Matthew 5.27-30.
5.20
The following previously appeared on my religion blog, More Christ.
Does Jesus literally want us to cut off our own arms and pull out our own eyes? Historically Christians—even most of the folks who insist that everything Jesus said was literally true—have taught no. They’re insistent that the rest of the bible is literal, but once it puts their own arms or eyes at risk, they suddenly agree with the rest of us: Jesus was using hyperbole—He was exaggerating to make a point.
Sin is so destructive, so bad, that you ought to be willing to lose a limb to put a stop to it. Few of us are willing to go that far. The few that do are frequently considered nuts. But as Jesus taught, it’s better for us to lose one part of the body, and live in the Kingdom limbless, than for the whole body to be thrown into hell. (More accurately, “ge’enna,” meaning the landfill outside Jerusalem, where the trash fires burned pretty much constantly. People used “ge’enna” as a euphemism for hell.)
Okay, I’ve picked on the literalists a bit, but now it’s time to pick on my own side: the folks who read this as hyperbole. Frequently we read this passage, then focus on four things:
- Jesus didn’t mean it literally. Don’t start dismembering yourself every time you look at, or touch, or think about, something you shouldn’t. But do try make an effort to stop lusting and sinning. Those things lead to hell, and Jesus doesn’t want us going that way.
- We’ve saved by God’s grace, not our works. This means that, in the end, it doesn’t matter that we’ve committed adultery with anyone in our hearts. Because God’s grace will rescue us from hell regardless of what sins we’ve done, and how many. So, thanks to grace, we needn’t worry at all about our whole body being thrown into hell.
- Unless, of course, you’re into pornography. Then you’re risking hell. ’Cause you’re looking at lots of women (or men) with lust. Maybe Jesus didn’t have porn in mind when He originally said this—although you never know; God knows everything, right?—but it certainly applies nowadays. (If you’re wondering what happened to grace: It’s still there… but only once you stop it with the porn. Otherwise you’re still risking hell.)
- Here Jesus mentions “hell,” and what He means by that is…. (And like I said, I’ll get to that another time.)
The reason these interpretations contradict one another a bit—or even a lot—is because, to one degree or another, we’re picking the interpretation that we like best.
We’ll all skim the first interpretation. ’Cause it’s correct. But then we’ll quickly move on to one of the other three.
If we like God’s grace best, we’ll focus on that, and emphasize grace so much that we basically cancel out Jesus’s entire teaching: Sin is so bad that we ought to lose limbs to stop it, but grace is so great that we needn’t worry about losing limbs to stop it. ’Cause God isn’t gonna let us go to hell. We’re saved! And once saved, always saved! And yeah, we shouldn’t lust, but grace is so good…!
If we hate porn most, we’ll focus on the third interpretation. We’ll emphasize righteousness so much that we basically don’t teach grace at all: Those who lust are going to hell. Maybe grace could save you, but you’re resisting it so you can lust, and so grace won’t save you. Some teachings border on treating Jesus’s hyperbole as if He literally meant it—maybe not so far as to pluck out eyes or hack off arms, although some people have certainly attempted it.
And of course, there’s the crowd that skips Jesus’s teaching entirely, and only focuses on what “hell” means, and who goes there. If you’re a big fan of the wicked going to hell, that’s the interpretation route you’ll take: trying to become an expert in something that Jesus warns us away from, because He’s trying to keep us from gaining firsthand knowledge.
See how easy it is to bend the bible to our whims?
I’m not saying porn isn’t bad, and grace isn’t great, and that we should be ignorant of hell. I’m saying that Jesus’s intention in teaching this shouldn’t be given brief lip service while we race our merry way towards our pet interpretations. The reason He used the extreme imagery of amputation and hell was because He wanted it stuck in our minds: Sin is bad. Avoid it as best you can.
Mt 5.27 Ἠκούσατε ὅτι ἐρρέθη· οὐ μοιχεύσεις. you all heard that it was said, not you will adulter. 5.28 ἐγὼ δὲ λέγω ὑμῖν ὅτι πᾶς ὁ βλέπων γυναῖκα πρὸς τὸ ἐπιθυμῆσαι αὐτὴν & I say to you all that any[one], the [one] seeing a woman to the desiring of her, ἤδη ἐμοίχευσεν αὐτὴν ἐν τῇ καρδίᾳ αὐτοῦ. now he adultered her in the heart of him, 5.29 εἰ δὲ ὁ ὀφθαλμός σου ὁ δεξιὸς σκανδαλίζει σε, & if the eye of you, the right, scandalizes you, ἔξελε αὐτὸν καὶ βάλε ἀπὸ σοῦ· you take! it and you throw! it from you, συμφέρει γάρ σοι ἵνα ἀπόληται ἓν τῶν μελῶν σου καὶ μὴ ὅλον τὸ σῶμά σου βληθῇ εἰς γέενναν. for it is better for you, so that it may be destroyed in the body part of you, and not [the] whole, the body of you, it may be thrown into Ge’enna. 5.30 καὶ εἰ ἡ δεξιά σου χεὶρ σκανδαλίζει σε, and if the right of you, [the] hand, scandalizes you, ἔκκοψον αὐτὴν καὶ βάλε ἀπὸ σοῦ· you cut off! it and throw! from you, συμφέρει γάρ σοι ἵνα ἀπόληται ἓν τῶν μελῶν σου καὶ μὴ ὅλον τὸ σῶμά σου εἰς γέενναν ἀπέλθῃ. for it is better for you, so that it may be destroyed in the body part of you, and not [the] whole, the body of you, into Ge’enna it may go off.
