No matter what your aspirations are in life, indeed, no matter what you want to do in your life…HEED THESE WORDS: Aspire to be a surgeon! It’s in the Bible, and Jesus tells you that it is best for you! Be a surgeon! Oops, gotta go, they are paging me…..”Paging Doctor Jan, Paging Doctor Jan…..Report to surgery immediately….paging Doctor Jan”…….
Mark 9:43-47 (TNIV)
43 If your hand causes you to stumble, 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 stumble, 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 stumble, 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,
You will notice that verses 44 and 46 are not there. This is a good time to explain why. If you are a “King James is the only authorized version” person, It would do good to ask why verses were left out instead of flatly proclaiming that other versions leave out part of the Bible. Click here to at least know why.
These verses are often thought of as Bible Difficulties because they seem to suggest self-mutilation. They do not. Jesus is simply putting emphasis….STRONG EMPHASIS…..on the importance of removing sin from our life. True, we all know that we will not be completely sin-free here on this earth. However, Jesus recognizes and wants us to have an attitude of renouncing sin in our lives instead of holding on to it.
Let me point out that simply cutting out our lustful eyes, cutting off our hands or feet……will not stop us at all for sinning. Why, because sin is in our heart and mind. That is where we must free ourselves. It’s not in our body parts.
Here is a bold statement: While God does not PUNISH the sin in our lives (The punishment for sin has been paid for by the death and resurrection of Jesus…all sins, past, present and future)…..He recognizes that all sin has consequences and is warning us against those consequences. Indeed, our sin has been nailed to the cross with Jesus.
Romans 8:1-2 1 (TNIV)
Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, 2 because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death.
I would also note that we must distinguish between “punishment” and “discipline”. Punishment is a penalty inflicted for an offense or a fault. Discipline is how God lovingly turns us, His children, from rebellion to obedience.
As I said earlier, yes, there are consequences and they are often much more involved and deeper than we can even imagine. i.e., it is not just the sin of one lie….but the consequences of what the attitude of lying does in our heart, our relationships, and our credibility before others as well as the practical things like getting caught in lies, the propensity to lie when not even needed (developing a habit), etc. Look closely at what happens in life that you feel a victim of…..often it has its roots in your own sin! Indeed, all sin is like this.
Back to being a surgeon…a spiritual surgeon……..Jesus is stressing here the importance of cutting the sin out of our lives. It often requires painful discipline on our part (remember though that allowing sin to remain in our lives is also painful!). It might be important to give up a relationship, a job, or a habit that is against God’s will. We must be ruthless in cutting these sins out of our lives RIGHT NOW in order to avoid being stuck with them for eternity and in order to avoid being stuck with their consequences for the rest of our lives. This kind of surgery has both an earthly and eternal perspective.
EARTHLY CONSEQUNCES and PERSPECTIVE: We must live with the consequences of our sin on this earth. DON’T EVEN complain if you lose your job because you lied to your boss…..HELLOOO….those are the consequences of YOUR actions. I know this hurts, but: don’t even complain if life is tough because single parenthood is tough, if you had a child out of wedlock. Yes….these are the earthly consequences of your own sin. Don’t even complain if you go to jail for illegal drugs (or become addicted) and everything in life begins to go south (loss of job, loss of relationships, loss of self-worth, depression, etc). HELLOOOOOOOO these are the earthly consequences of you very own sin.
HERE IS THE GOOD NEWS! Jesus forgives you! Then, now and forever! You now have the opportunity to take what is left, turn from that sin (change your ways), and indeed, Jesus will be there beside you through the tough consequences. Sometimes we just have to take the consequences of our own actions on the chin, change and move on. This is called, “repentance”.
ETERNAL CONSEQUENCES and PERSPECTIVE: Be careful that the sin in your life or the earthly consequences of your sin doesn’t take you down the road to losing your faith in the great healer, your Redeemer, Messiah and Savior. Yes, there can be eternal consequences!
Make your choices with these perspectives in mind. Scrub your hands and put on your scrubs! Walk into the operating room of life and start removing the sin that is infecting your day, your night and your tomorrow. Cut out that temptation, cut off the sin, and then……you will start to heal! Yes, you will start to heal and Jesus will be there right beside you every step of the way with encouragement, with blessing, with a smile and indeed………..with love.