Don't Cause Another to Stumble

Don't Cause Another to Stumble

Scripture Reading: Romans 14

Focus Verse: Romans 14:21  "It is good neither to eat meat nor drink wine nor do anything by which your brother stumbles or is offended or is made weak."

There are activities mentioned in the Bible that are clearly wrong.  You should not steal.  You should not commit adultery and so forth.  These activities are as clear to understand as easy as telling the difference between black and white.  We all know right from wrong.  But there are other activities that we would call gray areas where it is not as clear if an activity is right or wrong.  In doing something, we should question the possibility of causing a brother to stumble.

What if a believer in Christ drinks some alcohol?  There are at least two problems I see with you doing this.  First, the one who drinks has the potential of becoming an alcoholic.  Second, if a young person new in their faith sees a Christian drinking, so they feel it is okay for them to drink.  Then if they became addicted to alcohol, you would be responsible for that person living a wasted life.  They will have stumbled.

Therefore we would do well to choose our activities carefully.  You don't want to do anything that would bring criticism against yourself, the church or Christ.  What we do affects others.  We should not only be concerned with the opinion that God has of us, but we should also be concerned with the testimony of our lives.  Today let's examine our lives and see if there is anything that would cause another to stumble and fall.

Bobby Johnson
Interlocking Ministries