IF YOUR RIGHT EYE MAKES YOU STUMBLE, TEAR IT OUT AND THROW IT FROM YOU: ei de o ophthalmos sou o dexios skandalizei (3SPAI) se, exele (2SAAM) auton kai bale (2SAAM) apo sou (Mt 18:8,9; Mark 9:43-48) (19:12; Romans 6:6; 8:13; 1 Corinthians 9:27; Galatians 5:24; Colossians 3:5; 1 Peter 4:1-3)

Note: All verbs in bold red indicate commands, not suggestions! Also hold mouse pointer over underlined links for pop up of Scripture which stays open and can be copied.

Related Resource: See exposition of Solomon's proverbs dealing with sexual purity - Pr 5:1-14;   Pr 5:15-23; Pr 6:20-35; Pr 7:1-27

Spurgeon exhorts us to...

Give up the dearest, choicest, and apparently most needful thing, if it leads you into sin. (Pleasures which block the road to heaven ought to be given up) The same rule that bids you avoid sin, bids you also avoid all that leads to sin. If adultery be forbidden, so also is that glance with which the sin usually begins. We are to turn away our eyes from beholding that which leads towards sin, and we are not to touch or taste that which would readily lead us into iniquity. Oh, that we had sufficient decision of character to make short work of everything which tends towards evil! Many persons, when their right eye offends them, put a green shade over it; and when their right hand offends them, they tie it up in a sling. But that is not obeying the command of Christ. He charges you to get rid of everything that would lead you wrong; make a clean sweep of it. You are wrong enough at your best, so do not permit anything to appertain to you, which would lead you still further astray,

Your eye indicates the problem is not that you live is a sex crazed society. You have a choice over what your eye can look at or not look at. When the football game pans to the sideline (at you know what), you can consciously choose to look away. Don't delay. Don't underestimate the power of your God given imagination. D. L. Moody, certainly one of the more godly men of the modern era wisely recognized the source of the problem, admitting that...

"I have more trouble with D. L. Moody than with any man I know."

The man I see in the mirror each morning is my greatest impediment to holiness and godliness. Stop saying "The devil made me do it!"  When you get up in the morning and look in the mirror to shave, you are looking at your worst problem, because blood bought, heaven bound men still contend daily with the old Sin nature inherited from Adam. Granted, Sin no longer has the right to reign as our master, because of our co-crucifixion and co-resurrection, but it can still rear its ugly head.

Thomas Fuller warned that...

Our eyes, when gazing on sinful objects, are out of their calling and God's keeping.

Job wrote...

I have made a covenant with my eyes. How then could I gaze at a virgin? (Job 31:1) (Comment: "Gaze" in Hebrew = consider carefully, diligently consider, discern, get understanding, look carefully, observe, paid close attention, pay heed. Do you get the picture that Job is trying to convey? He's not talking about a casual glance or an accidental viewing of an attractive woman (that would be virtually impossible to avoid in "non-blushing" America... but it is possible to make certain provisions -- all under grace of course -- and they include not going to PG-13 movies or even PG ratings...they have all become too sensual because the moral compass of Americans, especially the media moguls is going "due south" toward the abyss. We can chose not to watch talk shows that bring up "lusty" subjects so commonly these days. So Job is saying don't stare at her because if you do, Jesus says you've already committed adultery in your heart Mt 5:28...pluck your eye out before you do this! That's how enslaving this sin can be...so it requires radical surgery and complete extirpation! Don't just biopsy it! Cut it out completely!).

William Jenkyn wrote that...

The right way to put out the fire of lust is to withdraw the fuel of excess.

Some other passages related to eyes and lust...

