Contemplative Bible Reading

Mark 9:42-48 (New Living Translation)

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 with two hands. 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. 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.’ NOTE: Verses 44 and 46 “are missing.” That is another topic for another day.

This is one paragraph on one topic (at least it seems that way to me on this day). This is about going to or traveling to sin. Don’t cause someone who trusts in God to travel to sin. God will remove whomever and whatever causes that doomed trip.

If I push someone on the trip to sin, God removes me. If a hand causes the trip to sin, remove it. The same with a foot or an eye. Whatever it is, remove it. Cut it off, gouge it out, rip it apart, hang an anchor around it and toss it into the depth of the sea. Be gone.

A little harsh, huh? Sorry. The path of sin is the wrong path. It is difficult enough to stay off that path. When some person or some thing nudges me towards that path of doom, be gone with it. The end.