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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Mat_18:7
7Woe to the world because of its stumbling blocks! For it is inevitable that stumbling blocks come; but woe to that man through whom the stumbling block comes!
Mat_18:7 "woe to the world. . .woe to that man" This was put in the literary form of the OT prophets, a funeral dirge which symbolized the judgment of God (cf. Mat_11:21; Mat_18:7; Mat_23:13; Mat_23:15-16; Mat_23:23; Mat_23:25; Mat_23:27; Mat_23:29; Mat_24:19; Mat_26:24; Luk_17:1-2). Causing new believers to stumble has eternal consequences!
▣ "stumbling blocks" This same noun (skandalon, cf. Luk_17:1) was used in Mat_16:23 for Peter's statements. It refers literally to a baited animal trap trigger (cf. LXX of Amo_3:5). New believers are vulnerable to deception and trickery by false teachers (Jewish and later false Christian teachers, cf. Mat_7:15-27; 1Ti_4:1-5; 2Ti_2:14-26; 2Ti_3:1-9; 2 Peter 2).
The verb is recurrent in Matthew's Gospel (cf. Mat_5:29-30; Mat_11:6; Mat_13:21; Mat_13:57; Mat_15:12; Mat_17:27; Mat_18:6; Mat_18:8-9; Mat_24:10; Mat_26:31; Mat_26:33). Problems and temptations are always present!