4:48
In the preceding verses, and especially in this verse, Jesus is speaking about hell, quoting from Isaiah 66:24. Now I am going to go on a bit of rant, because there is a debate that really annoys me for its utter stupidity and pointlessness. That debate is about the nature of hell and whether there is eternal conscious punishment, or conditional immortality (or annihilationism). What an absolute waste of time! Let’s look at some facts. First neither you nor I have any idea what the actual precise nature of hell will be, so when someone opines to talk about the nature of hell we can be absolutely sure that they have no idea at all what they are talking about. So let’s look at Jesus’ approach to hell, or the Bible’s approach to hell. First, Jesus’ prime aim in His teaching about hell was to give the very clear message that we should do everything possible to avoid going there! Secondly, hell is absolutely the worst possible thing that can happen to a person. So if imagining being burned alive for eternity helps someone appreciate the nature of hell, that is a far more accurate, and useful, impression of what hell will be like than any talk of “conditional immortality” or “annihilationism”. Those who do talk about annihilationism sometimes seem to be saying “hell, not as half as bad as you think it is”. What rubbish! Moreover, have you any idea what it will be like to be annihilated? No, none whatsoever.
Finally, one point about hell that is so often missed in all the silly debates. The Biblical emphasis is on God’s judgement on our sin. Our time would be far better spent being concerned about our sin and sinfulness, and so running to the cross, than wasting time on these pointless debates. The worst thing of all is that we may be misleading sinners about hell, and causing more people to end up there! And then we had better look at Mark 9:42.
9:49
Who is the “everyone” here? Is it just disciples, or is it all people? Salt’s primary use was as a preservative. This implies that there will be a severe refining of believers. So the previous verses have warned how seriously we need to take sin, and that tough times may take place in our lives. We won’t like it when this happens, but it is done in order to preserve our lives.
9:50
As well as being salted, in the sermon on the mount Jesus tells us that we are to be salt. In order to do this we need to have integrity in our own lives, if we do not then we cannot act as salt, and it is very difficult to get integrity back. We are to be at peace with one another.
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