Did Jesus mean we should literally pluck out our eyes in Matthew 5:29-30?

Hyperbolic Warnings Against Sin in the Sermon on the Mount

Did Jesus mean we should literally pluck out our eyes? We're going to answer that question. You can also discover more on GotQuestions .org. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus says something that must certainly have seized his hearer's attention.

If your right eye causes you to stumble, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it away.

It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into hell. These graphic word pictures still grab attention today, and they raise the question of how literally we should take Jesus' commands in these passages.

Does Jesus actually mean to say that we should pluck out our eyes or sever a hand if we are prone to sin? It may be of comfort to know that Jesus' instructions in these particular verses are not meant to be taken literally.

We need not mutilate our bodies as a punishment for our sin. Rather, Jesus means that we should be prepared to make exceptional sacrifices if we want to follow him. Jesus had warned his audience against using their eyes for lustful purposes, so his prescribed remedy for lust to pluck out an eye makes sense in a radical sort of way.

But it is the radical nature of his statement that makes it so memorable. When Jesus advises us to pluck out a sinful eye or cut off an unruly hand, he is employing a figure of speech known as hyperbole.

Hyperbole is an obvious exaggeration or an intentional overstatement. Examples of hyperbole in modern speech would include statements like, This bag of groceries weighs a ton. I've been waiting forever.

Everyone knows that. Hyperbole, like other figures of speech, is not meant to be taken literally. Jesus' purpose in using hyperbole is to magnify in his hearer's minds the heinous nature of sin. Sin is any action or thought that is contrary to the character of God.

The Seriousness of Sin and the Reality of Hell

The result of sin is eternal death and a one-way ticket to hell, from which Jesus wants to.

Save us.

Jesus says that whatever is causing you to sin, take drastic measures to get that thing.

Out of your life.

It is better for you to enter life maimed or crippled than to have two hands or two feet and be thrown into eternal fire. It is better for you to enter life with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into the fire of hell.

Nothing is worth missing heaven for. Nothing is worth going to hell for.

Nothing.

God takes sin seriously, seriously enough to sacrifice his only begotten son to destroy.

It.

Repentance, Holiness, and Radical Discipleship

We must take sin seriously as well. A lack of repentance is a crime punishable by eternal death. It is better to deny our flesh, to pluck out an eye or cut off a hand, as it were, than to risk sinning against God.

God demands holiness, but we naturally tend to pamper ourselves and excuse our sin. That is why we need Jesus' shocking, radical hyperbole to wake us from our spiritual complacency. That answers the question, did Jesus mean we should literally pluck out our eyes?

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