Meanwhile, we will consider another experience that may cause Christians to trip up in their faith: the unloving or insensitive behaviour of other Christians. The principle is set out by John in his first epistle, that great essay on love: “the person who loves his brother remains in the light, and there is no ‘skandalon’ in him” (2.10) . The AV translates ‘skandalon’ here as ‘occasion of stumbling’, something that makes others stumble, and this seems preferable to the NIV’s “there is nothing in him to make him stumble”. As we have seen, stumbling-blocks are tests from without rather than temptations from within, and the preposition ‘in’, which Jesus used of himself in our previous passage suggests that the person concerned is the cause of someone else’s stumbling, not himself the stumbler. Jesus, of course, was acting in perfect love when he allowed himself to be arrested and ultimately crucified, and it was entirely the fault of the disciples that, despite Jesus’ warnings, they stumbled and fled. But here John is saying that an unloving attitude towards our Christian brothers and sisters can cause them to stumble in their faith. And whereas the love of Christians for one another can be a powerful attraction to outsiders, divisions and disunity within the church which result in a lack of such love put people off and turn them away – a formidable stumbling-block to faith.
Tuesday, 10 January 2012
SKANDALON 3 (c): the 'scandal' of an unloving church
Meanwhile, we will consider another experience that may cause Christians to trip up in their faith: the unloving or insensitive behaviour of other Christians. The principle is set out by John in his first epistle, that great essay on love: “the person who loves his brother remains in the light, and there is no ‘skandalon’ in him” (2.10) . The AV translates ‘skandalon’ here as ‘occasion of stumbling’, something that makes others stumble, and this seems preferable to the NIV’s “there is nothing in him to make him stumble”. As we have seen, stumbling-blocks are tests from without rather than temptations from within, and the preposition ‘in’, which Jesus used of himself in our previous passage suggests that the person concerned is the cause of someone else’s stumbling, not himself the stumbler. Jesus, of course, was acting in perfect love when he allowed himself to be arrested and ultimately crucified, and it was entirely the fault of the disciples that, despite Jesus’ warnings, they stumbled and fled. But here John is saying that an unloving attitude towards our Christian brothers and sisters can cause them to stumble in their faith. And whereas the love of Christians for one another can be a powerful attraction to outsiders, divisions and disunity within the church which result in a lack of such love put people off and turn them away – a formidable stumbling-block to faith.
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