A Biblical New Year's Resolution
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Introduction:
This morning we return to our studies in the Gospel of hope that you had a good Christmas break treasuring Christ and a good New Year’s. And you know that each year, many people make resolutions: whether to eat better, to exercise, to read the Bible, to spend more time with family, or whatever the case.
And as I returned to my study in Mark, I couldn’t help to think about what the Bible would call us to do in the New Year. I believe the resolution we will see today is timeless whether you live in the 1st century or whether you live in 2020. And I believe this is a Biblical New Year’s Resolution that we could all make, every Christian sitting in this room, is this:
Resolve to kill sin in your life because if you do not take sin lightly, you will be in danger of experiencing God’s judgment.
Resolve to take sin seriously, because if you don’t, you will be in danger of going to Hell.
I’m sure that is not a usual resolution for people in the New Year’s, but what our text presents to us this morning is the seriousness of sin.
Why is sin so serious?
Because if we do not take sin seriously, we will be in danger of going to Hell.
The benefits of consecutive expository preaching are that it forces us to deal with hard texts and hard topics. And here, Jesus warns us to not take sin lightly because Hell is a real place of eternal suffering.
One of the benefits of consecutive expository preaching is that it forces us to deal with hard texts and hard topics. And here, Jesus warns us to not take sin lightly because Hell is a real place of eternal suffering. I must admit that this text was heavy thinking about. This is not normally a topic I would gravitate to.
But if we are going to faithful to the Scriptures and the whole counsel of God, we must deal with the hard texts of Scriptures as well, including Jesus teaching on Hell.
Main Proposition: As we return to our studies this morning, resolve to kill sin in your life because if you don’t, the consequences are grave and eternal. This morning, we will look at:
I. The Seriousness of Sin (v. 43)
II. The Strategy to Fight Sin (vv. 44-48)
III. The need to Separate from Sin (vv. 49-50)
Recap
To remind you since we haven’t been in Mark for a few weeks, Jesus is on his way to Jerusalem with his disciples to suffer. While Jesus has already clearly told them that he would be rejected, suffer, be betrayed, die and rise again, the disciples are arguing with one another about who is the greatest disciple.
Not only were they arguing about who was the greatest, but they were critical of an exorcist who were not part of their clique. Jesus rebuked them and reminded them they should rejoice whenever the truth is proclaimed.
These disciples, like us, had a lot to learn. Jesus was going to teach them that true discipleship is not about being first or being the greatest, but about being the last and slave of all.
They thought that discipleship with Jesus meant immediate glory. While Jesus was going to teach them that glory would be achieved through suffering and humiliation.
As Jesus journeys to Jerusalem, he will further teach them about the dangers of sin and how they must be on guard against sin. So let’s read our text:
Scripture Reading:
“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. 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. 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. 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, ‘where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched.’ For everyone will be salted with fire. 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.”
This is the reading of God’s Holy, Authoritative, Inspired Word. Amen.
Notice in verse 42, Jesus warns his disciples concerning the seriousness of sin....
I. The Seriousness of Sin (v. 42)
I. The Seriousness of Sin (v. 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.
This is a very graphic image here. In this context, little ones refer to new believers or immature disciples. He has spoken about it about how a believer must have a child-like faith if he is going to enter the kingdom of God. Child-like faith is a dependent and humble trust in the Savior.
And the word that is used is “causes one to stumble” NASB. The word is where we get the word “scandal” from. Whoever causes young believers to stumble or fall into sin, it would be better for him if a great millstone were hung around his neck and were thrown into the sea.
The large millstone (mylos onikos, lit., “donkey millstone”) was a heavy, flat stone turned by a donkey when it was grinding grain; this differed from the small hand mill (mylos) used by women (Matt. 24:41)
I watched a movie this past year called Midway. The Japanese had just attacked the Americans at Pearl Harbor. Six months later, the Americans would attack the Japanese at the Battle of Midway which would be the turning point of the War as Americans crippled the Japanese Naval Fleet in a surprise attack.
In one of scenes, the Japanese capture a American pilot. And when he refuses to cooperate with the Japanese, the Japanese throw him into an ocean with an anchor tied around his feed.
