Passage

Matthew 18

Verses 6–9 WEB Voices

Having set a child before the disciples and tied greatness to humble welcome, Jesus turns to those who harm “little ones who believe.” He pronounces severe judgment on causing them to stumble and calls His hearers to radical, costly dealing with whatever in themselves leads to sin.

Matthew 18:6

6but whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to stumble, it would be better for him if a huge millstone were hung around his neck and that he were sunk in the depths of the sea.

Arminian

Jesus protects vulnerable believers. “Little ones who believe” are not disposable; leading them into sin is worse than a drowning death.

Grace that receives the weak also binds the strong. God sincerely warns against stumbling others—responsibility is authentic, and enabling grace presses us to repent of careless influence rather than shrug it off.

Reformed

Christ’s millstone saying is not hyperbole for shock alone; it measures how precious believing little ones are to Him.

The warning lands with holy fear. Left to ourselves we exploit the weak; only a Spirit-wrought love for Christ’s flock takes this threat with the seriousness Jesus intends.

Matthew 18:7

7“Woe to the world because of occasions of stumbling! For it must be that the occasions come, but woe to that person through whom the occasion comes!

Arminian

Temptations are lamented, not celebrated. That they “must” come describes the tragic certainty of a fallen world of free agents—not God’s delight in evil.

The passage carries a double truth: scandals will arise, yet the one who causes them remains fully blameworthy. Prevenient grace awakens conscience; the woe is a sincere call to refuse becoming the channel of another’s fall.

Reformed

Jesus holds together necessity and guilt. Offenses come within God’s sovereign governance of a sinful world, yet “woe” falls on the human instrument without excuse.

Providence never excuses the tempter. The warning itself is a means God uses; holy fear of being that instrument is fruit of grace, not a tip the flesh can casually adopt.

Key contrast Both insist the tempter is truly guilty even though scandals are certain in this age. Arminians stress that God permits but does not author the evil, so the warning sincerely addresses resistible responsibility; Reformed interpreters emphasize that necessity under God’s decree never softens culpability, and that heeding the woe requires effectual grace.

Matthew 18:8

8If your hand or your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off and cast it from you. It is better for you to enter into life maimed or crippled, rather than having two hands or two feet to be cast into the eternal fire.

Arminian

Jesus demands ruthless dealing with personal sources of sin—not literal self-harm, but decisive separation from whatever repeatedly trips you.

Grace enables repentance. Eternal fire is not an empty threat; hearers remain responsible to act on the warning, cutting off cherished paths that lead to ruin.

Reformed

The imagery is surgical and eschatological: better maimed life than intact damnation. Christ prizes entrance into life over intact habits.

Natural self-preservation will not amputate beloved sins. The Spirit must grant both hatred of sin and power to put it to death; the eternal fire shows how serious unrepentant stumbling is before a holy God.

Key contrast Both take the call to radical self-denial as serious, not ornamental. Arminians press enabling grace and a choice to cut off sin’s instruments; Reformed commentators emphasize that such cutting off comes from God’s effectual renewing work, not native moral resolve.

Matthew 18:9

9If your eye causes you to stumble, pluck it out and cast it from you. It is better for you to enter into life with one eye, rather than having two eyes to be cast into the Gehenna of fire.

Arminian

The eye intensifies the point: even what we look at and desire must be surrendered if it leads to sin. Entering life one-eyed beats Gehenna with full sight.

Arminian hope and warning together: Christ still invites costly repentance, and grace that enlightens also enables turning from lust of the eyes. The hell of fire makes refusal an accountable tragedy.

Reformed

Parallel to the hand and foot, the eye shows no faculty is exempt. Preferring intact desire over life ends in the hell of fire.

Christ speaks to preserve His people. Mortification of sight and desire is Spirit-wrought; the Lord who warns of hell grants the new heart that values life with Him above any cherished look.

Historic quotes

Voices from both camps

Causing little ones who believe to stumble, millstone judgment, and costly self-denial: older Arminian and Reformed writers, each in their own words.

Arminian Notable voices

“Woe to the world because of offenses - That is, unspeakable misery will be in the world through them; for it must needs be that offenses come - Such is the nature of things, and such the weakness, folly, and wickedness of mankind, that it cannot be but they will come; but wo to that man - That is, miserable is that man, by whom the offense cometh. Offenses are, all things whereby any one is turned out of, or hindered in the way of God.”

John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament (on Matt 18:6–9)

Reformed Notable voices

“But whosoever shall offend one of those little ones. This appears to be added for the consolation of the godly, that they may not be rendered uneasy by their condition, if they are despised by the world. It is a powerful obstruction to the voluntary exercise of modesty, when they imagine, that by so doing they expose themselves to contempt; and it is hard to be not only treated disdainfully, but almost trodden under foot, by haughty men.”

John Calvin · Commentary on a Harmony of the Evangelists (on Matt 18:6–9)

Quotations lightly abridged for length; wording follows standard English translations of the sources named.

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