Woe to those who cause divisions and occasions of stumbling
By: Elias Bejjani*
October 02/2010
James 4:14: "Whereas you don’t know what your life will be like tomorrow. For
what is your life? For you are a vapor, that appears for a little time, and then
vanishes away"
In this earthly life each and every human being is a mere temporary guest in a
mortal body, and the moment almighty God calls back his soul, the body becomes
cold, motionless and dies, after which it quickly disintegrates and turns back
to dust. Genesis 3:19: " By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until
you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to
dust you will return"
If human beings keep in mind this reality and act accordingly, not even one
person will never ever be greedy, envious, harm others, do or say things that
are
un-Godly and sinful. But sadly many of us blindly chose to ignore the
significant fact of death and act as if they are immortal. Those who cause
divisions and occasions of stumbling fall under this category of blinded people.
Life is full of all sorts of human struggles conflicts, strives, difficulties,
hardships and sophisticated problems. In every encounter man's responses are
motivated, managed, and determined either by righteousness or evilness .
Needless to say that it is the responsibility of each person to see that the
evil instincts are always tamed, restrained and put under control. Meanwhile it
is a religious obligation for every faithful individual to handle all kinds of
adversities with fear of God, commitment to the Bible teachings, love,
forgiveness, fairness and openness.
The bible teaches us to respect and love others as we and respect love
ourselves, hail their rights, honour their dignity and respond to the cries of
help uttered by all those in need in all walk of life. When we do so, and help
others we are in fact helping Jesus Himself. This is exactly the heavenly
criteria according to which God will judge us on the last day because every
person who is lonely, sick, crippled, retarded, hungry, thirsty, persecuted, and
imprisoned is Jesus Himself. "1Corinthians10:24 "Let no one seek his own, but
each one his neighbor’s good" John 15/12-13: “This is my commandment, that you
love one another, even as I have loved you. 15:13 Greater love has no one than
this, that someone lay down his life for his friends"
Almighty God is our Holy Father and we are all His beloved children no matter
what is our skin colour, or our physical, educational or social status. He sent
His only son, Jesus Christ, to be tortured, persecuted, humiliated and crossed
in a bid to clean us from the original sin and set us free from the yoke of the
devil's slavery. Accordingly He expects us, we His children to love and help
each other.
Meanwhile many people chose to defy the Holy Father, ignore His Ten
Commandments, defile and tarnish all heavenly graces, ridicule the Holy Bible
and live in sin. These sensual mockers and sinners do not have the spirit, walk
after their own ungodly lusts and fall preys to the devil's temptations. These
un-Godly men creep like snakes and viciously endeavour to turn the grace of our
God into indecency, and boldly deny our only Master, God, and Lord, Jesus
Christ. They are opportunists, lairs, murmurers and complainers, walking after
their body desires and their mouths speak proud things, and show respect of
persons to gain advantage.
Matthew 18:7 “Woe to the world because of occasions of stumbling! For it must be
that the occasions come, but woe to that person through whom the occasion comes"
They are the ones who by their smooth and flattering speech and camouflaged
conduct deceive the hearts and souls of the innocent and cause divisions and
occasions of stumbling among them contrary to the Bible teachings. They are the
ones who don’t serve our Lord, but their own belly and instincts. We are ought
to identify these chameleons and trouble makers and turn away from them.
Luke 17:1-4: "He said to the disciples, “It is impossible that no occasions of
stumbling should come, but woe to him through whom they come! It would be better
for him if a millstone were hung around his neck, and he were thrown into the
sea, rather than that he should cause one of these little ones to stumble".
God will keep these wicked people in everlasting bonds under darkness for the
judgment of the great day when He shall cast them into the unquenchable fire of
Gehenna.
Romans 12:19: "Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God's wrath,
for it is written: "It is mine to avenge; I will repay, says the Lord".
We all suffer because of such wicked peoples' deeds who love to cause divisions
and enjoy planting seeds of evil where ever they can. They are people whom we
deal with around the clock in all walks of life and could be family members,
beloved ones, friends, colleagues, acquaintances as well as strangers. Sadly
their venomous and mockery deeds are the same and accordingly our faithful
defensive stances needs to be the same. We have a religious obligation to
genuinely help them by all available means, and try to pull them out of their
viciousness, but if all our efforts fail we ought to turn away from them and
watch out to see that they do not make us preys for their immorality and
subtleness. James 4:17: " To him therefore who knows to do good, and doesn’t do
it, to him it is sin".
Turning away from them does not mean hatred and grudges, but mere cautionary
stances. Meanwhile we are supposed to be always ready to forgive them when they
repent.
Luke17:3 Be careful. If your brother sins against you, rebuke him. If he
repents, forgive him. If he sins against you seven times in the day, and seven
times returns, saying, ‘I repent,’ you shall forgive him.”
The Bible calls on the faithful to be wise and cautious, but at the same time
humble, meek and transparent. Matthew 10/16-20:
“Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves. Therefore be wise as
serpents, and harmless as doves.
Let us pray that Almighty God shall save us from the traps and wickedness of
those problem, heart, and family breakers.
*Elias Bejjani
*Canadian-Lebanese Human Rights activist, journalist and political
commentator
*Email phoenicia@hotmail.com
*Web sites http://www.10452lccc.com & http://www.clhrf.com
*Mailing phoenicia group http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Phoenicia/.