. But they didn’t, and Jesus is correcting them.

This third “whoever” is a similar message but stated negatively. The first two highlight the positive goodness of our care for others. The last one highlights the consequence for leading them astray. “You were discouraging that guy from doing his ministry; let me tell you how serious it is to cause someone to get discouraged and stumble.”

He says, “Whoever” this is an open word, and it includes the disciples, the Pharisees; and it leaps forward through the centuries to include me and to include you. “Causes one of these little ones who believe in me” - I believe, based on verses 35-37 and Matthew’s parallel account, the “little ones who believe in me” are professing Christians.

If anyone causes another believer to “sin” - what does that mean? If you’re familiar to Greek, you might have expected to find the word “hamartia” - the most frequent word used for sin; where we get the word “Hamartiology” - the doctrine of sin. But that’s not the word here. Rather, the Greek is skandalizo. We get the word “scandal” from it. It refers to sin, but it’s a specific kind of sin. The word has the idea of unbelief, moral failure, acceptance of false teaching, falling away. In fact, that's why the NASB translates it “stumble,” the CSB translates it “fall away.”

In other words, I don’t think this is referring to any kind of sin, but a specific one: the sin of unbelief, the sin of falling away, the sin of moral failure, the sin of acceptance of false doctrine. There is a terrible judgment that awaits everyone whose life leads others to move away, rather than toward, God.

So the disciples' opposition to this other believer who was casting out demons could have been so discouraging and debilitating that he may have been tempted to stop following Jesus himself. He might have said something like, “Man, if Jesus’ followers are so harsh and hypocritical and proud, maybe I don’t want to follow him after all.” And Jesus is saying to them, “Hey, do you realize how serious it is to lead a brother to stumble?”

“It would be better for him if a great millstone” - the Greek literally says, “donkey’s millstone.” There were some smaller millstones you could use around the house, but there were also giant ones that only donkeys could pull.This is a giant circular stone that would be attached to a donkey’s neck, hundreds of pounds, and the donkey would walk in a circle pulling the millstone to grind the wheat. “Hung around his neck and he were thrown into the sea.”

We mentioned this last week. That Jesus is waking us up to the seriousness of sin. If two doors are set before us, and door 1 says, “Cause a believer to sin” and door 2 says “Millstone around your neck and plunged into the depths of the sea.” Let me ask: Which door would you be more afraid to enter? I think most of us would choose door 1, because we don’t take sin seriously enough. We are far more concerned about our safety and health than the spiritual safety of the souls of those around us. To cause someone else to stumble? Ah, no problem. It happens. I can’t control their decisions; it’s not my fault. But to die that way? I’ll avoid that at all costs.

That’s the exegesis of this text. Jesus wants you to see that causing someone to stumble is a serious issue. To live as if you can simply live your life without regard to how it might cause others to stumble is to be living in rebellion against God’s purposes for you. Jesus wants us to be able to say, “I would rather die a gruesome death by drowning than cause anyone to stumble.” Can you say that?

So in light of this teaching of Jesus, I want to draw out and expound four obvious applications.

You can cause another believer to stumble.

Let’s start by simply noticing this reality: it’s possible to be guilty of leading a little one who believes in Christ to stumble. Jesus would not be warning of this if it were an impossibility. Sometimes, we who embrace the complete sovereignty of God can forget that the Bible also teaches human responsibility. And here, Jesus is teaching that it’s possible to be the cause of someone else’s stumbling. Let that sink in. He’s saying, “It’s possible that you are the cause of someone falling away. Don’t do it.”

Paul rebukes hypocritical Jews in Romans 2 and says that God’s name is blasphemed among the nations because of them. In other words, their hypocrisy becomes the occasion for the nations’ blasphemy. All throughout the Bible, warnings are given to Christians not to be guilty of leading others astray. We need to be sobered up to see that our lives matter, our decisions matter, and that our influence is inevitable.

Paul says, “Bad company corrupts good morals” and “a little leaven leavens the whole lump.” People influence you, and you influence people. You are born into a tapestry of relationships, and you cannot help but be influential. Your involvement influences, your disengagement influences. Your words influence, and your silence influences. An absentee father influences his children in his absence.

To understand the Christian life, we need to embrace the reality that God has made us matter. We have influence. And what we need to see here is that it is possible - even though it’s uncomfortable - it is possible to cause a believer to stumble.

