Christian Photographers Community

Mark 9:38-50
Let Love Be Purified

Our Father in Heaven wants His people to love one another. He Himself loves them so much that He even gave His only begotten Son for them, and, loving them that much, He wants each of them to love all His people too. Do we love Him?  Then we should love His people.

We first need to realize that by the time of this incident the disciples greatly valued Jesus' teaching. Not only so, but, having been with Him day and night for at least several months, it had gradually dawned on them that their Master's actions were just like His teaching.  They saw how He ministered lovingly to individuals with all sorts of needs, they saw how earnestly He prayed to His Father, and they saw how  patiently He reacted to the frustrations of daily life.

It's easy to imagine that the disciples felt that their training was wonderful and that it was the only adequate training there could be for service to Jesus. In fact, it appears from the incident before us that they thought that anyone who wanted to minister in Jesus' Name had to become His disciple just as they had.

Anyone who tried to minister to people in Jesus' Name without such training simply must not understand what was involved, and they should be restrained if possible, then perhaps told to apply to Jesus for more intense discipleship training before continuing.

Such an attitude was understandable, given the intensity with which they themselves had been discipled. But though it was understandable, it needed correction.  Jesus said, "Do not hinder him, for no one who performs works of power in My name is quickly able to speak evil of Me." He makes it clear that even the most insignificant work done in Jesus' Name brands the worker as one of His disciples.

He gives them a vivid example. He says, "For whoever provides you (even) a cup of water in My name, because you are of Christ, truly I say to you that that one shall not lose his wages." What He's saying is that any kindness - even the most insignificant - done out of love to Christ is acceptable to God, and the doer should be accepted – loved - by all who call themselves followers of the Master.

Of course it's important to know what it means to do works "in Christ's name." At the very least it means that the one doing it believes in Jesus – believes that He's the Messiah of God and knows that He's to be worshipped and served as Lord. Such beliefs, if genuine, brand the the worker as acceptable to the Lord, and he needs to be accepted by other Christians as well. They don't have to agree with him 100% of the time, but they need to accept him as a genuine believer, and they need to love him, and help him.


Brothers and sisters – are there people out there who believe Jesus is from God and who know that He's to be worshipped and served as Lord?  Do you love them even if they have a different denominational name than you or I?

But let's go on.  When we look at the rest of our Lord's teaching here, the teaching about little children - Is the subject suddenly changed? Has Jesus quit teaching about the acceptability of discipes who are outside the immediate company of His followers? Does He begin in verse 42 to teach about the subject of little children, and then, in verse 43, does He change subject again to teach about "things that cause you to stumble?" I don't think the subject changes at all.

To our Lord every believer is precious - even the man the disciples were trying to stop. He mustn't stumble on their account. In fact, if His disciples even caused the stumbling of one so insignificant as a mere child who believed in Jesus, then they'd be better off to have had a millstone hung around their necks and to be cast into the lake!

NOTHING must be allowed to jeopardize the faith of even the most insignificant of believers! What He's saying here is that you and I must not allow anything, even though it be be a part of our own bodies, to jeopardize our faith - even if it's something as precious as a hand, a foot, or an eye.  If it's causing us to stumble in our faith, then it must be treated as the worst of all possible enemies! It should be cut off and disposed of - because that's a lot better than failure to enter the Kingdom of God!

It doesn't mean you and I should go around mutilating ourselves.  It does mean we've got to get serious about our relationship to God and to other believers.  Whatever stands in the way of that has got to go!

The only allowable criteria for separating those we love and help from those we don't is the criteria of works done in Christ's Name, works that please Him. In other words, I must allow others to live and minister in Christ's Name, no matter how they displease me by their manner of service. I may, prayerfully and carefully, seek to correct them, but I mustn't stop loving them. And I mustn't attempt to stop them from serving Jesus merely because they don't do exactly what I do. We need to remember Paul's admonition to "Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself." (Phil. 2:3, NKJV)

Our Lord's words here absolutely prohibit denominationalism. If a Baptist, a Presbyterian, an independent, or any other claims to be a follower of Christ, claims to be serving Him, then we must accept him and his service to our Lord as genuine. We need to love him, pray for him, and bless him. We need to walk with him, interact with him, and help him as much as we can.

The implication of our Lord's teaching here is that we mustn't allow anything to stand in the way of our service to Him or our entrance into His Kingdom – no matter what the cost. Not only must we not hinder others, but we must not allow anything to hinder ourselves either. Extreme pain and loss is preferable to such hindrance.

Dear brother or sister - how important do you consider your entrance into His Kingdom? Are you really serious about it?  Would you gladly suffer the loss of a hand, a foot, an eye - or anything else that you dearly love - to make your relationship to your Lord sure?

And of course it's a question of attitude, not of works. Our Lord doesn't want us to give up things precious to us with the idea of  thereby buying our way into His kingdom, but He does expect us to love Him first and foremost. If we do, then we'll at least have a sincere willingness to pay any price for the sake of our relationship to Him.

If we do love Him as we should, then there will be times that we have to experience pain and loss for His sake. The Christian life isn't guaranteed to be easy! There are blessed times of peace, joy, and happiness, but there are also times of trial. Our Lord has another simile here to describe the hard times: He says they're like the purification by salt and fire that must be undergone by meat or by gold. Such purification can be harsh, but it produces eternally good results.

The things we have to endure in order to be acceptable to our Lord are like purifying salt. In fact, He says, "everyone is salt-purified by fire!" He means that, at times, the purification process becomes so painful that it's more like the purification by fire used for gold than like the purification used for meat! He means that the pain we have to experience in denying ourselves for Christ's sake could sometimes be intense.

Let me illustrate. You may not be constantly happy in your marriage. You may at times be tempted to end it in favor of some other relationship that appears more promising. Your present relationship may even result in frustration and stress at times. But to indulge yourself in the temptation of a new relationship will result in sin.  That sin can only be a serious hindrance to your relationship with Christ. What to do? Discard the other relationship - don't even indulge in speculation. Love your present wife or husband by serving their best interests for the Lord's sake. You're being purified.

The purification process will have eternally good results! Peter said, "Therefore, brethren, be even more diligent to make your call and election sure, for so an entrance will be supplied to you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ." (2 Pet. 1:10, 11) Our eternal happiness depends upon submission to our Lord's purification process.

But, says our Lord, what if the purification process doesn't work? What if the "salt" doesn't do it's job in our lives? What if it becomes "unsalty?" This is just to ask what happens if we aren't changed by the process, if we're stubborn and unmoved by it. The pain is there, but the desired result isn't. The only right solution, says our Lord, is to "have salt in ourselves" - to have an inner commitment to purification out of love for Him. Let's determine in ourselves, then, to follow Him at any cost. Let's determine not to be stubborn, but to remove all hindrances, from our own paths as well as from the paths of others.

To sum it up in the words of our Lord, let's "Quit putting hindrances in one another's way." Oh that we might truly love our brethren, no matter who they are! Oh that we might properly value even ourselves for our Lord's sake, willing to cast away anything that hinders.

 Amen brother, we need more love for those brothers and sisters who love Jesus, but who dont use the same hymn sheet lol.