What Does Matthew 5:28-31 Mean? Are We to Cut Off Our Offending Body Members?
1) Direct answer
Matthew 5:28–31 lifts the commandment to the heart level. Jesus says lust itself is adultery in the heart, and He tells us to deal ruthlessly with whatever causes us to stumble. He is not commanding literal mutilation, but a radical cutting off of the things and paths that feed sin. And in verse 31 He corrects the loose practice of divorce: marriage is holy; to put away a spouse without the one scriptural cause leads to adultery.
2) Scriptural explanation
- “Whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart” (v.28). The Bible also says, “Out of the heart proceed… adulteries” (Matthew 15:19). So the root is inside.
- “If thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out… If thy right hand offend thee, cut it off” (vv.29–30). This is strong language showing the costliness of true repentance. Elsewhere the same warning is repeated (Mark 9:43–47).
- “It hath been said, Whosoever shall put away his wife, let him give her a writing of divorcement” (v.31). In the very next verse Jesus tightens this to God’s standard: “Whosoever shall put away his wife, saving for the cause of fornication, causeth her to commit adultery…” (v.32). He points back to God’s original intention—one flesh, not to be broken at will.
3) Simple clarifying logic
- Now notice: it isn’t the ball of the eye that sins; it’s the desire in the heart directing the eye. Pluck out one eye, can the other still lust? Cut off a hand, does that remove the thought that drives the hand? You see, the body is the instrument; the heart is the master. So Jesus calls us to “cut off” the causes and the channels—habits, places, screens, relationships, clothing, conversations, any path that feeds the fire. It’s better to lose a thing than to lose your soul.
- The true cure is an inside work: repent, believe the Gospel, and let God cleanse the heart. “Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life” (Proverbs 4:23). Make a covenant with your eyes like Job did (Job 31:1), and walk in the Spirit so the flesh doesn’t rule you.
4) Reinforcing statement
Jesus magnified the law to the inward man. Not three steps of self-mutilation, but one decisive surrender: cut off the stumbling blocks, and let God change the heart. Guard the marriage covenant as God does, and treat sin so seriously that nothing is too costly to lay aside to keep your soul.
Ask a Follow-up Question
What did the Laodicean Church Age (our age) Angel (- messenger) Say about this?
Ranked passages from the local William Branham sermon and Church Age Book database. Relevance is relative, not a statement of doctrinal certainty.
The stature of a perfect man
62-1014M §90
Yes, sir! Add these things. Add temperance to it. Temperance---how to answer in kindness when wrath is spoke to you. Somebody say, "You bunch of holy rollers down there." Don't jump out and roll up your sleeves, now, see. Not that, but talk with godly love. Temperance, kindness. Is that the way you want to be? When you're riled upon, rile not back. Let Him be your example. When they said, "If thou be the Son of God, turn these stones into bread," he could have done it and shown He was God, but He had temperance. Wh...
Thy loving kindness
58-0228 §32
What happened to all the Pentecostal women and their long hair? That burned, didn't it? But it's the truth. The Bible said, "This hair was given to a woman for her glory." No wonder you don't have much more glory; you cut it off. You know that's true. What happened? You got to look at too much of television. You've got to impersonating some movie star married four or five times, living with three or four husbands. Aren't you ashamed to quench that thirst after such scalawags and prostitutes as that, and leave God's...
Abraham
60-0803 §71
Somebody said to me, said, "Brother Branham..." One time I made a remark like that. I made it like this; I said, "Any medicine that will heal my hand, if I cut my hand... Look, if I cut my hand, would fall down dead, you could put all the medicine in the world on my hand, and embalm my body and make me look natural for fifty years, that cut would be just like it was when I fell down dead." Sure. If medicine heals, why don't it heal? Now a medicine to heal the cut in my hand, it'd heal the cut in my coat, heal a cut...
An Exposition Of The Seven Church Ages
CAB 4:E-75
We all know that the second death is the lake of fire. Revelation 20:14, "And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death." Of course that means all those who were therein, were cast into the lake of fire. Now then, I want to bring out something here for you. It no doubt will cause people to comment on my strange doctrine. But I stand here on the authority of the Word of God and deny that the unbeliever goes to an eternal hell and burns there eternally. In the first place, hell, or the...
An Exposition Of The Seven Church Ages
CAB 5:E-65
"I know thy works." These are the identical words uttered to each of the seven messengers relative to the people of God in each age. As they are spoken to the two vines (true and false) they will bring joy and gladness to the hearts of one group, but they ought to strike terror in the hearts of the other. For though we are saved by grace, apart from works, true salvation will bring forth works, or deeds that will please God. I John 3:7, "Little children, let no man deceive you; he that DOETH (worketh) righteousness...