Whoever will cause one of these little ones who believe in me to stumble, it would be better for him if he were thrown into the sea with a millstone hung around his neck. If your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off. It is better for you to enter into life maimed, rather than having your two hands to go into Gehenna, into the unquenchable fire, ‘where their worm doesn’t die, and the fire is not quenched.’ If your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off. It is better for you to enter into life lame, rather than having your two feet to be cast into Gehenna, into the fire that will never be quenched— ‘where their worm doesn’t die, and the fire is not quenched.’ If your eye causes you to stumble, cast it out. It is better for you to enter into God’s Kingdom with one eye, rather than having two eyes to be cast into the Gehenna of fire, ‘where their worm doesn’t die, and the fire is not quenched.’ For everyone will be salted with fire, and every sacrifice will be seasoned with salt. Salt is good, but if the salt has lost its saltiness, with what will you season it? Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with one another.”
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But Jesus said, “Don’t forbid him, for there is no one who will do a mighty work in my name, and be able quickly to speak evil of me. For whoever is not against us is on our side. For whoever will give you a cup of water to drink in my name, because you are Christ’s, most certainly I tell you, he will in no way lose his reward. Whoever will cause one of these little ones who believe in me to stumble, it would be better for him if he were thrown into the sea with a millstone hung around his neck. If your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off. It is better for you to enter into life maimed, rather than having your two hands to go into Gehenna, into the unquenchable fire, ‘where their worm doesn’t die, and the fire is not quenched.’ If your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off. It is better for you to enter into life lame, rather than having your two feet to be cast into Gehenna, into the fire that will never be quenched— ‘where their worm doesn’t die, and the fire is not quenched.’ If your eye causes you to stumble, cast it out. It is better for you to enter into God’s Kingdom with one eye, rather than having two eyes to be cast into the Gehenna of fire, ‘where their worm doesn’t die, and the fire is not quenched.’ For everyone will be salted with fire, and every sacrifice will be seasoned with salt. Salt is good, but if the salt has lost its saltiness, with what will you season it? Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with one another.”
Parallel Translations
-
Whoever will cause one of these little ones who believe in me to stumble, it would be better for him if he were thrown into the sea with a millstone hung around his neck.
If your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off. It is better for you to enter into life maimed, rather than having your two hands to go into Gehenna, into the unquenchable fire,
‘where their worm doesn’t die, and the fire is not quenched.’
If your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off. It is better for you to enter into life lame, rather than having your two feet to be cast into Gehenna, into the fire that will never be quenched—
‘where their worm doesn’t die, and the fire is not quenched.’
If your eye causes you to stumble, cast it out. It is better for you to enter into God’s Kingdom with one eye, rather than having two eyes to be cast into the Gehenna of fire,
‘where their worm doesn’t die, and the fire is not quenched.’
For everyone will be salted with fire, and every sacrifice will be seasoned with salt.
Salt is good, but if the salt has lost its saltiness, with what will you season it? Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with one another.”
-
And whosoever shall offende one of these lytelons that beleve in me it were better for him that a mylstone were hanged aboute his necke and that he he were cast into the see:
wherfore yf thy hande offende the cut him of. It is better for the to entre into lyffe maymed then havynge two hondes goo into hell into fire that never shalbe quenched
where there worme dyeth not and the fyre never goeth oute.
Lykewyse yf thy fote offende the cut him of. For it is better for the to goo halt into lyfe then havynge two fete to be cast into hell into fyre that never shalbe quenched:
where there worme dyeth not and the fyre never goeth oute.
Even so yf thyne eye offende the plucke him oute. It is better for the to goo into the kyngdom of god with one eye then havynge two eyes to be caste into hell fyre:
where there worme dyeth not and the fyre never goeth oute.
Every man therfore shalbe salted with fyre: And every sacrifise shalbe seasoned with salt.
Salt is good. But yf the salt be vnsavery: what shall the salte therwith? Se that ye have salt in youre selves: and have peace amonge youre selves one with another.
Show all 3 translations
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And whosoeuer shall offend one of these litle ones, that beleeue in me, it were better for him rather, that a milstone were hanged about his necke, and that he were cast into the sea.
Wherefore, if thine hand cause thee to offend, cut it off: it is better for thee to enter into life, maimed, then hauing two hands, to goe into hell, into the fire that neuer shalbe quenched,
Where their worme dyeth not, and the fire neuer goeth out.
Likewise, if thy foote cause thee to offend, cut it off: it is better for thee to go halt into life, then hauing two feete, to be cast into hell, into the fire that neuer shalbe quenched,
Where their worme dyeth not, and the fire neuer goeth out.
And if thine eye cause thee to offende, plucke it out: it is better for thee to goe into the kingdome of God with one eye, then hauing two eyes, to be cast into hell fire,
Where their worme dyeth not, and the fire neuer goeth out.
For euery man shalbe salted with fire: and euery sacrifice shalbe salted with salt.
Salt is good: but if the salt be vnsauerie, wherewith shall it be seasoned? haue salt in your selues, and haue peace one with another.
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Cross-references (79)
- Isaiah 66:24 (v48) “They will go out, and look at the dead bodies of the men who have transgressed against me; for their worm will not die, nor will their…
- Matthew 5:29-30 (v43) If your right eye causes you to stumble, pluck it out and throw it away from you. For it is more profitable for you that one of your…
- Leviticus 2:13 (v49) Every offering of your meal offering you shall season with salt. You shall not allow the salt of the covenant of your God to be lacking…
- Colossians 4:6 (v50) Let your speech always be with grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how you ought to answer each one.
- Ezekiel 43:24 (v49) You shall bring them near to Yahweh, and the priests shall cast salt on them, and they shall offer them up for a burnt offering to Yahweh.
Show all 75 cross-references
- Matthew 18:8-9 (v43) If your hand or your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off, and cast it from you. It is better for you to enter into life maimed or…
- Matthew 18:6 (v42) but whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to stumble, it would be better for him if a huge millstone were hung around…
- Matthew 5:13 (v50) “You are the salt of the earth, but if the salt has lost its flavor, with what will it be salted? It is then good for nothing, but to be…
- Romans 12:18 (v50) If it is possible, as much as it is up to you, be at peace with all men.
- Matthew 25:41 (vv43, 48) Then he will say also to those on the left hand, ‘Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire which is prepared for the devil and his…
- Luke 17:1-2 (v42) He said to the disciples, “It is impossible that no occasions of stumbling should come, but woe to him through whom they come! It would be…
- Matthew 5:22 (vv43, 45, 47) But I tell you that everyone who is angry with his brother without a cause will be in danger of the judgment. Whoever says to his brother,…
- Matthew 18:10 (v42) See that you don’t despise one of these little ones, for I tell you that in heaven their angels always see the face of my Father who is in…
- 2 Corinthians 13:11 (v50) Finally, brothers, rejoice! Be perfected. Be comforted. Be of the same mind. Live in peace, and the God of love and peace will be with you.
- Hebrews 12:1 (v43) Therefore let’s also, seeing we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, lay aside every weight and the sin which so easily…
- Hebrews 12:14 (v50) Follow after peace with all men, and the sanctification without which no man will see the Lord,
- Matthew 18:9 (v47) If your eye causes you to stumble, pluck it out, and cast it from you. It is better for you to enter into life with one eye, rather than…
- Philippians 1:27 (v50) Only let your way of life be worthy of the Good News of Christ, that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of your state,…
- Job 6:6 (v50) Can that which has no flavor be eaten without salt? Or is there any taste in the white of an egg?
- Matthew 3:12 (v43) His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will thoroughly cleanse his threshing floor. He will gather his wheat into the barn, but the…
- Luke 14:34-35 (v50) Salt is good, but if the salt becomes flat and tasteless, with what do you season it? It is fit neither for the soil nor for the manure…
- Mark 9:43 (vv45, 47) If your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off. It is better for you to enter into life maimed, rather than having your two hands to go…
- Matthew 5:28-29 (v47) but I tell you that everyone who gazes at a woman to lust after her has committed adultery with her already in his heart. If your right eye…
- Matthew 18:8 (v45) If your hand or your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off, and cast it from you. It is better for you to enter into life maimed or…
- Mark 9:43-45 (v48) If your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off. It is better for you to enter into life maimed, rather than having your two hands to go…
- Romans 8:13 (v43) For if you live after the flesh, you must die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.
- Galatians 5:24 (v43) Those who belong to Christ have crucified the flesh with its passions and lusts.
- Ephesians 4:29 (v50) Let no corrupt speech proceed out of your mouth, but only what is good for building others up as the need may be, that it may give grace to…
- Ephesians 4:31-32 (v50) Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, outcry, and slander be put away from you, with all malice. And be kind to one another, tender hearted,…
- Philippians 3:7-8 (v47) However, I consider those things that were gain to me as a loss for Christ. Yes most certainly, and I count all things to be a loss for the…
- Colossians 3:5 (v43) Put to death therefore your members which are on the earth: sexual immorality, uncleanness, depraved passion, evil desire, and…
- 1 Thessalonians 5:13 (v50) and to respect and honor them in love for their work’s sake. Be at peace among yourselves.
- Titus 2:12 (v43) instructing us to the intent that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we would live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present age;
- Genesis 3:6 (v47) When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one…
- Job 31:1 (v47) “I made a covenant with my eyes, how then should I look lustfully at a young woman?
- Psalms 34:14 (v50) Depart from evil, and do good. Seek peace, and pursue it.
- Psalms 119:37 (v47) Turn my eyes away from looking at worthless things. Revive me in your ways.
- Matthew 10:37-39 (v47) He who loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; and he who loves son or daughter more than me isn’t worthy of me. He who…
- Mark 9:45-48 (v43) If your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off. It is better for you to enter into life lame, rather than having your two feet to be cast…
- Luke 14:13 (v43) But when you make a feast, ask the poor, the maimed, the lame, or the blind;
- Luke 14:26 (v47) “If anyone comes to me, and doesn’t disregard his own father, mother, wife, children, brothers, and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he…
- John 13:34-35 (v50) A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also love one another. By this everyone will know…
- 1 Corinthians 9:27 (v43) but I beat my body and bring it into submission, lest by any means, after I have preached to others, I myself should be rejected.
- Galatians 4:15 (v47) What was the blessing you enjoyed? For I testify to you that, if possible, you would have plucked out your eyes and given them to me.
- Galatians 5:22 (v50) But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faith,
- Ephesians 4:2-6 (v50) with all lowliness and humility, with patience, bearing with one another in love, being eager to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond…
- Philippians 2:1-3 (v50) If therefore there is any exhortation in Christ, if any consolation of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any tender mercies and…
- Colossians 3:12 (v50) Put on therefore, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, a heart of compassion, kindness, lowliness, humility, and perseverance;
- 2 Timothy 2:22 (v50) Flee from youthful lusts; but pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart.
- James 1:20 (v50) for the anger of man doesn’t produce the righteousness of God.
- James 3:14-18 (v50) But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your heart, don’t boast and don’t lie against the truth. This wisdom is not that…
- 1 Peter 2:1 (v43) Putting away therefore all wickedness, all deceit, hypocrisies, envies, and all evil speaking,
- 1 Peter 3:8 (v50) Finally, all of you be like-minded, compassionate, loving as brothers, tenderhearted, courteous,
- Deuteronomy 13:6-8 (v43) If your brother, the son of your mother, or your son, or your daughter, or the wife of your bosom, or your friend who is as your own soul,…
- Matthew 15:30-31 (v43) Great multitudes came to him, having with them the lame, blind, mute, maimed, and many others, and they put them down at his feet. He…
- Matthew 25:45-46 (v42) “Then he will answer them, saying, ‘Most certainly I tell you, because you didn’t do it to one of the least of these, you didn’t do it to…
- Mark 9:34 (v50) But they were silent, for they had disputed with one another on the way about who was the greatest.
- Luke 14:21 (v43) “That servant came, and told his lord these things. Then the master of the house, being angry, said to his servant, ‘Go out quickly into…
- John 15:17-18 (v50) “I command these things to you, that you may love one another. If the world hates you, you know that it has hated me before it hated you.
- Acts 26:11-14 (v42) Punishing them often in all the synagogues, I tried to make them blaspheme. Being exceedingly enraged against them, I persecuted them even…
- Romans 14:13 (v42) Therefore let’s not judge one another any more, but judge this rather, that no man put a stumbling block in his brother’s way, or an…
- Romans 16:17 (v42) Now I beg you, brothers, look out for those who are causing the divisions and occasions of stumbling, contrary to the doctrine which you…
- 2 Corinthians 6:3 (v42) We give no occasion of stumbling in anything, that our service may not be blamed,
- 2 Thessalonians 1:6-9 (v42) Since it is a righteous thing with God to repay affliction to those who afflict you, and to give relief to you who are afflicted with us,…
- Psalms 133:1 (v50) See how good and how pleasant it is for brothers to live together in unity!
