- Jun 29, 2019
- 651
- 169
- 60
- Country
- United States
- Faith
- Christian
- Marital Status
- Married
Matthew 5:29-30 is a curious passage. In it, Jesus says, as part of his Sermon on the Mount, “If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body go into hell.”
Well, what to make of that? The people, many who see Jesus for the first time, hear him say to cut out their body parts? Makes you wonder if many of those people may have walked away after hearing that. I mean, at first glance, such a statement uttered would seemingly make Jesus no different than someone standing on a corner in Times Square holding s sign saying ‘The end is near,’ telling you to cut out your body parts. You’d probably dismiss him as being homeless and walk on.
We can only presume that at that point in Jesus’ sermon, the people found him interesting enough to stay and hear what else he had to say. And we, existing thousands of years later, might struggle to find the seriousness in those words Jesus spoke. But our comfort is in the fact that these words are in the Bible, of which 2 Timothy 3:16-17, which is also in the Bible, tells us that all Scripture in the Bible is the Word of God and is there for our teaching, correction, reproof and training in righteousness. And since we are told to consider the Bible as a whole instead of picking out a Verse and drawing our inferences and conclusions based on that Verse alone, we need to consider each Verse in the context of the whole Bible. In the Bible, the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.
It is not that difficult to discount the notion that Jesus really expected the people on The Mount to cut off their body parts to rid themselves of sin. The mere act of cutting off a part of your body is a sin, inasmuch as we need to acknowledge God’s wonders when we come across a Verse such as Psalm 139:14 which says, “I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well.” Well, how can cutting off the body parts that God gave us, in order that we be fruitful as He commanded Adam and Eve, help in both praising God and fulfilling His Commands? And we need to also consider that in the Bible there are remedies for us having committed sin that don’t involve actually cutting off our body parts. These include asking Him for forgiveness of our sins.
So, what Lord Jesus says in Matthew 5:29-30 surely means something other than our literally performing the acts he mentions. And we must presume that, considering the many refences Jesus makes to the Old Testament, he knows what the Old Testament says and means. We can presume he is aware that there are other Verses in the Bible which associate body parts with relieving us of our sins.
Consider Job 31. There, Job mentions a fair amount of body parts in recruiting them to rid himself of sin. Verses 5-6 say, “If I have walked with falsehood and my foot has hastened to deceit...Let me be weighed in a just balance, and let God know my integrity!...” No mention of cutting off a foot for leading him astray, is there? Neither is there mention of cutting out the heart when he says in Verses 9-10, “If my heart has been enticed toward a woman, and I have lain in wait at my neighbor’s door [for that woman], then let my wife grind for another, and let others bow down on her.” The closest Job comes to losing a body part is Verses 21-22 which say, “f I have raised my hand against the fatherless, because I saw my help in the gate [from judges to side with me against the fatherless], then let my shoulder blade fall from my shoulder, and let my arm be broken from its socket.” Here he wants no part in cutting off his shoulder blade, except to let someone else do it. But if someone else did it, other than those who govern on behalf of God as described in Roans 13:1, they would arguably go astray of Psalm 139:14, bringing the sin onto themselves.
So, in the context of the whole Bible, what does Lord Jesus mean by what he says in Matthew 5:29-30? Considering what the rest of the Bible says, and to the extent that God allows us to reason as He says in Isaiah 1:18, Jesus is saying we should turn our body parts away from the sins they are leading us to. So, we walk away from sin, we direct our hearts away from sin, and we take no direct part in cutting off our hands. As for our eyes, well, Job 31:1 says “I have made a covenant with my eyes; how then could I gaze at a virgin?” This brings the eyes into the category of turning away from sin as opposed to putting the blame squarely on our eyes, resulting in a sinful consequence.
For good measure, consider that God in Genesis 8:21 said that the intention of man’s heart is evil from his youth, and Romans 3:23 -which says “[F]for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God..” If everyone cut off their body parts for sinning, there would be few body parts left to do God’s Good Works!
Well, what to make of that? The people, many who see Jesus for the first time, hear him say to cut out their body parts? Makes you wonder if many of those people may have walked away after hearing that. I mean, at first glance, such a statement uttered would seemingly make Jesus no different than someone standing on a corner in Times Square holding s sign saying ‘The end is near,’ telling you to cut out your body parts. You’d probably dismiss him as being homeless and walk on.
We can only presume that at that point in Jesus’ sermon, the people found him interesting enough to stay and hear what else he had to say. And we, existing thousands of years later, might struggle to find the seriousness in those words Jesus spoke. But our comfort is in the fact that these words are in the Bible, of which 2 Timothy 3:16-17, which is also in the Bible, tells us that all Scripture in the Bible is the Word of God and is there for our teaching, correction, reproof and training in righteousness. And since we are told to consider the Bible as a whole instead of picking out a Verse and drawing our inferences and conclusions based on that Verse alone, we need to consider each Verse in the context of the whole Bible. In the Bible, the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.
It is not that difficult to discount the notion that Jesus really expected the people on The Mount to cut off their body parts to rid themselves of sin. The mere act of cutting off a part of your body is a sin, inasmuch as we need to acknowledge God’s wonders when we come across a Verse such as Psalm 139:14 which says, “I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well.” Well, how can cutting off the body parts that God gave us, in order that we be fruitful as He commanded Adam and Eve, help in both praising God and fulfilling His Commands? And we need to also consider that in the Bible there are remedies for us having committed sin that don’t involve actually cutting off our body parts. These include asking Him for forgiveness of our sins.
So, what Lord Jesus says in Matthew 5:29-30 surely means something other than our literally performing the acts he mentions. And we must presume that, considering the many refences Jesus makes to the Old Testament, he knows what the Old Testament says and means. We can presume he is aware that there are other Verses in the Bible which associate body parts with relieving us of our sins.
Consider Job 31. There, Job mentions a fair amount of body parts in recruiting them to rid himself of sin. Verses 5-6 say, “If I have walked with falsehood and my foot has hastened to deceit...Let me be weighed in a just balance, and let God know my integrity!...” No mention of cutting off a foot for leading him astray, is there? Neither is there mention of cutting out the heart when he says in Verses 9-10, “If my heart has been enticed toward a woman, and I have lain in wait at my neighbor’s door [for that woman], then let my wife grind for another, and let others bow down on her.” The closest Job comes to losing a body part is Verses 21-22 which say, “f I have raised my hand against the fatherless, because I saw my help in the gate [from judges to side with me against the fatherless], then let my shoulder blade fall from my shoulder, and let my arm be broken from its socket.” Here he wants no part in cutting off his shoulder blade, except to let someone else do it. But if someone else did it, other than those who govern on behalf of God as described in Roans 13:1, they would arguably go astray of Psalm 139:14, bringing the sin onto themselves.
So, in the context of the whole Bible, what does Lord Jesus mean by what he says in Matthew 5:29-30? Considering what the rest of the Bible says, and to the extent that God allows us to reason as He says in Isaiah 1:18, Jesus is saying we should turn our body parts away from the sins they are leading us to. So, we walk away from sin, we direct our hearts away from sin, and we take no direct part in cutting off our hands. As for our eyes, well, Job 31:1 says “I have made a covenant with my eyes; how then could I gaze at a virgin?” This brings the eyes into the category of turning away from sin as opposed to putting the blame squarely on our eyes, resulting in a sinful consequence.
For good measure, consider that God in Genesis 8:21 said that the intention of man’s heart is evil from his youth, and Romans 3:23 -which says “[F]for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God..” If everyone cut off their body parts for sinning, there would be few body parts left to do God’s Good Works!