2 Samuel 11:1 Then it happened in the spring, at the time when kings go out to battle, that David sent Joab and his servants with him and all Israel, and they destroyed the sons of Ammon and besieged Rabbah. But David stayed at Jerusalem. 2 Now when evening came David arose from his bed and walked around on the roof of the king's house, and from the roof he saw a woman bathing; and the woman was very beautiful in appearance. 3 So David sent and inquired about the woman. And one said, "Is this not Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite?"4 And David sent messengers and took her, and when she came to him, he lay with her; and when she had purified herself from her uncleanness, she returned to her house.5 And the woman conceived; and she sent and told David, and said, "I am pregnant."

Psalm 119:37 Turn away my eyes from looking at vanity, And revive me in Thy ways.

Pr 4:25 Let your eyes look directly ahead, and let your gaze be fixed straight in front of you.

Pr 6:25 Do not desire her beauty in your heart, nor let her catch you with her eyelids.

James 1:14 But each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust.15 Then when lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and when sin is accomplished, it brings forth death.

Expositor's Bible Commentary writes that...

Imagination is a God-given gift; but if it is fed dirt by the eye, it will be dirty. All sin, not least sexual sin, begins with the imagination. Therefore what feeds the imagination is of maximum importance in the pursuit of kingdom righteousness (see note Philippians 4:8). Not everyone reacts the same way to all objects. But if your eye is causing you to sin, gouge it out; or at very least, don't look! The alternative is sin and hell, sin's reward. The point is so fundamental that Jesus doubtless repeated it on numerous occasions (cf. Mt 18:8-9). (Gaebelein, F, Editor: Expositor's Bible Commentary 6-Volume New Testament. Zondervan Publishing)

Stumble (4624) (skandalizo from skandalon= a trap = put a snare or stumbling block in way) (Click for in depth study of root word skandalon) means to entrap, trip up, or entice to sin, offend.

Skandalizo is derived from a word that refers to stick in a trap on which the bait is placed and which springs up and shuts the trap at the touch of the careless, unwary animal. It follows that the idea is to put a stumbling block or impediment in one's way, upon which another may trip and fall. Jesus' point is that anything or anyone that morally traps us (by our senses, visual, touch, and by expansion not excluding the other senses such as hearing), and causes us to fall into sin should be eliminated, radically and quickly. If we do not make every necessary effort to control our surroundings, what we watch and read, who we keep company with and speak with, etc, then those things will control us. If you cannot control something, it needs to be "jettisoned" to keep the boat afloat so to speak. 

Tear out and throw are both in the aorist imperative, a command from our Lord and Master calling for urgent action. Do this now! It is critically important! Don't hesitate or delay! Deal drastically with anything that predisposes you to sin! We must quickly and ruthlessly deal with ourselves and not encourage the imagination to “feed on” the inward lustful fantasies, the inner desires that can quickly lead to the destructive sin of physical adultery.

Even simple logic says that what Jesus is commanding is not a literal action. Why? Would the loss of one eye or one hand prevent lustful look or thought via the other hand or eye? Of course, not, because the problem is not the eye or the hand. They are morally neutral instruments.

As Paul writes to the Romans

Therefore do not let sin reign (command to stop a practice already occurring) in your mortal body that you should obey its lusts, and do not go on presenting (stop an action which is already occurring) the members of your body (eyes, hands, ears, etc) to sin (refers to the old sin nature still latent in believers) as instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law, but under grace. (see notes Romans 6:12; 6:13; 6:14)

Peter gives similar advises...

Beloved, I urge you as aliens and strangers to abstain (continually hold yourself away from = present tense, middle voice) from fleshly lusts, which wage war (present tense = continually carry on a military campaign, not just one skirmish but fleshly lusts are personified as a rebel commander carrying out a long-term guerilla campaign with the intend to capture, enslave and destroy) against the soul. (see notes 1 Peter 2:11)

Tasker writes that

"Jesus is expressing in metaphorical language the all-important truth that a limited but morally healthy life is better than a wider life which is morally depraved.” (The Gospel According to St Matthew)

Commenting on 1 Peter 2:11 John MacArthur writes that...

