29 And if thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell. 30 And if thy right hand offend thee, cut it off, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell. (Matthew 5:29-30 KJV)
William Burkitt’s Commentary
Our Saviour had condemned ocular adultery in the foregoing verse, or the adultery of the eye; He that looketh on a woman to lust after her, hath committed adultery with her in his heart.
Whence note, That the eye is an inlet to sin, especially the sin of uncleanness: list enters the heart at the window of the eye.
Now in these verses Christ prescribes a remedy for the cure of this eye-malady: If thine eye offend thee, pluck it out: which is not to be understood literally, as if Christ commanded any man to maim his bodily members; but spiritually, to mortify the lusts of the flesh, and the lusts of the eye, which otherwise would prove a dangerous snare to the soul.
Learn, 1. That sin may be avoided: it is our duty to avoid whatsoever leads to it, or may be an occasion of it; if we find the view of an ensnaring object will inflame us, we must, though not put out our eye, yet make a covenant with our eye that we will not look upon it.
Note, 2. That the best course we can take to be kept from the outward acts of sin, is to mortify our inward affection and love to sin. This is to kill it in the root; and if once our inward affections be mortified, our bodily members may be spared and preserved; for they will no longer be weapons of sin but instruments of righteousness unto holiness.
Thomas Scott’s Commentary
Verses 29-30: This exact subjection of the sensual inclination; this victory over the most potent desires of the heart, especially when habit and constitution have concurred to enslave men, must be attended with painful exertions, and the sacrifice of what hath been highly valued. But if it be as painful, and as sensible a loss, as “plucking out a right eye, or cutting off a right hand” would be, it must be done. “The flesh, with the affections and lusts, must be crucified;” the strongest corruption conquered; and every appetite and inclination governed in subjection to the authority of God, and in subservience to his glory, the welfare of society, and the good of a man’s own soul.
If then the eye or hand, or any other part of the body, could be so necessary an occasion of sin that the temptation could by no other means be overcome, and that would certainly effect it; it would be a man’s duty and wisdom to part with it, whatever anguish he endured, or how much soever the loss might be felt: as it would be advantageous for him to lose one of his limbs, or organs of sense, rather than be cast with them all into hell.
But though members of the body are the instruments of sin, yet it proceeds from the lists of the heart: if these be mortified, and every idolized object renounced, there will be no need to injure the body; and without this it would be of no use.—This mortification of sinful passions may be excessively painful: But if men consent to lose their limbs by excruciating operations to save their lives; what ought they to shrink from when it becomes requisite to the salvation of their souls?
It must also be added, that the most watchful and self-denying government of every sense and appetite is implied in this admonition.—It is worthy of observation, that Jesus always took for granted that there is a future state, a resurrection of the body, and a hell into which the wicked will be cast; and that he continually realized these things to men’s minds, and called their attention to them.—The word rendered “offend,” literally signifies cause to stumble, in this and many other places in the new testament.
A stone is placed in the way, over which a man falls, and is lamed or killed; or a trap, in which he is taken: thus whatever occasions sin is a stumbling stone or a trap.—‘The greatest part of Christ’s auditors were poor people who lived by their daily labor; and to these the loss of a right hand would be a much greater calamity than that of a right eye: so that there is a graduation and force in the passage beyond what has generally been observed.’—Doddridge.