- Acts 9:4 (v42) He fell on the earth, and heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?”
- Romans 15:21 (v42) But, as it is written, “They will see, to whom no news of him came. They who haven’t heard will understand.”
- 1 Corinthians 8:10-13 (v42) For if a man sees you who have knowledge sitting in an idol’s temple, won’t his conscience, if he is weak, be emboldened to eat things…
- 2 Peter 2:2 (v42) Many will follow their immoral ways, and as a result, the way of the truth will be maligned.
- 1 Corinthians 10:32-33 (v42) Give no occasion for stumbling, whether to Jews, or to Greeks, or to the assembly of God; even as I also please all men in all things, not…
- Galatians 5:14-15 (v50) For the whole law is fulfilled in one word, in this: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” But if you bite and devour one another, be…
- Philippians 1:10 (v42) so that you may approve the things that are excellent, that you may be sincere and without offense to the day of Christ,
- 1 Timothy 5:14 (v42) I desire therefore that the younger widows marry, bear children, rule the household, and give no occasion to the adversary for insulting.
- Revelation 6:9-10 (v42) When he opened the fifth seal, I saw underneath the altar the souls of those who had been killed for the Word of God, and for the testimony…
- Revelation 16:6-7 (v42) For they poured out the blood of saints and prophets, and you have given them blood to drink. They deserve this.” I heard the altar saying,…
75 distinct cross-references across this passage (79 total citations).
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this passage (23 sources)
Historical commentary, presented as a primary source — not an endorsement.
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Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv42, 44, 49 God is so severe a revenger of offenses, that…
God is so severe a revenger of offenses, that it is better to suffer any loss, than to be an occasion of offense unto any.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv42–50 42 And whosoever shall offend one of these little…
42 And whosoever shall offend one of these little ones that believe in me, it is better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and he were cast into the sea.
Ver. 42. {See Trapp on "Mat 18:6"}
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He shall not rose his reward] For his cup of cold water he shall have a torrent of pleasure. If therefore ye will be wise merchants, happy usurers, part with that which ye cannot keep, that ye may gain that which ye cannot lose.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv42, 43, 49, 50 See Poole on "Mat 18:6".
See Poole on "Mat 18:6".
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
William Burkitt 1703 · Public Domain On vv43, 49, 50 In the former verse our Saviour dissuaded from the…
In the former verse our Saviour dissuaded from the sin of scandal, or giving offence to the serious and sincere Christians, threatening a very grievous judgment against such as should any ways offend them; now in these six verses he prescribes a remedy against that and all other sins, namely, by avoiding all occasions that lead to sin.
Here observe, 1. The admonition or warning given by Christ unto us, to remove far from us all occasion of sin, though ever so dear unto us. We are not to understand the command literally as if it was our duty to maim our bodily members; but metaphorically to cut off all occasions that may betray us into sin.
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Hence note, That as sin may be avoided, it is our duty to avoid whatever leads unto it, or may be the instrument and occasion of it.
Observe, 2. A reason enforcing the admonition: this is drawn from the benefit and advantage that will come by cutting off such occasions of sin. It will further us in our attainment of eternal life, and prevent our being cast into hell-fire. Now our Saviour affirms, that it is better for a man to enter into life with the loss of all those things that are dear and precious to him in this world, rather than to go into hell with the fruition and enjoyment of them.
Learn hence, That a diligent and daily care to avoid sin, and all occasions that lead unto it, will be a special means to escape the torments of hell, and further us in our attainments of heaven and eternal life.
Observe, 3. The description which our Saviour gives of the torments of hell;
First, by its extremity; it is like a gnawing worm, and a consuming fire.
Secondly, and by its eternity, a worm that never dieth, and a fire that is never quenched.
Where note, That the remembrance of things past, the experience of things present, and expectation of things to come, are the bitings of the worm of conscience, at every bite whereof damned souls give a dreadful shriek; such as will not hear the voice of conscience, shall feel, and that to purpose, the sting of conscience.
Learn hence, That there is most certainly a place and state of punishment and torment of the wicked men to suffer in, upon the score of sin committed in this world.
Secondly, That the punishment and torments of the wicked in hell are intolerable and interminable, of exquisite pain, and endless duration: Their worm never dieth, and their fire is not quenched.
William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv42–47 And if thy hand offend thee, cut it off,....…
And if thy hand offend thee, cut it off,.... I have observed on Mat 5:30 that by the Jewish canons, cutting off of the hand was ordered in some cases there mentioned; which, though literally enjoined, must not be understood, as though the Jewish sanhedrim had a power of inflicting such a punishment, on persons found guilty of the things instanced in; or that it was required they should do this to themselves; but such rules were delivered in such language, to show the heinousness of the crimes committed, to express an abhorrence of them (g), and to deter persons from them; and to show, as the gloss (h) on one place observes, that it is better that the hand be cut off; or it should be more eligible to the person himself, to have it cut off, than to be guilty of such evil: and in like manner, Christ there and here, directs to what is most proper and fit to be done; even to part with what is ever so near and dear, rather than be drawn into evil by it: and his sense in this place is, that the dearest friends and acquaintance, or be they what they will, though ever so near and dear, like a right hand, the instrument of action, that obstruct the spiritual welfare of men, are to be renounced and parted with, and treated as real enemies, and of the most pernicious consequence; See Gill on Mat 5:29, Mat 5:30.
It is better for thee to enter into life maimed: not that there will be any such thing, as upon the resurrection, going into heaven without a limb; for the words are to be understood, not literally, but figuratively; and the sense is, it is better to part with every thing here, that is detrimental to a man's doing, or enjoying, what is spiritually good, and enter into eternal life,
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than having two hands, to go into hell; than by enjoying such persons and things, agreeable to the flesh, to the ruin of the soul, and be cast into hell;
into the fire that never shall be quenched. This is a periphrasis of hell, and is an allusion to the valley of Hinnom, from whence hell has its name, here and elsewhere; where a constant fire was kept, for the burning of polluted things: one of the Jewish writers says (i), that it
"was a place in the land near to Jerusalem, and was a place contemptible: where they cast things defiled, and carcasses; and there was there, , "a continual fire", to burn polluted things and bones; and therefore the condemnation of the wicked, in a parabolical way, is called "Gehinnom".''
And says another of them (k),
"Gehinnom is a place known, near to Jerusalem, and a valley, , "whose fire is never quenched"; and in which they burn bones of defilement, and carcasses, and other polluted things.''
This whole clause is left out in the Syriac, Persic, and Ethiopic versions; and the phrase, "that never shall be quenched", is not in the Arabic version.
(g) Maimonides in Misn. Nidda, c. 2. sect. 1. (h) T. Bab. Sabbat, fol. 108. 2. (i) Kimchi in Psal. xxvii. 13. (k) R. Isaac Saugari, Sepher Cosri, fol. 57. 2.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv42, 43, 44, 49, 50 On the contrary, whosoever shall offend the very least…
On the contrary, whosoever shall offend the very least Christian. Matt. xviii, 6; Luke xvii, 1.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv43–50 Verse 43. - 48. Thy hand - foot -…
Verse 43. - 48. Thy hand - foot - eye - cause thee to offend;] See the notes on Mt 5:29-30.
Verse 43. The fire that never shall be quenched] That is, the inextinguishable fire. This clause is wanting in L, three others, the Syriac, and later Persic. Some eminent critics suppose it to be a spurious reading; but the authorities which are for it, are by no means counterbalanced by those which are against it. The same clause in Mr 9:45, is omitted in BCL, seven others, Syriac, later Persic, Coptic, and one Itala. Eternal fire is the expression of Matthew.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On vv43, 49 Mar 9:43. And if thy hand offend thee, &c.…
Mar 9:43. And if thy hand offend thee, &c. — The discourse here passes from the case of offending to that of being offended. If one who is as useful or dear to thee as a hand or eye, prevent thee from walking in the ways of God, or hinder thee therein, renounce all intercourse with him. This primarily relates to persons; secondarily, to things. See the note on Mat 5:29-30, where this subject is explained at large. The sum is, It is better to deny one’s self the greatest earthly satisfactions, and to part with any and every person and thing, however precious, represented by the figures of a hand, a foot, and eye, than by these things to cause the weakest of Christ’s disciples to stumble, or to be made to stumble ourselves. Further, the amputation of our hands and feet, and the digging out of our eyes, when they cause us to stumble, import also, that we should deny ourselves such use of our senses and members as may lead us into sin. Thus the hand and the eye are to be turned away from those alluring objects which raise in us lust and ambition. The foot must be restrained from carrying us into evil company, unlawful diversions, and forbidden pleasures. Nor can we complain of these injunctions as severe, since by causing, or even by tempting others to sin, as well as by sinning ourselves, we are exposed to the eternal punishments of hell. Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched — “These expressions seem to be borrowed from Isa 66:24, in which passage the prophet is describing the miserable end of hardened sinners, by a similitude taken from the behaviour of conquerors, who, after having gained the battle, and beaten the enemy out of the field, go forth to view the slain. Thus, at the last day, the devil, with all his adherents, being finally and completely vanquished, the saints shall go forth to view them, doomed by the just judgment of God to eternal death. And this their punishment is represented by two metaphors, drawn from the different ways of burying the dead in use among the Jews. Bodies of men, interred in the earth, are eaten up of worms, which die when their food faileth; and those that are burned are consumed in fire, which extinguishes itself when there is no more fuel added to feed it. But it shall not be so with the wicked; their worm shall not die, and their fire is not quenched. These metaphors, therefore, as they are used by our Lord, and by the Prophet Isaiah, paint the eternal punishments of the damned in strong and lively colours.” — Macknight. To this may be added, that by the worm here spoken of, that dieth not, may be denoted, the continual torture of an accusing conscience, and the misery naturally arising from the evil dispositions of pride, self-will, desire, malice, envy, shame, sorrow, despair; and by the fire that is not quenched, the positive punishment inflicted by the fiery wrath of God. Dr. Whitby’s note on these verses deserves the reader’s particular attention. After observing that these words, Where their worm dieth not, &c., are taken from Isa 66:24, (where see the notes,) he adds, “It seems reasonable to interpret them according to the received opinion of the Jews, since otherwise our Lord, by using them so frequently in speaking to them, without saying any thing to show them that he did not understand the expression as they did, must have strengthened them in their error. Now, it is certain, 1st, That gehenna (hell) was by them still looked on as the place in which the wicked were to be tormented by fire. So the Jerusalem Targum, on Gen 15:17, represents it as a furnace sparkling and flaming with fire, into which the wicked fall. And the Targum, upon Ecc 9:15, speaks of the fire of hell; and, Mar 10:11, of the sparks of the fire of hell; and, chap. Mar 8:10, of the wicked who shall go to be burned in hell. Accordingly, our Lord speaks here, Mar 9:47, and Mat 5:22, of the wicked being cast into hell fire; and, Mat 13:42, of their being cast into a furnace of fire. 2d, The ancient Jews held that the punishments of the wicked in hell will be perpetual, or without end. So Judith says, chap. Mar 16:17, κλαυσονται εν αισθησι εως αιωτος, they shall weep under the sense of their pains for ever. Josephus informs us that the Pharisees held that the souls of the wicked were to be punished, αιδιω τιμωρια, with perpetual punishment; and that there was appointed for them, ειργμος αιδιος, a perpetual prison. Philo saith, “The punishment of the wicked person is, ζην αποθανοντα αει, to live for ever dying, and to be for ever in pains, and griefs, and calamities that never cease: accordingly our Lord says of them, that they shall go away into eternal punishment, Mat 25:41; that God will destroy the soul and body in hell, Mat 10:28; and here, that their worm dieth not, and their fire is not quenched.” Whence the doctor concludes, 1st, That though it is not to be doubted that the expression, the worm dieth not, is to be understood figuratively of remorse of conscience and keen self-reflection; yet, that the bodies of the wicked shall suffer in fire, properly so called, this he thinks being suitable not only to the tradition of the Jewish and of the Christian Church, but to the constant phraseology of the Scriptures. And, 2dly, That the punishment of the wicked shall be, strictly speaking, eternal; this also being the constant opinion of the Christian Church, as he shows in a note on Heb 6:2; and this punishment being consistent with divine justice and goodness, as he proves in his Appendix to 2 Thessalonians 1. It is justly added here, by Dr. Macknight, “The most superficial reader must be sensible, that our Lord’s repeating so frequently his declaration concerning the duration of future punishments, has in it something very awful, and implies that mankind should attend to it as a matter of infinite importance to them. It likewise affords a lesson to all the ministers of the gospel, directing them to enforce the precepts of religion, which they inculcate, by frequently and earnestly holding forth to the view of their hearers the terrors of a future judgment.”