This is the graphic imagery Jesus is using. It is better to have this large millstone hung around your neck and you be tossed into the sea than you cause harm and another believer to stumble.
Unbelievers
I think about the sex abuse cases within the Catholic Church among Catholic Priests. If you watch some of the interviews of those who shared their stories, some are atheists because of the abuse of those who were in power.
But this is not only a Catholic problem, Southern Baptist Churches received controversy when even Southern Baptists were guilty of sexual abuse and misconduct.
Think about the damage that this has brought to the witness of the gospel and those suffering from people who they trusted and thought they were meant to protect them.
Jesus says to these people: it is better to have cement shoes and be tossed into the ocean to cause harm and abuse to these little ones. It is better to have a millstone or anchor tied around your neck than to bring harm upon these believers.
Leadership: This should put a sense of fear for those of us in leadership including myself. I don’t want to do anything that makes another believer stumble. Whether we are Elders, or Deacons, or those leaders serving in our various ministries, there should be a warning to us and a healthy fear of what Jesus is saying. This is why Paul disciplined himself so that he could win others to Christ.
So I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating the air. But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified.
So I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating the air. But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified.
Qualifications: This is why the Apostle Paul lays down qualifications for those in leadership. They must be above reproach. They must be tested. And they must be proven before ever put in leadership because unqualified men can bring damage to the gospel if they cause others to stumble.
Do Not Abuse Your Christian Liberty to Cause others to Stumble. And we must be on guard against using our Christian liberty and causing others to stumble. This was Paul’s instruction to the Corinthians in and 9, also in and .
For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.
Don’t use your liberty to stumble others, use your freedom to serve others. But we Christians often in the name of Christian liberty use our freedom to serve ourselves, while stumbling others. That is not what Paul meant by Christian freedom and liberty.
Is there anything in your life that causes a newer believer to stumble? To hate going to church because of the hypocrisy of your living?
Church—To commit to a church, is to commit to strive for holiness. And we need one another so that we would not be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.
Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.
Shallow Preaching—The reason we often do not take sin seriously because our culture does not take sin seriously and often churches do not take sin seriously. And as we will see in our next point, we don’t take sin seriously because we don’t take Hell or Judgment seriously.
In former generations, preachers often delivered fire-and-brimstone sermons warning their flocks about the danger of going to hell. But in the twenty-first century, the doctrine of hell has all but disappeared from Christian preaching. If it is discussed, it is often watered down to such a degree that people no longer fear going to hell.
Sproul. Mark (Saint Andrew's Expositional Commentary) (pp. 237-238). Reformation Trust Publishing. Kindle Edition.
Sproul. Mark (Saint Andrew's Expositional Commentary) (pp. 237-238). Reformation Trust Publishing. Kindle Edition.
Hypocrisy is a great stumbling block to the new believer and non-believer. But also Hell is a controversial doctrine to both believer and non-believer as well.
Transition: Jesus wants us to take sin seriously, but secondly, if we are going to take sin seriously, we need to have a strategy to take sin seriously. In other words, Jesus calls for radical spiritual surgery in the following verses....
II. The Strategy to fight Sin (vv. 43-48)
II. The Strategy to fight Sin (vv. 43-48)
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. 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. 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, ‘where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched.’
Mark 9:43-
Here is the strategy that Jesus gives us: cut out whatever will cause you to sin in your life. Do spiritual surgery on your sin which is a spiritual cancer.
If you give sin an inch, it will take a mile. Sin always overpromises and never delivers.
If it is true that radical surgery must be done on someone who has cancer in a particular part of his body before the cancer spread, it is true spiritually as well. You must do spiritual surgery in your soul to make sure that sin does not spread to other parts of your life.
Jesus is not calling for literal self-mutiliation. In fact, the OT forbids self-mutiliation because the Bible has a high view of the body and those who mutiliated themselves often mutiliated themselves because of their idolatry.
The Pillar New Testament Commentary: The Gospel according to Mark Discipleship: Counting the Cost (9:42–50)
Both masochism and bodily mutilation (with the exception of circumcision) were strictly taboo in Judaism (Deut 14:1; 23:1; 1 Kgs 18:28; Zech 13:6).
