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.
Questions and Answers, The Law having a shadow
54-0516 §15
Now, the next thing is this man will go out and today he might smoke, drink, curse, do things that his habits is hanging into him. It's just rooted in there, it's spirit. Habits are spirits. The Bible said they're "unclean spirits" in men. Now, he was a...maybe he's lustful. Excuse this, we're a mixed audience, but we're--we're standing in the judgment house of God, see, and we must say these things clear. For instance, men sometimes, especially men, become lustful, sex maniac, and not only that, just lustful. Way...
Identification
63-0123 §85
Do you identify yourself with Judas' group? Remember, Judas started out to walk with Him. Now if this hurts, I don't mean it to hurt, but I mean it for to pinch right hard, see. Judas started out on the right foot. He started out to walk with Him. But when he got to be ... get a little money in his hands... I wonder if that could be applied to Pentecost? When we got off of the street corner, out of the little mission in the alley---and then we got to have a little money... And I wonder if our walk hasn't got a litt...
Possessing all things
62-0506 §8
Brother Crase, one of our brethren here, Satan after him just recently, hit a culvert, oh, it just cut his ... completely. I don't see how he ever got out of it alive. And so he was laying out there in the hospital and said there was a little brother come in from New Albany, named Medcalf, and he said, "Brother Crase, I'm not worthy to come pray for you, but," said, "the Lord just put it on my heart, so I couldn't help it." Just come out and knelt down, and said a little prayer and went out. God healed Brother Cras...
Revelation, Chapter 4c Throne of mercy and judgement
61-0108 §97
Now, to this gate there's only one, one gate. That's called "self-will." You're the boss of what goes in there. And what does it do? What is this? The body must be washed, the laver; sanctified, at here; filled with the Holy Spirit, here. And this becomes God's judgment seat again, where God sits in your heart. And if you do something wrong, say, "Oh, my. I did wrong." Some people say, "It don't condemn me to wear short hair (the women). It don't condemn me to wear manicure or makeup (whatever it is). It don't cond...
The principles of Divine healing
51-0923 §25
Look how simple. Of all of our fine drugs that we got today, there's not a drug in the world that can heal a simple knife cut in my hand. Did you know that? We haven't got a medicine that will heal the knife cut. And if... Any medicine that would heal the knife cut in my hand would heal a knife cut in my coat. "Why," you say, "Brother Branham, that's getting radical." Well, it would heal the knife cut; that's what I'm speaking of. "Well," you say, "Brother Branham, medicine was made for your body (That's correct.),...