It is not uncommon to hear someone blame someone else for their sinful behavior. A child blames the parents for way they were raised. An employee blames the company for the way they were treated. The same thing can be heard by a child of God wanting to blame the church for the way they were treated. What does God’s word say about this? Can others be made to sin?

Consider Jesus’ sermon on the mount. “But whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to sin, it would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck, and he were drowned in the depth of the sea,” (Matt. 18:6). At first glance, one might get the impression that the parent, company or even a church should be blamed when they cause others to do wrong. However, a close examination will indicate that this is not what the Lord meant at all.

When you read the first five verses of Matthew 18, you will see that our Lord was talking about His children that are faithful. He then proceeded to talk about causing His children to sin. This means that the child is right to fault the parents if they taught the wrong things. Or a company that encouraged corruption. Or a church that taught its members to transgress the commands of God.

This is a narrow teaching though. In these scenarios, sinful behavior was being actively encouraged. If the behavior is not being taught or enforced, the individual is clearly still accountable. Let’s focus more specifically with a local church for the rest of this article.

If a member of the church felt like one member was running the show or that they were not getting enough attention, are they right to leave the church and start attending a religious group in error? Of course not. If the church they were attending encouraged them to leave and follow a church that was erring, then the words of Jesus would apply. These are different scenarios though, and it is vital to see this.

Here is an illustration: A man comes home from work and tells his wife their marriage is over. She begins to cry and asks why? He says that he found out that a guy at work does not love her and much as he does. The wife is confused. Why are you leaving me just because someone else does not love me as much?

The behavior in the illustration is irrational, but people use similar logic to justify leaving the Lord and faithful churches all the time. They say that people “here’ do not love the Lord like they do, so they are leaving. If they leave and start attending a place that practices error, they have left the Lord. Casting blame to justify sinful behavior does not excuse it in the eyes of the Lord.

There are things we can say with certainty. We are to be members of the church that belongs to Christ and is the pillar and ground of truth (I Tim. 3:15). Thus, you will not find faithful churches encouraging the members to sin by drinking alcohol (I Pet. 4:3), promoting the social gospel (I Cor. 11:22) or teaching that church funds can be used for anything they want (I Tim. 5:16). The list goes on and on.

The next time you hear anyone blaming the church for their sinful behavior, be quick to inform them that the church NEVER causes someone to sin unless that church promotes sin! In all my years of preaching and talking with Christians who have fallen away, I have never witnessed anyone doing sinful things that the church actually encouraged them to do! I have heard various accusations and been told that the person in sin was okay spiritually, but these claims do not fit with the word of God. Let’s make sure we never put words in the mouth of our Lord.

Chuck