Matthew 5:30

Mat_5:30

Thy right hand offend.

I. Rather than anything, though ever so dear and precious to thee, should hinder thee in thy Christian progress, or prove a means of snaring thy soul and body, absolutely and totally forego it.

1. Whatsoever opposes God in the heart, or keeps Him out of it, must be abhored and east out;

2. All sin and temptation must be resisted, and the outward act of any sin must be avoided.

3. For some temptations are against my retirement, against my prayers, against my possession and enjoyment of Christ, against peace in life, comfort in death, against time, eternity, and all my hopes. (Thomas Adam.)

Strange conduct of a Land-Crab

One of the most useful pioneer evangelists of the Samoan mission was Teava, who, after many years of active services returned to Rarotonga. Though very feeble and bent with age, his place in the sanctuary was never vacant; and he was ever ready with a word of exhortation. On one occasion he said, I have been meditating this morning upon our Lords words: If thy right hand offend thee, cut it off, and east it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell. When I laboured at Tutuila I often felt rebuked by the strange conduct of a large species of land-crab, called there the malio, here the tupa. It bores deep into the soil, the holes sometimes extending a considerable distance. At night this crab loves to make its way to the sea, for the purpose of laving itself in the salt water and drinking it. Now it sometimes happens that, when hurrying through the tall grass and fern, some of its legs become defiled by contact with filth. So great is the vexation of this crab at its mishap, that it delays its march to the sea in order to wrench off the offending legs! One may sometimes meet a mutilated individual hobbling along without two or three of its legs-a self-inflicted punishment! In some rare instances it has been known to wrench off all its eight legs to escape defilement. It is then content to drag itself over the ground with considerable difficulty by means of its nippers, until it reaches its hole, where it hides until the legs partially develop themselves again, though not of their original length and beauty. Were we, added Teava, as willing to part with our favourite sins as this malio crab is with its defiled limbs, there would be little doubt of our reaching heaven! This is what our Lord means by our cutting off our right hand, and casting it from us.

How may beloved lusts be discovered and mortified?-

I. Explication.

1. That we ourselves must engage in the mortifying of our lusts. It is not enough to cry to God, and be idle.

2. That we must be willing in this as in other duties.

3. It is not said, If thine eye offend thee, observe it more than ordinarily, but pluck it out.

4. It must be renounced for ever-cast it from thee.

II. Observations.

1. That the eye and hand are useful parts of the body of man.

2. That offences are from ourselves.

3. That sin is to all intents and purposes our own.

I. Why sin is expressed in scripture by pants and members of our body.

1. The whole mass of corruption in Scripture is called the old man, and the body of sin (Rom_6:6).

2. As the natural body makes use of its several parts in work, so corruption makes use of several lusts.

3. Sin is, according to some, conveyed into the soul by means of the body.

4. Corruption shews itself by the sinful actions of the body, and therefore may have its denomination by the parts of it.

II. That every man hath his particular iniquity.

III. How it comes to pass that particular persons have their particular sins.

1. Men have particular temperaments, and therefore sins suitable to their constitutions.

2. There are distinct and peculiar periods of times and ages that incline to peculiar sins.

3. Men have distinct and particular callings that incline to particular sins.

4. Men have distinct and particular ways of breeding and education, and upon that account have particular sins.

IV. The use and application.

1. Examination: how this sin may be discovered-

(1) By the love the sinner bears it;

(2) The sin which distracts us in holy worship is our beloved sin;

(3) It may be known by its commanding power over other sins;

(4) The sin that conscience doth most chide for;

(5) It may be known by being impatient of reproof;

(6) It makes a man notoriously partial in his own case;

(7) it may be known by the fair pretences that the sinner hath for it;

(8) The sin which a man wishes were no sin;

(9) The sin we think of first in the morning and latest at evening;

(10) The sin which most infests us in our solitudes;

(11) The sin we are willing to endure greatest hardship for.