The Pillar New Testament Commentary: The Gospel according to Mark Discipleship: Counting the Cost (9:42–50)
The metaphors of eyes, hands, and feet are all-inclusive of what we view, what we do, where we go.
Some Christians throughout history have taken a verse like this literally. The story of Origen who castrated himself so that he could avoid lust. But we all know from Jesus teaching, that you can be castrated or self-mutiliate yourself, and still sin in your heart.
Because sin proceeds from the heart. What Jesus is saying here is that you must be radical in your fight against sin. He is using hyperbole.
Cut off one of your hands? Cut off one foot? Gouged or pluck out an eye?
Extreme measures must be taken against sin because of the consequences of sin.
He uses the language of hands, feet, and eyes because these are often the avenues or members we use to sin. Sin is birth and conceived in the heart, and its action is carried out with our hands, with our feet, and with our eyes.
The Pillar New Testament Commentary: The Gospel according to Mark Discipleship: Counting the Cost (9:42–50)
Both masochism and bodily mutilation (with the exception of circumcision) were strictly taboo in Judaism (Deut 14:1; 23:1; 1 Kgs 18:28; Zech 13:6).
The Pillar New Testament Commentary: The Gospel according to Mark Discipleship: Counting the Cost (9:42–50)
The metaphors of eyes, hands, and feet are all-inclusive of what we view, what we do, where we go.
Only Christians who have been born again can kill sin in their lives.
When Helen and I were friends, I gave her a book called the Mortification of Sin on her birthday. Now I look back and I should have gotten her something more to her liking, but anyways, it was a good book by a puritan Author John Owen.
“Do you mortify; do you make it your daily work; be always at it whilst you live; cease not a day from this work; be killing sin, or it will be killing you.”
For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.
In other words, we can’t kill sin on our own willpower. We need God’s Spirit to help us crucify the deeds of the flesh. Owen says that Non-Christians can’t kill sin unless they are born again.
Unless a man be a believer, that is, one that is truly ingrafted in Christ, he can never mortify any one sin…it is the Spirit alone that can mortify sin. He is promised to do it, and all other means without him are empty and vain. How shall he, then, mortify sin, who hath not the Spirit? A man may easier see without eyes, speak without a tongue, than truly mortify one sin without the Spirit. John Owen
How does the Spirit mortify sin?
By causing our hearts to abound in grace, and the fruits that are contrary to the felsh and the fruits thereof, and to the principles of them.
By a real, physical efficiency on the root and habit of sin, for the weakening, destroying and taking it away.
He brings the cross of Christ into the heart of a sinner by faith, and gives us communion with Christ, in his death, and fellowship in his sufferings
Jesus is warning his disciples. He spoke hard truths to his disciples and also religious leaders.
What are the consequences of sin? Eternal judgment
Three times in Hell used in these verses. The actual word is the word gehenna.
The Greek word gehenna comes from the Hebrew ge-hinnom, “Valley of Hinnom,” a valley south of Jerusalem where Kings Ahaz () and Manasseh () offered child sacrifices to the pagan god Molech. Declared unclean by Josiah (), it became the place to burn refuse and to dispose of corpses (; ). The prophets proclaimed oracles of doom on it, and gehinnom became a symbol of final judgment (; Jer
Akin, Daniel L.. Exalting Jesus in Mark (Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary) (p. 197). B&H Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.
Kings Ahaz () and Manasseh () offered child sacrifices to the pagan god Molech. Declared unclean by Josiah (), it became the place to burn refuse and to dispose of corpses (; ). The prophets proclaimed oracles of doom on it, and gehinnom became a symbol of final judgment (; Jer
Akin, Daniel L.. Exalting Jesus in Mark (Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary) (pp. 197-198). B&H Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.
Word Pictures in the New Testament Mark 9:43
The Valley of Hinnom had been desecrated by the sacrifice of children to Moloch so that as an accursed place it was used for the city garbage where worms gnawed and fires burned. It is thus a vivid picture of eternal punishment.
