And if thy hand or thy foot offend thee, cut it off and cast [it] from thee; it is good for thee to enter into life lame or maimed, [rather] than having two hands or two feet to be cast into eternal fire.
In Matthew 18 the Lord sets a child among the arguing disciples and warns against anything that trips up one of these little ones. Verse 8 turns the warning inward: deal first with what makes you stumble, because the stakes are eternal.
The Lord's first remedy for stumbling-blocks is not to police other people.
What is to be done? The Lord shows two ways to guard against these stumbling-blocks. The first is this — I must begin with myself. That is the most important way of not making another person stumble... It may be in my service, or in my daily walk. But if a hand or a foot becomes the cause of stumbling — something the enemy uses against God — then deal with the evil thing firmly and at once.
The Lord asks for a real cutting off, but not one done with a knife.
Clearly the physical act is only a picture, used to describe in strong terms a spiritual cutting off and throwing away. Nothing that is a trap is to be spared, even if it seemed as close and as necessary as a hand, a foot, or an eye. Eternity is at stake, and a judgment no one can escape, which spares nothing that is against God. I do not think this means that in the day of glory those who have put the flesh to death will carry marks of shame. Rather, such people will be there — and how much better that, than to leave the flesh unjudged, allowing the desires of the body and the mind, and be thrown into hell-fire!
The offence in view here is one my own conscience feels.
If a person's hand or foot makes him stumble, let him cut off the part that causes it. This is swift, immediate judgment. The question here is not offending God or someone else. It is my own conscience offended by my own actions or my walk. Unsparing self-judgment is the only way to deal with this — not a literal cutting off, of course, but a spiritual refusal of the evil in myself. An unbeliever never honestly judges himself, so he will be thrown into everlasting fire with all his parts.
The verse asks the reader to weigh one loss against another.
Hand and foot and eye are very valuable parts of our bodies, and we do not give them up lightly. But life in the coming age is beyond all price, and hell-fire is a terrible reality.
Commenting on this chapter directly, the same writer reduces the whole calculation to a sentence: to offend one of the little ones brings the severest judgment, and this leads the Lord to set His disciples in the light of eternal things — "There is such a thing as 'everlasting fire,' and any sacrifice is better than incurring that."
Some read this fire as one that burns people up and then ends. One writer tests that reading against the Lord's own words.
Why everlasting? Do you really believe the Lord meant to alarm us with this word, if the word meant nothing? What does it matter that the fire is everlasting, if we are burned up in an instant? Everlasting fire... has no real meaning if I stopped existing; it might as well go out... And why would it be better for a man to be thrown into the sea with a millstone round his neck? On that reading he might as well live on.
In the kingdom, real faith and empty profession stand side by side. The Lord warns both without separating them.
He does not pass sentence on them, for some may be truly born of God and others not. He puts it to them plainly: people who are indifferent about sin are not of God. No soul can be born again and go on being careless about what grieves the Holy Spirit... It may cost a great deal, but God is not a hard Master; no one is so tender and loving.
One last thing shapes how these words land: who is saying them.
It is the Saviour of men — the One who died in His love to redeem them — who always gives the most earnest and forceful warning of where sin must bring those who hold on to it.
- Start — Begin with yourself. The surest way not to trip anyone else is to deal at once with what trips you.
- Cut — "Cut it off" pictures a spiritual refusal of evil, not a knife. The test is what your own conscience says about your actions and your walk.
- Cost — A hand and a foot are worth keeping. That is the point: life in the coming age is worth more than anything you give up now.
- Everlasting — The word means what it says. Empty it out, and the Lord's warning is no warning at all.
- Love — The sharpest words about the fire come from the One who died to save people from it. He is no hard Master.
And if thine eye offend thee, pluck it out and cast [it] from thee; it is good for thee to enter into life one-eyed, [rather] than having two eyes to be cast into the hell of fire.
Just before this, the Lord warned about being a snare to others; now He turns the warning inward. The eye is the last of three examples, and His question is blunt: what is sight worth if keeping it costs everything?
Two duties stand side by side in this chapter. One writer names them:
Two things go together here: care not to offend these little ones, and the strictest severity toward self. To be a stumbling block, or a snare, to one of the little ones that believed in Christ was to ensure terrible judgment. Tender care for the weakest, and severe self-judgment, was to be the rule of the kingdom. If this existed, no stumbling block would offend the least, and no snare entangle the disciple.
The Lord is not asking for surgery on the body. One writer gives the reason:
The Lord is not calling for self-mutilation or asceticism in these words. The Creator will never demand that His creature mutilate the body he has received from Himself. Even if someone plucked out both his eyes, the lust would still remain in his heart. Instead, the Lord is extending His teaching here to the matter of self-judgment.
The language is a picture. Another writer shows how much it demands:
Clearly the physical act is only a picture. It describes, in strong terms, 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, the foot, or the eye. Eternity is in question, and so is a judgment that no one can escape — a judgment that spares nothing contrary to God. I do not think it means that in the day of glory those who have put the flesh to death will carry marks to their shame. It means rather that such people will be there. And how much better that, than to leave the flesh unchecked, giving way to the desires of flesh and mind, and be thrown into hell fire!
after_note: DELETE
Hand and foot cover what we do and where we go. The eye goes quieter still: what we look at, and what conscience says about it:
We must judge not only what the hand does or where the foot walks, but also what the eye looks at. Men know it when they see something that bothers their own conscience. Ignoring conscience is dangerous. It can sear the conscience until a person hardly feels its protests. And if someone never judges the evil his eye sees, he is not a believer. He will be thrown into the hell of fire with two eyes.
The word translated "hell" here is Gehenna. It named a real place outside Jerusalem that every hearer could picture:
Gehenna is the Greek form of two Hebrew words meaning "valley of Hinnom." It was the place near Jerusalem where the Jews made their children pass through fire to pagan gods. Later the place was defiled. A fire burned there without stopping, which made it a fitting picture of the place of eternal punishment.
That is a location, not a state of mind, and the verse says so by what it does with the body:
Gehenna is a place. "Whole body … cast into hell" (Matthew 5:29). "Two eyes … cast into hell fire" (Matthew 18:9).
The kingdom holds real faith and false profession side by side. So the Lord speaks in a way that tests every hearer:
No soul can be born of God and stay careless about what grieves the Holy Spirit. So He sets before them the certainty that such people will be cast into everlasting fire. That could be said of no one born of God. But the kingdom of heaven can hold a false profession as well as a true one. So the believer must watch that he allows no sin in any part of himself… It may cost a great deal, but God is not a hard Master. No one is so tender and loving.
The warning is stern. Notice who gives it:
Better to cut off a hand or a foot. Better to pluck out an eye, if it made you stumble, than to keep them and be thrown into the hell of fire. This is the Saviour of men speaking. He died in His love to redeem them, and He is the One who always gives the most earnest and emphatic warning of where sin must bring those who cling to it.
- Snare — the eye stands for what we look at. The trap lies in the desire behind the eye, not in the eye itself.
- Knife — the cutting is spiritual, not physical. Blind yourself and the desire still sits in the heart.
- Cost — nothing is exempt, however near or necessary it feels. Eternity is what hangs on it.
- Conscience — ignore its warnings and it grows hard. Never judge what your eye sees, and you are no believer at all.
- Love — the warning of Gehenna's fire comes from the Saviour who died to redeem, and He is no hard Master.