Read Mark 9:43-48
Wow 😯 Did Jesus Really Just Say That?Â
Today, Jesus is addressing what to do if our flesh causes us to stumble.
Jesus makes some crazy claims. I’m not sure if he’s using a hyperbole or a rhetorical overstatement but his intention is to exaggerate a point in order to emphasize the seriousness of his statement. For example, Jesus says, if your hand causes you to sin, cut it off! 😯 If your foot causes you to sin, cut it off! 😯 If your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out. 😯
Why??? Jesus says because it is better to enter life or enter the kingdom of God with only one arm, or one foot, or one eye, than to enter hell with all body parts intact where the fire never goes out.
When a person says, “I’m so hungry, I could eat a horse.” This is a rhetorical overstatement because they are not literally going to eat a horse for supper. The person is trying to make a point, and the point is, “They are really hungry!”
So if your hand, foot, or eye was removed for causing you to stumble, it wouldn’t really take care of the sin problem. Sin actually comes from one’s heart attitude. You could remove all kinds of body parts, but it would never take care of the sin problem because sin comes from the heart.
So Jesus’s challenge isn’t for us to literally remove body parts but to see how important it is to repent from sin because it’s the sin that has eternal consequences. Plus, he captures our attention when he says, it’s better to enter the kingdom of God without body parts than to enter hell with your body fully intact. Again, it’s not to be taken literally that we will enter Heaven with missing body parts but it’s a rhetorical overstatement in order to capture our attention on how important it is for us to realize how HELL is a horrible place to be spending eternity. Therefore, let’s stay focused on Christ and quit living in the flesh. REPENT of your sins! This statement should make our jaws drop and our eyes open wide because we see how important it is to live in the Spirit and not in the Flesh (not in sin).
Where do you struggle with sin? Sin can sometimes be captivating! It can be attractive, for a season, or exciting! But it’s always destructive to the soul with horrible consequences if left unchallenged, or left unrepented from. Let’s get our lives in spiritual order today and quit looking at sin as just an occasional fun event. This is serious, very serious, I mean like fire hell serious. Let the Holy Spirit, and even the church, help you get victory over sin.