because our souls are saved and because we've received a new heart and because we've been washed and because we've been regenerated, there is a newness in us, but as we have noted in the past, it is incarcerated in our unredeemed human flesh. That's why we have a spiritual battle because the new man in us is battling the flesh. And the flesh is where lust comes from. And so we are called to, literally the Greek word is, "hold oneself away from fleshly lusts." Boy, that is tough. That is tough enough because the fleshly lusts are in us, it is especially tough in our society because we live in a pornographic society. And in a pornographic society our fleshly lusts are fed constantly by the visual images of pornography and the verbal expressions of pornography that are all around us all the time. And so for us this is a great challenge for the Holy Spirit in us to give us victory." MacArthur continues in the note (highlight "aliens" for note).

Marvin Vincent writes that...

Christ’s meaning here is: “If your eye or your hand serve as an obstacle or trap to ensnare or make you fall in your moral walk.” How the eye might do this may be seen in the previous verse. Bengel observes: “He who, when his eye proves a stumbling-block, takes care not to see, does in reality blind himself.” The words scandal and slander are both derived from skandalon (Vincent, M. R. Word Studies in the New Testament. Vol 1, Page 3-41)

William Barclay adds this comment on the root noun "skandalon"...

"The word he uses for a stumbling-block is ...skandalon...a form of the word skandalethron...the bait-stick in a trap. It was the stick or arm on which the bait was fixed and which operated the trap to catch the animal lured to its own destruction. So the word came to mean anything which causes a man’s destruction. Behind it there are two pictures. First, there is the picture of a hidden stone in a path against which a man may stumble, or of a cord stretched across a path, deliberately put there to make a man trip. Second, there is the picture of a pit dug in the ground and deceptively covered over with a thin layer of branches or of turf, and so arranged that, when the unwary traveler sets his foot on it, he is immediately thrown into the pit. The skandalon, the stumbling-block is something which trips a man up, something which sends him crashing to destruction, something which lures him to his own ruin....ANYTHING which helps to seduce us to sin is to be ruthlessly rooted out of life. If there is a habit which can be seduction to evil, if there is an association which can be the cause of wrongdoing, if there is a pleasure which could turn out to be our ruin, then that thing must be surgically excised from our life." (Col 3:5, Heb 12:1 "the sin") Coming as it does immediately after the passage which deals with forbidden thoughts and desires, this passage compels us to ask: How shall we free ourselves from these unclean desires and defiling thoughts? It is the fact of experience that thoughts and pictures come unbidden into our minds, and it is the hardest thing on earth to shut the door to them. There is one way in which these forbidden thoughts and desires cannot be dealt with—and that is to sit down and to say, I will not think of these things (cp Col 2:23). The more we say, I will not think of such and such a thing, the more our thoughts are in fact concentrated on it.

The outstanding example in history of the wrong way to deal with such thoughts and desires was the hermits and the monks in the desert in the time of the early Church. They were men who wished to free themselves from all earthly things, and especially of the desires of the body. To do so they went away into the Egyptian desert with the idea of living alone and thinking of nothing but God. The most famous of them all was Saint Anthony. He lived the hermit’s life; he fasted; he did without sleep; he tortured his body. For 35 years he lived in the desert, and these 35 years were a non-stop battle, without respite, with his temptations. The story is told in his biography.

 “First of all the devil tried to lead him away from discipline, whispering to him the remembrance of his wealth, cares for his sister, claims of kindred, love of money, love of glory, the various pleasures of the table, and the other relaxations of life, and, at last, the difficulty of virtue and the labor of it. The one would suggest foul thoughts, and the other counter them with prayers; the one fire him with lust, the other, as one who seemed to blush, fortify his body with prayers, faith and fasting. The devil one night even took upon him the shape of a woman, and imitated all her acts simply to beguile Anthony.”

