Have peace one with another

The Saviour now sought privacy to instruct the disciples about His coming suffering, vv. 30, 31. This teaching was so important that He exhorted them, ‘Let these sayings sink down into your ears’, Luke 9. 44. And yet the disciples were saddened and ‘understood not that saying, and were afraid to ask him’, Mark 9. 32; Matt. 17. 23. Christians also feel sorrow in place of joy when they fail to appreciate vital Christian truths.

The disciples ‘had disputed among themselves, who should be the greatest’, Mark 9. 34, no doubt in the coming kingdom, Matt. 18. 1. But true greatness in the things of God is the very opposite of what this world perceives as great. The little child represented the simple faith and humility required not just to enter the kingdom of God but also to be great in it, because ‘if any man desire to be first, the same shall be last of all, and servant of all’, Mark 9. 35, 36.

Moreover, since each child of God is intimately linked to Christ and the Father who sent Him, our response to humble believers reflects our view of Christ, v. 37. While the smallest kind act shown to God’s people will not go unrewarded, v. 41, ‘whosoever shall offend one of these little ones that believe in [Christ]’ will not escape punishment. A horrible death - ‘a millstone were hanged about his neck, and he were cast into the sea’, v. 42 - is a better fate than ‘the fire that never shall be quenched’, v. 43, which awaits those who offend God’s children. The word translated ‘offend’ is skandalizo, which means ‘to entrap’ (J. STRONG), and probably includes tempting believers to sin as well as overtly opposing them.

Since the punishment is so severe for ensnaring a child of God - eternal fire and exclusion from the coming kingdom, v. 47 - the Lord Jesus exhorted His disciples to exercise ruthless self discipline to avoid ensnaring others, and thus themselves, vv. 43-48. The language is so severe because the stakes are so high. The apostle Paul applied this same principle to the Christian life, writing, ‘If meat make my brother to offend, I will eat no flesh while the world standeth’, 1 Cor. 8. 13. May we do our utmost to ‘have peace one with another’, Mark 9. 50.