B-Side - Mark 9:38-50
Mark 9:38-50...
The King James version of the Bible includes a couple of extra verses in this passage (44 and 46) which have since been discovered to have been added later, missing from original manuscripts. These have not made the cut in newer translations.
John is upset that the man casting out demons is not with them... Jesus says not to stop him. He looks at the man's fruit and sees that if he isn't already, he'll soon be a convert. 1 Cor 12:3
Jesus openly calls himself the Christ here. Serve his people and you will be rewarded.
v42-48 is heavy... anyone who misrepresents Christ, causes a little one to stumble, is to come under the wrath of God. We are to be a servant of all, not manipulate or abuse, or tempt them to sin.
v42, the millstone verse... 1 Clement 46... there was a schism. Why rebel against our own body of Christ? We are members of one another! Clement was a friend of Paul, and a bishop of Rome. Better to drown yourself than to rip apart God's church!
v43-48... cut off your sinful member... in other words, deal with your sin seriously! Don't literally cut off your foot.
Gehenna was a place of human sacrifice, then it became a trash dump. Its fires smelled awful, a combination of burning trash and feces... the fires of hell are likened to it. We must love people enough to be uncomfortable telling them of the dangers of hell!
Whatever causes you to sin, remove it from your life. Ask yourself: am I, in my sin, leading my loved ones into the same sin? Our personal sin spills over into others!
You can hold onto your sin, that's an option. But in the end, you will be thrown into hell.
v49-50... our passage ends with salt.
1. Salt is good; we should remain salty! We should live as a living sacrifice unto God. This will keep us at peace with one another. How do we know if we're salty? Our love for one another. We will serve one another!
2. How can salt lose its saltiness? The salt of the Dead Sea could lose it sodium over time, and become less salty to taste.
3. Jesus talks about removing an arm, a leg, an eye. In Leviticus 8, Aaron and sons were consecrated as priests with blood from a salted sacrifice, and touched the blood of the sacrifice to the head, hand and foot. Jesus says it would be better to lose your eyes (form the head), your hand, and your foot, than to go to hell. He's calling for total devotion! Live a life of salted fire. He's calling his disciples into a perpetual priesthood, like the Levites... we are a Kingdom of priests!