In this message we shall give a further word on 9:38-50. We have pointed out that in this portion of the Gospel of Mark we have the Lord’s teaching concerning tolerance for the sake of unity.
In 8:27—9:13 we have a vision of Christ as our all-inclusive replacement through His death and resurrection. Throughout chapter nine the Lord was teaching the disciples to realize that they should be terminated and be nothing. However, in 9:33-37 we see that they were arguing with one another over the matter of who was greater. The Lord was teaching the disciples and trying to help them realize that they should be nothing, but they were arguing in their effort to be somebody, even someone who was greater than others. Therefore, in 9:33-37 we have the Lord’s teaching concerning humility.
In 9:38 John said to the Lord Jesus, “Teacher, we saw someone casting out demons in Your name who does not follow us, and we forbade him, because he was not following us.” The remainder of this chapter is given over to the Lord’s teaching concerning tolerance for the sake of unity, a teaching given in response to John’s statement in verse 38.
We need to see that if we forbid others in the way John did in verse 38, this indicates that we consider ourselves greater than others. Furthermore, when we forbid others, thinking ourselves to be greater, we also cause others to stumble. While we are causing others to stumble, we are also causing ourselves to stumble. The evil one may use the members of our body—the hand, the foot, or the eye—to express lust and cause us to stumble. We need to be very careful regarding this.
We should not consider ourselves great. Instead, we need to realize that we are nobody and nothing. If we have this realization, we shall pray. For us to pray indicates that we realize that we are nothing and that we can do nothing. We need another One—Christ Himself—to replace us.
If we do not consider ourselves to be someone great, someone greater than others, we shall not cause others to stumble. But if we think that we are great, we shall cause others to stumble. At the same time, we shall open the gate for the enemy to use the lust in our members to cause us to stumble.
The members of our body, especially the eyes, are lustful. If we cause others to stumble by considering ourselves greater than they are, we may have a wicked eye. Then the way will be open for the enemy to utilize the lust in our members to cause us to stumble.
We all need to learn to take the cross, to bear the cross, and to apply the Lord’s terminating death to our situation. If we put ourselves to death in this way, we shall not consider ourselves to be great. Rather, we shall regard ourselves as nothing. As a result, there will not be any ground for the enemy to come in to utilize the members of our body to cause us to stumble.
If we do not take the cross and apply it to ourselves, we shall not only cause others to stumble, but we shall cause ourselves to stumble again and again. We shall be caused to stumble by the lust in our hand, in our foot, and in our eye. If this is our situation, then eventually when the kingdom age comes, we shall need salting because we are still full of “germs.”
The salting about which I am speaking is the salting with fire. Concerning this, the Lord Jesus said, “Everyone shall be salted with fire” (v. 49). Here we have the “fire-salt,” or fire as salt. In the coming age, some may be put into fire to be salted. This salting by fire will purge them. In a sense, this purging is a discipline, a chastisement, a punishment. But in another sense this purging causes the believers to be preserved. Hence, this purging is not merely a punishment but also a preserving that keeps the purged one from perishing, from being eternally lost.
As we have pointed out, the fire in 9:49 is a refining fire (Mal. 3:2), a purifying, purging fire. As in 1 Corinthians 3:13 and 15, this fire will purge, in the kingdom age, those believers who commit sin and are unrepentant in this age. Therefore, this refining by fire will be a dispensational punishment. We have seen that even in this age God purges the believers through trials as by fire (1 Pet. 1:7; 4:12, 17). Dispensational punishment by fire in the coming age is in the same principle as God’s chastisement through sufferings as by fire in this age.