“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.” (Mark 9:42 ESV)
It is bad enough when anyone of us sins against the Lord and against other humans, but it is far worse if we are guilty of leading others into sin. And this can happen in more than one way. And the most obvious way is by us directly encouraging and pushing and persuading others to deliberately sin against the Lord and against other humans. Yet this can come through manipulation and deceptive means of persuasion and by trickery and not always by a direct challenge to someone to go ahead and to sin.
But yet another way in which we can be guilty of persuading others to sin against the Lord is if we lie to them, and if we teach them a false gospel message which tells them that a profession of faith in Jesus Christ, regardless of how they live, secures for them forgiveness of all sins (past, present, and future), and heaven as their eternal destiny, and that nothing can take that away from them, not even if they continue in deliberate and habitual sin against the Lord in direct defiance to his commands.
For Jesus said that if anyone would come after him, we must deny self, take up our cross daily (die daily to sin) and follow (obey) him. For if we hold on to our old lives of living in sin and for self, we will lose them for eternity. But if for Jesus’ sake we deny self, die daily to sin, and follow him in obedience to his commands, in practice, then we have the hope of eternal life. For not everyone who calls Jesus “Lord” will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the ones DOING (obeying) the will of God (Luke 9:23-26; Matthew 7:21-23).
“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 9:43-48 ESV)
Now, this may seem a little drastic to many people, but honestly, if doing what is taught here actually does stop someone from sinning deliberately and habitually, and thus saves his soul from hell, it would be better for him (or her) to go through life without a hand or a foot or an eye than to spend eternity in the raging fires of hell and in eternal punishment. But this alone is not going to persuade anyone to stop sinning against the Lord if their minds and hearts are still set on the world and the flesh and not on God.
So, I tend to take this passage of Scripture more figuratively and less literally when it comes to the subject of cutting off hands and feet and of gouging out eyes in a literal and a physical sense. For I see our hands as representing our deeds (actions, behaviors), and our feet as representing our walks (our conduct, our practices, our lifestyles), and our eyes as symbolizing our judgment and discernment, which I believe also parallels with most of the teachings in the New Testament on the subject of sin.
For we read in the Scriptures that the grace of God, which is bringing us salvation, is training (instructing) us to renounce (say “No!” to) ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives while we wait for our Lord’s return. For Jesus Christ gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works, the works God prepared in advance that we should walk in them (Titus 2:11-14; Ephesians 2:8-10).
And we read that the way in which we should have learned Christ, which is the truth that is in Christ Jesus, is that we are to “put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness” (Ephesians 4:20-24). And this parallels what Paul taught also in Romans 6:1-23 that we must die to sin if we want the hope of eternal life with God.
For there he told us that by faith in Jesus Christ we are crucified with Christ in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we will no longer be enslaved to sin. So, we are not to let sin continue to reign in our mortal bodies, to make us obey its passions and desires. For if sin is what we obey, it leads to death, but if obedience to our Lord and to his commands (New Covenant) is what we obey, it leads to righteousness and to sanctification, and its end is eternal life with Christ Jesus (Romans 6:1-23).
“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. Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator.” (Colossians 3:5-10 ESV)
Seek the Lord
An Original Work / July 20, 2012
Based off Isaiah 55
“Come to Me all you who thirst; come to waters.
Listen to Me, and eat what’s good today,
And your soul will delight in richest of fare.
Give ear to Me, and you will live.
I have made an eternal covenant with you.
Wash in the blood of the Lamb.”
Seek the Lord while He may be found; call on Him.
Let the wicked forsake his way, in truth.
Let him turn to the Lord, and he will receive mercy.
Freely, God pardons him.
“For My thoughts are not your thoughts,
Nor are your ways My ways,”
declares the Lord, our God.
“My word that goes out of My mouth is truthful.
It will not return to Me unfulfilled.
My word will accomplish all that I desire,
And achieve the goal I intend.
You will go in joy and be led forth in peace.
The mountains will burst into song… before you,
And all of the trees clap their hands.”
https://vimeo.com/379408296
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