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On v42 See the notes at Mat 18:7-9. Millstone. See Mat…
See the notes at Mat 18:7-9. Millstone. See Mat 18:6.
Mar 9:44-46
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Their worm - This figure is taken from Isa 66:24. See the notes at that passage. In describing the great prosperity. of the kingdom of the Messiah, Isaiah says that the people of God “shall go forth, and look upon the carcasses of the men who have transgressed against God.” Their enemies would be overcome. They would be slain. The people of God would triumph. The figure is taken from heaps of the dead slain in battle; and the prophet says that the number would be so great that their worm - the worm feeding on the dead - would not die, would live long - as long as there were carcasses to be devoured; and that the fire which was used to burn the bodies of the dead would continue long to burn, and would not be extinguished until they were consumed. The figure, therefore, denotes great misery, and certain and terrible destruction. In these verses it is applied to the state beyond the grave, and is intended to denote that the destruction of the wicked will be awful, widespread, and eternal.
It is not to be supposed that there will be any “real” worm in hell - perhaps no material fire; nor can it be told what was particularly intended by the undying worm. There is no authority for applying it, as is often done, to remorse of conscience, anymore than to any other of the pains and reflections of hell. It is a mere image of loathsome, dreadful, and “eternal” suffering. In what that suffering will consist it is probably beyond the power of any living mortal to imagine. The word their, in the phrase “their worm,” is used merely to keep up the “image” or “figure.” Dead bodies putrefying in that valley would be overrun with worms, while the “fire” would not be confined to them, but would spread to other objects kindled by combustibles through all the valley. It is “not” meant, therefore, that every particular sufferer has a special worm, or has particular sins that cause remorse of conscience. That is a truth, but it does not appear that it is intended to be taught here.
Mar 9:49
Every one shall be salted with fire - Perhaps no passage in the New Testament has given more perplexity to commentators than this, and it may be impossible now to fix its precise meaning. The common idea affixed to it has been, that as salt preserves from putrefaction, so fire, applied to the wicked in hell, will have the property of preserving them in existence, or they will “be” preserved amid the sprinkling of fire, to be continually in their sufferings a sacrifice to the justice of God; but this meaning is not quite satisfactory. Another opinion has been, that as salt was sprinkled on the victim preparatory to its being devoted to God (see Lev 2:13), so would “the apostles,” by trials, calamities, etc., represented here by “fire,” be prepared as a sacrifice and offering to God. Probably the passage has no reference at all to future punishment; and the difficulty of interpreting it has arisen from supposing it to be connected with the 48th verse, or given as a “reason” for what is said in “that” verse, rather than considering it as designed to illustrate the “general design” of the passage. The main scope of the passage was not to discourse of future punishment; that is brought in incidentally. The chief object of the passage was -
To teach the apostles that “other men,” not “with them,” might be true Christians, Mar 9:38-39. That they ought to be disposed to look favorably upon the slightest evidence that they “might be true believers,” Mar 9:41. That they ought to avoid giving “offence” to such feeble and obscure Christians, Mar 9:42. That “everything” calculated to give offence, or to dishonor religion, should be removed, Mar 9:43. And, That everything which would endanger their salvation should be sacrificed; that they should “deny” themselves in every way in order to obtain eternal life. In this way they would be “preserved” to eternal life.
The word “fire,” here, therefore denotes self-denials, sacrifices, trials, in keeping ourselves from the gratification of the flesh. As if he had said, “Look at the sacrifice on the altar. It is an offering to God, about to be presented to him. It is sprinkled with “salt, emblematic of purity, of preservation and of fitting it, therefore, for a sacrifice.” So “you” are devoted to God. You are sacrifices, victims, offerings to him in his service. To make you “acceptable” offerings, every thing must be done to “preserve” you from sin and to “purify” you. Self-denials, subduing the lusts, enduring trials, removing offences, are the proper “preservatives” in the service of God. Doing this, you will be acceptable offerings and be saved; without this, you will be “unfit” for his eternal service and will be lost.”
Mar 9:50
Lost its saltness ... - See the notes at Mat 5:13.
Have salt in yourselves - Have the preserving, purifying principle always; the principles of denying yourselves, of suppressing pride, ambition, contention, etc., and thus you will be an acceptable offering to God.
Have peace - Avoid contention and quarrelling, struggling for places, honors, and office, and seek each other’s welfare, and religion will be honored and preserved in the world.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On vv43, 48, 49 Where the worm dieth not. These words are taken…
Where the worm dieth not. These words are taken out of Isaias lxvi. 24; and are to be expounded of the punishments, and fruitless repentance of the wicked in the next world. (Witham)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv42, 43, 49, 50 42, 43. Consult our notes on Mat_18:6.
42, 43. Consult our notes on Mat_18:6.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv42, 43, 44, 49, 50 42. a millstone] Literally, an ass-mill-stone, a mill-stone turned…
42. a millstone] Literally, an ass-mill-stone, a mill-stone turned by an ass. These were much larger and heavier than the stones of hand-mills. Comp. Ov. Fast. vi. 318,
“Et quæ pumiceas versat asella molas.”
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It was not a Jewish punishment, but was in use among the Greeks, Romans, Syrians, and Phœnicians. “Pædagogum ministrosque C. fili … oneratos gravi pondere cervicibus præcipitavit in flumen.” Sueton. Oct. lxvii.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv42, 43, 44, 49, 50 (42-48) Whosoever shall offend.—See Notes on Mat_18:6-9. The verbal,…
(42-48) Whosoever shall offend.—See Notes on Mat_18:6-9. The verbal, or all but verbal, reproduction of these verses indicates the impression which they had made on the disciples. It may be noted, however, that St. Mark omits the “Woe unto the world because of offences . . .,” which we find in St. Matthew, and that the emphatic thrice-repeated words, “Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched,” are found only in St. Mark. It should be noted, however, that in Mar_9:43; Mar_9:45 the words “into the fire that never shall be quenched” are omitted in some of the best MSS., and that the same MSS., and others, omit both Mar_9:44; Mar_9:46, leaving Mar_9:48 to stand as the only description of Gehenna.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv42, 43, 44, 49, 50 This verse stands out as the severe antithesis to…
This verse stands out as the severe antithesis to what has gone before. As he who receives and encourages Christ"s little ones and those who are like little children and believe in him, receives him, and so shall receive from him the glorious rewards of Heaven; so, on the contrary, whosoever shall offend one of these little ones that believe in Christ is guilty of deadly sin; and it were better for him if a great millstone (mulov onikov) literally, a millstone so large as to require to be turned by an asswere hanged about his neck, and he were cast into the sea.
Vers. 42-50. Warnings.
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With these solemn words our Lord closed his arduous and faithful ministry in Galilee. Christ"s language was usually language of grace and encouragement; but there were occasions, like the present, when he spoke words of faithful warning in tones almost of severity. Yet it should be noted that these admonitions were addressed to his own disciples, and were intended to quicken their spiritual sensibility, and to induce them to use with diligence the privileges with which they were favored, especially through their association with himself.
I POWERS AND MEANS OF USEFULNESS MAY BECOME OCCASIONS OF SPIRITUAL OFFENCE. This is a very serious consideration. Increased privilege brings increased responsibility, and none can possess powers of body or of mind without being exposed by such possession to liability to unfaithfulness and to consequent deprivation.
1. Social intercourse and influence come under this general principle. Our Lord speaks of his disciples, and especially of the inexperienced and immature, as "his little ones who believe on him." We cannot be associated with such without affecting them for good or for evil. To cause them to stumble, to betray them into errors or into sin, is an offense against our Lord, and it would be better for a man to be flung with a millstone about his neck into the deep water, than so to offend against the Lord of the little ones.
2. Our active powers may become occasions of offense. The hand and the foot may be taken as emblematical of these pewees, the proper and intended purpose of which is undoubtedly their employment in works of justice and of charity and helpfulness. Yet these good faculties may cause their possessors to offend. The hands may work deeds of violence, the feet may lead into the way of sinners; and in such a case the purpose of the Creator is frustrated, and condemnation is incurred.
3. Sense and intelligence may be productive of harm as well as of good. The eye may fairly be taken as representing sense generally, and the apprehensive faculty. When the eyes wander where they should not, are closed when they should be open, or are open when they should be closed, they are an offense. When the intellect is directed to the wrong topics, or to the right topics in the wrong temper, its glory is dimmed, for its intention is thwarted, and it becomes a curse instead of a blessing.
II THE ABUSE OF POWERS AND MEANS OF USEFULNESS WILL INVOLVE PUNITIVE SUFFERING AND RUIN. Under the rule of a righteous God, it cannot be that faithfulness and unfaithfulness, watchfulness and remissness, obedience and rebellion, will be treated alike. From the lips of the Lamb of God, the "meek and lowly in heart," langua g e such as that which our Lord here employs is doubly impressive. Nevertheless, it is in mercy that the fruits of sin are shown to be apples of Sodom, that the wages of sin are expressly declared to be death. The figurative representations of the doom of the sinful are indeed terrific. This doom is worse than the vengeful overwhelming in the Lake of Galilee; it is compared to the casting out of corpses into Gehenna, below the walls of Jerusalem, where the fire consumed or the worms gnawed the unburied bodies of the dead. Such teaching leaves us in no doubt as to the view which the omniscient and most gracious Savior takes of the future and eternal prospects of those who desecrate their powers and misuse their opportunities in the service, of sin.
III On the other hand, WATCHFULNESS AND SEVERITY WITH SELF WILL ENSURE THE BLESSING OF THE ETERNAL LIFE, AND THE HONOURS OF THE HEAVENLY KINGDOM. Even supposing that self is denied and crucified, that pleasures are foregone, that privations are incurred, is all this worth thinking of with regret when the recompense of the faithful is borne in mind? What is this recompense? The Giver of life himself promises "entrance into life;" the Sovereign of the spiritual kingdom promises "entrance into the kingdom of God." If in some sense the saved are, in the process, exposed to a thousand ills and sorrows, still, though they enter lame and maimed and halt-sightless into the kingdom of life, of God, they do enter, and entering are for ever glorious and for ever blessed. It is promised that through much tribulation Christ"s followers shall enter into the kingdom of heaven.
Vers. 42-50. Parallel passage: Mat_18:6-9. Christ"s love to his little ones, and offenses.
I Love to the little ones. Christ"s little ones are either young believers or weak believers. A kindness shown them is accepted by Christ as done to himself. Even a cup of cold water will be rewarded. However much they may be despised by men or neglected in the world, they are dear to God and near to the Savior"s heart; while angels of highest rank are commissioned to guard them even angels who are privileged to stand in the immediate presence of the great King; for "in heaven their angels do always behold the face of my Father which is in heaven." Angels of all grades have a twofold function they worship and they minister; they worship in the heavenly sanctuary the Father everlasting (leitorgika ). He they wait for ministry (eiv diakonian) to man on earth. But those of most exalted dignity are the guardians of Christ"s little ones.
II CONSEQUENCES OF OFFENCES. The sin of offending one of these little ones is great in proportion to Christ"s love to them. How careful men should be, and how cautious, not to put a stumbling-block in the way of these little ones! The sin of turning weak believers or young Christians aside from the truth, or from the faith, or from the path of purity, or a career of virtue, by evil advice or bad example, or by casting doubt on the Word of God, or by insinuating sceptical notions, or by mockery of Divine things, is a sin so great that a preferable alternative would be for the person guilty of it to have a millstone of large size, turned by an ass (onikov). He lying around his neck, and himself cast into the sea. Such is the fearfully emphatic declaration of the guilt and danger of scandalizing or offending the youngest child that believes, or the weakest Christian.
III OTHER OFFENCES. Our Lord passes by a common law of suggestion to speak of offenses by ourselves and against ourselves. The hand may offend by doing wrong, the foot may offend by going on what is wrong. But if the most serviceable member, as the hand, do amiss, or the most useful member, as the foot, walk astray, or the most precious member, as the eye, look with delight on objects sinful and forbidden, then there must be no hesitation in divesting ourselves of such rather than risk the fearful fate of those who are tormented in the Gehenna of fire, "where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched.
