Dont Take My Eyes Off the Ball Again

Question

Did Jesus mean we should literally pluck out our eyes in Matthew 5:29-30?

Answer

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus says something that must certainly have seized His hearers' attention: "If your right eye causes you to stumble, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. And if your correct paw causes you to stumble, cutting it off and throw it away. It is meliorate for yous to lose one part of your body than for your whole trunk to go into hell" (Matthew 5:29–thirty). Jesus repeats the admonition in Matthew 18:eight–9, except at that place He adds the need to dispense with a foot as well equally a manus and an eye.

The graphic word pictures of Matthew 5 and 18 still grab attention today, and they raise the question of how literally we should take Jesus' commands in these passages. Does Jesus actually mean to say that nosotros should pluck out our eyes or sever a hand if we are prone to sin? Information technology may be of comfort to know that Jesus' instructions in these particular verses are not meant to be taken literally. We need not mutilate our bodies equally a penalty for our sin. Rather, Jesus means that nosotros should exist prepared to make exceptional sacrifices if we want to follow Him (come across Matthew 16:24).

Jesus had just warned His audience against using their eyes for lustful purposes (Matthew 5:28), so His prescribed remedy for lust—to pluck out an eye—makes sense, in a radical sort of way. Merely it is the radical nature of His argument that makes information technology and so memorable.

When Jesus advises u.s. to pluck out a sinful eye or cut off an unruly mitt, He is employing a figure of speech known as hyperbole. Hyperbole is an obvious exaggeration or an intentional overstatement. Examples of hyperbole in mod speech communication would include statements like "This bag of groceries weighs a ton," "I've been waiting forever," and "Anybody knows that." The campaigner Paul uses hyperbolic language in Galatians 4:xv. Hyperbole, like other figures of oral communication, is non meant to be taken literally.

Jesus' purpose in maxim, hyperbolically, that sinners should pluck out their eyes or cutting off their hands is to magnify in His hearers' minds the heinous nature of sin. Sin is any action or thought that is contrary to the character of God. The result of sin is death, from which Jesus wants to preserve us (see Hebrews 2:9). Jesus warns of hell because He doesn't want people to become there (Matthew v:29–30).

Sin takes people to hell (see Revelation 21:eight), and that makes sin something to avoid at all costs. Jesus says that, whatever is causing yous to sin, take drastic measures to get that thing out of your life. "It is better for y'all to enter life maimed or crippled than to have two hands or ii feet and be thrown into eternal fire. . . . Information technology is improve for you lot to enter life with i eye than to take two eyes and be thrown into the burn of hell" (Matthew 18:8–9). Nothing is worth missing sky for. Nothing is worth going to hell for. Nothing.

God takes sin seriously—seriously enough to sacrifice His but begotten Son to destroy it. We must take sin seriously also. A lack of repentance is a crime punishable by eternal expiry. It is meliorate to deny our mankind—to pluck out an eye or cutting off a mitt, every bit it were—than to risk sinning against God. God demands holiness (ane Peter 1:15), simply nosotros naturally tend to pamper ourselves and alibi our sin. That is why we demand Jesus' shocking, radical hyperbole to wake us from our spiritual self-approbation.

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Questions about Matthew

Did Jesus mean we should literally pluck out our eyes and cut off our hands in Matthew 5:29-30 and 18:8-nine?

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This page last updated: January 4, 2022

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