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.
Church Ages, part 4: The Smyrnaean Church Age
60-1206 §46
...ist is a mystical body. It is a body and a kingdom that ... the spiritual kingdom that's set upon the earth, by Jesus Christ being the king of this kingdom, the high priest to offer sacrifices for the wayfaring in this kingdom. He's the prophet, the Word, that preaches the truth and brings the light of God in this kingdom. And He is both prophet, priest, and king in this kingdom. And how do we get in this kingdom? By the denomination? By letter? By hand shaking? But "by one Spirit we are all baptized into one body,...
Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and today, and forever
58-0312 §21
Now remember, let's see how simple it is. What if I cut my hand tonight with a knife, and I fell down here on the platform dead. You taken me down to the undertaker establishment and they embalmed my body. Then you'd say, "Well, that finished your life." Now, it isn't... All the medicine in the world could not heal that cut in my hand. A medicine that would heal a cut on my hand, would heal a cut on my coat. It'd heal a cut on that floor. "Well," you say, "Brother Branham, medicine wasn't made for your coat or that...
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...