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.
Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and today, and forever
61-0516A §13
Here. If I cut my hand this afternoon, and... We haven't got a medicine in all medical science to heal that knife cut in my hand. Not a one. "Why," you say, "yes, we have, Brother Branham." Pray tell me what it is. Many people die with knife cuts. Tell me what the healing is. "Well," you'd say, "oh, they put penicillin in it." Penicillin doesn't heal. Just keeps cleaning while God heals. "Well," you'd say, "well..." Any medicine would heal a knife cut in my hand would heal a knife cut in my coat. It would heal a kn...
And knoweth it not
65-0815 §60
Now, look, I want to ask you something. Why can't that woman see it? Why can't she? As far as living in adultery physically, to her husband, she's not guilty; she has nothing to confess. She's as clean as she was the day she was born; no man has touched her. I'm speaking parallel now, to the woman to the church. She's as clean as she was born. Well, that's exactly what the church is. As she was born, but she was born in sin, shaped in iniquity. See what I mean? Now, you tell her that it is wrong for her to cut her...
Separation from unbelief
55-0228 §14
Our text tonight takes us back to a little thing to our minds: not to mix with unbelievers. The Scripture says, "Don't yoke yourself up among unbelievers. Do not be unequally yoked together." Many places of the Scripture teaches us that we should separate ourselves. The first thing that God required Abraham to do when He called him, was to separate himself from his people, his kindred, and then He'd bless him. Now, it doesn't mean you have to leave home; it means just separate yourself from your worldly associates....
Perseverant
62-0729 §60
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Questions and Answers, Part 3
64-0830M §117
All right, read, Brother Neville ... like 4---4 to 6, all right, all right. Every man praying or prophesy, ... his head covered, dishonors his head. (That is, if he's got long hair. All right.) But every woman that prayeth or prophesy with her head uncovered dishonors her head: (That's her husband.) for that is even all as one if she were shaven. For if a woman be not covered, let her also be shorn: (If she wants to bob her hair, make her shave it all off slick. See? If she can't have...) but if it be not a shame f...