Mar 9:43-47 | KingComments | STEP | In this section the Lord speaks of the opposite of what He has just said. We are to our brothers and sisters a refreshment or a stumbling block. Think of the young people in a church who look at the behavior of the elders. If they leave the church because of that, it’s a serious matter. Instead of wanting to resemble a small child ( ) and thus magnify the Lord Jesus, there are people who want to tempt these little ones to forget their smallness and seek their own importance. Someone who wants to cause disciples of the Lord to think great of themselves, thus dishonoring Him, awaits a terrible judgment. In the following verses He works this out for His disciples. He gives an impressive description of eternal destruction. No evangelist does this in such a poignant way as Mark. The warning for people who want to make others stumble in their life of faith now goes, through the use of the word “your”, in the direction of the disciple. Every disciple must see to it that he or she does not fall. I must be aware that my hand can be a cause for a fall. By doing something that is not done by order of the Lord, the fall is a fact. Everything that does not happen in dependence on Him is sin. Therefore, the inclination to do a certain wrong deed must be condemned immediately, no matter what it costs. It is better for me not to do the coveted thing and think that I am missing something on earth because of it, but through it I am going into life, than to do something that will cause me to spend eternity in the unquenchable fire with remorse. The Greek word for hell, gehenna , appears twelve times in the New Testament. Literally translated, it is ‘the valley of Hinnom’. This valley was originally consecrated to the idolatry of Moloch ( ; ), in which children were sacrificed. After the exile, the Jews were so disgusted with this place that they turned it into a dumpsite for all Jerusalem’s garbage. In this place, just outside the city, the fire burned constantly and maggots did their incessant work. That place was known as Gehenna. This word becomes on the Lord’s lips the terrible and at the same time appropriate picture of the abode of the lost. Hell will truly be the great garbage heap of eternity, where all that is incorrigibly evil will be separated from good and forever under the judgment of God. This terrible fact comes from the mouth of Him Who loves sinful people and weeps over them. This section is not about the possibility that a believer might still perish. A believer cannot possibly perish ( ). It is about those who have a Christian confession and the responsibility that such a confession entails. The true Christian, the believer, would rather cut off his hand than do something that is sin. The false Christian, the unbeliever, will be seduced into doing acts that will lead him into the eternal fire. The Lord speaks to the whole company of confessors of His Name. The warning comes to all. Paul has taken this warning seriously and applied it to himself ( ). It is about things that are traps in our lives, it is about wrong things we do, or wrong places we are or are going, or wrong things we see. They are things that we can prevent by self-judgment. If we believe that we have strength in ourselves to stay free from them, we will certainly fall. What applies to the hand also applies to the foot. Not only do we have to watch out for a wrong deed because of the terrible consequences it can have, we also have to watch out that we don’t put our foot on a path of sin. Here, too, we must judge ourselves if we tend to take a path of which we know that the Lord does not lead us down that path. It is about entering into life, where every loss is fully compensated and made good. Finally, the Lord speaks of a third part of the body, the eye. Through the eye, sin has come into the world. Covetousness begins with seeing. This leads to a wrong path (foot) and to a wrong deed (hand). The eye is the most dangerous part of the body. It leads the most quickly to sin. That is why we have to be careful what we see, what we focus our eye on. Any tendency to look at something that leads us to sin must be radically condemned. It is about entering the kingdom of God or being thrown into hell. The Lord leaves no doubt that the judgment of hell is eternal. Eternal pain will be exacerbated by the eternal remorse for the deliberately wrong choice that has been made. A temporary enjoyment of sin has been chosen, and with it eternal life has been forfeited.

‏ Mark 9:43-47

Seduction to Sin

In this section the Lord speaks of the opposite of what He has just said. We are to our brothers and sisters a refreshment or a stumbling block. Think of the young people in a church who look at the behavior of the elders. If they leave the church because of that, it’s a serious matter. Instead of wanting to resemble a small child (Mk 9:36-37) and thus magnify the Lord Jesus, there are people who want to tempt these little ones to forget their smallness and seek their own importance. Someone who wants to cause disciples of the Lord to think great of themselves, thus dishonoring Him, awaits a terrible judgment.

In the following verses He works this out for His disciples. He gives an impressive description of eternal destruction. No evangelist does this in such a poignant way as Mark.

The warning for people who want to make others stumble in their life of faith now goes, through the use of the word “your”, in the direction of the disciple. Every disciple must see to it that he or she does not fall. I must be aware that my hand can be a cause for a fall. By doing something that is not done by order of the Lord, the fall is a fact.

Everything that does not happen in dependence on Him is sin. Therefore, the inclination to do a certain wrong deed must be condemned immediately, no matter what it costs. It is better for me not to do the coveted thing and think that I am missing something on earth because of it, but through it I am going into life, than to do something that will cause me to spend eternity in the unquenchable fire with remorse.

The Greek word for hell, gehenna, appears twelve times in the New Testament. Literally translated, it is ‘the valley of Hinnom’. This valley was originally consecrated to the idolatry of Moloch (2Kgs 16:3; 2Chr 28:3), in which children were sacrificed. After the exile, the Jews were so disgusted with this place that they turned it into a dumpsite for all Jerusalem’s garbage. In this place, just outside the city, the fire burned constantly and maggots did their incessant work. That place was known as Gehenna.

This word becomes on the Lord’s lips the terrible and at the same time appropriate picture of the abode of the lost. Hell will truly be the great garbage heap of eternity, where all that is incorrigibly evil will be separated from good and forever under the judgment of God. This terrible fact comes from the mouth of Him Who loves sinful people and weeps over them.

This section is not about the possibility that a believer might still perish. A believer cannot possibly perish (Jn 10:28-29). It is about those who have a Christian confession and the responsibility that such a confession entails. The true Christian, the believer, would rather cut off his hand than do something that is sin. The false Christian, the unbeliever, will be seduced into doing acts that will lead him into the eternal fire. The Lord speaks to the whole company of confessors of His Name. The warning comes to all. Paul has taken this warning seriously and applied it to himself (1Cor 9:27).

It is about things that are traps in our lives, it is about wrong things we do, or wrong places we are or are going, or wrong things we see. They are things that we can prevent by self-judgment. If we believe that we have strength in ourselves to stay free from them, we will certainly fall.

What applies to the hand also applies to the foot. Not only do we have to watch out for a wrong deed because of the terrible consequences it can have, we also have to watch out that we don’t put our foot on a path of sin. Here, too, we must judge ourselves if we tend to take a path of which we know that the Lord does not lead us down that path. It is about entering into life, where every loss is fully compensated and made good.

Finally, the Lord speaks of a third part of the body, the eye. Through the eye, sin has come into the world. Covetousness begins with seeing. This leads to a wrong path (foot) and to a wrong deed (hand). The eye is the most dangerous part of the body. It leads the most quickly to sin. That is why we have to be careful what we see, what we focus our eye on. Any tendency to look at something that leads us to sin must be radically condemned. It is about entering the kingdom of God or being thrown into hell.

The Lord leaves no doubt that the judgment of hell is eternal. Eternal pain will be exacerbated by the eternal remorse for the deliberately wrong choice that has been made. A temporary enjoyment of sin has been chosen, and with it eternal life has been forfeited.