Let’s start with the scripture today.

Mark 9:42-48 (NLT)

42 “But if you cause one of these little ones who trusts in me to fall into sin, it would be better for you to be thrown into the sea with a large millstone hung around your neck. 43 If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It’s better to enter eternal life with only one hand than to go into the unquenchable fires of hell[a]with two hands.[b] 45 If your foot causes you to sin, cut it off. It’s better to enter eternal life with only one foot than to be thrown into hell with two feet.[c] 47 And if your eye causes you to sin, gouge it out. It’s better to enter the Kingdom of God with only one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into hell, 48 ‘where the maggots never die and the fire never goes out.’[d]

Whew! What do we do with this? Cutting off parts of our body? or hanging a millstone around your neck to be thrown into the sea? These are pretty strong statements. Obviously Jesus wants us to take our sins seriously and to go to the root of the problems that cause us to sin.

First, Jesus takes it very seriously when we cause others to sin – especially children and young Christians who have begun to trust in Jesus. What is our example to these people. Do they look at us and say, “Well Janice does it, why shouldn’t I?” Or do we take the current political trends as if they came straight from the Bible, and teach others that it must be OK — that even Jesus would approve, when in fact all of scripture speaks out against it?

If your hand causes you to sin… How can my hand cause me to sin? Jesus may be using figurative speech to mean what we do with our hands. Do we use our hands to comfort other people and to be productive, or do we use them to cause harm to others?

If your foot causes you to sin… Again, I feel this is figurative speech referring to places we go. Where do you spend your time? Do you go places that are uplifting? Places that will have a positive effect on your life? Or are you hanging out in places that will entice you to sin or to get you in trouble?

And how can your eye cause you to sin? Again, consider what you look at every day… We use our eyes to learn, but what are we learning? What do we read? What do we watch on TV, videos, or at the movies? What kinds of scenery do you seek out to look at? …beautiful mountain scenes and beaches, or half naked people lying on the beach? And what about pornography? One of Satan’s best tools for breaking down families and relationships is pornography. Make a sharp turnaround if you are only slightly tempted by porn. Images like these stay in your mind forever and can only affect your thinking for the worse.

Most of scripture speaks of the body as a temple of God. We are taught to keep it holy. Jesus isn’t encouraging us to mutilate our bodies, but to first consider the consequences of what we do. Perhaps we would be better off to remove a body part if that were the only way to avoid sin, but it certainly wouldn’t be the first place to start.