Akin, Daniel L.. Exalting Jesus in Mark (Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary) (pp. 197-198). B&H Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.
They built the high places of Baal in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, to offer up their sons and daughters to Molech, though I did not command them, nor did it enter into my mind, that they should do this abomination, to cause Judah to sin.
And he defiled Topheth, which is in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, that no one might burn his son or his daughter as an offering to Molech.
If you notice that the ESV does not include verse 44 or verse 46 while the KJV and NASB do. Translators pull from different textual manuscripts and see what was the original reading of the Scriptures. ESV translators take that it was added by a scribe while other translations say that was the original reading. This does not mean that the Bible is in error, it just means that we don’t have the original manuscripts and textual critics try to find the most original reading of the text.
If you notice that the ESV does not include verse 44 or verse 46 while the KJV and NASB do. Translators pull from different textual manuscripts and see what was the original reading of the Scriptures. ESV translators take that it was added by a scribe while other translations say that was the original reading. This does not mean that the Bible is in error, it just means that we don’t have the original manuscripts and textual critics try to find the most original reading of the text.
“Where the worm does not die and the fire is not quenched” seems to be parallel with the rest of what Jesus is saying.
Gehenna was synonmous with Hell. 12x in NT. And I must admit that this is a heavy text to preach.
The imagery is just as, if not even more graphic than verse 42. Jesus is speaking of a literal place of punishment. And there is an OT echo from the last verse in the book of Isaiah which says,
Simply put, the worst calamity that can befall any human being is to go to hell.
“And they shall go out and look on the dead bodies of the men who have rebelled against me. For their worm shall not die, their fire shall not be quenched, and they shall be an abhorrence to all flesh.”
Sproul. Mark (Saint Andrew's Expositional Commentary) (p. 237). Reformation Trust Publishing. Kindle Edition.
Isaiah 66:
Sproul. Mark (Saint Andrew's Expositional Commentary) (p. 237). Reformation Trust Publishing. Kindle Edition.
That is graphic imagery of worms eating the flesh of dead men. And the fire is a picture of judgment. And the fire is unquenchable.
Sproul. Mark (Saint Andrew's Expositional Commentary) (pp. 237-238). Reformation Trust Publishing. Kindle Edition.
How can a loving God send anyone to Hell? I would argue that Hell and Hypocrisy are two of the greatest objections to the Christian faith.
You might say, “How can a loving God send anyone to Hell?” Well, it is because God is love that He judges. Or culture tries to create a wedge between holiness and love. But we must remember that if God is truly love, His nature is to oppose that which attacks what He loves.
If anyone tries to attack your children or your spouse, it is because you love your children and love your spouse that will feel righteous indignation against whoever tries to come against that which you love. It is the nature of love to protect what it cherishes.
If someone murdered someone you love, would you want a loving judge who would
God has never sent an innocent person to Hell. The people who are in Hell are those who are guilty and have willfully rejected God’s love in Jesus Christ.
Or to put it another way, if someone murdered someone you love. And the murderer appeared in court, and the murderer was let go for the murder in the name of love without justice, would that judge be right in letting the offender go? Our natural response as humans is to demand justice and much more so with God.
Because God is just and because He is Holy, he must oppose all that oppose Him and His Law. God’s wrath is not an angry outburst of anger, but a settle opposition against all that opposes Him and all that oppose what is true, good, and beautiful. God is wrathful because He loves purity and loves what is true, good, and beautiful. He will judge to protect what is true, good and beautiful.
Christian—What stumbles you? What are you doing with your hands, or your feet, or your eyes that is leading you into sin?
What are you doing with your hands that are making you sin?
Where are you going that is making you sin?
What are you watching that is making you sin?
Be willing to cut off a hand or foot or gouge out an eye so that you would not continue in sin!
I believe that the phone, or tablet, or computer can be one of this generation’s greatest stumbling blocks.
Jesus is saying it is better to go through life without a phone, than have a phone and go to Hell.
It is better to go through life without a ipad or computer than have a ipad or computer than go to Hell.
What apps do you need to delete? The problem is not the phone or the computer necessarily, but it is with your sinful heart.
