Matthew 18:5-7
5 And whoso shall receive one such little child in my name receiveth me.
6 But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea.
7 Woe unto the world because of offences! for it must needs be that offences come; but woe to that man by whom the offence cometh!
Here Jesus is no longer talking about Just chronological or physical age of a child, but of a child in Christ. Someone who is born again but has not yet attained spiritual maturity even if they are mature in years. So both the natural child and the spiritual child is meant.
Let us for now consider the Spiritual child. When someone comes to faith In Christ the are often full of joy and enthusiasm. They join a congregation and sometimes they are assailed on all sides by advice and teaching which owe little to scripture but more to someone’s desire for control over an individual or even the whole church. There are countless examples of people discipling new Christians to themselves instead of to the Lord. then there are those who labour to place the faithful under the yoke of legalism just as the pharisees did.
Unfortunately there are other religions and faiths, sects and heresies which are targeting Christians and sometimes in a planned and organised way in order to draw them away from the pure Christian faith.
This I believe is the work of the Devil to lead God’s children away from their Father. Just as the Enemy did in the Garden of Eden the true gospel is twisted in order to manipulate people. and manipulation is never for the good of the person being manipulated.
But the Lord has a severe punishment for those who deliberately lead the faithful, especially those new born, away from the true faith. Because these false teachers, apostles, leaders call themselves what they will, are cynically using others faith to corrupt them.
We need to be vigilant in protecting those who have recently come to faith as they can be very vulnerable in so many ways. They may lack the ability to discern simply through an unfamiliarity with the scriptures and the Godly interpretation of those scriptures. And so may fall prey to those who would lead them away from Jesus and the heavenly Father.
Be aware that there are those who pretend to be Christians who are in fact not. They practice deception at even the most personal of levels and only reveal their real identity once they have lead the person away from fellowship with other Christians.