Charles Ellicott Commentary Matthew 18:7

"Woe unto the world because of occasions of stumbling! for it must needs be that the occasions come; but woe to that man through whom the occasion cometh!" — Matthew 18:7 (ASV)

Woe to the world — The interjection is one of sorrow as well as denunciation, and here the former meaning is predominant, as the latter is in the next clause of the verse. The true meaning of “offence,” as not merely the transgression of a law, but a transgression that causes the fall of others, must be carefully kept in mind throughout. The words, It must needs be that offences come, but woe to that man..., unite in strange contrast the two truths that all the history of human guilt brings before us. Crimes seem to recur with something like the inevitable regularity of a law, and yet in each single instance, the will of the offender has been free to choose, and he is therefore rightly held responsible by both divine and human laws.