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.
Condemnation by Representation
60-1113 §76
And what are we doing now? Sitting in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. Not taking our theology, but letting the Holy Spirit breed us back to sons and daughters of God. What does the word circumcise mean? Stephen said... That's right, "cut off surplus flesh." Cut off the surplus, the part that's not needed. Circumcision, to be cut off. Now, in the Old Testament then, the male could be circumcised; the surplus flesh was cut away. Now, what the Holy Spirit does in the last days, it cuts away the surplus; cuts away the...
Discerning the Body of the Lord
59-0812 §29
Bobbing off their hair. The Bible said that a woman that cuts her hair, her husband has a right to give her a divorce, because she is untrue. He said that she dishonors her head. Is that right? And the man is the head of the woman. I know that's rough, but we need discernment. We need to discern it by the Word. The Word is right. Take the Word. God's Word is always right.
The Contest
62-1231 §34
And they had a token, that when the death angel came by, that there must be blood on the door, or the elder son or the elder child died in the home. The thought was, and the real meaning was, first to apply the Blood. Did you notice how Paul placed it here? "If any eat unworthily, he eat and drinks damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord's body," which means the same thing, that death, spiritual death, rests upon the person that would partake of the Lord's supper unworthily. That would be, out drinking and ca...
Questions and Answers, Part 3
64-0830M §118
That's---that mean that they're taking on hair or off ... I think the person might've got mistaken in thinking there that it meant a man prophesying with his head covered, then he takes his covering off. See? No. That isn't that he had long hair, it means, if he's covered... Now, you read on down just a little further, you that asked the question, and you'll find out that the woman's head is her husband. How many knows that? And the man's head is Christ; therefore, a man should cut his hair because of Christ, 'caus...
Recognizing your day and its message
64-0726M §71
Making them to cut their hair. Oh, they say, "Our church don't pay no attention to that." You know why? They're blind. "It's no harm to cut your hair." The Bible says it is! It's even a indecent thing for you to even cut your hair and even pray. You say, "Well, a woman should be covered. "And the Bible said her hair is her covering, not a hat, her hair! What if Moses said, "I'll take off my hat instead of my shoes?" That wouldn't have worked. God said "shoes;" God meant "shoes." He said "hair," not "hat!" Glory to...