Luk. 17:2 ... "It would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck and he were thrown into the sea, than that he should cause one of these little ones to stumble."
We learn in Mat. 18:1-6, the parallel to this passage, that the setting was an occasion when Jesus used a little child to illustrate the type of individual who will be allowed to "enter the kingdom of heaven." The lesson, therefore, concerned entering that kingdom, the greatest privilege open to earth's residents. Citizenship in the kingdom means fellowship with God in this life and eternal presence before God's throne in the life hereafter. It should be the primary goal of everyone to enter the kingdom and also to assist as many others as possible to enter as well. When one is thinking clearly and considering all truth available, these will indeed be his greatest goals and humanitarian concerns.
Unfortunately, there are those who can see no further than the limits of the material world about them and hence choose to restrict their education to the wisdom of men. They have no interest in being in the kingdom of God. Their only concern is to maximize the condition of their lives this side of the grave. If they are also altruistic people, they have a similar concern for the life-condition of others as well. If human life were not interdependent, this view of life and all that issues from it, might be dismissed as the sad choice of those who deny the reality of revealed wisdom and the kingdom of God which transcend space and time. But human life is interdependent; we do not live in isolation from one another. Our lives overlap so that what one person does, says, and thinks has at least some impact on the lives of others. Therefore, when a person refuses God's revealed word and rejects entrance into His kingdom, it is almost certain that his choice will make it more difficult for certain people to accept that revelation and act to enter the kingdom.
There are those who turn their backs upon God and His sovereignty with no thought of what other people may or may not do. They make the decision for themselves and leave it to others to make their own decision. Whether they choose to learn from God and seek His fellowship, or like themselves reject both, is of little interest to them. They accept no responsibility for the influence their decisions may have on others. And there are people inimical to God and His kingdom who make it their resolved purpose to turn others out of the way that leads to the acceptance of God's word and entrance into His kingdom. They hate God and want others to adopt the same antagonistic attitude. Whenever they offend the "little ones," a figure Jesus obviously used to refer to those approaching God, or those having just come into His fellowship, they are quick to act and speak to disturb their faith.
Whether one is deliberately or indifferently hindering the course of someone else toward God and His kingdom, he is making himself an opponent of God. He is daring, as a mere mortal creature, to enter into a contest with the Creator. And this is a contest NO ONE can win! Any victory he might claim is really only apparent. It just seems, in the here and now, to be a victory. God cannot be outmatched and defeated by a finite being whose very existence lies within His infinite power to terminate at any instant. But God will take that drastic step only after these antagonists have used up the last drop of His mercy, for God would have even them to awaken to their foolishness, repent, and resolve to learn from Him, and, at last, to enter His kingdom also as "little ones" themselves. My appeal, then, to those who oppose and hinder others from coming to God, or from progressing within His kingdom, is to turn from your opposition while the opportunity still exists. In eternity beyond the grave you will be so thankful you did.
