Read Luke 17 here (text coming …) or at Bible Gateway.
Luke 17:1-37 Chiastic Structure:
Then He said to the disciples, “It is impossible that no stumbling blocks will come, but woe to him through whom they come! It would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck, and he were cast into the sea, than if he were to cause one of these little ones to stumble. Take heed to yourselves; if your brother sins against you, rebuke him; and if he repents, forgive him. And if he sins against you seven times in a day, and seven times in a day turns again to you, saying, ‘I repent;’ you shall forgive him.” Luk 17:1-4
Why did Jesus say, “Take heed to yourselves” immediately following the discourse about stumbling blocks and millstones?
If we will Learn from the Narrative, Jesus is warning us not to be a stumbling block in the path of others. And one way we cause others to stumble, is by being hard and unforgiving when someone sins against us, but then they get “heart-smote” and, recognizing their error, try to make things right. When true repentance meets a hard and unforgiving wall, that is a stumbling block in the repentant person’s path. And as the structure brings out, He was tying how we live our daily lives in the present to future kingdom outcomes.
You see, the Pharisees had a worldview that externals determined kingdom citizenship: Jewish ethnicity, for example; thus Samaritans and Gentiles were despised. However, Jesus taught that internals determined kingdom citizenship: careful treatment of others; gentleness instead of hardness; faith. So it was that two who shared the same externals could be living or working together, and yet one would be taken and the other left.
If there are questions, these are good resources:
On offenses – Christine Miller
How to Deal with Offenses – John Stocker
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