IV SALTED WITH FIRE. This difficult expression is taken by some as a promise and by others as a punishment. In the former sense, fire is taken in the signification of purifying and preserving, and this twofold property it shares with salt. Salt preserves from putrefaction, fire purifies from corruption. The Sacrifice of old required to be offered with salt. According to the Law in Lev_2:13, the meat offering was to be seasoned with salt, and salt was to be offered with all offerings. So, when we present ourselves living sacrifices to God, we may be purified by fiery trials; we may be called to pass through the fire of affliction, perhaps of persecution, certainly of self-denial. But thus purified by fire, like the sacrifice on the altar, salted with salt, we shall be saved. This gives a good sense, but does not suit the context. In the second sense, fire is taken to mean punishing and preserving. Six times does the evangelist represent unceasing torments by unquenchable fire; and as the salt applied to the sacrifice was the symbol of preservation, so fire here is symbolical of preservation, not, alas! from punishment, but for punishment, so that the undying worm and the unquenchable fire, instead of annihilating, preserve while they punish. Here is a fearful figure, and a terrible warning!
V PEACE. They are exhorted to keep the salt of moral purity and covenant concord rather than have the salt of fiery punishment, and, as the effect and evidence thereof, to be at peace among themselves, and so avoid the strife for pre-eminence and the discord of ambition. J.J.G.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On vv43, 44, 46, 48, 49, 50 And if thy hand offend thee, cut it off.
Mar_9:43
And if thy hand offend thee, cut it off.
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Stumbling blocks
After stating the fearful punishment in store for those who impede the spiritual progress of others, our Lord proceeds to warn men not to place stumbling blocks in their own way. He selects the chief instruments of sin-the hand, the foot, the eye-and counsels their immediate destruction, if need be, rather than allow them to work the threatened mischief. It is the hand which men lift up to do violence, as Cain did to his brother; or to appropriate what does not belong to them, like Achan. It is the feet which hurry us into forbidden paths, as they hurried Gehazi, or the old man of God whom the lion slew for his transgression. It is the eye which excites the lust to desire, in the spirit of Eve, something which God has seen fit to withhold. To hurt, to trespass, and to covet: what a common triple cord of sin it is! (H. M. Luckock, D. D.)
The price of salvation
The gentleness of the gospel is not toward sin, but only to win from it. It is love that lays down life for enemies, which makes these demands on friends. Jesus continually put before those who heard Him the price of salvation. It is a pearl, bought by selling all we have; the call which requires us to leave-hate in comparison-houses, lands, and dearest friends. It brings a sword to divide, a cross for us to bear. To lose a foot will make you walk slow and painful, to lose a hand will halve your power for gain or usefulness, to lose an eye is darkness and disfigurement. Precious are they, part of ourselves; bloody and anguishing the cutting off and plucking out. But it must be, it should be. Reckon it with our worldly arithmetic, and eternal life is cheap at any price. A career, however marred and maimed, which ends in heaven, is better than a painless and brilliant passage to the fire that shall never be quenched. Are things most sweet and necessary occasions of sin? Be rid of them at any cost. Spare not thyself, and God shall spare thee. Cripple thyself for holiness sake, and everlasting life shall make thee whole. Fling away ecstatic delights to embrace purifying pains, for God has infinite stores of blessings, and eternity in which to give them. It is a wondrous thing to know that the pains and chastisements of this life are fitting us to bear the awful test of Gods devouring fire, that the light which flashes from the face of God shall strike our souls, and the flames not kindle upon us. Compared with this, there are no joys, no sorrows; all other experiences get character from their power to affect this consummation. (C. M. Southgate.)
Excision of offending members
The hands, the feet, the eyes, are set forth in Gods Word as the instruments of the soul in compassing the gratification of certain distinct evil lusts: the hand is the instrument of covetous grasping and of violence; the feet are the means of evil companionship, and running into the ways of temptation and sin; through the eyes the soul covets what is not her own, and lusts after what is forbidden and polluting; through the eyes also the soul envies and hates, and the Lord classes an evil eye amongst the things that defile. But it may be asked, seeing that the members are but the instruments of the evil will, why does not the Lord denounce that, and that only? So He does when occasion serves; but in this instance He is setting forth the all-important truth that the evil will is mortified and slain, not by arguing with it, but by starving it; i.e., by forbidding the members to yield themselves to its gratification. When the Lord bids a soul, for the sake of eternity, mortify its members, its outward members, He necessarily speaks to one who has two wills, an evil will belonging to the old man, and a better and holier belonging to the new. The evil will would gratify its lusts through its members, but the better will can forbid the members to lend themselves to the evil within, and can call to its aid the Spirit of God by prayer, and can mortify the flesh, and use in faith the means of grace. (M. F. Sadler.)
Personal maiming
There are many persons who are ready to cut off other peoples offending hands and feet, forgetting that the command is to cut off their own. At all costs save the life! Hands, feet, eyes may be cast away, but let the soul be held in godly discipline. (J. Parker, D. D.)
Mortification of sin a reasonable duty
I. The duty here enjoined. If thy hand or thy foot offend thee, etc. To offend, in the language of Scripture, frequently means to put anything in the way of a person, which may cause him to fall or stumble (Rom_12:21; Mat_11:6; Mat_16:23). Even serviceable things must be removed if an occasion of evil.
II. The argument by which He enforces it. It is shortly this: that it is better for us to do what He enjoins. Why better? Because not to do it will certainly bring on us greater evils hereafter. It is better to suffer a present evil, however great, than by avoiding it to incur a greater evil in the end. Thus men reason in common things. They endure present loss in hope of future gain; they lose a limb to save a life. To feel the force of this argument we must see what these consequences are.
1. We shall be shut out from heaven. It is better to enter into life maimed, etc. Without mortifying sin now we can never be admitted there (Gal_5:21; Rev_21:27; Heb_12:14).
2. What it is to be cast into hell.
3. I remind you that if you seriously desire to set about the work, there is a powerful Friend who is ready to assist you with all needful strength and health. It is only through the Spirit that you can mortify the deeds of the body. (E. Cooper.)
Mutilation or fire
The mutilation of the body ordered by Jesus Christ. As Lord of the body He has the right to issue such requirements; common sense tells us that they cannot be meant to be without exception. His if prefacing each instance is enough to prove that He does not make them binding on everybody who enters His army. The soldier in the battle, having on the whole armour of God, does not need to be told to mutilate himself. He is not obstructed by wrongful occupation with any of the prominent members of his body.
I. A due consideration of the three-fold repetition will show that all of us are somehow affected. Jesus means to single out every person who feels reluctant to give his all up to Him as Lord and Saviour.
II. That these orders cannot require mutilation of the bodily frame. The hand, the foot, and the eye are nothing, except as they are the instruments of a person. What benefit could there be in cutting off, in plucking out, merely a member of the body? He would be utterly unfit to be a judge who sentenced the umbrella, which thrust out a mans eye, to six months imprisonment, and let the man who pushed the umbrella go free! He would be counted more idiotic than an idiot who found fault with the door of the cellar down whose steps he had fallen, and not with the careless servant who had left the door open. When you had cut off a hand, you might still wish to do the unworthy action which your hand would have carried out. When you had plucked out an eye, your imagination might still revel amid the unholy things which the eye would have gloated on.
III. The Lord backs up His appeal for our energetic action with an exhibition of the awful law under which our nature is constituted. The word, which is translated hell fire is Gehenna. It was the name given to a narrow valley close to Jerusalem. Offal and filth were usually thrown into it, and fires were lighted in it to burn all the sorts of refuse which were consumable. So the sinner is separated from the society of Jerusalem, and cast into corruption; he is exposed to burning now, and if not converted from the error of his ways, will go into corruption and fire hereafter. (D. G. Watt, M. A.)
Desire sacrificed to duty
Soldiers have dislodged their enemy from a town. They scatter themselves about its streets; some dashing into shops, and some into houses, seizing any valuable thing which the lust of their eyes prompts them to seize. Suddenly their bugles sound an alarm. The enemy is returning in force; and, whatever else the sound may suggest, it suggests this-that they must throw everything out of their hands, no matter how valuable, no matter how eagerly they long to retain it. Otherwise it would be an obstruction; they would not be free to handle their rifles, and be driven out instead of driving their foe back again. With like purpose does the Lord Jesus give forth those orders, which seem to many of us so unnecessarily harsh and stringent. (D. G. Watt, M. A.)
Hell fire in the present life
At any rate multitudes have come to regard hell as a place to be afraid of, not because of its wickedness, but because of its suffering. Theirs is a bitter mistake. It is a grotesque and misleading interpretation of that state of which Jesus tells the nature. His words assuredly point to the conclusion that a man may be in hell here as well as yonder; may be gnawed by its worm and burned by its fire now as well as hereafter. You do not lack proofs of this present truth in human life, perhaps within the range of your observation, if not of your own experience. It may be that no more striking illustration can be supplied than that of Lady Macbeth, as painted by our great dramatist. After the murder of Banquo she cannot rest. She rises from her bed and walks about. She rubs, and rubs, as if washing her hands, and continues it for a quarter of an hour. She fancies she sees a spot of blood on them. She cannot take it out; her hands will not be clean, and she cries, Heres the smell of the blood still;. all the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand. Oh! oh! oh! That sigh and cry show how sorely her heart is charged. Yet there is no repentance in her anguish. She argues in defence of the evil deed still. She is suffering mentally; she is in agony-not for the vileness of the crime she has urged on, but for its interference with her comfort and peace. Thus her case affords an instance of how a soul may be weeping, and wailing, and gnashing the teeth before it goes, with the uncleansed spots of sin, into the shadow of death. (D. G. Watt, M. A.)
The members of the body reported in their deeds
Do you know, said a young lady to her brother, there is a reporter to be at the ball to which we are going tomorrow, and a full account will be given in the newspapers of everybody who is there? Ah! yes, there was a Reporter there whom she little thought of-a Reporter who is in every place to which you can go, whether it be to the house of feasting or the house of mourning, to the resort which defiles you or which purifies you, to the place of cursing or the place of prayer; and the day is coining when that Reporter shall publish, before the myriads amid whom you shall stand at the judgment seat of God, what everyone has done in his body, according to that he has done, whether it be good or bad. What will be disclosed as to the paths on which your feet have been made to go? Will you expect to hear that you have never been, in thought or purpose, in any place but where Christs footprints were known to be before you? (D. G. Watt, M. A.)
What the hands can do
Just glance at what may be operated by the hands. Would you care to hold out your hands, before any number of your acquaintances, and say, These hands have never been soiled by touching an unholy thing. They have not once written a deceiving figure or an unbecoming word. They have never held any instrument in order to accomplish a selfish and impure object. No neighbour might shrug his shoulders at your assertion; no voice might call out, I saw you use the shaking glass of drunkenness, the cards of gambling, the jemmy of burglary! But would their inability to accuse you be a satisfactory acquittal? Would you not, as brave and honest souls, even if no human being could say that your hands were offensive to the holy God, would you not confess they are or were? Your tongue would not utter boastful things. Why? Because you are well aware that, though you have never been a drunkard, a gambler, or a burglar, you have put aside a service of self-denial, or you have grasped in your heart at an evil enjoyment. Knowing, as you do, that wishing and planning to escape from any Christ-like duty must be a grief to the Saviour, you would not like to hear His voice announce His sentence as to all your failures; you would not like to receive the due award of what your hands have done or been thought capable of doing! (D. G. Watt, M. A.)
Stumbling blocks
I. The stumbling blocks here mentioned.
II. Whether a classification of stumbling blocks be suggested or not, important lessons, as to the causes of falling, are here taught.
1. May be part of ourselves-personal appearance, etc.
2. May be in our occupation-sinful, engrossing, etc.
3. May be in that which delights us-conversation, music, etc.
4. May be in persons and society sought after by us.
5. May be in useful and lawful things.
6. Everyone must judge for himself.
III. The command of Christ.
1. Most peremptory. The cause must be removed-however valuable, painful, etc.
2. Most pressing and weighty reasons are assigned. Such conduct is indispensable to life. To act otherwise is to perish. At how dear a price sinners purchase their pleasures! (Expository Discourses.)