Wuest’s Word Studies in the Greek New Testament Chapter Nine
The word “maimed” is kullon (κυλλον), used in classical Greek of one who has a crushed or crippled limb.
What places do you need to avoid to stop sin?
What places do you need to avoid to stop sin?
What things do you need to stop watching to avoid sin?
Do you need to cancel your Netflix account? It is better to through life without Netflix, than watching Netflix and going to Hell.
We are so desensitised to sin because of our culture and because we lack discernment. Stop it. What places you need to avoid, what activities do you need to avoid, what things you need to avoid watching?
One of the ways you know you are truly Christian is you feel this conflict with you. You know the spiritual war that is taking place within your soul everyday.
For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do.
We don’t take sin seriously because we don’t take Hell seriously. If you take Hell seriously, you will take sin seriously.
We must tell the Truth
If we take Hell Seriously, we will take Evangelism Seriously.
“The watchman who keeps silent when he sees a fire is guilty of gross neglect. The doctor who tells us we are getting well when we are dying is a false friend, and the minister who keeps back hell from his people in his sermons is neither a faithful nor a charitable man” (J. C. Ryle).645
Jonathan Edwards preached Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God. And because of our culture, we are naturally repulsed to such an idea. But Hell must be preached in order to understand the mercy and grace of God in Jesus Christ for us.
And by the way, Jesus warn the religious leaders often about Hell. He warned the proud, the self-sufficient, and the hypocrites. But to the broken, he was gentle, meek and mild.
Non-Christian—If the Bible is true, and it’s message is true about Heaven and Hell. The most foolish thing you can do is to ignore the message because there are no second chances after you die. You are either with the Lord forever enjoying his presence or you are in the absence of God’s love experiencing his active judgment. But the goods is this:
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.
If you acknowledge that you are a sinner, cry out for God’s mercy, and believe that Jesus died and rose again for your behalf, taking upon himself the wrath of God in your place as your substitute, if you repent and believe in Christ alone, you don’t have to go to Hell.
Because on the Cross, Jesus bore the punishment and wrath you and I deserved. The fire of God’s judgment was exhausted on His own beloved Son so that we may receive His mercy.
Sometimes people will say “Go To Hell” flippantly.
But if we truly understood Hell, we would never say that even to those that oppose us.
Hell is described as an unquenchable fire. A lake of fire. A place of weeping and gnashing of teeth. A place where the worm does not die.
Hell is an orthodox and Biblical doctrine—We can’t shy away from the truth. Its a tough pill to swallow, and that is why Jesus’ warnings are so radical because Hell is so terrible.
Some people try to avoid it. They try to reinterpret it like annihilationism. They try to get rid of the doctrine. But Jesus clearly believed in Hell and if He did, we must also believe and warn others of the coming judgment.
Fiery furance. Outer darkness. Everlasting fire.
and the devil who had deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur where the beast and the false prophet were, and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.
Transition: Jesus wants us to take sin seriously in our lives because of the danger of eternal judgment. The strategy He gives us is that we must do radical spiritual surgery and cut out whatever thing in our life that will cause us to sin, but finally, Jesus want us to live separately from sin...
III. The Separation from Sin (vv. 49-50)
III. The Separation from Sin (vv. 49-50)
For everyone will be salted with fire. 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.”
And first glance, this is a difficult phrase to interpret. Fire can refer to the refining effects of sanctification and the sufferings that a believer must endure to be molded further into the likeness of Christ.
Christians must be sanctified
You shall season all your grain offerings with salt. You shall not let the salt of the covenant with your God be missing from your grain offering; with all your offerings you shall offer salt.
Sacrifices were offered with salt. The idea here is of complete devotion and consecration to God.
The Pillar New Testament Commentary: The Gospel according to Mark Discipleship: Counting the Cost (9:42–50)
In the present context fire and salt appear to be symbols of the trials and costs of discipleship. Discipleship to Jesus lays a total claim on one’s life; in the language of sacrifice, it must be totally consuming or it is worthless.
I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.
The believer must make a complete break with sin.
For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.
