Expositor's Bible Commentary 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)

Jesus proclaims judgment on the “world” (GK 3180), understood as the source of all stumbling. Jesus pronounces this woe “because of the things that cause” the stumbling already referred to in v.6. Such things must come; but this inevitability does not mitigate the responsibility of the perpetrators. The necessity does not spring from divine compulsion but, like all things, falls nonetheless within the sphere of his sovereignty, so that he may use those very things to accomplish his plan and perfect his people (cf. 24:10–13; 1 Corinthians 11:19). Thus, on the one hand the disciples are not to think such opposition strange, for Jesus himself has declared it must occur; on the other hand they are assured that justice will be done in the end (cf. 26:24).