Maiming and life
The New Testament revisers have rightly substituted the words cause to stumble, for offend; for the popular conception of offend is misleading. It means that which is annoying or distasteful to another, but not necessarily hurtful. But the word in the New Testament habitually means something dangerous. That which offends in the gospel sense may be neither annoying nor distasteful; but agreeable and seductive. St. Paul speaks of meat as an offence to a brother. In these hard words about cutting off, our Lord is not speaking of things that are simply troublesome, for in Gods moral economy a good many troublesome things are retained as permanent factors of life. Self-sacrifice, hard duty, are troublesome things, yet they enter into every genuine Christian life; while many agreeable things are of the character of stumbling blocks. The truth here stated by Christ appears a cruel one. It is simply that maiming enters into the development of life, and is a part of the process through which one attains eternal life. We shall find that thin law is not so cruel after all. There is an aspect in which we all recognize this truth; namely, on the side where it is related to our ordinary life. No life is developed into perfection without cutting off something. The natural tendencies of the boy are to play and eat and sleep. Left to themselves, those things will fill up the space allotted to thought and culture, so that they must be controlled and restricted. The law indeed holds, from a point below human life, that every higher thing costs; that it is won by the abridgment or suppression of something lower. The corn of wheat must die in order to bring forth fruit. The seed life and the seed form must go, so that the full corn in the ear may come. This fact of limitation goes along with the entire process of human education. The man who aims at eminence in any one department of life must close the gates which open into other departments. In order to be a successful merchant, he must abridge the pleasures of literary culture. He may have equally strong affinities for medicine and for law, but he cannot become a successful lawyer without cutting off the studies and the associations which go to make a successful doctor. And success in any sphere necessitates his cutting off a large section of self-indulgence. He must sacrifice pleasant leisure and pleasant society, and needful rest and recreation. Moreover, it is true that men love life so much that they will have it at the expense of maiming. A man will leap from a third story of a burning house, and will take the chance of going through life with a crippled limb or a distorted face, rather than stay and be burned or suffocated. All that a man hath will he give for his life. Maecenas, the prime minister of the first Roman emperor, said that he preferred life with the anguish of crucifixion to death. Where is the man who will not lie down on the surgeons table, and have his right hand cut off or his right eye plucked out rather than die? The most helpless cripple, the blind man, the mutilated and disfigured man, will say, It is better for us to live maimed than to die. So that, on one side at least, the truth is not so unfamiliar or so cruel, after all. It represents, not an arbitrary decree, but a free choice. Now, our Lord leads us up into the region of spiritual and eternal life, and confronts us with the same alternative. Cut off anything, sacrifice anything, be maimed and crippled so far as this life is concerned, rather than forfeit eternal life. Life in Gods kingdom, like life in the kingdom of nature and sense, involves a process of education and discipline. A part of this discipline is wrought through the agency of the man himself; that is, by the force of his own renewed will. A part of it is brought to bear on him from without, through no agency of his own. And here, as elsewhere, development implies limitation, suppression, cutting off. Have you never known a woman on whom the door of her fathers house was closed from the moment that she went out of it with the husband of her choice, and who gave herself to him, knowing that, in taking his part, she was cutting off and casting from her parental sympathy and all the dear associations of childhood? In our great civil war, was it not true that many a man, by taking a side, became an outcast to those whom he had loved best? Has it not been so in all the great issues of history? In Christs own day, and much more in the early dais of the Church, that happened again and again which Christs words had foreshadowed. He who went after the despised Galilean or His apostles, must forfeit home and friends and social standing, and be called an ingrate and a traitor. He could not keep father and mother and old associates who hated his Master. They would be only stumbling blocks to him; and he must therefore cut them off, and go after Christ maimed on that side of his life. This text tells us that this cutting off and casting away must be our own act. If thy hand cause thee to stumble, cut it off,-thou thyself. We are not to presume on Gods taking away from us whatever is hurtful. Our spiritual discipline does not consist in merely lying still and being pruned. That must do for a vine or a tree, but not for a living will. The surrender of that must be a self-surrender. The forced surrender of a will is no surrender. The necessary abridgement or limitation must enlist the active cooperation of the man who is limited. Ye are Gods husbandry, says Paul; but, almost in the same breath, he says, Ye are Gods fellow workers. There are, however, two aspects in which this self-cutting is to be viewed. On the one band, there is, as just noted, something which the man is to do by his own will and act. On the other hand, there is a certain amount of limitation applied directly by God, without the mans agency. In this latter case, the man makes the cutting off his own act by cheerful acceptance of his limitations. Let us look at each of these two aspects in turn. In Christian experience, one soon discovers certain sides on which it is necessary to limit himself; certain things which he must renounce. The things are not the same for all men. They are not necessarily evil things in themselves, but a sensitive and well-disciplined conscience soon detects certain matters which it is best to lay violent hands upon. Another conscience may not fix upon the same points; but to this conscience they are stumbling blocks, hindrances to spiritual growth, inconsistent with entire devotion to Christ. It is enough that they are so in this particular case. It is right to have hands and feet and eyes, and to use them. But in certain cases there is an antagonism between these and eternal life. The whole question centres there. Whatever interferes with the attainment of eternal life must go. Thus much for the self-applied limitations, for conscious hindrances in the march to eternal life. But there is another class of limitations, the need of which we do not perceive. They belong in the higher and deeper regions of character, and are linked with facts and tendencies which our self-knowledge does not cover. Such limitations we cannot apply to ourselves: they are applied to us by God: and all that our will has to do is to concur with the limitations and meekly to accept them. In this region the discipline is more painful. God cuts off and takes away where we can see no reason for it; but on the contrary, where we think we see every reason against it. There are multitudes of Christian people who are going through life maimed on one side or another. There is a man with the making of a statesman, ruler, painter, or poet. He is maimed by no opportunity of culture. But every true disciple of Christ enters His school with absolute self-surrender, and will trust that God will cut off nothing that makes for eternal life. We could not win eternal life as well with these gifts as without them. And so it will be better if we can but enter into life. Better, far better, to go maimed all the way than to lose eternal life. It matters little that those stately masts had to be cut down in the raging gale. No one thinks what splendid timbers were thrown overboard, on that day when the ship, battered and mastless, and with torn sails and tangled cordage, forges into the land-locked port with every soul on board safe. Better maimed than lost. (M. R. Vincent, D. D.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
B. W. Johnson 1891 · Public Domain On vv42, 43, 48, 49, 50 42. Cause one of these little ones … to…
42. Cause one of these little ones … to stumble.. See notes on Matt. 18:6–10.
B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain On v42 Mar_9:42-47. Offend.—Lay a trap for. See on chap. Mar_6:3.
CRITICAL AND EXEGETICAL NOTES
Mar_9:42-47. Offend.—Lay a trap for. See on chap. Mar_6:3.
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Mar_9:42. It is better for him.—A happy thing it is for him rather. Cp. 1Co_9:15.
Mar_9:44; Mar_9:46. Probably spurious.
Mar_9:47. Hell fire.—The Gehenna. “The Ravine of Hinnom,” also called “Topheth” (2Ki_23:10; Isa_30:33), is described in Jos_18:16 as on the south of Mount Zion. Total length a mile and a half. A deep retired glen, shut in by rugged cliffs, bleak mountain-sides rising over all. Scene of barbarous rites of Molech and Chemosh in times of Ahaz and Manasseh (2Ki_16:3; 2Ch_28:3; Jer_7:31); in consequence of which it was polluted by Josiah (2Ki_23:10; 2Ki_23:13-14); from which time it seems to have become the common cesspool of the city. These inhuman rites and subsequent ceremonial defilements caused the later Jews to regard it with horror and detestation, and they applied the name given to the valley to the place of torment.—G. F. Maclear, D. D.
Mar_9:48. Quoted from Isa_66:24. The words are not to be taken to mean more here than they do there.
Mar_9:49. Salted with fire.—Explanatory of the words immediately preceding. Either here on earth, or else hereafter in the Gehenna, all the impurities and imperfections of our fallen nature must be burnt out by the cleansing fires of discipline and chastisement, in order that we may become an acceptable sacrifice unto God. Salted with salt.—It is Divine grace alone—and not in any sense our own merits—that makes us “a reasonable, holy, and lively sacrifice.” This second clause of Mar_9:49 is probably an early marginal gloss.
Mar_9:50. Here there seems to be a transition of thought from the Divine Source to the human receptacles of grace. Our Lord is speaking to “the twelve” (Mar_9:35), whom He has already styled, as His disciples, “the salt of the earth” (Mat_5:13). He now warns them against the tendency to factiousness and self-seeking, which, if indulged, will thwart all their efforts to purify the world. And then He winds up, “Entertain among yourselves the spiritual salt of self-repression and self-discipline, and be at peace with one another.”
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Mar_9:42-50
(PARALLEL:Mat_18:6-9.)
Mar_9:42-48. Offences.—“The law was given by Moses; grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.” It seems as though the contrast was suggested. I think it was. But men make a tremendous mistake if they imagine that gentleness means weakness, or that only in obtrusive terribleness comes a revelation of strength. The speech of Jesus is the mightiest utterance the world has ever heard. The law of life and love, the call to righteousness which He delivered, is the most awfully soul-searching, all-encompassing, fiery word which has ever reached the listening ears and beating hearts of men. The only salvation worth the having is a salvation unto God. A purpose which alone satisfies Him as being worthy of the Infinite Father is to renew His own image in His children, and make us like unto Himself.
I. Christian life is a thorough consecration.—Anything less than this turns religion into a dismal burden. But this makes its face to shine with the very glory of God, and its power comes to us as an uplifting joy, a thrilling inspiration; thy whole self, body, mind, heart, soul, hallowed, consecrated, dedicated. What do you think of it? This is to be, this is the fulness of the blessing of the gospel of Christ. High, great, difficult, beyond our capacity. Yes, and therefore comes the salvation from the everlasting, Almighty One. He is able and He is patient. What He begins He can complete. Our world of weak, erring, human life has known one Being who maintained a complete, supreme, unswerving consecration. He is the Saviour of men. He inbreathes His life; His mind, His spirit, may be in us. Men have felt His spell and realised His power. His promise has been so far known to be a great reality that it brought faith enough to a disciple to say, “We shall be like Him.”
II. Now it will be evident, if we pause to think, that, as the sphere of our being rises, dangers and hindrances will come, which lower down may not be so obtrusive. There can be no question as to desires, passions, activities, words, deeds, thoughts, which are wrong in themselves. The Christian has no business with them. The right eye, the right hand, are not wrong things. They are good faculties, good energies, which are a splendid gift for consecrated use. The advice of the fanatic or the coward is, “Destroy the sense, blind it, muffle it, for in it lies a danger”; and out of that have come all the austerities of the ascetic, all the inhumanity of the Stoic, but with no real redemption. The advice of the presumptuous fatalist is, “Withhold not thy heart from any joy; you are not responsible for your weakness or your passion”; and out of that have come the degradation of men, the fierce and terrible lines which sensual sin brands upon the sinner’s face. In the one extreme a man tries to have nothing to pray for; in the other he dares to pray for the working of a miracle in aid of wrong. We must avoid both presumption and distrust. Broadly speaking, I suppose the eye may stand for that which is beautiful, pleasurable, and the hand for that which is active and energetic; in a word, occupation and recreation, labour and luxury. These are wholesome, natural, essential, to our due being. Without them a man is manifestly maimed. But, says Jesus, it is better to be maimed than slain. The limb or the body, the organ or the whole self: can there be any question as to which? I have known men on what was said to be the way to fortune, who seemed to me to be stumbling on a footway like that outside Jerusalem, where the precipice overhung Gehenna. I have known men, said to be ruined, from whom God had mercifully cut away the peril of their soul.
III. But Jesus here, as always, lays His appeal upon conscience.—This alone would have made Him solitary among all leaders and teachers. He clears conscience from its shadow, and says, “Look to its light”—your own conscience, not another man’s. You have no business with the hands and eyes of others; you have great business with your own. Looking unto Jesus, you will not be led astray. Maintaining communion with Him, conscience will be lustrous and clear. Cling to Him, your Saviour. Obey His voice, your Lord.—D. J. Hamer.
Mar_9:50. The salt of Christian profession.—“Salt is good.” The wise son of Sirach says, “The principal things for the whole of a man’s life are water, fire, iron, and salt”; after which follow in their turn “flour of wheat, honey, milk and the blood of the grape, and oil, and clothing.” Amongst the good things of this present life—the natural productions which the Giver of all good has caused to exist for the use and benefit of His creatures—we may surely reckon a condiment so indispensable to health and enjoyment. Yes, “salt is good”; and it cannot lose its goodness or usefulness so long as it is salt.
I. In the symbolical language of Scripture, salt is applied in several ways, according to its various uses and properties.—
1. The first and most obvious of all is derived from its seasoning property. Salt makes savoury and palatable that which has no taste of its own (Job_6:6). Divine grace communicates a similar relish to everything in which it may be said to form an ingredient—to every part of the life and conversation of him who is under its influence, but especially to his familiar discourse. Hence the apostolic admonition (Col_4:6). And to this same seasoning virtue our Lord Himself alludes when He says to His disciples, “Ye are the salt of the earth”—as if all that is in the world were utterly tasteless and unpalatable in the judgment of truth until seasoned and as it were leavened with the holy doctrines and pure principles of Christianity. “But if the salt have lost its saltness, wherewith will ye season it?” What other more powerful or more salutary religion remains behind to renovate the enfeebled energies of a corrupt and degenerate Christianity?
