SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 8/29/2012 7:24:51 AM
My Worship Time Focus: Service Leads to Honor
Bible Reading &
Meditation Reference: Mark 9:41-50
Message of the verses: In Today’s SD we will attempt to look at the
last section of Mark chapter nine. It is
a difficult passage to understand, and there are even parts of it that were
probably not in the original text, which makes it even more difficult to
understand. There are a number of places
in the NT where there seems to be things added after the original text was
written, and they were later added to the text, in the most part, to help
understand the text better, although that is not the case in all the
additions. When we get to the last
chapter of the book of Mark there is a section there that was added on, a large
section that was added onto the text, however we will wait until we get there
to comment on it.
We ended
yesterday’s SD with these words: “In
tomorrow’s SD we will learn that Jesus did not treat the statement made by John
lightly, but in fact, He goes on to explain the danger of causing others to
stumble, and this will cause them to stop serving the Lord.”
Service Leads to Honor Part Two (Mark
9:41-50): “41 ¶ "For whoever
gives you a cup of water to drink because of your name as followers of Christ,
truly I say to you, he will not lose his reward. 42 "Whoever causes one of these little ones
who believe to stumble, it would be better for him if, with a heavy millstone
hung around his neck, he had been cast into the sea. 43 "If your hand causes you to stumble, cut
it off; it is better for you to enter life crippled, than, having your two
hands, to go into hell, into the unquenchable fire, 44 [[where THEIR WORM DOES NOT DIE, AND THE FIRE
IS NOT QUENCHED.]] 45 "If your foot
causes you to stumble, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life lame,
than, having your two feet, to be cast into hell, 46 [[where THEIR WORM DOES NOT DIE, AND THE FIRE
IS NOT QUENCHED.]] 47 "If your eye
causes you to stumble, throw it out; it is better for you to enter the kingdom
of God with one eye, than, having two eyes, to be cast 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 becomes unsalty, with what will you make it salty
again? Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with one another.’”
Verses 44
and 46 are not in the original text and that is why the NASB put brackets
around them. We do see in verse 48 the
same words, and these are in the original text.
Jesus’
statement to the disciples is very serious as He talks to them about how they
are to treat others who are believers, something that is seen in John’s
statement that he was not doing. We know
that the disciples did have disputes with each other and did not always get
along. It is good to remember that Jesus
would use these twelve men to turn the world upside down and so He wanted them
to get along in order to show a good example to those whom they would be used
to lead to the Lord. Jesus is speaking
about hell in this section, and He is speaking about getting along, along with
believers not tempting others to do wrong.
Paul speaks about this in several of his letters stating that it was his
great desire not to cause anyone to stumble.
Jesus shows us the importance of this statement in this section. The word millstone, according to John
MacArthur is a Hebrew word meaning “Mule Stone,” and we get this word from the
mules who pulled a large stone around in a circle in order to process grain,
and perhaps even olive oil.
Dr. Wiersbe
writes the following in part of his commentary on this section: The solemn message about hell carries a
warning to all of us to deal drastically with sin. Whatever in our lives makes us stumble, and
therefore causes others to stumble, must be removed as if by surgery. The hand, foot, and eye would be considered
valuable parts of the body, yet they must be removed if they are causing
sin. Of course, the Lord is not
commanding literal physical surgery, since He had already made it clear that sin
comes from the heart (Mark 7:20-23).
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.”
I mentioned
that verses 44 and 46 are not in the original text, and verse 48 is, but did
not mention that this is a quote from Isaiah 66:24, “’Then they will go forth
and look On the corpses of the men Who have transgressed against Me. For their
worm will not die And their fire will not be quenched; And they will be an
abhorrence to all mankind.’” Interestingly
enough this is the very last verse in the book of Isaiah, and this verse is
speaking about hell. Jesus speaks of
hell in this section and some are surprised about that, but hell is a real
place and a permanent place where those who have not accepted the forgiveness
offered to them by God through the Lord Jesus Christ. In Isaiah’s day the people were looking
forward to the Messiah in order to have their sins cared for by Him, and we
look back at that event in order to place our trust in the finished work that Christ
accomplished for us on the cross.
Dr. Wiersbe
continues his commentary, “But isn’t that too great a sacrifice to ask from us?’ Some might argue. ‘To deal that drastically
with sin would cost us too much!’ In
Mark 9:49-50, Jesus used the concept of ‘living sacrifices’ to illustrate His
point (see Rom. 12:1-2). The sacrifice
ends up on the altar and is consumed by the fire. Would you rather endure the fires of hell as
a lost sinner or the purifying fires of God as a sacrifice for His glory? Remember, Satan promises you glory now, but
the pain comes later. Jesus calls us to
suffering now, and then we will enjoy the glory.”
The word “hell”
is gehenna, and it comes from a
Hebrew phrase “the valley of [ge] of
Hinnon.” This refers to a valley
outside of Jerusalem where the evil king Ahaz worshipped Molech, who was the
fire god and this is where human baby sacrifices were made to this god.
A few words
about salt: Salt was put onto the
sacrifices that were offered to the Lord and salt speaks of purity and also
preservation. It was also used in OT
days in the establishing of covenants.
The disciples were God’s salt as seen in Matthew 5:13, however they were
in danger in losing their saltiness. The
disciples should not have been rebuking others but examining their own hearts
so that they could be more useful to the Lord.
Dr. Wiersbe
finishes his commentary by writing: “The
three lessons Jesus taught in this section are basic to Christian living
today. If we are yielded to Him, then
suffering will lead to glory, faith will produce power, and our sacrificial
services will lead to honor. In spite of
his impetuousness and occasional mistakes, Peter got the message and wrote: ‘But the God of all grace, who hath called us
unto His eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after you have suffered awhile, make
you perfect, establish, strengthen, settle you.
To Him be glory and dominion forever and ever’ (1Peter 5:10).”
Spiritual meaning for my life today: Be salt in a world that needs it. Do not cause anyone to stumble. This is a difficult lesson to write about and
even more difficult to practice, but it is important to do both.
My Steps of Faith for
Today: Trust the Lord to help me
practice the things that I have learned in this section of Scripture.
8/29/2012 8:30:48 AM
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