²³ Jesus turned and told Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance to me because you’re not thinking about God’s concerns^[a] but human concerns.” (Matthew 16:23 CSB)

We need to regularly look at our lives to see where we might be serving as a hindrance to others. In our busy, busy lives we rush about taking care of our responsibilities, but are we considering our Christian responsibilities to God and others?

To be a hinderance, or a stumbling block, in our words or actions should be of paramount concern. What we represent in this world to others needs to be fed from the faith life we live. If we say we are people of faith but it does not manifest in all we do then we are fooling ourselves and in doing so we need to realize we are not fooling others. In fact just the opposite, we are two-faced. We are saying one thing and doing another. As such elsewhere in scripture says we are like a ship tossed about by the wind and the waves.

This is where many people get a negative outlook on religion and Christians. We become the stumbling block to them because our actions to not match our words. In this we do far more damage to Christ message when we openly do not practice what we preach. I have watched this play out in others lives and seen the impact on those around them. Actions speak more loudly than words and people are watching.