Inevitable

Jesus always tells us the truth even when it is startling. Jesus did not paint a rosy picture for His followers. There are plenty of blessings, more than we could ever comprehend, but there are also plenty of distresses wrapped up in following Jesus. When we decide to run the race marked out before us you can bet the world (evil one) will do everything to trip us up. Our transitional verse in our present narrative is Matt.18:7: "Woe to the world because of its stumblingblocks! For it is inevitable that stumblingblocks come; but woe to that man through whom the stumblingblock comes." The word "inevitable" is interesting and is used in many contexts in the New Testament. In one sense the idea is that which takes away one's free will or choice. If a person is running a race, freely around a track, and suddenly an obstacle is thrown in their way, then their freedom is taken away because they have to adjust their speed and direction to avoid the obstruction. This makes it more difficult to run the race. In 1 Cor.7:37 the word is used. But the overall context which includes our word in 7:26, interpreted as distress, teaches that the circumstances of Paul's day in Corinth indicates it is not a good idea to marry at that time. The distress of persecution will potentially be a stumblingblock the one who marries. "Concern" is the by-product of marriage. We seek to please a partner and not just the Lord. Our "interests are divided." Paul could wish for them "undistracted devotion to the Lord." But, if a man sees his virgin daughter under temptation of the flesh which also will cause stumbling, and he wishes to give her in marriage that is allowed. "But he who stands firm in his heart, being under no constraint, but has authority over his own will, and has decided this in his own heart, to keep his own virgin daughter, he will do well." You see the freedom this man has. Paul does not want to encourage a stumblingblock for the man and the virgin daughter leaving them their freedom to decide within the parameters of God's own will.

This may seem unrelated to Matt.18:7, but it is not. A similar thought is found in 2 Cor.9:7 when our giving must be done freely and not under some undue compulsion to give. The point is that God wants us to do what we do from the heart and not from some other constraint. He wants pure and sincere devotion, not that of coercion. Paul guards this in his writing to Philemon. See verse14. But though in Christ we have to be careful not to put these obstacles and constraints in each other's lives, it is inevitable that the world will place them there. Jesus prepared His apostles for this in John 15-17. The world, He says, will hate them just as it hated Him, and His Father. In 16:1 Jesus says, "These things I have spoken to you that you might be kept from stumbling." If we know that in running the race, it is par for the course (to mix metaphors) that one obstacle after another will be thrown at us, then we are not surprised when it happens. We cannot control what the world does, but we must teach diligently in the church that we must not do the same thing with our brothers and sisters. 1 Cor.8 is one such place this is taught.

This word "inevitable" is also translated "distress and hardship" in several places. Luke 21:23 speaks of it in the context of the coming destruction of Jerusalem. Paul mentions it in 1 Cor.7:26 as the present distress of persecution. Paul says he has learned to be well content in his distresses. (2 Cor.12:10) In 1 Thess.3:7 Paul was comforted in his distresses through the faith of the brothers who were standing firm in the Lord. When I see a brother or sister avoid the obstacles the world puts in his or her path and stand firm, it is an encouragement to me to do the same. We take heart in the truth that though in the world we will have tribulation, we can have peace knowing that Jesus has overcome the world. (John 16:33)