In John chapter sixteen Christ deals with the subject of offense. The issue of “offense” is the matter of saying or doing something that would cause a fellow believer to falter in the pursuit of their Christian life. Christ brings up the issue because He is about to leave the disciples and will no longer be present to help them through these issues. A good example of how He handled these items may be his confrontation of His men over the matter of their vying with one another over the matter of who would be the greatest. Obviously such a discussion among those men could be a source of ranker and division.
As Christ is about to depart He warns His disciples about the pending approach of offenses and begins to prepare them for handling these matters. It is important, at this point, to observe how serious the matter of giving offense is. Notice with me Christ’s observation about this:
Matthew 18:6
But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea.
Paul deals with this matter in 1 Corinthians chapter eight, and it is obvious that we are all in the jeopardy of being offended and of giving offense. It ought to urge us to carefully watch our speech and our actions and consider them in the context of how they may effect others. If offense was a major concern of our Savior, it ought also be a major concern of ours.