That is what it means to be a saint. To be set apart from sin. To be separate from sin. That is what it means to be Christian. When you get baptized, you are saying you no longer live for yourself.
Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord.
Christians must be purifying influences
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.”
The Gospel of Mark 9. The Demanding Requirements of Discipleship. Ch. 9:43–50
The maxim that “the world cannot survive without salt” (Tractate Sopherim XV. 8) is a vivid reminder that salt was a necessity of life in the ancient world because it preserved food from putrefaction.
The Pillar New Testament Commentary: The Gospel according to Mark Discipleship: Counting the Cost (9:42–50)
In a world without refrigeration, salt preserves foods, and especially meat, from putrefying. Christians, similarly, are a preservative in society, apart from which society will become rotten.
I smoked Ribs for the first time with Pastor Mark. And the only thing we did was season it with salt and pepper. The Ribs cooked for 8 hours. And when it came out, it was perfect. The reason why you only needed salt and pepper because it brings out the taste of the meat. Salt maximizes the flavor of what you are eating.
Or one of our favorite sushi restaurants in the OC, they just put a pinch of salt to draw out the flavor of the fish.
Salt purifies. Salt preserves. Salt influences.
That is what Christians ought to be. They are to be a purifying, preserving, and good influence to others.
But if the salt has lost its saltiness, how will it be salty again?
“Salt is good, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is of no use either for the soil or for the manure pile. It is thrown away. He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”
Saltless salt is useless. Its an oxymoron.
Burger King has a new burger called the impossible whopper. It is a burger made without meat. I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to eat a meatless burger. I want a burger with real meat! It is an oxymoron to speak of a meatless burger.
Burger King has a meatless burger. It’s call the impossible burger. It is a burger made without meat.
Don’t be a saltless Christian. Don’t be a meatless Christian. Don’t be a Christian without light.
The Gospel of Mark 9. The Demanding Requirements of Discipleship. Ch. 9:43–50
The maxim that “the world cannot survive without salt” (Tractate Sopherim XV. 8) is a vivid reminder that salt was a necessity of life in the ancient world because it preserved food from putrefaction.
The New International Greek Testament Commentary: The Gospel of Mark Further Sayings on Discipleship (9:42–50)
In this context it speaks of one who follows Jesus as totally dedicated to God’s service, and warns that such dedication will inevitably be costly in terms of personal suffering.
A Christian who has no salt may not be a Christian.
The Pillar New Testament Commentary: The Gospel according to Mark Discipleship: Counting the Cost (9:42–50)
Both masochism and bodily mutilation (with the exception of circumcision) were strictly taboo in Judaism (Deut 14:1; 23:1; 1 Kgs 18:28; Zech 13:6).
The Pillar New Testament Commentary: The Gospel according to Mark Discipleship: Counting the Cost (9:42–50)
The metaphors of eyes, hands, and feet are all-inclusive of what we view, what we do, where we go.
The Pillar New Testament Commentary: The Gospel according to Mark Discipleship: Counting the Cost (9:42–50)
In a world without refrigeration, salt preserves foods, and especially meat, from putrefying. Christians, similarly, are a preservative in society, apart from which society will become rotten.
The Pillar New Testament Commentary: The Gospel according to Mark Discipleship: Counting the Cost (9:42–50)
In the present context fire and salt appear to be symbols of the trials and costs of discipleship. Discipleship to Jesus lays a total claim on one’s life; in the language of sacrifice, it must be totally consuming or it is worthless.
Wuest’s Word Studies in the Greek New Testament Chapter Nine
The word “maimed” is kullon (κυλλον), used in classical Greek of one who has a crushed or crippled limb.
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.”
Word Pictures in the New Testament Mark 9:43
The Valley of Hinnom had been desecrated by the sacrifice of children to Moloch so that as an accursed place it was used for the city garbage where worms gnawed and fires burned. It is thus a vivid picture of eternal punishment.
The large millstone (mylos onikos, lit., “donkey millstone”) was a heavy, flat stone turned by a donkey when it was grinding grain; this differed from the small hand mill (mylos) used by women (Matt. 24:41)
You will take sin seriously if you take Hell seriously.
Have Salt in Yourselves and Be At Peace with One Another.
