Matthew 5:29

Matthew 5:29. An application by direct address.

Thy right eye, etc. Comp. chap. Matthew 18:8-9; Mark 9:43-48, where the order is different. Here the ‘eye' is placed first, on account of the connection with the lustful look (Matthew 5:28). The ‘right eye,' in popular esteem the better one.

Cause (or ‘is causing') thee to offend, to stumble, to fall into sin.

Pluck it out. Not: as soon as thine eye causeth thee to sin, pluck it out; rather: should it appear that the sight is an incurable cause of sin, then pluck it out; but such bodily mutilation would not of itself cure sin. We should resist ‘the first springs and occasions of evil desire, even by the sacrifice of what is most useful and dear to us.'

Cast it from thee, as something hateful, because given over to sin. The surgeon does not hesitate to amputate a limb, if he hopes thereby to save a life; no earthly sacrifice is too great where eternal life is concerned.

Profitable. Such self-denial is true self-interest, as all virtue is, could we but so understand it. However ‘profitable,' the overcoming of sin is painful.

Body, standing for the whole life here, because the sin referred to is a sin against the body.

Hell, Gehenna, not Hades; the place of punishment, not the place of the dead; hence spiritual, not physical death is referred to.

Matthew 5:30 repeats the same thought, instancing the right hand. The eye is the symbol of delight in looking (sense of beauty); the hand, the symbol of converse and intercourse (social feeling, friendship); but in any case here represented as organs of temptation.

Go (or, ‘go away') into hell. The change in expression perhaps marks a development of lust inevitably tending toward hell. Here, too, we must avoid a slavish literalism, and remember the main thought, which is to spare nothing which hinders our salvation. A literal execution would turn the Church into a house of invalids, since every Christian is more or less tempted to sin by his eye or hand; nor would the cutting off of all the members, of itself, destroy lust in the heart. Here, too, the rule applies: ‘The letter killeth, the spirit maketh alive.'