But when ye sin so against the brethren, and wound their weak conscience, ye sin against Christ.
To sin against fellow believers and wound their weak conscience is to sin against Christ himself. It is sin against Christ because Christ died for that weak brother. To speak evil of a brother and to dishonor him is to wound Christ in the person of His saints.
The verse requires weighing how words and deeds affect others, and refusing even actions that are in themselves innocent if they appear to support idolatry or offend the scruples of those who are weak in faith. Careless use of liberty in words, spirit, and character must be guarded at every point against temptation by watching words and the spirit that prompts them and by standing sentinel over defective attributes, so that no liberty taken becomes a stumbling block and no crooked paths are made that turn a weak brother's feet out of the way of life. Unjust censure that wounds brethren and lays obstacles in the way of discouraged ones who are striving to do right also sins against Christ.
Inconsistent, unwise moves and speaking fragments of truth that are not of vital importance anywhere and everywhere in an unacceptable manner misrepresents the faith and makes it disgusting to unbelievers, injures those outside, wounds the cause of God, and lets souls stumble to destruction. The tongue, though a little member, does a weight of mischief by sowing seeds of bitterness and putting suspicious thoughts in minds, becoming a plague spot and rock of offense that wrecks souls. A day is coming when every case will be revealed and the cause of offense will be seen, and many who are eternally lost will in despair look with reproach upon those who led them astray. Such wrongs must be taken back, faults humbly confessed, and a new beginning made.
To sin against fellow believers and wound their weak conscience is to sin against Christ himself. It is sin against Christ because Christ died for that weak brother. To speak evil of a brother and to dishonor him is to wound Christ in the person of His saints.
The verse requires weighing how words and deeds affect others, and refusing even actions that are in themselves innocent if they appear to support idolatry or offend the scruples of those who are weak in faith. Careless use of liberty in words, spirit, and character must be guarded at every point against temptation by watching words and the spirit that prompts them and by standing sentinel over defective attributes, so that no liberty taken becomes a stumbling block and no crooked paths are made that turn a weak brother's feet out of the way of life. Unjust censure that wounds brethren and lays obstacles in the way of discouraged ones who are striving to do right also sins against Christ.
Inconsistent, unwise moves and speaking fragments of truth that are not of vital importance anywhere and everywhere in an unacceptable manner misrepresents the faith and makes it disgusting to unbelievers, injures those outside, wounds the cause of God, and lets souls stumble to destruction. The tongue, though a little member, does a weight of mischief by sowing seeds of bitterness and putting suspicious thoughts in minds, becoming a plague spot and rock of offense that wrecks souls. A day is coming when every case will be revealed and the cause of offense will be seen, and many who are eternally lost will in despair look with reproach upon those who led them astray. Such wrongs must be taken back, faults humbly confessed, and a new beginning made.