Prace and Love
2006-09-09 07:58:25 · 17 answers · asked by digilook 2 in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
29 If, now, that right eye of yours is making you stumble, tear it out and throw it away from you. For it is more beneficial to you for one of your members to be lost to you than for your whole body to be pitched into Ge·hen´na. 30 Also, if your right hand is making you stumble, cut it off and throw it away from you. For it is more beneficial to you for one of your members to be lost than for your whole body to land in Ge·hen´na.
“Whole-souled” service to God involves the entire person, no bodily part, function, capacity, or desire being left out. Jesus’ followers were to get rid of anything causing spiritual stumbling, the ‘cutting off of a hand or foot’ and the ‘tearing out of an eye’ figuratively representing their deadening of these body members with reference to sin.
The eye is an important channel of communication to the mind and the heart. What it focuses on can strongly influence our thoughts, emotions, and actions. Using illustrative language, Jesus referred to the power of visual temptation. The eye must be restrained from concentrating on improper sights. For example, it must not be allowed to dwell on material that is designed to excite or arouse illicit passions and desires.
People are often willing to sacrifice a literal limb that is diseased in order to save their lives. But according to Jesus, it is even more vital to ‘throw away’ anything, even something as precious as an eye or a hand, to avoid immoral thinking and actions. Otherwise, Jesus explains, such persons will be thrown into Gehenna (a burning rubbish heap near Jerusalem), which symbolizes eternal destruction.
An individual can also avoid committing adultery by following this advice. The application to be made is stated in Colossians 3:5-7: “Deaden, therefore, your body members that are upon the earth as respects fornication, uncleanness, sexual appetite, hurtful desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. On account of those things the wrath of God is coming. In those very things you, too, once walked when you used to live in them.” So, the proper course is to deaden one’s body members toward sin.—1 Cor. 9:27.
Jesus knew that the eye and the hand are useful for many godly activities when controlled by a mind nourished upon godly teaching. Instead of the fleshly members directing the thinking, the mind should have those members under control.
Being surrounded by Satan’s world, we must exercise self-discipline, avoiding anything that could contaminate our mind or corrupt our heart. Jesus Christ encouraged his disciples to simplify their lives and put Kingdom interests first.
2006-09-09 08:33:30 · answer #1 · answered by da chet 3 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Being faithful and trusting God and His Word ... not doing as the Pharisees did who had only a form of godliness.
They sought their own type of righteousness and didn't seek after God's righteousness... the Pharisees believed looking holy was the right way to do things but they were wrong because God sees their hearts and knows their true intentions.
(Read the whole chapter to get the full meaning not just picking out a select verse.)
2006-09-09 08:19:20 · answer #2 · answered by jaimestar64cross 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Jesus was not advocating self mutilation (for this would not be an effective cure for lust, which is actually a problem of the heart). He was using this graphic illustration to demonstrate the seriousness of sins of lust and evil desire. The point is that it would be "more profitable" to lose a member of ones own body than to bear the eternal consequences of the guilt from such sins.
2006-09-09 08:14:23 · answer #3 · answered by Hope 5 · 2⤊ 0⤋
Better to lose a part of you that is not as important as to lose your whole body to the fire of Hell. This is not saying to literally cut your hand off or pluck your eye out but that it would be better for you to do that than to sin and lose your whole being to Hell.
2006-09-09 08:04:00 · answer #4 · answered by ramall1to 5 · 3⤊ 0⤋
It means that as the church is the body of Christ, put out, cut off that, that is corrupt to the body of the church!
It is better to cut off the hand, than let it poison the whole body!
2006-09-09 10:33:48 · answer #5 · answered by Grandreal 6 · 0⤊ 1⤋
I believe that this represents the body of Christ. Church is the body of Christ. We know that each person is a part of the body of Christ, that is the church. So if any person or a group in the church does abide by the teachings of Christ and they are adamant and doing wrong, and they are not repentant, it is good to not to have such people and spoil the entire crowd.
Can you get that picture. GOD never wants to destroy us.
God Bless you,
Edwin.
2006-09-09 08:06:13 · answer #6 · answered by edwin_mony 2 · 1⤊ 1⤋
It means if you feel a temptation and can't rid yourself of it, you just drop the temptation from your life and blame it on another. You feel better for it and now you can play the part of the martyr and go about your life doing all those things anyway, just with someone else who you don't love........
2006-09-09 16:17:18 · answer #7 · answered by silhouette 6 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Jesus wasn't teaching that we should actually physically harm our bodies in order not to sin. Unfortunately, we would still sin even if we didn't have eyes or hands. Our sin problem is in our minds.
Jesus was teaching us that we need to hate our sin. We need to hate it and try to rid ourselves of it with all His power.
Will we still sin even if we try as hard as we can to rid ourselves of sin? Yes.
2006-09-09 08:22:17 · answer #8 · answered by Red-dog-luke 4 · 2⤊ 0⤋
if there is something in your life causing you to sin get rid of it,not literally cutting off the hand or gouging out the eye(ex.Internet porn get rid of the Internet)
2006-09-09 08:03:25 · answer #9 · answered by san_ann68 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Remove yourself from temptation. If going on the internet causes you to look at porn, don't go on the internet. If being friends with a certian group of people cause you to get drunk, curse, sleep around, etc, don't be friends with them.
2006-09-09 08:06:16 · answer #10 · answered by brainy_ostrich 5 · 1⤊ 1⤋