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| Peter as a Stumbling-Block to Jesus. PREVIOUS SECTION - NEXT SECTION - HELP
23. Peter as a Stumbling-Block to Jesus.
Next we must inquire how He said to Peter, “Thou
art a stumbling-block unto Me,”5709
especially when David says, “Great peace have they that love Thy
law, and there is no stumbling-block to them.”5710 For some one will say, if this is said
in the prophet, because of the steadfastness of those who have love,
and are incapable of being offended, for “love beareth all
things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things,
love never faileth,”5711 how did the Lord
Himself, “who upholdeth all that fall, and raiseth up all that be
bowed down,”5712 say to Peter,
“Thou art a stumbling-block unto Me”? But it must be
said that not only the Saviour, but also he who is perfected in love,
cannot be offended. But, so far as it depends on himself, he who
says or does such things is a stumbling-block even to him who will not
be offended; unless perhaps Jesus calls the disciple who sinned a
stumbling-block even to Himself, as much more than Paul He would have
said from love, “Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is
made to stumble, and I burn not?”5713 In harmony with which we may put,
“Who is made to stumble, and I am not made to
stumble?” But if Peter, at that time because of the saying,
“God be propitious to Thee, Lord, this shall not be unto
Thee,”5714 was called a
stumbling-block by Jesus, as not minding the things of God in what he
said but the things of men, what is to be said about all those who
profess to be made disciples of Jesus, but do not mind the things of
God, and do not look to things unseen and eternal, but mind the things
of man, and look to things seen and temporal,5715
but that such still more would be stigmatized by Jesus as a
stumbling-block to Him, and because stumbling-blocks to Him, as
stumbling-blocks to His brethren also? As in regard to them He
says, “I was thirsty and ye gave Me no drink,”5716 etc., so also He might say, “When I
was running ye caused Me to stumble.” Let us not therefore
suppose that it is a trivial sin to mind the things of men, since we
ought in everything to mind the things of God. And it will be
appropriate also to say this to every one that has fallen away from the
doctrines of God and the words of the church and a true mind; as, for
example, to him who minds as true the teaching of Basilides, or
Valentinus, or Marcion, or any one of those who teach the things of men
as the things of God.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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