Our God is a God of life and of the living; the wages of serving God is eternal life. “The wages of sin,” on the other hand, “is death,” (Romans 6:23). In our Gospel today Jesus warns those who would lead others into sin, into death, saying that “it would be better for him if a millstone were put around his neck and he be thrown into the sea…” In other words it would be better to die a horrific death in the body than to die an eternal spiritual death for leading a soul away from eternal life.
Jesus says this in John’s Gospel: “A thief comes only to steal and slaughter and destroy; I came so that they might have life and have it more abundantly,” (John 10:10). Those who lead others into sin are thieves. But Jesus came to give life: abundant, overflowing life. Hence why He drives home another point in our Gospel: forgive, forgive, forgive. Is it not interesting that He speaks a brief warning to the tempter, and yet speaks at some length to us about the importance of forgiving those who wrong us?
It is for this reason: “My brothers, if anyone among you should stray from the truth and someone bring him back, he should know that whoever brings back a sinner from the error of his way will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins,” (James 5:19-20). Not only must we avoid leading others into sin—into death—but we have an even greater responsibility as Christians to lead sinners into life. In helping to save a sinner from eternal death we, too, secure our own lives, for we are living the life Jesus gave us on the Cross: we are following the Way, the Truth, and the Life (John 14:6). We may think that such works as leading sinners to repentance and to God requires tremendous faith, and a firm grasp of Scripture and the teachings of the Church, yet Jesus tells us that even faith the size of a mustard seed is capable of great things. Consider those who have helped you in your own faith journey: was it their great deeds, or was it the small, almost unnoticeable yet faithful acts and ways of their life that moved you closer to the Lord?
Forgive. Always forgive. “As I have loved you, so you also should love one another,” (John 13:34). Has He not forgiven you, for the sake of your eternal life? Therefore forgive one another, and you will further secure your own life for eternity.