What did Jesus mean about causing little ones to stumble and the penalty.?

Question

After He had blessed some little children.

Answer 1

Children are much closer that we as far as "blank slates" in that they, only a short time ago knew nothing. They have to learn everything. If they are taught sin (instead of finding it for themselves or learning it from some other source like TV, books, etc) by someone, God does not like it. So, you are now in lots of trouble and you might as well tie a stone weighing a ton around your neck and jump into the deep sea because you will wish you had by the time God is done with you. I am seriously paraphrasing of course but you get my point.

Answer 2

You're referring to Paul's teaching on Christian liberty (or freedom from Law through the gospel of Grace). It's found in Romans. The Roman church was divided into 2 groups identified as Jews and Gentiles. The "Jews" in this case were those born again believers who continued to follow the mandates of the Law, not understanding that Jesus had freed us from the Law and created a new Law of Grace. The Gentiles were those who did understand this and they ate meat that the law forbid, didn't offer sacrifices, etc. required by the Law [of Moses]. But if a believer has a conviction about something (believes something to be sinful) and does it, whether it's sin or not, he has sinned because he went against his conviction. The Gentiles were trying to get the Jews to throw off their convictions and make them act in liberty, even though they didn't believe it, thus making them feel as though they had sinned (i.e. stumbled). God warns us not to do that. Each man must follow his own heart and path to God.

Answer 3

To expand on Miriam M's answer, we have a responsibility to teach our children so that they can be successful as adults. Young children are impressionable, and they learn from our actions, more than our words. For that reason, we need to make sure we don't say or do things that will hurt them.

If you've been on this board for any length of time and read many of the atheists posts, you see that many of them stopped believing in God due to the hypocrites they saw. For that reason, we need to make sure we walk the Talk.

Answer 4

if we mislead ( lie ) to children we are guilty of great sin. Children are very trusting and need to be gioded the right way to love not hate.

Answer 5

He meant that it would be better that you die than to lead a child astray. This is one of the more confusing passages.