So for thirty-five years the struggle went on. (Barclay, W: The Gospel of Matthew The New Daily Study Bible Westminster John Knox Press) (Bolding added)

FOR IT IS BETTER FOR YOU TO LOSE ONE OF THE PARTS OF YOUR BODY, THAN FOR YOUR WHOLE BODY TO BE THROWN INTO HELL: sumpherei (3SPAI) gar soi ina apoletai (3SAMS) en ton melon sou kai me olon to soma sou blethe (3SAPS) eis geennan (Mt 16:26; Proverbs 5:8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14; Mark 8:36; Luke 9:24,25)

Sow a thought and reap an act.
Sow an act and reap a habit.
Sow a habit and reap a character.
Sow a character and reap a destiny.

The Puritan William Gurnall asked...

What lust is so sweet or profitable that is worth burning in hell for?

Hell (Gehenna) (1067) (geenna from  Hebrew gay = valley + Hinnom = a deep narrow ravine south of Jerusalem once associated with the pagan god Moloch and his disgusting rite of infant sacrifices [cp modern practice of abortion!], 2 Kings 23:10; 2 Chr 28:3; 33:6; Jer 7:31, 19:5-6, 32:35; Ezekiel 16:20; 23:37 clearly prohibited by God in Lev 18:21, 20:2-5) is literally the valley of Hinnom, the valley where the filth and dead animals of the city were cast out and burned and where there were trash fires and perpetually burning rubbish,  all a fit symbol of the future home of all unrepentant, unregenerate wicked men and women. It was a foul, forbidding place where the fire, smoke, and stench never ceased. It is thus fitting that gehenna is where sin and unrepentant sinners will one day find it's "resting place".

Good men avoid sin from the love of virtue: (2Co 5:9, Gal 1:10). Wicked men avoid sin from a fear of punishment.

It is said (although not every historical record concurs) that the Early Church Father, Origen, took this command literally and had himself castrated. Whether true or not, clearly that is not what Jesus is calling for! The trouble with a literal interpretation is that it does not go far enough! Even if you did cut off your hand or gouge out your eye, you could still sin with your other hand or eye. When all those are gone, you can still sin in your mind!

><>><>><>

In his excellent tract Thoughts for Young Men, the pithy evangelical writer, J C Ryle (1816-1900 - read a short biography) has the following "thoughts" relative to Jesus' warning about what we look at...

Another danger to young men is the LOVE OF PLEASURE.

Youth is the time when our passions are strongest--and like unruly children, cry most loudly for indulgence. Youth is the time when we have generally our most health and strength: death seems far away, and to enjoy ourselves in this life seems to be everything. Youth is the time when most people have few earthly cares or anxieties to take up their attention. And all these things help to make young men think of nothing except pleasure.

"I serve lusts and pleasures:" that is the true answer many a young man should give, if asked, "Whose Servant are you?"

Young men, time would not permit me to tell you all the fruits this love of pleasure produces, and all the ways in which it may do you harm. Why should I speak of carousing, partying, drinking, gambling, movie-going, dancing, and the like? There are few to be found who don't know something of these things by bitter experience. And these are only instances. All things that give a feeling of excitement for the time--all things that drown thought, and keep the mind in a constant whirl--all things that please the senses and delight the flesh--these are the sort of things that have mighty power at your time of life, and they owe their power to the love of pleasure. Be on your guard. Do not be like those of whom Paul speaks, "Lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God" (see note 2 Timothy 3:4).

Remember what I say: if you would cling to earthly pleasures--these are the things which murder souls. There is no surer way to get a seared conscience and a hard heart towards the things of God, than to give way to the desires of the flesh and mind. It seems like nothing at first, but it tells in the long run.

Consider what Peter says:

Abstain from sinful desires, which war against your soul (see note 1 Peter 2:11)

They destroy the soul's peace, break down its strength, lead it into captivity, and make it a slave.

Consider what Paul says:

Put to death, (aorist imperative = command to carry this out now! conveys a sense of urgency!) therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed" (see note Colossians 3:5)

Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires (see note Galatians 5:24).

