New Testament · Gospel

Matthew 5:29

The Sermon on the Mount

If your right eye causes you to sin, 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. Matthew 5:29 · Berean Standard Bible

What It Means

Matthew 5:29, in plain English

Jesus uses a shocking image: if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out. He's not being literal. He's saying: take sin seriously enough to do whatever it takes to remove it from your life.

Why it's here

We tend to make excuses for small compromises. Jesus says there's nothing small about sin. Deal with it decisively, before it deals with you.

Who's speaking

Jesus uses dramatic language to drive home the seriousness of sin.

Where it sits in the story

The imagery is extreme because the stakes are extreme. Jesus wants you to understand that sin is worth fighting against with everything you have.

A Closer Look

The scholarly reading

The hyperbolic command to gouge out the right eye uses dramatic imagery to convey the seriousness of radical sin-prevention. The 'right eye' (ophthalmos dexios) symbolizes the most valued or dominant faculty. Gehenna (hell) represents final, irreversible judgment.

Language and setting

This is rabbinic hyperbole (overstatement for emphasis), not a literal command for self-mutilation. The point is that no sacrifice is too great to avoid sin and its consequences.

Voice

Jesus, teaching with hyperbolic urgency.

Significance

Jesus employs shocking language to emphasize that sin must be dealt with radically, not gradually or half-heartedly.

In context

Matthew 5:27–31

27You have heard that it was said, ‘Do not commit adultery.’

28But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman to lust after her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.

29If your right eye causes you to sin, 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.

30And if your right hand causes you to sin, 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 depart into hell.

31It has also been said, ‘Whoever divorces his wife must give her a certificate of divorce.’

Read all of Matthew 5 — Jesus turns the world's values upside down. The blessed aren't the powerful — they're the poor in spirit, the grieving, the meek.

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