Let us not therefore judge one another any more: but judge this rather, that no man put a stumblingblock or an occasion to fall in his brother’s way. Romans 14:13
A man whose family was Muslim came into contact with the Gospel and in time was saved. Some of his new Christian friends reminded him of his new freedom from the restrictive laws of Islam. But the man refused to eat pork, which is a serious offense among devout Muslims. When his friends asked him why he refused pork, he told them, ‘Last week, I went to visit my father. The first thing he asked me when I arrived was if I had defiled myself, meaning had I eaten pork. I was able to tell him I had not. And he welcomed me into his home. I even had an opportunity to speak to him a little about the Lord Jesus. I could never do that if I ate pork.’ We must commend this dear brother on his wisdom, and his willingness to forgoe some of his liberty in order to maintain a testimony before his family. It’s a lesson we all need to consider.
Let’s take the example of social drinking, which some Christians see as totally acceptable. Suppose you were one of these Christians, and are having a glass of wine with your meal in a restaurant. Into the restaurant comes a Christian who is convinced that all drinking of alcohol is wrong. When they see you with a drink, they will perceive that you are committing a grave sin, and they will lose all respect for you and your testimony. They may also perceive that Christians are hypocrites. Or else they may decide that if you can take a drink, they can too. In this case, by leading them to do something they believe to be wrong, you are causing them to sin (Romans 14:23). This is one reason why many wise Christians refuse to drink, because to do so would ‘put a stumblingblock or an occasion to fall in his brother’s way’. It would also be a testimony destroyer to non-Christians, many of whom would see you as a hypocrite because they are convinced that Christians should not drink.
A man who used to work as a waiter in a restaurant said that most waiters disliked working on Sunday afternoons. That’s because many of their customers that day were ‘Christians’ coming in after their church services. He said those ‘Christians’ were always the poorest tippers of any group of people. Not only did those ‘Christian’ diners leave little or nothing as a tip, but many of them would also leave a Gospel tract on the table. None of those tracts were ever read. They were wasted because of the stumblingblock of the cheapskate attitude of the Christians.
Whether it is before other Christians who are watching and learning from us, or before the world to whom we want to present the Gospel of Christ, we need to make sure we don’t give them something to stumble over. We could destroy them both. – Jim MacIntosh