Once the body was a perfect home for a soul--now it is all corrupt and disordered, and needs constant watching. It is a burden to the soul--not a helper; a hindrance--not an assistance. It may become a useful servant, but it is always a bad master.

Consider, again, the words of Paul:

Clothe (aorist imperative = command to carry this out now! conveys a sense of urgency!) yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think (present imperative + negative = stop doing this!) about how to gratify the desires of the sinful nature" (see note Romans 13:14)

"These," says Leighton, "are the words, the very reading of which gave Augustine a great conviction of heart, causing an immoral young man to be turned into a faithful servant of Jesus Christ."

Young men, I wish this might be the case with all of you.

Remember, again, if you cling to earthly pleasures, they will all be unsatisfying, empty, and pointless. Like the locusts of the vision in Revelation, they seem to have crowns on their heads: but like the same locusts, you will find they have stings--real stings--in their tails. All that glitters is not gold. All that tastes sweet is not good. All that pleases for a while is not real pleasure.

Go and take your fill of earthly pleasures if you will--you will never find your heart satisfied with them. There will always be a voice within, crying, like the leech in Proverbs 30:15,

"Give! Give!"

There is an empty place there, which nothing but God can fill. You will find, as Solomon did by experience, that earthly pleasures are but a meaningless show--promising contentment but bringing a dissatisfaction of spirit--gold plated caskets, exquisite to look at on the outside, but full of ashes and corruption within. Be wise in your youth.

Write the word "poison" on all earthly pleasures. The most lawful of them must be used in moderation. All of them are soul-destroying if you give them your heart. Pleasure, must first have the guarantee that it is not sinful--then it is to be enjoyed in moderation.

And I will not shrink from warning all young men to remember the seventh commandment; to beware of adultery and sexual immorality, of all impurity of every kind.

I fear that we don't very often speak on this part of God's law. But when I see how prophets and Apostles have dealt with this subject, when I observe the open way in which the Reformers of our own Church denounced it, when I see the number of young men who walk in the wicked footsteps of Reuben, and Hophni, and Phinehas, and Amnon, I for one cannot, with a good conscience, hold my peace. The world becomes more wicked because of our failure to teach and preach on this commandment. For my own part, I feel it would be false and unscriptural delicacy, in addressing men, not to speak of that which is preeminently the "young man's sin."

The violation of the seventh commandment is the sin above all others, that, as Hosea says,

"takes away the understanding" (Hosea 4:11).

It is the sin that leaves deeper scars upon the soul than any other sin that a man can commit. It is a sin that destroys thousands of young men in every age, and has even overthrown a few of the saints of God in the past. Samson and David are fearful proofs. It is the sin that man dares to smile at, and smoothes over using the terms: thrills, love, uncontrollable passions, and natural desires. But it is the sin that the devil rejoices over, for he is the "unclean spirit;" and it is the sin that God abhors, and declares He "will judge" (see note Hebrews 13:4).

Young men, "Flee (present imperative = command to keep on fleeing for we never will outgrow the need to obey this important command) from sexual immorality" (1Cor 6:18) if you love life.

Let no one deceive (present imperative with a negative commands them to stop an action already in progress or forbidding of a continuation of being deceived) you with empty words, for because of such things God's wrath comes on those who are disobedient (Eph 5:6-note).

Flee from the opportunity of it--from the company of those who might draw you into it--from the places where you might be tempted to do it. Read what our Lord says about it in Matthew 5:28,

I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.

Be like the holy servant Job:

I made a covenant with my eyes not to look lustfully at a girl" (Job 31:1)

Flee from talking about it. It is one of the things that ought not even be hinted about in conversation (Eph 5:12-note). You cannot even touch black grease without getting your hands dirty (see powerful illustration of  the life of the ermine). Flee from the thoughts of it; resist them, destroy them, pray against them--make any sacrifice rather than give way to them. Imagination is the hotbed where this sin is too often hatched. Guard your thoughts, and there will be little fear about your actions.

