Charles Spurgeon Commentary Matthew 18:6

"But whoso shall cause one of these little ones that believe on me to stumble, it is profitable for him that a great millstone should be hanged about his neck, and [that] he should be sunk in the depth of the sea." — Matthew 18:6 (ASV)

But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me,

It does not mean to anger him because he takes offense over something silly, but rather that one shall cause him to sin, shall make him stumble, shall scandalize him—whoever does that.

It were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea.

If you have the revised version, you will see in the margin that it is an ass millstone—not a common millstone, which women used to turn, but a bigger stone, which was turned by an ass, in a mill which was thus of a larger kind altogether. The very heaviest conceivable doom would be better than to be a stumbling block in the way of the very least of God's people.

Yet I have known some to say, "Well, the thing is lawful, and if a weak brother does not like it, I cannot help it; he should not be weak." No, my dear brother, but that is not the way Christ would have you talk. You must consider the weakness of your brother. All things may be lawful for you, but all things are not expedient; and if meat make your brother to offend, eat no meat while the world standeth.

Remember, we must, after all, measure the pace at which the flock can travel by the weakest in the flock, or else we will have to leave behind us many of the sheep of Christ. The pace at which a company must go must depend on how fast the weak and the sick can travel—is it not so?—unless we are willing to part company with them, which I trust we are not.

So let us take care that we do not cause even the weakest to stumble by anything that we can do without harm to ourselves but which would bring harm to them. Then, if it would harm the weakest, I am not sure that it would not also harm us, because we are not as strong as we think we are; and perhaps, if we took a better measure, we might find ourselves among the weakest, too.

To bless a little one is to entertain the Savior Himself. To set oneself to pervert the simple or to molest the humble will be the sure way to a dreadful doom. Little ones who believe in Jesus are especially under His guardian care, and only the desperately malicious will attack them or seek to make them stumble. Such an evil person will gain nothing, even if he wins the easy victory he looks for. He will, on the contrary, be preparing for himself a terrible retribution. It would be better for him that the biggest of millstones, such as would be used in a mill worked by a donkey, were hanged about his neck, and that he himself were then hurled overboard and drowned in the depth of the sea. He will surely sink infamously, sink never to rise again.

The haters of the humble are among the worst of men, for their enmity is unprovoked. They may hope to rise by oppressing or duping the simplehearted, but such conduct will prove their certain destruction sooner or later. It is the lowly Lord of the lowly who pronounces this condemnation, and He is soon to be the Judge of quick and dead.