2. This article entering so largely into the arrangements of the table, especially in the more simple forms of society, we need not be surprised to find it sometimes put for food in general. To “eat a person’s salt” carries with it among Eastern nations the same idea as with us “to eat a person’s bread,” i.e. to be in his domestic service or otherwise employed by him at a salary (a term which derived its origin from the Latin word for salt). See Ezr_4:14, text and margin. Hence also salt became a symbol of hospitality and friendship; and an Arab of the present day regards every one who has eaten salt with him as his sworn friend and brother, whom he is bound on all occasions to protect. Connected with this idea is the custom of eating a few grains of salt at the ratification of covenants. See Num_18:19; Lev_2:13.
3. But that which is ever so good in moderation and in its proper place may without those conditions be turned into the sorest of evils. “Salt is good”; but when it covers the whole face of the country, and the husbandman sees nothing around him but “brimstone and salt and burning” (Deu_29:23), this most useful commodity becomes another word for barrenness and desolation. See Jer_17:6; Psa_107:34, margin. To this head may probably be referred the custom of sowing salt (Jdg_9:45) in a place which was intended to be devoted to perpetual desolation.
II. Whereas this substance is used to season others, we know of no other which can be made use of to impart a savour to salt.—Insipid salt may therefore be regarded as another name for whatever is useless and valueless, not in its own nature, but as being devoid of those very properties in which its excellence consists.
1. Salt that has lost its saltness may fitly represent a religious profession which does not influence the conduct. The profession of religion is good. It is good to see a man framing his life, arranging his habits, ordering his family, on the supposition that “God is, and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him.” It is good to see him entering into his closet, and shutting the door and praying to his Father which seeth in secret. It is good to see him coming forth from his private devotions, and summoning his family to join with him in domestic worship. It is good to see him and them in the Lord’s house on the Lord’s Day, and especially at the altar to receive the Sacrament of the Lord’s Body and Blood. All these things are good, for the same reason that salt is good—because of their aptitude to impregnate and season other things, all things, in fact, with which they are mixed up. This is the proper virtue and natural operation of a man’s religious profession; the whole life ought to taste of it. But, alas, how seldom is this so! How few are there amongst the multitude of professing Christians who in the common concerns of life think and speak and act differently from those who are openly living without God in the world!
2. Salt that has lost its saltness may also fitly represent a Christian who does no good to others. Just as the use of salt is to season not itself but other things which either have no savour of their own or an unpleasant one, so the use of Christianity is to season an ungodly and unbelieving world with the truths and principles of pure and undefiled religion. This can only be accomplished by the exertions of individual Christians, each seeking the good and promoting the eternal salvation of all who come within the circle of his influence. “This,” says Chrysostom, “is the definition of Christianity—to care for the salvation of others. Nothing is so frivolous and insipid as a Christian who does not save others.” And yet there are many who seem to understand that text, “Work out your own salvation,” in the same way as if they had been told to mind their own business and not to trouble themselves about the religious state of others. They do work out their own salvation, at least according to their views of the method of working it. They are zealous towards God, diligent in the performance of religious duties, strict moralists, and blameless in all the common duties and relations of life. Thus they may be said to “have salt in themselves.” But how do they realise that other and higher requirement, to be “the salt of the earth”? Where are their seasoning qualities? Wherein does such a man “please his neighbour for his good to edification”? Does he “command his children and his household after him to keep the way of the Lord”? Does he seek the good of the city where he dwells, doing all in his power to discountenance wickedness and vice, and to season that locality with which he is more immediately connected, with the salt of true religion and virtue? Do his efforts reach forth beyond the narrow limits and petty concerns of a single locality? and does he cast in his mite of salt to the general stock which is employed in seasoning, converting, and evangelising the world?
3. What has been said of the duty of all Christians to seek the spiritual good of others applies in the highest degree to the priesthood of the Church. Insipid salt is but a feeble illustration of the character of a careless and unfaithful “minister of Christ and steward of the mysteries of God”—as to be “cast out and trodden underfoot of men” but faintly shadows forth his inevitable doom.
III. Improvement under religions advantages depends in a great measure upon ourselves.—“The Word preached,” be it ever so highly seasoned, will not profit unless it be “mixed with faith in them that hear it.” “Salt is good”; but there are some substances so utterly corrupt and stinking as to bid defiance to its correcting and preserving power. We Christian preachers are, according to St. Paul, “a sweet savour of Christ,” etc. (2Co_2:15-16). The salt is the same; its natural properties are the same; but, being applied to one, it preserves him from corruption and seasons him for the kingdom of heaven; while, being sprinkled on another, it salts him as a sacrifice to be offered up to the Divine vengeance, and makes him indestructible only for the worm that dieth not, and the fire that cannot be quenched, until the man’s heart is humbled to the dust and he cries aloud for mercy to the God whose grace he has heretofore spurned If therefore ye would escape the agonies of hell, “take heed what ye hear” and “how ye hear.” “Receive with meekness the engrafted Word,” etc. “Give no place to the devil,” who is ever watching his opportunity to “take away the Word out of your hearts,” etc. “Keep yourselves unspotted from the world,” which is always at hand with its contaminating influence, “the cares and riches and pleasures of this life,” to choke the Word and make it unfruitful. And finally, pray constantly to God to give you more and more of that “honest and good heart,” which “having heard the Word keeps it and brings forth fruit with patience.”
OUTLINES AND COMMENTS ON THE VERSES
Mar_9:42-48. Self-control and self-denial.—The whole passage is steeped in metaphor. No one is expected to take the scandal or trap of Mar_9:42-43; Mar_9:45 literally, or the ass-millstone or the flinging into the sea, or the Gehenna.Why, then, should we insist on taking literally either the hand or the foot of these verses, or even the inextinguishable fire? The principle which underlies them is, that a man had far better part with, lose, sacrifice, anything and everything else, however good it may be in itself or however dear, than suffer himself to be hindered in that service of truth and goodness in which he finds his true life, or that fidelity to Christ in which eternal life consists. It is not by mutilating the body, but only by a wise and resolute self-control, a wise and resolute rule of our own spirit, that we can maintain our loyalty to Him, and walk with even and steadfast foot in His ways. And if we find that in ourselves which hinders or makes us stumble in these ways, He would have us know that, unless we freely renounce it, there is that both in the righteousness and in the love of God which will kindle on it like a fire, and burn it out of us; yes, and burn us until we let it go.—S. Cox, D.D.
Destruction of evil.—The point to which our Lord really directs our thoughts is, that all that is evil in us, however closely it sits to the heart, must be destroyed; that not only in a future world of woe—which we might just as truly depict as all millstone and sea, as all worm and fire—but here and now, as well as then and there, the righteousness and love of God will burn against all unrighteousness of men, burn more keenly and inwardly and consumingly than any fire; that all in us which exalts itself against Him or stands in the way of our own perfection, or militates against the welfare of the world, will infallibly expose us to a discipline more dreadful and agonising than metaphor can convey or imagination conceive. The severity is part of the goodness of God.—Ibid.
Something better than acrimony.—Instead of acrimony against those who follow not with us, let us bend all our anger and resentment, all our bitterness and hostility, against our own lusts and sinful propensities, not sparing one of them, though they be as dear to us as the members of our bodies, as our hands, our feet, or our eyes, and however painful the amputation or mortification of them may be to us.—C. Seymour.
Mar_9:42. Skandala.—When we learn that it was John’s repulse of the man who had cast out demons which set our Lord on this theme, a light is thrown on the particular meaning of the word “skandala,” which I think was in our Lord’s mind—that, viz., of the checking others on their way to good, the throwing back on itself of the enthusiasm or warm affection which was beginning to flow, and the choking up of the heartsprings thereby. The man who had been casting out demons and was turned back because he did not follow with the apostles might have asked, “Would the scribes and Pharisees have treated me worse?” The revulsion might deaden his spiritual life.—H. Latham.
Stumbling-blocks.—To go where we should not go, to do what we should not do, to touch what we should not touch with hand or eye, tongue or foot; is to set one of these traps in motion. To lie in wait on any honest path, to forbid or condemn any good action, movement, teaching, to hinder men, to trip them up, to hold them back, when they are bent on the service of truth or going on any errand of mercy, is to be such a trap: it is to scandalise or set them stumbling. Better to die, better even to be hanged, than to become a trap, a drag, in the service of truth and goodness: a defender of the faith, for example, who, honestly intending its defence, nevertheless opposes its growth, retards, or even blights, its springing and germinant powers. The most capable and eminent servants of the truth in all ages have had to waste half their strength in breaking through these traps and snares. Don’t you be one of these traps, or even the tongue of a trap.—S. Cox, D.D.
We offend Christ’s little ones every time we give them, in place of gospel bread, the stones of human philosophy; or, in place of the nourishment of simple faith in Christ, the sting of some abstraction about which sectaries quarrel.
Where in our Lord’s teachings do you find stronger words than these?—He never denounced murder or unchastity or malice of any kind in stronger terms, and the reason is not far to seek. He who deliberately puts the occasion of falling in the way of Christ’s little ones is really committing a heinous sin; it is murder and suicide combined, for while he injures the soul of him who is weak and helpless, he is really destroying all that is pure and Christlike in his own nature.
Mar_9:43-48. The awfulness of hell.—In this and other passages Christ speaks of hell in terms far more solemn and terrible than any other prophet or messenger of God has done. Why is this?
1. Because He is emphatically the teacher of God’s truth in its fullest form, without reservation or concealment.
2. Because He alone has perfect knowledge on the subject of the eternal world.
3. Because of His infinite love. He paints hell in all its awfulness, to induce men to flee from the wrath to come and to seek refuge in Him.
Precautions against evil.—What precautions do we not take to avoid an infectious air, and to prevent a contagious distemper from spreading? How much greater reason have we to shun those persons who are to us an occasion of sin, were they, on the account of their advice, protection, and assistance, as dear to us as our hands, our feet, and our eyes? How much more still ought we to cut off all criminal, unprofitable, and dangerous use of our senses, our mind, and our body?—P. Quesnel.
Mar_9:44. The worm of remorse.—Who can conceive the torment of this gnawing worm, namely, of the eternal reproach of conscience, when a man shall reflect upon the graces and mercies of God which he has despised, and on the preference he has made of the shadow of a momentary happiness, before a substantial and eternal good, which is God Himself?—Ibid.
Mar_9:45. The cutting off of the foot is the breaking off all commerce with the world by a holy retirement, whenever it becomes necessary to salvation. To quit the occasions of falling is not a counsel of perfection, but a necessary duty, since salvation depends upon it.—Ibid.
Mar_9:49. The true sacrificial fire of self-denial and self-mortification in relation to the fiery flame of hell.
1. The relation: all must be salted with fire.
2. The contrast: to be prepared for the fire by salt, or to be salted with fire.—J. P. Lange, D.D.
The two fires.—We cannot escape the fire; but we have the choice between the fire of life and the fire of death.—Ibid.
Learn—
1. Christians ought to be as spiritual sacrifices or oblations offered up to God in this life.
2. The ministry of the Word ought to be as salt to season men for God, and fit for His use and service.
3. As salt, being of a hot and dry nature, is apt to bite and fret the raw skin or flesh, so the Word of God, preached and applied to men’s consciences, is apt to cause pain and grief.—G. Petter.
Mar_9:50. Saltless salt.—Three times, in different connexions, this proverb is recorded in Christ’s teaching, in each case in reference to the failure of that which was excellent and hopeful. In St. Matthew it is applied generally to the influence of His new people on the world; in St. Mark to the danger to ourselves of the careless or selfish use of our personal influence; in St. Luke to the conditions of sincere discipleship. But in all cases it contemplates the possible failure of religion to do its perfect work.—Dean Church.
Deterioration.—There is such a thing as moral and spiritual decay—in standard, motive, devotion, sacrifice, goodness. What are the signs of it?
1. A lowered and attenuated ideal. Christ has little by little become almost a personal stranger. We have not consciously renounced Him, but have lagged so far behind in the journey that He is quite out of our sight and reach. 2. A growing indifference to all great enterprise for Christ.
3. A deepening indifference to truth for its own sake, though not infrequently accompanied with an augmenting fierceness of controversy and a spirit of partisanship in contending with those on the other side. Few forms of self-deceit are more treacherous or more hardening than that which thinks to contend for the truth without love.
4. Inconsistency in the use and enjoyment of what we understand by earthly and worldly things. To aim at both worlds is usually to end in enjoying neither.—Bishop Thorold.
True savour.—If we merely have the salt of good doctrine, without having the true savour and seasoning of personal godliness, we may become utterly worthless—like the waters of the “Dead Sea,” so called, whose waters receive a large quantity of salt, but which, by remaining stagnant, become so dense that nothing can live or grow in them.—S. Jenner.
