ON YOUR MARK: WEEK 9 DAY 4

Mark 9:42-50

Temptations to Sin

42 “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. 43 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. 45 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. 47 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,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 has lost its saltiness, how will you make it salty again? Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with one another.”

Sometimes we excuse sin because we believe the lie from Satan that if it's a personal issue, that won’t hurt anybody else, then is it really a big deal? This way of thinking is far from the truth. Unrepentant sin hurts ourselves and others. We are answerable to God for our actions, and the hurt, intended or otherwise, that we cause others. Jesus uses hyperbole here to get our attention. Whatever causes you to sin is not worth keeping. If you can’t avoid looking at pornography on your smartphone, get an old school model, no matter how useful it is for other things. If you can’t avoid going into debt, get rid of your credit cards or credit line. Jesus isn’t calling for the removal of simply bad things, He is saying even if something is useful and good at its core (like a hand, foot, or eye), but it causes you to sin, it needs to go.

Discipline is uncomfortable, but it spares us so much greater pain in the end. What is God asking you to remove from your life?