The Life of Christ

Jesus uses this example of having a millstone wrapped around one’s neck and being thrown overboard to illustrate how wrong it is to cause a younger brother to stumble.

• His choice of example may have been related to a recent incident in which, according to Josephus, some Romans took a number of prisoners out into the middle of the Sea of Galilee and did this very thing.

• They literally chained them all up to one another, hooked the chain to a 1000-pound millstone, and then pushed it overboard.

Mk. 9:43-48 And if your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life crippled than with two hands to go to hell, to the unquenchable fire. 45 And if your foot causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life lame than with two feet to be thrown into hell. 47 And if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into hell, 48 where their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched.

Three times Jesus quotes this description of hell from the last verse in Isaiah as a place where the worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched.

• We are uncertain if these are literal descriptions or only comparisons to show in earthly terms the torment of hell.

• The worm refers to the maggot that consumes the body; the undying maggot implies a forever existence.

• The “fire not quenched” suggests excruciating pain that never comes to an end.

• What actual forms these might take remain unknown.

Mk. 9:49-50 “Salt is good; but if the salt becomes unsalty, with what will you make it salty again? Have salt in yourselves and be at peace with one another.”

According to Lev. 2:13, every sacrifice offered unto the Lord first had to be covered with salt.

• This was to prevent the animal sacrifice from entering putrefaction or decay.

• Rom. 12:1 likens our bodies unto living sacrifices.

• Unless we too are covered with salt, our effectiveness begins to decay.

• Saltiness for the believer is fervency or zeal; it is what fires us up.

• Heb. 1:7 says, “He makes His ministers a flame of fire."

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Mt. 18:15 If your brother sins, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother.

The New King James Version rightly adds, "If your brother sins against you.”

• This means if a fellow believer says or does something that offends you, then go to your brother or sister alone and explain why you are bothered.

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