Christians the salt of the earth.—It is for the best welfare of every nation and city on the face of the earth that the children of God should be in it, not merely for its spiritual welfare, but even that the blessing of God may descend upon it in earthly matters, the hand of God guiding and directing it. It is for the best interests both of this life and of the life to come that the children of God should pervade the earth from one end to another, and that the blessing of God should rest upon all men for their sakes. No doubt in the process of thus spreading through the earth the children of God may be persecuted and harassed and vexed; death may be their portion; their earthly goods may be spoiled at the hands of ungodly men; they may suffer for their faithfulness to Christ and to His cause. Are they not the liker to the salt which perishes in the very using, and is crushed into extinction simply by doing its work in the world? Let them be scattered abroad, therefore, come of them what may; and then, when the gospel shall have been preached in all the nations of the world, when there is something of this salt of the earth scattered everywhere, then we are told the end shall come, the world shall be ready for its blessing, ready for the presence of its God, ready to become the new heavens and the new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness.—A. Melvill, D.D.
Peace without, from purity within.—The meaning of the last clause in this verse is, that the strongest personal character is quite consistent with the gentlest Christian temper and behaviour. Christ intends to say, that His disciples not only may be calm and decided too; but that, if they are true ones, that is just what they will be.—S. Rickards.
ILLUSTRATIONS TO CHAPTER 9
Mar_9:42. Wrong done to a child.—One of the most pathetic stories of the wrong done to children is, to my mind, that which a good man tells of his own childhood more than a hundred and fifty years ago. It was a Scotch Communion Sunday, and amidst the crowd who thronged to that solemn ordinance there came a boy of eight who managed to pass unnoticed into the church. He heard a part of the minister’s address, and tells us that he commended Christ in so sweet and delightful a manner that his heart was captivated. But just then a stern official caught sight of the young intruder, and indignantly bade him go out of the sanctuary, as though he had been some leprous Uzziah, instead of one of the lambs of Christ’s flock. The Church has not thought it worth while to preserve in grateful memory the name of that austere upholder of ecclesiastical discipline, but the boy he excommunicated lived to ennoble one of the commonest of common names, for he is known to us and to many as the saintly John Brown, of Haddington.
Mar_9:44. Future punishment.—Men in these times seem unwilling to hear of future punishment. They talk as if “a certain class of preachers” invented hell and kept it burning to enforce their precepts. I was in Naples in 1884, the year that cholera was epidemic. The Neapolitans accused the physicians of bringing the cholera. The physicians predicted it; they told the people that unless they cleaned up their city the scourge would come. They laid down rules and gave warning. So when the cholera came, the people thought the physicians brought it to intimidate them into washing themselves and keeping their back yards clean, so they threw stones at the physicians and drove them out of the city. These physicians had come to risk their lives for the ungrateful people who rejected them. Thus when preachers begin to talk of the scourge which will follow sin, the people—that is, some of them—begin to think the preachers are in some way responsible for this scourge. The preachers are assailed as cruel, fanatical, behind the times, and all that. Our Lord is a physician. He came and found the disease of sin and its fatal consequences here already. He did not bring them. He left His home to improve the sanitary condition of this world, to cleanse its filth. And in order to induce men to submit to His treatment, He warns them to flee from the wrath to come.—R. S. Barrett.
“Worm that dieth not.”—It has been discovered that there are worms which eat and live upon stone. Many such have been found in a freestone wall in Normandy. So there is a worm in hell—conscience—which lives upon the stony heart of the condemned sinners.
Hell in the present life.—A man may be in hell here as well as hereafter. No more striking illustration can be supplied than that of Lady Macbeth. After the murder of Banquo she cannot rest. She rises from her bed and walks about. She rubs and rubs, as if washing her hands, and continues it for a quarter of an hour. She fancies she sees a spot of blood on them. She cannot take it out; her hands will not be clean, and she cries, “Here’s the smell of the blood still; all the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand. Oh! oh! oh!”
Mar_9:47. Danger prevented.—A blind man was once asked whether he had no desire that his sight should be restored to him; he answered boldly, “No; because Jesus says, ‘If thine eye offend thee, pluck it out.’ God probably saw that mine eyes would offend me, so as to endanger my soul, and so He has prevented this great evil by plucking them out Himself; and I thank Him for it.”
Mar_9:50. Salt losing its savour.—A merchant of Sidon, having farmed of the government the revenue from the importation of salt, brought over an immense quantity from the marshes of Cyprus—enough, in fact, to supply the whole province for at least twenty years. This he transferred to the mountains, to cheat the government out of some small percentage. Sixty-five houses were rented and filled with salt. These houses had merely earthrn floors, and the salt next the ground in a few years entirely spoiled. I saw large quantities of it literally thrown into the street, to be trodden underfoot of men and beasts. It was “good for nothing.”—Wm. Thomson, D.D.
Salt and peace.—Every one who has sojourned in the East has some story to tell of the sacredness attached by Arabs to a compact which has been ratified by salt; how the man who one day would have plundered you of all will the next day sacrifice everything he values, if need be, if in the meantime you have tasted his salt. Some think that in this verse our Lord refers to this well-known fact. An unseemly quarrel had taken place amongst His disciples: “What was it that ye disputed among yourselves by the way? But they held their peace; for by the way they had disputed among themselves who should be greatest.” The very children of the desert teach the disciples a lesson. They had been brought “into the bond of the covenant”; they had eaten of the “king’s salt”; had been “salted with the salt of the palace” (Ezr_4:14). How can they dispute who are bound by the most solemn obligations to perpetual amity and love?
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
William B. Godbey 1900 · Public Domain On vv42, 45, 49 Mat 18:6-8; Mar 9:42-44. “Whosoever may offend one of…
RESPONSIBILITY OF OFFENDING THE LITTLE ONES
Mat 18:6-8; Mar 9:42-44. “Whosoever may offend one of these little ones who believe in Me, it is better for him rather if a millstone is hung round his neck, and he has been plunged into the sea. If thy hand may offend thee, cut it off; it is good for thee to enter into life maimed, rather than having two hands to go away into hell, into the fire that can not be quenched, where the worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched.”
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Mat 18:7 : “Woe unto the world because of offenses! It is necessary that offenses come; but woe to that man by whom the offense cometh!” So long as we are on probation, temptation, which is but another name for offense, supervenes as a logical sequence. Our Lord is here speaking primarily of natural infants, but also including the spiritual; i.e., young converts. You see the awful and momentous responsibility devolving on all the people who offend these infants, natural and spiritual. What does this mean? It simply means leading them into sin, by precept or example, nolens, volens. There is a deep sleep on all the world appertaining to this awful responsibility. By the wonderful redeeming grace of Christ, every human being is born in the kingdom of God, and only gets out by sinning out. O what an awful wreckage is everywhere going on! Parents and Churches are blind to these stupendous facts. How long infantile justification is retained depends upon the light shining in the home, and the opportunities available. With some, the age of responsibility is reached much earlier that in case of others. Which should be the grand enterprise of all parents, to so bring up their children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, so culture and fortify, as to retain them indefinitely in the kingdom. I trow, this will be the normal economy during the millennium, when the generations will look back on their predecessors with horror and astonishment, because they permitted their children to sin away their infantile justification, become backsliders, and take chances between reclamation and damnation. Doubtless the majority who go from earth to populate heaven during these probationary ages, die in their infancy, thus including one-half of the whole human race, in reference to whom there is no defalcation. Awful responsibilities in eternity and judgment await the people who have been instrumental in leading infants to commit sin. How frequently the parents, brothers, and sisters thus inadvertently crimson their hands in the blood of the little ones, actually leading them across the line, out of infantile justification, into the kingdom of Satan! God sets great store on these infants, both natural and spiritual, because His Son left heaven and suffered and died for them. He wants them to glorify Him on earth, people heaven, and do His will through all eternity. Hence the awful responsibility devolving on the audacious person who may prove instrumental in their abduction out of the kingdom. O how reckless, thoughtless, and foolhardy people are in their treatment of the little ones! “Offend” here is scindahzo, from scandalon, and means a stumblingblock. Therefore anything said or done, causing an infant or a young convert to waver or stumble in the rectilinear way of truth, innocence, and righteousness, is the offense here so rigidly stigmatized and terrifically anathematized. We know that infants have evil tempers, which nothing but entire sanctification can remove. The mere existence of this hereditary evil does not vitiate their justification, as they received it by irresponsible heredity; while its arousement would lead to voluntary acts of sin, calculated to forfeit their justification, and occasion stumbling and falling. Paul says: “Fathers, provoke not your children to wrath;” i.e., do nothing to make them angry. The responsibility of parents, permitting their children to associate with evil companions, is simply immeasurable, amounting to the awful reality of giving them a ticket over the Black Valley route to hell.
William B. Godbey, Commentary on the New Testament (1896–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Alexander MacLaren 1905 · Public Domain On vv49–50 Mark ix. 49.
Mark
SALTED WITH FIRE
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Mark ix. 49.
Our Lord has just been uttering some of the most solemn words that ever came from His gracious lips. He has been enjoining the severest self-suppression, extending even to mutilation and excision of the eye, the hand, or the foot, that might cause us to stumble. He has been giving that sharp lesson on the ground of plain common sense and enlightened self-regard. It is better, obviously, to live maimed than to die whole. The man who elects to keep a mortified limb, and thereby to lose life, is a suicide and a fool. It is a solemn thought that a similar mad choice is possible in the moral and spiritual region.
To these stern injunctions, accompanied by the awful sanctions of that consideration, our Lord appends the words of my text. They are obscure and have often been misunderstood. This is not the place to enter on a discussion of the various explanations that have been proposed of them. A word or two is all that is needful to put us in possession of the point of view from which I wish to lay them on your hearts at this time.
I take the ‘every one’ of my text to mean not mankind generally, but every individual of the class whom our Lord is addressing-that is to say, His disciples. He is laying down the law for all Christians. I take the paradox which brings together ‘salting’ and ‘fire,’ to refer, not to salt as a means of communicating savour to food, but as a means of preserving from putrefaction. And I take the ‘fire’ here to refer, not to the same process which is hinted at in the awful preceding words, ‘the fire in not quenched,’ but to be set in opposition to that fire, and to mean something entirely different. There is a fire that destroys, and there is a fire that preserves; and the alternative for every man is to choose between the destructive and the conserving influences. Christian disciples have to submit to be ‘salted with fire,’ lest a worse thing befall them,
I. And so the first point that I would ask you to notice here is-that fiery cleansing to which every Christian must yield.
Now I have already referred to the relation between the words of my text and those immediately preceding, as being in some sense one of opposition and contrast. I think we are put on the right track for understanding the solemn words of this text if we remember the great saying of John the Baptist, where, in precisely similar fashion, there are set side by side the two conceptions of the chaff being cast into the unquenchable fire {the same expression as in our text}, and ‘He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire.’
The salting fire, then, which cleanses and preserves, and to which every Christian soul must submit itself, to be purged thereby, is, as I take it, primarily and fundamentally the fire of that Divine Spirit which Christ Himself told us that He had come to cast upon the earth, and yearned, in a passion of desire, to see kindled. The very frequent use of the emblem in this same signification throughout Scripture, I suppose I need not recall to you. It seems to me that the only worthy interpretation of the words before us, which goes down into their depths and harmonises with the whole of the rest of the teaching of Scripture, is that which recognises these words of my text as no unwelcome threat, as no bitter necessity, but as a joyful promise bringing to men, laden and burdened with their sins, the good news that it is possible for them to be purged from them entirely by the fiery ministration of that Divine Spirit. Just as we take a piece of foul clay and put it into the furnace, and can see, as it gets red-hot, the stains melt away, as a cloud does in the blue, from its surface, so if we will plunge ourselves into the influences of that divine power which Christ has come to communicate to the world, our sin and all our impurities will melt from off us, and we shall be clean. No amount of scrubbing with soap and water will do it. The stain is a great deal too deep for that, and a mightier solvent than any that we can apply, if unaided and unsupplied from above, is needed to make us clean. ‘Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean,’ especially when the would-be bringer is himself the unclean thing? Surely not one. Unless there be a power ab extra, unparticipant of man’s evils, and yet capable of mingling with the evil man’s inmost nature, and dealing with it, then I believe that universal experience and our individual experience tell us that there is no hope that we shall ever get rid of our transgressions.
Brethren, for a man by his own unaided effort, however powerful, continuous, and wisely directed it may be, to cleanse himself utterly from his iniquity, is as hopeless as it would be for him to sit down with a hammer and a chisel and try by mechanical means to get all the iron out of a piece of ironstone. The union is chemical, not mechanical. And so hammers and chisels will only get a very little of the metal out. The one solvent is fire. Put the obstinate crude ore into your furnace, and get the temperature up, and the molten metal will run clear. There should be mountains of scoriae, the dross and relics of our abandoned sins, around us all.