You should know the ways you can cause believers to stumble.

We need to flesh this out a little bit. How might we cause other Christians to stumble? The Bible speaks of ways it's possible to cause others to stumble. We’ll look at five.

# 1 Direct temptation to participate in sinful behavior. This is when you encourage another believer to disobey God’s Word. This is Potiphar’s wife saying, “Lie with me.” Or this is your friend who says, “Just do it, who’s going to find out?” Or this the gossip saying, “Just tell me; I promise I won’t tell anyone.” Or this is the business owner saying, “Just cut that corner. Don’t ask, don’t tell.” This is the old friend who tells you, “Oh, just leave your husband; he doesn’t deserve you.” For those of you will date, Beware of tempting your significant other to engage in sinful activity. It is better to take the millstone treatment than to do that. It’s amazing how frequent Christians can behave like Satan’s allies and tempt other believers to sin.

# 2 Positive approval of sinful behavior. This is where you’re not necessarily whispering in someone’s ear and inciting them to sin, this is where you approve what God forbids. Maybe you’re not telling anyone to get drunk, but you approve of it even though God clearly commands against it. Maybe you’re not telling anyone to do it, but you’re approving it. Romans 1:32 says that “though they know God’s righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.” If a church gives approval to rebellion, it is a stumbling block to genuine Christians.

At a more personal level, if parents approve of their own children’s rebellion, they are setting them up for a gigantic fall later on. A child acts up at home, and the parent endorses it as an act of self-reliance and a go-get-em attitude. To grant approval to sinful behavior is unloving and destructive. Now this doesn't mean we go around with our fingers pointed calling out every failure we see. The Bible gives us directions for how to love people well without granting approval to their sin, and it's not by acting like a buffalo in a sheepen.

# 3 Promoting false ideas. 2 Timothy 2:14-18. Verse 18: “They are upsetting [ruining] the faith of some.” Ideas have consequences. The Bible uses some of the harshest invectives against those who claim to teach the truth but twist and distort it. This is why James 3:1 says “those who teach will be judged more strictly.” Promoting false ideas to other Christians so as to tempt them to think wrongly about God, about Jesus, about the gospel - is a terrible crime.

# 4 Withholding care God intends for us to give. The Bible teaches that as a church, we are responsible to care for one anothers’ souls. And when a member goes headlong into sin, the church family is responsible for doing all they can to restore them to fellowship. And so if a church member is engaging in sinful behavior without care, and the church family does nothing about it, that church is causing that believer to stumble through its negligence.

So in 1 Corinthians 5 there’s some major rebuking going on because a man has his father’s wife. A man is sleeping with his step-mother. And who is getting rebuked? The whole church. Why? Because they are withholding the kind of care they should have given this man. They did not love him. They approved of his sin, and they let him do it.

Or think of Hebrews 3:12 “Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called today, that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.” What does this mean? It means our Lord calls us to care for one another, and that if we don’t, we are in danger of getting hard hearts.

Hebrews 10:24 “And let us consider how to stir one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the day drawing near.”

In other words, causing someone to stumble may not merely be actively speaking against them or hurting them, it can also be a passiveness that takes no responsibility - like a man on the beach who sees someone drowning, but goes back to reading because it’s the lifeguard’s responsibility to deal with it.

Uninvolved, non-attending, responsibility-shirking, Lone Ranger members confuse other Christians about what it means to be a Christian.

You should be very careful not to cause believers to stumble.

That’s the whole point of this particular verse. You should be very careful here.

Consider the believers God has put you with. Could be a spouse, parents, children. Most certainly, if you’re here this morning, it’s the fellow Christians you have around you here. Don’t ask yourself, “Am I being an influence?” You are. That’s inevitable. Rather, ask yourself, “What kind of influence am I to these brothers and sisters?” And in particular, do I cause these people to stumble? Is my life a startling contradiction of what I say I believe?

Does your lifestyle cast a shadow on your profession of faith? Does your life give evidence to the reality of the faith you profess, or is your profession of Christianity one more reason for mockers to go on with their mocking?

If someone were to study your life, would they be led to a more proper and accurate view of Christianity? Or would they be given a distortion?

Ask yourself this: if someone were to get caught up in the current of your life, would they drown in the riptide, or be brought safely to the shore?

You should resolve to protect what Christ treasures.

