And if thine eye serve as a snare to thee, cast it out it is better for thee to enter into the kingdom of God with one eye, rather than having two eyes to be cast into the hell of fire,
This third warning moves from hand to foot to eye — from what we do, to where we go, to what we look at. Two questions follow: is the command meant literally, and why does Jesus speak here of entering "the kingdom of God" rather than "life," as in the two verses before?
Jesus is not telling anyone to blind himself. The physical act stands for something done in the soul, and the picture is fierce because the stakes are final.
It is plain that a physical act is only a vehicle here, a strong way of describing a spiritual cutting-off and casting-out. Spare nothing that is a snare, even if it seemed as near and as necessary as the hand, foot, or eye. Eternity is in question, and a judgment no one can escape, which spares nothing contrary to God.
One writer applies the command to what the eye takes in, and to the world that supplies it.
Pluck out the offending eye. If the eye sees what is evil, our one resource is to judge it and turn from it. The world makes plenty of provision for such seeing, in its pictures, its television and often in public displays. "Turn my eyes from looking at worthless things" (Ps. 119:37). If someone never judges his own evil tendencies, he will never see his need of the salvation of God. The end of such a man is the torment of hell.
Verses 43 and 45 both say "life"; verse 47 changes the word. One writer links the change to the eye being in view, and notes that Matthew's account says "life."
The change from "life" in verses 43 and 45 to "the kingdom of God" in verse 47 is perhaps owing to the eye being in question. Compare also the first verse of this chapter and John 3:3, 5. "Life" would have been just as true, and Matthew 18:9 does use it; but Mark 9:47 adds another vivid and characteristic touch.
The verse works by comparison: whatever the price, the alternative costs more.
However much it may cost us, if it is an eye that offends us, we must pluck it out. If a hand, we must cut it off. In a word, we give up the most valuable thing possible. An eternity of blessing with Christ is better than keeping a right hand and finding oneself in eternal torments.
Yet the demand does not come from a harsh God. Writing on the same words in Matthew, one writer asks who such a warning is aimed at, and what kind of God gives it.
The Lord puts before them, with great seriousness, that people who are indifferent about sin are not born of God at all. So He sets before them the possibility that such people may be cast into everlasting fire. This could not be said of anyone born of God. … It may cost ever so much, but God is not a hard Master: none is so tender and loving. And yet it is God giving us His full mind by the Lord Jesus, Who shows us that this is the only way of dealing with what may become an occasion of sin.
The word behind "hell" here is Gehenna. One writer explains where the name came from.
The Valley of Hinnom was the rubbish dump outside Jerusalem. Fires always burned there, and maggots never stopped their work. People called it Gehenna, and this word on the Lord's lips became a fitting and terrible picture of the home of the lost. Hell will be the great rubbish heap of eternity. There everything evil beyond cure will lie apart from the good, for ever under the judgment of God. This terrible fact reaches us from the lips of Him who loved sinful men and wept over them.
Another writer names what kind of judgment this is, and how long it lasts.
Again and again comes the solemn call to sacrifice the dearest thing that is a snare to us. The penalty for keeping it is hell, the fire that will never be quenched. It is a judgment, a judicial punishment, for which there is no relief, and of which there is no ending.
One writer hears this refrain as a sound that should move believers to act for others.
The refrain, "where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched," falls on a stricken conscience. It sounds like the bell that tolls a condemned man to his death. If only it would stir up in us who believe an unusual earnestness for perishing souls!
- Snare. The test is not whether something is valuable but whether it trips you. Spare nothing that is a snare, however near and necessary it feels.
- Knife. The cutting is spiritual, not surgical. The physical act is only a picture of a spiritual cutting-off and casting-out.
- Eye. Since the eye takes in what the world puts on display, the one resource is to judge it and turn away.
- Kingdom. "Life" would have been just as true, and Matthew uses it. Mark's "kingdom of God" adds one more vivid touch where the eye is in view.
- Fire. Gehenna was Jerusalem's burning rubbish valley. The judgment it pictures has no relief and no end, and the warning comes from Him who loved sinful men and wept over them.
where their worm dies not, and the fire is not quenched.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.