If we desire to be delivered, let us go into the fire. It will burn up all our evil, and it will burn up nothing else. Keep close to Christ. Lay your hearts open to the hallowing influences of the motives and the examples that lie in the story of His life and death. Seek for the fiery touch of that transforming Spirit, and be sure that you quench Him not, nor grieve Him. And then your weakness will be reinvigorated by celestial powers, and the live coal upon your lips will burn up all your iniquity.
But, subordinately to this deepest meaning, as I take it, of the great symbol of our text, let me remind you of another possible application of it, which follows from the preceding. God’s Spirit cleanses men mainly by raising their spirits to a higher temperature. For coldness is akin to sin, and heavenly warmth is akin to righteousness. Enthusiasm always ennobles, delivers men, even on the lower reaches of life and conduct from many a meanness and many a sin. And when it becomes a warmth of spirit kindled by the reception of the fire of God, then it becomes the solvent which breaks the connection between me and my evil. It is the cold Christian who makes no progress in conquering his sin. The one who is filled with the love of God, and has the ardent convictions and the burning enthusiasm which that love ought to produce in our hearts, is the man who will conquer and eject his evils.
Nor must we forget that there is still another possible application of the words. For whilst, on the one hand, the Divine Spirit’s method of delivering us is very largely that of imparting to us the warmth of ardent, devout emotion; on the other hand, a part of this method is the passing of us through the fiery trials and outward disciplines of life. ‘Every one shall be salted with fire’ in that sense. And we have learned, dear brethren, but little of the loving kindness of the Lord if we are not able to say, ‘I have grown more in likeness to Jesus Christ by rightly accepted sorrows than by anything besides.’ Be not afraid of calamities; be not stumbled by disaster. Take the fiery trial which is sent to you as being intended to bring about, at the last, the discovery ‘unto praise and honour and glory’ of your faith, that is ‘much more precious than gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire.’ ‘Every one shall be salted with fire,’ the Christian law of life is, Submit to the fiery cleansing. Alas! alas! for the many thousands of professing Christians who are wrapping themselves in such thick folds of non-conducting material that that fiery energy can only play on the surface of their lives, instead of searching them to the depths. Do you see to it, dear brethren, that you lay open your whole natures, down to the very inmost roots, to the penetrating, searching, cleansing power of that Spirit. And let us all go and say to Him, ‘Search me, O God! and try me, and see if there be any wicked way in me.’
II. Notice the painfulness of this fiery cleansing.
The same ideas substantially are conveyed in my text as are expressed, in different imagery, by the solemn words that precede it. The ‘salting with fire’ comes substantially to the same thing as the amputation of the hand and foot, and the plucking out of the eye, that cause to stumble. The metaphor expresses a painful process. It is no pleasant thing to submit the bleeding stump to the actual cautery, and to press it, all sensitive, upon the hot plate that will stop the flow of blood. But such pain of shrinking nerves is to be borne, and to be courted, if we are wise, rather than to carry the hand or the eye that led astray unmutilated into total destruction. Surely that is common sense.
The process is painful because we are weak. The highest ideal of Christian progress would be realised if one of the metaphors with which our Lord expresses it were adequate to cover the whole ground, and we grew as the wheat grows, ‘first the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear.’ But the tranquillity of vegetable growth, and the peaceful progress which it symbolises, are not all that you and I have to expect. Emblems of a very different kind have to be associated with that of the quiet serenity of the growing corn, in order to describe all that a Christian man has to experience in the work of becoming like his Master. It is a fight as well as a growth; it is a building requiring our continuity of effort, as well as a growth. There is something to be got rid of as well as much to be appropriated. We do not only need to become better, we need to become less bad. Squatters have camped on the land, and cling to it and hold it vi et armis; and these have to be ejected before peaceful settlement is possible.
One might go on multiplying metaphors ad libitum, in order to bring out the one thought that it needs huge courage to bear being sanctified, or, if you do not like the theological word, to bear being made better. It is no holiday task, and unless we are willing to have a great deal that is against the grain done to us, and in us, and by us, we shall never achieve it. We have to accept the pain. Desires have to be thwarted, and that is not pleasant. Self has to be suppressed, and that is not delightsome. A growing conviction of the depth of one’s own evil has to be cherished, and that is not a grateful thought for any of us. Pains external, which are felt by reason of disciplinary sorrows, are not worthy to be named in the same day as those more recondite and inward agonies. But, brother, they are all ‘light’ as compared with the exceeding weight of ‘glory,’ coming from conformity to the example of our Master, which they prepare for us.
And so I bring you Christ’s message: He will have no man to enlist in His army under false pretences. He will not deceive any of us by telling us that it is all easy work and plain sailing. Salting by fire can never be other than to the worse self an agony, just because it is to the better self a rapture. And so let us make up our minds that no man is taken to heaven in his sleep, and that the road is a rough one, judging from the point of view of flesh and sense; but though rough, narrow, often studded with sharp edges, like the plough coulters that they used to lay in the path in the old rude ordeals, it still leads straight to the goal, and bleeding feet are little to pay for a seat at Christ’s right hand.
III. Lastly, notice the preservative result of this painful cleansing.
Our Lord brings together, in our text, as is often His wont, two apparently contradictory ideas, in order, by the paradox, to fix our attention the more vividly upon His words. Fire destroys; salt preserves. They are opposites. But yet the opposites may be united in one mighty reality, a fire which preserves and does not destroy. The deepest truth is that the cleansing fire which the Christ will give us preserves us, because it destroys that which is destroying us. If you kill the germs of putrefaction in a hit of dead flesh, you preserve the flesh; and if you bring to bear upon a man the power which will kill the thing that is killing him, its destructive influence is the condition of its conserving one.
And so it is, in regard to that great spiritual influence which Jesus Christ is ready to give to every one of us. It slays that which is slaying us, for our sins destroy in us the true life of a man, and make us but parables of walking death. When the three Hebrews were cast into the fiery furnace in Babylon, the flames burned nothing but their bonds, and they walked at liberty in the fire. And so it will be with us. We shall be preserved by that which slays the sins that would otherwise slay us.
Let me lay on your hearts before I close the solemn alternative to which I have already referred, and which is suggested by the connection of my text with the preceding words. There is a fire that destroys and is not quenched. Christ’s previous words are much too metaphorical for us to build dogmatic definitions upon. But Jesus Christ did not exaggerate. If here and now sin has so destructive an effect upon a man, O, who will venture to say that he knows the limits of its murderous power in that future life, when retribution shall begin with new energy and under new conditions? Brethren, whilst I dare not enlarge, I still less dare to suppress; and I ask you to remember that not I, or any man, but Jesus Christ Himself, has put before each of us this alternative-either the fire unquenchable, which destroys a man, or the merciful fire, which slays his sins and saves him alive.
Social reformers, philanthropists, you that have tried and failed to overcome your evil, and who feel the loathly thing so intertwisted with your being that to pluck it from your heart is to tear away the very heart’s walls themselves, here is a hope for you. Closely as our evil is twisted in with the fibres of our character, there is a hand that can untwine the coils, and cast away the sin, and preserve the soul. And although we sometimes feel as if our sinfulness and our sin were so incorporated with ourselves that it made oneself, with a man’s head and a serpent’s tail, let us take the joyful assurance that if we trust ourselves to Christ, and open our hearts to His power, we can shake off the venomous beast into the fire and live a fuller life, because the fire has consumed that which would otherwise have consumed us.
Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain On vv43, 45, 47 hell gehenna.
hell gehenna.
(See Scofield "Mat 5:22")
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain On v45 The conclusion of Christ’s discourse:
The conclusion of Christ’s discourse:
v. 45. And if thy foot offend thee, cut it off; it is better for thee to enter halt into life, than having two feet to be cast into hell, into the fire that never shall be quenched,
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v. 46. where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched.
v. 47. And if thine eye offend thee, pluck it out; it is better for thee to enter into the kingdom of God with one eye, than, having two eyes, to be cast into hell-fire,
v. 48. where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched.
v. 49. For everyone shall be salted with fire, and every sacrifice shall be salted with salt.
v. 50. Salt is good; but if the salt have lost his saltness, wherewith will ye season it? Have salt in yourselves, and have peace one with another.
Christ here mentions some other members that are very apt to offend, to commit sin, to lead others into sin. The law of sin is always active in our members. Here it is necessary that a person keep these members in subjection. For the Lord speaks figuratively and does not want to be understood, as Luther says, that He here advocates physical mutilation or dismemberment, since that would obviously not take the sin and the desire to sin out of the heart. It is the heart which must be controlled by the spirit of love toward Christ and our neighbor, in order that the hand, the foot, the eye do not perform that which sin desires them to do. Whosoever places his members into the service of sin, of uncleanness, and unrighteousness here in this life, will hereafter pay the penalty for such transgression in all eternity. But whosoever, with the help of the Holy Ghost, brings his members into subjection, trains them, holds his desires in check, does not permit sin to reign in his body, he will retain faith and a good conscience, he will keep body and soul unto life eternal. Note: This passage makes such a deep impression on account of the earnestness of the Savior and because of His solemn reference to the fire of hell, and to the worm that will not die, and to the fire that will not be quenched. The fires of the Valley of Hinnom, near Jerusalem, where all the refuse of the city was burned, were commonly taken as a type of the fires of hell. As these fires burned without ceasing, day and night, so the fires of hell will offer no respite. And as the worms were continually feeding on the remains of carcasses and refuse that was dumped out into that valley, so some of the torments of hell will be like the ceaseless gnawing of worms. To try to crack jokes at the expense of the doctrine of hell, or to deny this doctrine outright, for the flimsiest reasons, is decidedly blasphemous in view of such passages as the present and Luk 16:28.
This sacrifice, this continual working and bringing into subjection one’s own members for the sake of Christ, is demanded by Christ in the interest of His purpose to make every Christian and the entire Christian Church a salt in this world. As every sacrifice of the Old Testament had to be salted, Lev 2:13, so every disciple, every believer, must be salted with fire. Jesus does not refer, in this instance, to the fire of hell, but to the purifying fire of His rule and leading. It is the discipline of the Word and the Spirit of God which gradually cleanses the believers of sin, and kills the works and desires of the flesh, and the fire of tribulation, which renders sin and its results unpleasant, 1Pe 1:4. This fire incidentally performs the work of a salt, it prevents moral rotting and a relapse into the service of sin. And the Christians that have been sanctified by the Word and the Spirit of God and whose sanctification is progressing continually should have this salt with them always, in doctrine and admonition. They shall freely, as occasion offers, rebuke the false works of the world, instead of permitting the world to lead them into sin. But among themselves, one with another, they should maintain peace and not boastingly seek self-glorification. The fact that the Gospel is a salt is brought out strongly by Luther in admonishing the Christians to be a true salt. "Where the salt loses its saltiness, and the Gospel is spoiled with doctrines of men, there the old Adam no longer can be spiced, there the worms will grow. But salt is sharp; therefore it is necessary to have patience and peace in the salt."
Summary.After the miracle of the transfiguration, Jesus heals a deaf-mute boy, gives His disciples information concerning their inability to cast this demon out, announces His Passion for the second time, and gives them a long discourse on service, humility, and on giving offense.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv42, 45, 47, 49 a large, round stone used for grinding grain into…
millstone
a large, round stone used for grinding grain into flour
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If your hand causes you to stumble
Here "hand" is a metonym for desiring to do something sinful that you would do with your hand. AT: "If you want to do something sinful with one of your hands" (See: Metonymy)
to enter into life maimed
"to be maimed and then to enter into life" or "to be maimed before entering into life"
to enter into life
Dying and then beginning to live eternally is spoken of as entering into life. AT: "to enter into eternal life" or "to die and begin to live forever" (See: Metaphor)
maimed
missing a body part as a result of having it removed or being injured. Here it refers to missing a hand. AT: "without a hand" or "missing a hand"
into the unquenchable fire
"where the fire cannot be put out"
translationWords
believe
stumble
eternity
life
hell
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv42, 43, 48, 49 9:42-50 if you cause . . . sin: The…
9:42-50 if you cause . . . sin: The consequences of causing sin ties these verses together (9:42-43, 45, 47). These sayings were not meant to be interpreted literally, for carrying them out would not prevent sin (see Matt 15:10-20). What Jesus conveys by these warnings is that no sin is worth going to hell for. It is better to repent—even if repenting is as painful as cutting off a hand, foot, or eye—than to suffer the punishment of hell.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.