Throw it away
‘So if your right eye causes you to sin, take it out and throw it away! It is much better for you to lose a part of your body than to have your whole body thrown into hell. If your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away! It is much better for you to lose one of your limbs than to have your whole body go off to hell.’ (verses 29,30)
Read Matthew 5:27-37
When cancer strikes, drastic surgery is sometimes the only way to save the person’s life. The pain of the operation is worth it, because leaving the cancer there would mean certain death. Cancer kills, and so we are generally prepared to let the surgeon cut it out in order to stop it spreading to other parts of the body.
There are other things in our bodies that also have the power to destroy life. Jesus mentions our eyes and our hands, but he could have included our mouth, our ears, our mind and our heart. These are all wonderful gifts from God, to be used as he meant them to be used. But often we allow them to be used for things that destroy rather than build up our life in Jesus.
Jesus reminds you that you need to cut out whatever it is that leads you into sin. Allowing it to stay in your life will finally take you to hell, where all sin ends up. There is no heavenly future where there is sin. Sin needs to be dealt with, and your Saviour himself is ready to perform the surgery.
Give me a clean heart, 0 Lord, and put a new and right spirit within me. Amen.
By Len Tscharke, in “Refreshment for each day” (LCA, Openbook Publishers (2003)
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