Luke 17:2
It were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and he cast into the sea, than that he should offend one of these little ones. It were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and he cast into the sea, than that he should offend one of these little ones.
Although offenses will inevitably come, woe rests on the one whose influence causes them, especially by word or action that harms the work of education and its young people, and to cause such offense is worse than being cast into the sea with a millstone about the neck.
The little ones are Christ's believing children, whose true life is hidden with Christ in God, so that even if the body suffers and perishes the inner life remains safe with Christ, and to harm one of them brings the grave consequence that drowning with a millstone would be better for the offender.
A disciple's harshness or coldness toward someone Christ is drawing can turn that person away from Christ and cause the loss of a soul, and it would be better to suffer death than to cause such stumbling, for the severity of the warning rests on the infinite value of every soul, since Christ came to save the lost and gave Himself for them.
Hindering faithful workers and becoming a stumbling block over which sinners fall does grave harm, and those who do so should be separated from the church unless they reform.
One who professes the Sabbath becomes a stumbling block to sinners and brings reproach on sacred truth when poor manners, quarrels with neighbors, or deliberately making Sabbath observance annoying causes others to hate the truth, and unless such a person repents it would be better for him to die by drowning with a millstone about his neck than to cause this harm.
Leading a soul astray into deception is so serious that it would be better never to have been born than to cause it, and the warning applies to ministers who present untested theories or who by word or example lead people away from truth, so they must handle God's Word carefully and under the Holy Spirit's direction.
To offend children and youth includes placing books containing a perversion of truth in their hands and giving them, in the very process of obtaining an education, ideas that will prove to be seeds of sin, and such corrupting of the young with terrible guilt must never be done.
Mature minds must also have nothing to do with books that pervert truth, for abstaining keeps adults far safer and their right example and influence makes guarding the youth from temptation far less difficult.