If
your hand or your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off, and cast it from you. It is better for you to enter into life maimed or crippled, rather than having two hands or two feet to be cast into the eternal fire. If your eye causes you to stumble, pluck it out, and cast it from you. It is better for you to enter into life with one eye, rather than having two eyes to be cast into the Gehenna of fire.
Matthew 18:8-9
Matthew 18 [2.] Jesus called a little child to himself, and set him in the middle of them, and said, “Most certainly I tell you, unless you turn, and become as little children, you will in no way enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. Whoever therefore humbles himself as this little child, the same is the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven. Whoever receives one such little child in my name receives me, but whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to stumble, it would be better for him that a huge millstone should be hung around his neck, and that he should be sunk in the depths of the sea.
Matthew 18 [7.] “Woe to the world because of occasions of stumbling! For it must be that the occasions come, but woe to that person through whom the occasion comes! If your hand or your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off, and cast it from you. It is better for you to enter into life maimed or crippled, rather than having two hands or two feet to be cast into the eternal fire. If your eye causes you to stumble, pluck it out, and cast it from you. It is better for you to enter into life with one eye, rather than having two eyes to be cast into the Gehenna of fire. See that you don’t despise one of these little ones, for I tell you that in heaven their angels always see the face of my Father who is in heaven. For the Son of Man came to save that which was lost.
Matthew 18 [12.] “What do you think? If a man has one hundred sheep, and one of them goes astray, doesn’t he leave the ninety-nine, go to the mountains, and seek that which has gone astray? If he finds it, most certainly I tell you, he rejoices over it more than over the ninety-nine which have not gone astray. Even so it is not the will of your Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish.
Meaning:
Jesus has just warned about causing others to stumble: “woe to that person through whom the occasion comes!” (Matthew 18:7). Now he turns the warning inward. Before we worry about the stumbling blocks others put in our way, we must deal ruthlessly with the things in our own lives that lead us into sin. Jesus had used almost the same words in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5:29-30), and Mark records them in the same setting as here (Mark 9:43-48).
- “If your hand or your foot causes you to stumble”
To “stumble” means to fall into sin and away from God. The hand stands for what we do, the foot for where we go, and the eye for what we look at and desire. Jesus is not teaching self-harm. Cutting off a hand cannot cure a sinful heart, because sin comes from within (Matthew 15:19). He is using vivid, deliberate exaggeration, a common teaching method among Jewish teachers, to make the point unforgettable: whatever leads you into sin must go, however precious it seems.
- “cut it off, and cast it from you”
The command is decisive. Sin is not to be managed or kept at a safe distance but removed. Joseph did not argue with Potiphar’s wife; “He left his garment in her hand, and ran outside” (Genesis 39:12). Paul writes in the same spirit: “Put to death therefore your members which are on the earth” (Colossians 3:5), and “Flee from youthful lusts” (2 Timothy 2:22). It may mean ending a habit or giving up something lawful that has become a trap.
- “better for you to enter into life”
Jesus compares two outcomes. One is to “enter into life”, that is, eternal life in the Kingdom of God, even if it costs something dear. The other is to keep everything and lose everything. Any earthly loss is small compared with eternal life. This echoes his teaching on the narrow gate: “How narrow is the gate, and restricted is the way that leads to life! Few are those who find it” (Matthew 7:14).
- “the eternal fire” and “the Gehenna of fire”
Gehenna was the Valley of Hinnom outside Jerusalem. In the days of the kings, children had been burned there in idol worship, which God condemned: “They have built the high places of Topheth, which is in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire” (Jeremiah 7:31). The place became a picture of God’s final judgment. Mark’s account adds Isaiah’s words, “where their worm doesn’t die, and the fire is not quenched” (Isaiah 66:24). Jesus warns of it while there is still time (Matthew 10:28).
The Significance of Matthew 18:8-9
- Take sin seriously
Many people treat sin lightly, as a small weakness. Jesus treats it as deadly. Christians are called to examine what they watch, where they go and what they do, and to remove whatever repeatedly leads them away from God. “Let us also … lay aside every weight and the sin which so easily entangles us” (Hebrews 12:1).
- Grace makes the fight possible
We cannot cut out sin by willpower alone. Jesus came “to save that which was lost” (Matthew 18:11), and God gives strength in temptation: “God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted above what you are able” (1 Corinthians 10:13).
Cross-References:
Matthew 5:29-30: "If your right eye causes you to stumble, pluck it out and throw it away from you." The same teaching in the Sermon on the Mount.
Mark 9:43: "If your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off." Mark’s parallel.
Colossians 3:5: "Put to death therefore your members which are on the earth:" Paul applies the same principle.
Isaiah 66:24: "for their worm will not die, nor will their fire be quenched," The background to Jesus’ words on judgment.
Conclusion: Jesus calls his followers to deal radically with sin in their own lives. Using strong pictures, he teaches that it is better to give up anything, even something as dear as a hand or an eye, than to be lost. Whatever leads us into sin must be removed, because eternal life is worth more than any earthly loss. With God’s help, the fight against sin can be won.
PIB Scriptures are derived from the World English Bible