Mark 9:42-50--Temptations to Sin

Mark 9:42-50
English Standard Version
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Temptations to Sin
42 “Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him if a great millstone were hung around his neck and he were thrown into the sea. 43 And if your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life crippled than with two hands to go to hell, to the unquenchable fire. 45 And if your foot causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life lame than with two feet to be thrown into hell. 47 And if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into hell, 48 ‘where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched.’ 49 For everyone will be salted with fire. 50 Salt is good, but if the salt has lost its saltiness, how will you make it salty again? Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with one another.”

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Jesus has just told His disciples that whoever receives a little child in His name has received Him.  Jesus is probably still holding the child or has the child standing next to Him (I'm not quite sure how old the child is) and says that if anyone causes a little child like this to sin, then it would be more bearable for such a man to have a millstone tied around his neck and be thrown into the sea (die from drowning) than to go through the judgment that will be reserved for such a man when the Lord judges the living and the dead in the final judgment.

Jesus then says that if a man's right hand causes him to sin, he should cut it off and throw it away.  This is hyperbole, but a man's right hand was one of the most important things to him because most people, even back then, were right-handed.  Jesus is saying that you should be willing to make an extreme sacrifice like this in order to make sure you don't sin--whatever you need to "cut out of your life" to stop sinning is worth the price because your soul is more valuable.

Jesus then goes so far as to say that if your eye causes you to sin, gouge it out.  Again, I think this is hyperbole, but Jesus is making the point that we need to stop looking at the things that cause us to sin in our minds (I'm sure all the men knew what kinds of sinful things came through their eye gate).  Jesus said it is better for a man to enter the kingdom of God blind and crippled than for a man to be whole and miss the kingdom of God because he continues in his sin.

There needs to be radical change in a person's life once they have been saved.  They cannot keep on doing the same things that they were doing before, and the Holy Spirit will not allow a person who has been born again to keep on sinning.  Any man who keeps obeying His sin nature and says that he can't say "No" to it is still a slave to sin and is not saved (see Romans 6).

Jesus then says that everyone will be tried by fire.  The picture is that for the saved, the fire will burn away all that is worthless (the wood, hay, and stubble) and will only leave that with was done by the Holy Spirit for the glory of God alone (the gold, silver, and precious stones).  For the unsaved that have nothing of value because they lived their lives for themselves or under the control of their flesh and the devil, the fire will torture them, but not consume them.  Their end will be what the bible calls the Lake of Fire that was prepared for the devil and his angels.  Verse 48 describes is as the place, "where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched."  That right there should put to rest anyone who falsely claims that God is just going to annihilate the lost souls and they will simply burn up in the fire and be consumed and will only have a temporary suffering.  No, sin against an infinite God requires a conviction of infinite punishment.  We know that if we commit the same offense against the President or King, or Queen that we will be charged with a higher crime than if we committed that same act against a regular citizen.  Take this principle and apply it to how we have committed an uncountable number of rebellious acts against the one who is Creator and King of Kings and Lord of Lords who says as part of His definition of His name that He will "surely not let the guilty go unpunished."  We are all guilty (Romans 1-3) and we all face the same end.  All of us have willfully rebelled against God and are without excuse, and many of us have caused others, even little children, to sin in our need to get others to approve of the wrong we are doing so that we don't feel guilty.  We want to be able to say, "I was just doing what everyone else was doing," yet we know that excuse won't work because God gave us each a conscience to tell us that what we were doing was wrong.

Jesus then returns to the idea of salt as something valuable in that culture (it was the currency that Roman soldiers were paid in).  Salt is only valuable if it is salty.  It is good for seasoning food, being used as a preservative to stave off decay, and though a painful way to do so, it can be put on a wound to help fight infection or help prevent it.  It contains essential minerals that we need, but while it does its work, it also makes us thirsty, and the "salt" of Jesus' disciples in culture should do the same thing.  Their lifestyle should be something that adds a good flavor, prevents decay, fights the disease of sin, and makes people that God is working on thirst for the kind of relationship with God that they have.   People will want to know how to be set free from their bondage to sin.

Jesus commands His disciples to be salty and to never lose their flavor (don't start looking like and acting like the world when you claim to have been transformed by the gospel).  Jesus also commands them to be at peace with one another (remember that at the beginning of this whole passage they were arguing among themselves about who would be the greatest sitting at the right and left of Jesus in the kingdom of God).  They wouldn't tell Jesus what they were arguing about, but Jesus knew.  He said that such rivalry and petty argument are not fitting for those who are His disciples.  That is the way the world thinks and acts--trying to seize power and glory for themselves.  No, Jesus' disciples are to be at peace with God and at peace with others who are called by His Name.  We will not be at peace with the world because the world will hat us because we are called by the Name of the one, they hate.  They will try to kill us and do all kinds of evil against us because we identify with Christ Jesus our Lord and Savior and we proclaim an exclusive gospel that He is the Way, the Truth and the Life, and that no man comes to the Father except through Him.  We can still love our enemies though and do good to those who persecute us and pray for those who spitefully use us.  We recognize that Jesus still loved us enough to die for us while we were His enemies, so we too must love those who are enemies of God right now since Jesus died for them too.  They too can be saved if they will accept His free gift of salvation.