The Bible Exposition Commentary Chapter Seven: The Servant’s Secrets (Mark 8:27–9:50)
What He is teaching is that sin is to the inner person what a cancerous tumor is to the body, and it must be dealt with drastically.
These are two commands given. The disciples were bickering and fighting with one another because of their pride and selfish ambition. They were proud and critical of others who were not part of their clique. They were selfish and self-serving.
Jesus says, no one is going to be won by that type of behavior. The world lives like that, and you are my disciples and you are to live differently.
Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person.
Preaching the Word: Mark—Jesus, Servant and Savior Living in Holiness (vv. 43-48)
The hand, foot, and eye encompass the totality of life. The hand symbolizes what we do, the foot where we go, and the eye what we see. His logic is impeccable and compelling. It is better to clean up your fleeting life here through some healthy self-denial, than go bearing your sins to an unending Gehenna, an eternal, smoking rubbish heap where the worms eternally gorge themselves on the refuse of your life. Any sacrifice, any discipline, any self-denial is worth it!
Live in harmony with one another. Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly. Never be wise in your own sight. Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all. If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.
Live in harmony with one another. Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly. Never be wise in your own sight.
Live in harmony with one another. Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly. Never be wise in your own sight. Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all. If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.”
And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful.
Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful.
Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. On account of these the wrath of God is coming. In these you too once walked, when you were living in them. But now you must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth.
Pride and selfish ambition will cause division and fights in the church while love and humility will create unity and harmony in the church. Which church do you want to be part of?
Pursue reconciliation. Don’t let bitterness or sin interfere with your worship of God. Especially as we observe communion, reconcile with your brother or sister if you have something against one another.
We ask you, brothers, to respect those who labor among you and are over you in the Lord and admonish you, and to esteem them very highly in love because of their work. Be at peace among yourselves.
1 Thessalonians
The Church is to be a holy and preserving influence in society if we obey the commands of Jesus.
Summary:
Take sin seriously.
Take sin seriously because Hell is real.
The strategy to fight sin is to cut out anything or anyone in your life that might cause you to sin and stumble or keeping your eyes fixed on Christ.
Live separately from sin because you are no longer under the dominion of sin, but under the reign of grace.
Conclusion:
If there is one resolution to make this year that is time tested, it is this:
“The watchman who keeps silent when he sees a fire is guilty of gross neglect. The doctor who tells us we are getting well when we are dying is a false friend, and the minister who keeps back hell from his people in his sermons is neither a faithful nor a charitable man” (J. C. Ryle).645
Resolve to kill sin in your life, because Jesus died for your sin and was raised to give you new life, so that you would not have to go to Hell, but experience eternal joy with Him as one of God’s chosen and holy people.
Hell is not separation from God. Hell is separation from the mercy and grace of God, but not separation from his active judgment and wrath.
Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit.
If anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned.
Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit.
If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples.
Conclusion:
“Sin will not only be striving, acting, rebelling, troubling, disquieting; but, if let alone, if not continually mortified, it will bring forth great, cursed, scandalous, soul-destroying sins.”
“The vigour, and power, and comfort of our spiritual life depend on the mortification of the deeds of the flesh” John Owen
They built the high places of Baal in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, to offer up their sons and daughters to Molech, though I did not command them, nor did it enter into my mind, that they should do this abomination, to cause Judah to sin.
Take sin seriously because Hell is serious. Be separate from sin because that is what Jesus came to do for you.
2 Kings 6
And he burned his son as an offering and used fortune-telling and omens and dealt with mediums and with necromancers. He did much evil in the sight of the Lord, provoking him to anger.
By causing our hearts to abound in grace, and the fruits that are contrary to the felsh and the fruits thereof, and to the principles of them.
And he defiled Topheth, which is in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, that no one might burn his son or his daughter as an offering to Molech.
By a real, physical efficiency on the root and habit of sin, for the weakening, destroying and taking it away.
He brings the cross of Christ into the heart of a sinner by faith, and gives us communion with Christ, in his death, and fellowship in his sufferings
and the devil who had deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur where the beast and the false prophet were, and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.