It Is Better For You

DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL OF MARK

IT IS BETTER FOR YOU

Mark 9:43-48

43 If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life maimed than with two hands to go into hell, where the fire never goes out.   45 And if your foot causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life crippled than to have two feet and be thrown into hell.   47 And if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into hell, 48 where "'their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched.'  

NIV

Not an easy passage to get a handle on to say the least, many scholars have such a wide set of opinions and each of them a valued view, yet perhaps any of them could have the right view. The main idea here is that we are going to have many temptations in life and we do need to understand that yielded to them is not the option we should choose. Surely we know that perfection this side of heaven will never be achieved, but blatant yielding to temptations should not be excused because we are only human. It is interesting that Jesus tells us it is our feet, hands and eyes that could be the cause for being thrown into the fire. Could the foot represent the path we walk? Could our hand represent what we reach out for? Could our eye represent what we desire, surely our desires are seen first, then headed toward and reached out for. Yes we might fail to be perfect, yes we might still have to seek his forgiveness for our giving in to some temptations, but if we are earnest about walking the path of God, and not the path of this world, and if we have turned our eyes upon Jesus, and hand reached out to touch the helm of his garment, then we surely will escape the worm and the fire. Those who walk the path  human desires, with not an ounce of concern about Jesus, in fact, refusing to acknowledge him as Lord and Savior will end up in a pile of bodies so high that the worms which feed on them will never die, never run out of food, and the fires of hell will never run out of fuel to burn. That seems an awful end of one life because of the refusal to say no to temptations. Yes, we are saved, but this is a warning even to us saved, that we should always be on guard against returning to a life we once knew, or maybe for some a life they never knew, but could be entangled by it anyway. We need to always be aware what is better for us.