Matthew 18.8-9 Mark 9.43-48

Matthew 18:8-9 8 “If your hand or your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it from you; it is better for you to enter life crippled or lame, than to have two hands or two feet and be cast into the eternal fire. 9 “If your eye causes you to stumble, pluck it out and throw it from you. It is better for you to enter life with one eye, than to have two eyes and be cast into the fiery hell.

Mark 9:43-48 43 “If your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life crippled, than, having your two hands, to go into hell, into the unquenchable fire, 44 [where THEIR WORM DOES NOT DIE, AND THE FIRE IS NOT QUENCHED.] 45 “If your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life lame, than, having your two feet, to be cast into hell, 46 [where THEIR WORM DOES NOT DIE, AND THE FIRE IS NOT QUENCHED.] 47 “If your eye causes you to stumble, throw it out; it is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye, than, having two eyes, to be cast into hell, 48 where THEIR WORM DOES NOT DIE, AND THE FIRE IS NOT QUENCHED.

How to avoid sin in our lives should be one of our highest priorities.  Without a doubt, man’s greatest problem is sin.  Because of sin we stand eternally condemned before God and our relationships with others are compromised.  There are several factors that contribute to our sinfulness like the fallen society in which we live and the temptations of Satan, but the most significant is our own hearts.  Our hearts are greatly influenced by the desires of our bodies and our bodies are used to fulfill the desires of our hearts.  Jesus has been teaching about the seriousness of causing others to stumble but now He warns us of how we can cause ourselves to stumble because of the lusts of our own bodies.  It is important for us to understand that Jesus is teaching us about the seriousness of sin in this passage and not how we can be rescued from sin.  We learn three truths about our bodies from this text.

OUR BODIES CAN BE THE CAUSE OF OUR SIN: Jesus refers to three body parts in this text: the foot, the hand and the eyes.  It is clear that Jesus is referring to our entire body by including the various extremities and not limiting His teaching to just those three body parts.  His point is that our bodies are often used as instruments of sin or tempt us to sin.  The body is very dangerous because it has desires for pleasure that can lead us into sin or cause us to stumble.  The body can confuse us because not all the desires of the body are sinful.  Our body desires food, water and sleep.  There is nothing inherently wrong with our body’s hunger, thirst or tiredness.  However, these legitimate needs can easily become stumbling blocks in our lives that lead us into gluttony, drunkenness and laziness.  All the legitimate needs of our bodies can be easily perverted into areas of sinfulness.  It is important for us to beware of the danger our bodies represent.

OUR BODIES CAN BE CONTROLLED FROM SIN: Even thought our bodies represent a constant danger to us, we do have the ability to control our bodies.  Jesus speaks of removing our feet, hands or eyes if they are causing us to stumble.  Once again, Jesus is using a figure of speech to shock His hearers and demonstrate the seriousness of sin but is not condoning self-mutilation in the passage.  His point is that we need to be willing to take extreme measures in order to avoid sin and temptations to sin in our lives.  That may mean removing televisions from our homes or internet from our phones, credit cards from our wallets or candy from our homes.  Whatever the source of temptation that has become a stumbling block causing us to sin; we must be prepared to take radical measures to prevent temptations in that area.  We are not the slaves of our body’s lusts and desires.  We are able to control our bodies through the power of the Holy Spirit and the disciplines He makes possible for us to follow.  Whatever we need to do in order to avoid sin is worth doing.

OUR BODIES CAN BE CONDEMNED BY SIN: The reason it is so urgent for us to avoid sin are the terrible consequences of sin.  Sin condemns us to death and eternal separation from God for all eternity in hell.  There is nothing worse than hell.  Avoiding hell should be the top priority of every man, woman and child on the face of the earth.  There is only one way that we can avoid going to hell and that is by placing our trust in the death and resurrection of Jesus as the only means by which our sins can be forgiven.  As I mentioned in the introduction, Jesus is not teaching the way of salvation in this passage, He is teaching about the seriousness of sin.  A man can chop off his hands and feet and gouge out both of his eyes and still spend eternity in hell.  The way to salvation is not through self-mutilation.  Our bodies can condemn us in sin but are not able to save us from sin.  Only faith in Christ can save us from sin.  We will never be good enough to earn salvation through the works of the body.  All of us deserve eternal condemnation because of our sin, but Jesus gave His body so that we might be forgiven and one day receive a new body that will only desire to please and glorify the Father.

APPLICATION: Beware of the lusts of our body.  Understand how dangerous it is to allow the desire of our bodies to remain unchecked.  Be willing to take radical and practical steps in order to remove temptations from our bodies.  Make sure we are trusting in the Lord Jesus as our only hope of salvation from sin.