Now, as we conclude, why is it that Jesus gives such a serious charge? What merits this kind of threat? Whenever you peel back a threat, you’ll see that it’s actually guarding something.

If I say, “Tell my children, anyone who violates our manners at the table will not get dessert,” I am not saying it merely because I don’t like bad manners, but because I am guarding something. I’m guarding decorum at the table, I’m guarding us from chaos.

Now, what is so precious to Jesus that he would make such a serious threat? Here it is: the faith of his precious little ones. Though these words come across as harsh, you can actually see that they’re sprouting from the soils of a zealous and committed love. Jesus is warning us not to mess with his precious children.

How much does Jesus love his precious children? God the Father, in eternity past, chose to lavish his love upon them. God sent Jesus to come and redeem them. Though they had ruined themselves in their sin, Jesus came to suffer a tortuous death on the cross to pay sin’s penalty for them. He drank the whole cup of God’s wrath they deserved. He rose again, he prays for them, and he will return for them one day. How much does he love them? And can’t you see why, then, he’s so vigilant to protect them? He’s saying, “Don’t mess with my beloved children.”

If we want to imitate Jesus, our greatest efforts should be for the promotion and cultivation of the faith of others, and we should be aggressively against anything that could hurt or harm the faith of our fellow brothers and sisters.

This is why, by the way, we have a church membership. Joining membership is an act of saying, “I am now your responsibility, and you are my responsibility.” We’re saying, “Your faith is precious to Jesus, and it’s precious to me. I want to help protect, preserve, cultivate and care for it. And I want you to do the same for me.”

So ask yourself, as a kind of test: are you cultivating and protecting the faith of others?

Consider even this very morning: How did you come to church this morning? Where did you park? What time did you show up? Where did you sit? Who did you speak to? Each one of these little decisions you made compound together and are sending a message, and the message is either: “I’m here for me; and I’m not that concerned about you.” or it’s “I’m here to consciously strategize to care for, bless, encourage, strengthen, and help others.”

Here’s the heart of what Jesus is getting at, and it’s profound: You should take responsibility and be immensely concerned for the spiritual well-being of your brothers and sisters.

We started out with that imagery man, Hank. His spiritual drift, his lack of spiritual appetite, his growing disengagement from the body of believers. Now, as we close, forget about Hank, and consider the real people around you. The believers God has put in your life. Their joys and their sorrows, their struggles and their successes, their encouragements and discouragements - are you actively taking responsibility to cultivate their faith? Or are you guilty of causing them to stumble, either actively or passively?

In Pilgrim’s Progress, Christian travels to the Celestial City. As you are probably aware, along the way there are all kinds of people who appear and seem good, but end up being temptations and stumbling blocks. But also on his journey he meets those who aid him on his journey.

Some of the people who are stumbling blocks are Obstinate, Pliable, who refuse to go with Christian. The Worldly Wiseman who is nice and practical and offers advice to Christian to settle in with the world. Or Formalist and Hypocrisy who encourage Christian to leave the straight and narrow path. We have Grim, who uses his pet lions to scare the group; we have Maul, a giant who accuses the pilgrims; we have Mr. Brisk, who tries to discourage one of the girls’ generosity; we have Heedless, who falls asleep near the end of his journey.

If you were a character in Pilgrim’s Progress, what kind would you be? Are like those stumbling blocks, or are you one that makes the journey more pleasant, more enjoyable; one that guides and helps and remains loyal - are you a blessing to those you’re journeying with?

Can the fellow believers in your life - these brothers and sisters here - count on you to be there for them? Encourage them? Uphold them in prayer? Encourage them to faithfulness?

Would you be like Christian’s friend Help, who rescues Christian. Would you be like Faithful, who loyally accompanies Christian, even to his own death. Will you be like Hopeful, who helps Christian cross the great river at the end of the journey.

One of my favorite characters in all of literature is Great Heart. He is sent by the King to lead this poor family through all of life’s difficulties and help them get home to the Celestial City. He’s brave, gentle, firm, tender, valitant, wise, and without his help, they would have never made it.

Oh, that we would all aspire to be Great Heart. To say, “I am in service of the king, and it is my duty, my privilege, and my joy to serve him by helping his little ones come home safely. God forbid I ever be the cause of their stumbling!”

Some of you are like a Great Heart. I thank God for you. And the rest of us, we should aspire to be a Great Heart.