Serious Temptation
How can we avoid temptation?
"If any of you put a stumbling block before one of these little ones who believe in me, it would be better for you if a great millstone were hung around your neck and you were thrown into the sea. If your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life maimed than to have two hands and to go to hell, to the unquenchable fire. And if your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life lame than to have two feet and to be thrown into hell. And if your eye causes you to stumble, tear it out; it is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than to have two eyes and to be thrown into hell, where their worm never dies, and the fire is never quenched. "For everyone will be salted with fire. Salt is good; but if salt has lost its saltiness, how can you season it? Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with one another." - Mark 9:42-50
Jesus talks about the kind of temptation that hurts the innocent among us. This is not just everyday, normal temptation, like eating too many cookies, or pouring another glass of wine.
This is serious temptation, the kind that points to something wrong inside.
Jesus calls this slide into temptation stumbling, making it sound like it is something any of us could easily do. To stumble is to trip on something, to lose our balance, to fall without warning.
But to cause the stumbling is intentional.
It is as if we are not aware of the actions of the thing that causes us to stumble, whether that be an eye or a hand or foot.
We all know it is not the foot or the hand that decides to lead us down the wrong path. It is our own intention, our very will. We choose to do these things, and the more evil the thing we choose, the harder it is to resolve to change our ways.
So, Jesus advocates cutting off the thing that causes us to want to do these things.
This is different from being possessed by a demon. That is something Jesus can help us with. He can cast out demons, but when our very will chooses evil, that is something else altogether.
The one who chooses to cause such stumbling is the one that has to be removed.
When we look at it that way, where the body is the Body of Christ and the hand or foot is a force of evil, then we see a whole different picture.
More to come...