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.
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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.
Jairus, the secret believer
55-0604 §15
Now, if they had ... if they had a medicine that would heal a knife cut in my hand, it would heal a knife cut in my coat; it'd heal a knife cut on this desk here. If it'd heal a knife cut, it would heal a knife cut regardless of where it was ... if a medicine healed a knife cut. Now, you say, "Brother Branham, you're getting off of the beaten path." All right. You say, "Medicine is made to heal human bodies, not your coat and the desk." All right. Then I cut my hand with a knife, and I fall dead here on the platfor...
The great warrior Joshua
55-0119 §14
...the material. And the body, supernaturally now the body of the Lord Jesus is the shadow, as it was, of the natural physical body of the Lord. And notice, if healings, if power, if visions, if the things that Christ had in Him, has gone out of His shadow, then Christ is paralyzed. His natural body sits paralyzed, because if His physical body moves, His shadow will have to move with it. And if we are in Christ by Holy Ghost baptism, and the way the body of Christ moves, it'll move the same way on earth, for this is...
Questions and Answers, Part 2
64-0823E §84
No, Brother, if you want a flattop haircut, I'll tell you; You just wait till you get about my age, you'll have one. So... That's all right. I didn't mean that like that, buddy. Bless your heart if you believe Brother Branham tell you the truth. I don't think God says anything about men, his covering is just as long as he cuts his hair. If he lets his hair grow down long like a woman, the Bible says it's a shame for a man to do that. But now, if ... as long as you got your hair and you're a little boy. And I know I...
Paradox
64-0418B §6
Now let me get that, right now, just stop with you just a moment. See, Christ coming to His body---that don't mean it's just me. I'm not the body. I'm just a member of that body, see. You're part of that body too. "By one Spirit (I Corinthians 6:15, I Corinthians 12), by one Spirit we are all baptized into one body." We are members of that body, every one of us; whether you are Methodist, Baptist, Lutheran, Oneness, twoness, fiveness, or whatever you got, see. By that one Spirit we are all in one body. If God accep...
You must be born again
61-1231M §75
Now listen. I'm going to have to cut just a little bit here, you know, get the briars out of the way. Women and men that won't follow God's Word and His teaching after they claim to be born again, there's something wrong. I'm going to speak with the women just a minute. If a woman that knows that God's Word condemns bobbed hair, and wearing shorts, wearing slacks, dressing immorally, and haven't got the decency enough to let your hair grow out and put on clothes that look like a Christian, you're deceived. I don't...