Mark 9:41-48 “I tell you the truth, anyone who gives you a cup of water in my name because you belong to Christ will certainly not lose his reward.”42 "And if anyone causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to be thrown into the sea with a large millstone tied around his neck. 43 If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life maimed than with two hands to go into hell, where the fire never goes out. 45 And if your foot causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life crippled than to have two feet and be thrown into hell. 47 And if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into hell, 48 where "'their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched.'”
What kind of influence do you have on people? Jesus declares a stern warning to all men in this passage. Many times correction and warning are most readily received if they are intertwined with positive encouragements that temper the more challenging topics that must be addressed. It is in this tone that Jesus identifies two responses to our relationship with believers. Do we serve them because of their association with Christ, knowing that to serve them is to serve Christ? Or do we cause them to sin through the influence of our own unconquered flesh?
It is an all too common condition amongst believers to see one person draw another more righteous believer into sin because their own sinfulness is being confronted by the purity of the other person’s life! This and many other expressions of the principle that Jesus is addressing are all committed to the great harm of both the one defiled and the one who leads them astray.
Jesus’ illustration of the little child who believes is a picture of the innocence found in those who are pure of heart. And it is this innocence that is wounded when we draw someone else into our sinfulness either intentionally or even unintentionally. To this Jesus speaks with great warning and seemingly sorrow. Other passages make it clear that our God takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked and yet Jesus speaks strongly that it would have been better for a person to be cast into deep waters with a millstone around their neck than for them to have a negative influence on one who is pure in heart.
Jesus does not stop with this temporal warning either! Our Lord continues on to warn of the fires of hell that await those who contribute to the defilement of one who is pure in heart. The Lord’s counsel is an aggressive pursuit of correcting the sinful nature of our hearts. If our hand offends, cut it off. If our eye offends, pluck it out. And so on, and so on. What firm words of warning that end with the sobering statement in Mark 9:47-48 “It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into hell, 48 where "'their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched.'”
At the heart of this message is a call to accountability. When we stand before the judgment seat of Christ we will have no one to blame but ourselves. Here and now, in this life, the warning has come with great strength and absolute clarity. We are accountable to God for our choices and our actions. We are accountable to God for what we allow to remain in our own lives and for the negative influences we have on others due to these unrepentant areas in our lives. Jesus calls us to deal radically with sin!
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