“Woe to the world for temptations to sin! For it is necessary that temptations come, but woe to the one by whom the temptation comes!
And if your hand or your foot causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life crippled or lame than with two hands or two feet to be thrown into the eternal fire.
And if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into the hell of fire.
Subject: Temptation and Sin
Before Jesus says the above words to His disciples, He has just told them that those who cause a little child to sin are in grave danger. He has just stated that it would be better for them that a great millstone would be tied around their neck and that they be tossed into the deepest sea, than to suffer God's wrath for causing a child to stumble in life. Jesus extends this warning in the above passage and broadens the emphasis. Jesus tells us that temptation in life WILL come (He states, "it is necessary" for temptation to come into the world ... Meaning sin is in the world and it will happen). What He is talking about in the above verses is both "external" temptation (from outside sources) and "internal" temptation (from our own body). In both cases extreme measures are to be taken. He states, "woe" to the person who introduces temptation to sin to another person. Like the "milestone around the neck and tossed into the sea" thought, the person who introduces sin to another is in grave danger and the path of God's wrath. Fathers who introduce sin to their sons; husbands who do so to their wives; wives to husbands; friends to friends; are all in the path of God's anger and judgement. But, there is also an internal component of sin's temptation. What my hand reaches for and where my feet attempt to take me, are also co-conspirators. The answer: drastic surgery. Cutting off the hand, or the foot. There seems to be no middle ground. There is no training and educational component. There is only radical separation. In Matthew 5:27-30 Jesus says the same thing about our eyes in the context of lust; we are to pluck them out if they lead us to lust. Sin is to be dealt with in a radical way in Jesus' teaching. We don't deal with it in this manner. We allow temptation to allure us and we flirt with it. Surgery is the only way to remove the tumor of sin!!
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