It has struck no root, however, within him. He continues for a time, but when suffering comes, or persecution, because of the Message, he at once stumbles and falls.
Then said Jesus, »This night all of you will stumble and fail in your fidelity to me; for it is written, `I will strike the Shepherd, and the sheep of the flock will be scattered in all directions.'
If therefore your eye, even the right eye, is a snare to you, tear it out and away with it; it is better for you that one member should be destroyed rather than that your whole body should be thrown into Gehenna.
Is not this the carpenter, Mary's son, the brother of James and Joses, Jude and Simon? And do not his sisters live here among us?« So they turned angrily away.
As for me, brethren, if I am still a preacher of circumcision, how is it that I am still suffering persecution? In that case the Cross has ceased to be a stumbling-block!
and »a Stone for the foot to strike against, and a Rock to stumble over.« Their foot strikes against it because they are disobedient to God's Message, and to this they were appointed.