![]() ![]() Jesus’ shocking statement about plucking out your right eye was meant to get our attention. Study more about this in our article “ Putting to Death the Old Man: What Does That Mean?” Dealing radically with sin Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts” (Romans 6:11-12). “Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Through repentance, baptism and the gift of God’s Holy Spirit ( Acts 2:38), we can start this new life no longer enslaved to sin. “But you have not so learned Christ, if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught by Him, as the truth is in Jesus: that you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness” (Ephesians 4:20-24). The Bible uses the analogy of killing the “old man” and replacing our old carnal life with newness of life-the “new man.” Jamieson, Fausset and Brown Commentary says, “Our Lord certainly means that we are to strike at the root of such unholy dispositions, as well as to cut off the occasions which tend to stimulate them.” For observe this very thing, that you sorrowed in a godly manner: What diligence it produced in you, what clearing of yourselves, what indignation, what fear, what vehement desire, what zeal, what vindication! In all things you proved yourselves to be clear in this matter.” (Read more in our article “ Godly Sorrow.”) God wants repentance-real change in our thinking and actions-not penance or self-flagellation.He wants us to have the godly sorrow described in 2 Corinthians 7:10-11: “For godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation, not to be regretted but the sorrow of the world produces death. God wants repentance-real change in our thinking and actions-not penance or self-flagellation. He told the congregation to put the man out of the church till his heart changed ( 1 Corinthians 5:1-5, 11 2 Corinthians 2:6-11). Instead, he repented and asked God to cleanse his heart ( Psalm 51:7-10).Īnd when the apostle Paul reprimanded the adulterer (and the church) in Corinth, he didn’t tell the man to pluck out his eye. Consider two examples of sexual sin.ĭavid was plagued by lust that led to his adultery with Bathsheba, but he didn’t blame his hands or his eyes. “One might put out his eyes without in the least quenching the lust to which they ministered,” as the Jamieson, Fausset and Brown Commentary explains.Īnd there are no examples in the Bible of people of God cutting off their hands or plucking out their eyes. Removing our eye or hand wouldn’t prevent sinful thoughts. How do we know? First, consider that Jesus said “if.” Does your eye or your hand actually cause you to sin? No. Was Jesus literally advocating plucking out your right eye? No. What Jesus didn’t mean about your eye and your hand It is better for you to enter into life with one eye, rather than having two eyes, to be cast into hell fire” (Matthew 18:8-9). And if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and cast it from you. It is better for you to enter into life lame or maimed, rather than having two hands or two feet, to be cast into the everlasting fire. “If your hand or foot causes you to sin, cut it off and cast it from you. Later, in the context of not offending little ones, Jesus said: Wow! His listeners must have sat in shock and horror.Īnd this wasn’t the only time. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and cast it from you for it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish, than for your whole body to be cast into hell” (verses 29-30). “If your right eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and cast it from you for it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish, than for your whole body to be cast into hell. “If your right hand causes you to sin”Īfter giving the spirit of the law against adultery, Jesus made a surprising statement that seems to encourage self-mutilation: That last point greatly expands on the Seventh Commandment against adultery. Jesus expanded on the letter of the law to show the spiritual depth and intent of God’s commandments. “Whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart” (5:28).Focus on how these would have struck His audience: Some of them have been repeated so many times that we might miss their full force. Jesus’ famed Sermon on the Mount is full of shocking statements that went against the grain of His society-and ours. ![]()
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