Mark 9:28-47

²⁸Later, when Jesus and his disciples were alone in a house, one of them asked him, “Why were we not able to expel the evil spirit?”

²⁹He said to them, “You can expel this kind of evil spirit only by your praying that God will give you the power to do it. There is no other way that you can expel them.”

³⁰After Jesus and his disciples left that district , they traveled through Galilee district . Jesus did not want anyone else to know that he was in their area ; he did not want

³¹anyone to interrupt him as he taught his disciples. He was telling them, “ Some day my enemies SYN will seize MTY me, the one who came from heaven, and I will be handed over to other men. Those men will kill me. But on the third day after I am killed {after they kill me}, I will become alive again!”

³²But they did not understand what he was telling them. Also, they were afraid to ask him about what he had said.

³³Jesus and his disciples returned to Capernaum town. When they were in the house, he asked them, “What were you discussing while we were traveling on the road?”

³⁴But they did not reply. They were ashamed to reply because, while they were traveling, they had been arguing with each other about which one of them would be the most important when Jesus became king.

³⁵He sat down, he summoned the twelve disciples to come close to him, and then he said to them, “If anyone wants God to consider him to be the most important person of all, he must consider himself to be the least important person of all, and he must serve everyone else.”

³⁶Then he took a child and placed him among them. He took the child in his arms and then he said to them,

³⁷“Those who, because they love me, welcome a child like this one, God considers that they are welcoming me. So it is as though they are also welcoming God, who sent me.”

³⁸John said to Jesus, “Teacher, we saw someone who was expelling demons, ◄ claiming he had authority from you to do that/while telling people that you have told him to do it►. So we told him to stop doing it because he was not one of us disciples.”

³⁹Jesus said, “Do not tell him not to do that! For no one will speak evilly about me just after he performs a miracle while saying that I have told him to do it.

⁴⁰Furthermore, those who are not opposing us are trying to achieve the same goals that we are.

⁴¹Also think about this: Those who belong to me who help you in any way, even if they just give you a cup of water to drink because you follow me, the Messiah, will certainly be rewarded by God!”

⁴²Jesus also said, “But if you cause someone who believes in me to sin, God will severely punish you, even if that person is socially unimportant like this little child. If someone tied a heavy stone around your neck and you were thrown {and threw you} into the sea, you would consider that was a severe punishment. But God will punish you more severely than that if you cause a person who believes in me to sin.

⁴³So, if you are wanting to use one of MTY, PRS your hands to sin, stop using your hand! Even if you have to cut your hand off and throw it away to avoid sinning, do it HYP! It is good that you not sin and that you live eternally, even though you lack one of your hands while you are here on earth. But it is not good that you sin and as a result God throws your whole body into hell. There the fires never go out!

⁴⁵If you are wanting to use one of PRS your feet to sin, stop using your foot! Even if you have to cut off your foot to avoid sinning, do it HYP! It is good that you not sin and live eternally, even though you lack one of your feet while you are here on earth. But it is not good that you sin and go to hell.

⁴⁷If because of what you see MTY, PRS you are tempted to sin, stop looking at those things! Even if you have to gouge out your eye and throw it away HYP to avoid sinning, do it! It is good that you not sin and live eternally, even though you lack one of your eyes while you are here on earth. But it is not good that you sin and, as a result, God puts your whole body in hell.