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.
Forsaking all
62-0123 §33
Sometimes the women in our churches is used to wearing immoral clothes, like shorts, and these dungarees. The Bible said it's an abomination to God for a woman to put on such. No matter what she thinks, she's got to forsake that. Sometimes we find women when they come into the way and get saved, they've been used to cutting off their hair, and they want to be popular like the rest of the world. But they find out it's a hard thing, 'cause they'll call you old-fashioned whenever you go to dressing like a Christian, a...
God's chosen place of worship
65-0220 §43
Now, we find that. Now, we want to find how we get into Him. How do we get into this place of worship? I Corinthians 12 settles it. "For by one Spirit..." Not by one church, not by one creed, not by one pastor, not by one bishop, not by one priest, but by one Holy Spirit we are all baptized into one body, which is the body of Jesus Christ, and subject to every gift that lays in that body. Yes, sir! No joining, no reciting of creeds, no pumping up, letting down, handshaking, or nothing else, but by birth we are bapt...
Hear ye Him
60-0712 §43
Some lady said to me; she said, "Brother Branham, they don't make any more clothes. We have to wear them kind of clothes." "Sister, they still make goods, and they make sewing machines. There's no excuse for it at all." What's the matter? It's an unclean spirit got on them. It used to be wrong for our Pentecostal women to cut their hair. Now, you hit something, didn't you? What happened? Some of them used to say they had headaches, a lot of headache. You know, the Bible said if a woman cuts her hair, she dishonors...
Pride
55-0807A §57
...ciful. Oh, my! My Lord... And that cold-hearted bunch of Pharisees sitting there, indifferent. Oh, my! Wiping His blessed feet with the hairs of her head. Some of you women to do that, would have to stand on your head. You cut your hair. That's right. I don't say it for a joke. The Bible said, "The glory of a woman is in her hair." And you cut yours off. What was it? What was it? It was her glory. The only decent thing she had about her was her long hair, and it had fallen all down at Jesus' feet. Her tears, all sh...
Questions and Answers, Part 3
64-0830M §134
QUESTION: Please explain the mystery of the translation of the bride. Just a change, see, our bodies now... Let's say our. You know what I mean when I say that? I don't mean to be sacrilegious. I don't mean to say ours; I don't mean to say this church; I mean to say every believer. Abraham, he was looking for a promised son, that was promised him. Is that right? And the church is looking for a promised Son. The bride (is that right?), the bride is looking for the promised Son. Before the promised son could come to...