Consider the caution I have been giving. If you forget everything else, do not let this be forgotten.  (J. C. Ryle. Thoughts for Young Men)

><> ><> ><>

Kill The Spider! - We sometimes have mixed feelings about our sins. We are afraid of being hurt by them, and we want to be forgiven. But we aren't sure we want to be rid of them right now.

A man told me he has a bad habit that is hindering his fellowship with God and hurting his Christian testimony. He says he prays that God will forgive him for his addiction—but he doesn't stop. He reminds me of the story about the man who often went forward at the end of church services to kneel and pray, "Lord, take the cobwebs out of my life." One Sunday morning his pastor, tired of hearing the same old prayer, knelt beside him and cried out, "Lord, kill the spider!"

Yes, sometimes it takes radical action to break a sinful habit. We need to do more than ask God for cleansing each time we succumb to temptation. We must take whatever steps are needed to get the cobwebs out of our life. We must confess our sin and determine to be done with it. Then we must feed our mind with God's Word and do all we can to stay away from the people and places that tempt us to sin. That's what Christ meant when He said, "If your right eye causes you to sin, pluck it out" (Matthew 5:29).

Kill the spider and you'll get rid of the cobwebs. —H V Lugt (Our Daily Bread, Copyright RBC Ministries, Grand Rapids, MI. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved)

It's not enough to say to God,
"I'm sorry, I repent,"
And then go on from day to day
The way I always went. —Anon.

Admitting sin is no substitute for quitting sin.

><> ><> ><>

Sinning In Moderation? - A magazine advertisement for the MTV special The Seven Deadly Sins carried this line: "Lust: Where would we be without it?" A popular radio and television personality said that greed can be good because it makes capitalism work well. An MTV commentator said, "A little lust, pride, sloth, and gluttony--in moderation--are fun, and that's what keeps your heart beating."

Gluttony in moderation? That's doubletalk. How can we practice excess in moderation? Moderation is a virtue, but it can never apply to an action that is immoral.

There may be nothing wrong with eating some goodies, especially those marked "lite," "cholesterol free," or "low calorie." But there is no such thing as "light lust" or "low-calorie greed." Lust, greed, or sin of any kind and in any amount is always wrong.

Christians who are serious about pleasing the Lord will continually examine and judge their inner thoughts and motives. They'll confess and repent of greed as a motive for making more and more money. And they'll work at disciplining their thoughts and actions.

Enjoy a few "lite" desserts. But don't fall for the idea that a little sinning is all right if done in moderation. --H V Lugt (Our Daily Bread, Copyright RBC Ministries, Grand Rapids, MI. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved)

O Lord, help us to recognize
When we begin to compromise;
And give us strength to follow through
With what we know is right and true. --Sper

Moderation in sin is no more possible
than moderation in death.

><>><>><>

The cartoon depicted a frustrated father changing a flat tire in the rain. His two children were peering out the car window. In response to their complaining, he said, "Don't you understand? This is life. This is what's happening. We can't switch to another channel!" Television and reality—does the former distort the latter? After 10 years of research, media analyst Kenneth Curtis measured TV's impact on society. He concluded that the omnipresent, flickering screen constantly tries to tell us what behavior and attitudes are desirable. He described the effect of TV as a subtle process that has become a significant force in defining reality. If this is true, we had better be careful about what we watch. The networks are not committed to portraying Christian values. Many things that are presented as acceptable are in fact dangerous. Furthermore, watching TV makes us passive observers rather than active participants in solving life's problems. The violence, sex, and materialism on TV can make us insensitive to our calling as Christians to be salt and light in a sinful world.

Only as we meditate on God's Word (Psalm 1:2) can we have the right perspective. To avoid a distorted view of life, we must allow God's truth to define reality. —M R De Haan II (Our Daily Bread, Copyright RBC Ministries, Grand Rapids, MI. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved)