Mark 9:42-50, 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. [To trip up or impede even the least important or newest Christian, who enjoys a relationship with Jesus, is so terrible that it merits a dreadful punishment.] 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.’ [Physical self-mutilation is not suggested here. What we have is a vivid metaphor, couched in extreme terms, letting us know how cancerous sin is in our lives. Unchecked, unrepentant sin leads us to hell. Gehenna, the continuously smoldering garbage dump outside Jerusalem, is the symbol of the final fate of those who rebel against God. Mark knows nothing of an easy universalism or a “second chance” to get right with God. Instead, accept God’s grace in Jesus now by believing in him.] ⁴⁹ For everyone will be salted with fire. [All is to be tested, purified, and preserved one day.] 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.” [Salt has to be salt not something named salt that isn’t salt. The followers of Jesus have been quarreling. How can they be “sons of peace”? Christians are to be the moral preservative of the world. We are to “salt” life to purify it and not let it become completely corrupt. If we lose our distinctiveness, we will lose our “saltiness.” When we are salt, we reflect Jesus in all aspects of our lives.]