Wednesday, March 22, 2006
Question: How can we be sure that what we are doing is not causing someone to fall?
Came across a question when I was on a church member’s blog: How can we be sure that what we are doing is not causing someone to fall?
Paul said in the Bible that he would never eat meat again if it causes his brethrens to fall (1 Corinthians 8:13). Putting in any words, it will mean that if I do something that may cause my brother/sister to fall from the grace of God, I will not do it.
But why I talked about this topic is because someone asked that how do I know what I am doing will caused my brethrens to fall? What I am doing may not be something evil but it still may caused some people to fall, just like what Paul said, maybe just by eating meat it will caused someone to fall. If we do not even know that what we do that will caused our brethrens to fall, how can we stop doing it?
This question I find is one that is very interesting to us who are from the True Church, because if we do cause people to fall, this people may leave Church and hence maybe not be saved. We had heard of many things that happened in Church like A and B has some disagreement and so after that A stop coming to Church, or so and so is not coming to Church anymore because he/she find no love in Church etc… here we see that people stop coming to Church due to some actions of some people. And we may very well be the person that caused someone to stop coming to Church!
Some of the things that I can think of that we mean no evil but it may cause some people to fall:
- Sometimes we think that what we are telling a person is good for him, but these “comforting” words that we speak are sometimes just useless babblings. It is just like we tell a person who is cold and has no house to return to that he must be warm else catch a cold, or tell a person who hungers and no means for a meal that eating is good for him etc. So meaningful and words spoken at a wrong times is still useless words.
- We scold people for the “wrong” things they have done without finding out really what happened. I heard of this true story that happened in our Church in Taiwan. The preachers there are shuffled to pastor different churches in different part of Taiwan every 2 years I think. So this preacher was sent to this Church that he has never been there before. So during the first service, when the service started, he noticed that there are very few members. But during the service more and more members started to come into the hall, so the preacher without thinking started to scold the members that they do not have zeal, coming so late for service etc. Only after the service was the preacher told that the reason why all those members were late for service was that all of them finish their work very late and only managed to just rush to church and many of them have not even eaten their dinner. Only then the preacher knew that he was wrong. Admonishment without finding out more sometimes will cause anger and causing others to fall…
So looking at all this examples, what I have learnt is that many a times just little things done with ill intentions may still be the thing that cause people to fall. So what can we do to be careful and not cause others to fall? Well this is something I feel is a life long learning… there are many guidelines in the Bible for us to follow and learn. One of it that I feel is very is very suitable for us is, James 1 : 19 ~19My dear brothers, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry. This verse though short and easy to understand, is not something easy to do.
But why I say this is very important for us when we learn not to cause others to fall? When we are quick to listen, we will know that happenings around us, the problems that our brethrens may be facing, the weakness of the people around us, or maybe even the sensitive nerves of the brethrens around us etc.
When we are slow to speak, we are able to think properly what to speak, and not speak harsh words or words from the spur of the moments. This will cut down the chance of speaking words causing others to fall…
Slow to anger. When we are angry, we will do things rashly not able to think cohesively we may do things or speak words that cause hurt to people.
Ha, I think I have gone out of topic left right up down… but I am taking this chance to remind myself to be careful of my actions and speech, because it may cause people to fall from the Grace of God.
Will think more into the question “How do we know we are causing people to fall”. Hope am able to learn a lot from this :) maybe you all can let me know what you think too?
-Peace-
Paul said in the Bible that he would never eat meat again if it causes his brethrens to fall (1 Corinthians 8:13). Putting in any words, it will mean that if I do something that may cause my brother/sister to fall from the grace of God, I will not do it.
But why I talked about this topic is because someone asked that how do I know what I am doing will caused my brethrens to fall? What I am doing may not be something evil but it still may caused some people to fall, just like what Paul said, maybe just by eating meat it will caused someone to fall. If we do not even know that what we do that will caused our brethrens to fall, how can we stop doing it?
This question I find is one that is very interesting to us who are from the True Church, because if we do cause people to fall, this people may leave Church and hence maybe not be saved. We had heard of many things that happened in Church like A and B has some disagreement and so after that A stop coming to Church, or so and so is not coming to Church anymore because he/she find no love in Church etc… here we see that people stop coming to Church due to some actions of some people. And we may very well be the person that caused someone to stop coming to Church!
Some of the things that I can think of that we mean no evil but it may cause some people to fall:
- Sometimes we think that what we are telling a person is good for him, but these “comforting” words that we speak are sometimes just useless babblings. It is just like we tell a person who is cold and has no house to return to that he must be warm else catch a cold, or tell a person who hungers and no means for a meal that eating is good for him etc. So meaningful and words spoken at a wrong times is still useless words.
- We scold people for the “wrong” things they have done without finding out really what happened. I heard of this true story that happened in our Church in Taiwan. The preachers there are shuffled to pastor different churches in different part of Taiwan every 2 years I think. So this preacher was sent to this Church that he has never been there before. So during the first service, when the service started, he noticed that there are very few members. But during the service more and more members started to come into the hall, so the preacher without thinking started to scold the members that they do not have zeal, coming so late for service etc. Only after the service was the preacher told that the reason why all those members were late for service was that all of them finish their work very late and only managed to just rush to church and many of them have not even eaten their dinner. Only then the preacher knew that he was wrong. Admonishment without finding out more sometimes will cause anger and causing others to fall…
So looking at all this examples, what I have learnt is that many a times just little things done with ill intentions may still be the thing that cause people to fall. So what can we do to be careful and not cause others to fall? Well this is something I feel is a life long learning… there are many guidelines in the Bible for us to follow and learn. One of it that I feel is very is very suitable for us is, James 1 : 19 ~19My dear brothers, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry. This verse though short and easy to understand, is not something easy to do.
But why I say this is very important for us when we learn not to cause others to fall? When we are quick to listen, we will know that happenings around us, the problems that our brethrens may be facing, the weakness of the people around us, or maybe even the sensitive nerves of the brethrens around us etc.
When we are slow to speak, we are able to think properly what to speak, and not speak harsh words or words from the spur of the moments. This will cut down the chance of speaking words causing others to fall…
Slow to anger. When we are angry, we will do things rashly not able to think cohesively we may do things or speak words that cause hurt to people.
Ha, I think I have gone out of topic left right up down… but I am taking this chance to remind myself to be careful of my actions and speech, because it may cause people to fall from the Grace of God.
Will think more into the question “How do we know we are causing people to fall”. Hope am able to learn a lot from this :) maybe you all can let me know what you think too?
-Peace-
// posted by madcowkey @ 3/22/2006 08:33:00 PM 