2. Press upon you the mortification of your beloved sin;

(1) Seek holy courage and resolution against it;

(2) Let your repentance be against it;

(3) Beware of those things that occasion it;

(4) Pray to God that thou mayest not fall into that condition favourable to it;

(5) Learn to suspect things that are delightful;

(6) Labour to act that grace that is contrary to thy beloved sin;

(7) Keep watch over thy heart;

(8) Get respect to all Gods laws;

(9) Lay hold on Gods strength.

V. Motives.

1. Bight-eye sins are the greatest hindrances to the souls closing with Christ.

2. They are a great trouble to the soul afterwards.

3. It is a choice evidence of regeneration. (B. Needler, B. C. L.)

The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Mat 5:30. Χὲιρ, hand) The matter proceeds from sight to act.

Bengel's Gnomon of the New Testament — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1860) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

And if thy right hand--the organ of action, to which the eye excites.

offend thee, cut it off, and cast it from thee; for it is profitable, &c.--See on Mat 5:29. The repetition, in identical terms, of such stern truths and awful lessons seems characteristic of our Lord's manner of teaching. Compare Mar 9:43-48.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

(30) If thy right hand offend thee.—The repetition of the same form of warning has, in part, the emphasis of iteration, but it points also to a distinct danger. Not the senses only, through which we receive impressions, but the gifts and energies which issue in action, may become temptations to evil; and in that case, if the choice must be made, it were better to forfeit them. The true remedy is, of course, found in so directing the will that eye and hand may each do its work in obedience to the law of righteousness.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

And if thy right hand offend thee,.... Or "cause thee to offend"; that is, is the means of ensnaring thine heart; and of drawing thee into either mental, or actual adultery; for, as before, all unchaste looks, so here, all unchaste touches, embraces, &c. are condemned. As adultery may be committed in the heart, and by the eye, so with the hand:

"says R. Eliezer (a) what is the meaning of that Scripture, "your hands are full of blood", Isa 1:15? It is replied, , "these are they, that commit adultery with the hand". It is a tradition of the house of R. Ishmael, that the sense of that command, "thou shalt not commit adultery", is, there shall be none that commits adultery in thee, whether "with the hand", or "with the foot".''

Like orders are given as before,

cut it off, and cast it from thee; as a man would choose to do, or have it done for him, when such a part of the body is mortified, and endangers all the rest. The Jews enjoined cutting off of the hand, on several accounts; if in a morning, before a man had washed his hands, he put his hand to his eye, nose, mouth, ear, &c. it was to be "cut off" (b); particularly, the handling of the "membrum virile", was punishable with cutting off of the hand.

"Says R. (c) Tarphon, if the hand is moved to the privy parts, , "let his hand be cut off to his navel".''

That is, that it may reach no further; for below that part of the body the hand might not be put (d); lest unclean thoughts, and desires, should be excited. In the above (e) place it is added,

"what if a thorn should be in his belly, must he not take it away? It is replied, no: it is further asked, must not his belly be ripped up then? It is answered, it is better that his belly be ripped up, , "than that he should go down to the pit of corruption."''

A way of speaking, much like what our Lord here uses; and to the above orders and canons, he may be very well thought to allude: but he is not to be understood literally, as enjoining the cutting off of the right hand, as they did; but of men's refraining from all such impure practices, either with themselves, or women, which are of a defiling nature; and endanger the salvation of them, body and soul; the same reason is given as before.

(a) T. Bab. Nidda, fol. 13. 2. Vid. Maimon. Issure Bia, c. 21. sect. 18. (b) T. Bab. Sabbat. fol. 108. 2. Massechet Callah, fol. 17. 1. (c) T. Bab. Nidda, fol. 13. 2. (d) Maimon. lssure Bia, c. 21. sect. 23. (e) T. Bab. Nidda, fol. 13. 2.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

30 And if thy right hand offend thee, cut it off, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell.

Ver. 30. And if thy right hand offend thee, &c.] By wanton touches, by unclean dalliance; a further degree of this sin, and a greater incentive to lust; as we see in Joseph’s mistress; when she not only cast her eyes, but proceeded to lay hand upon him, she became much more inflamed towards him; and had not his heart been seasoned with the true fear of God, there was so much the greater danger of his being drawn thereby to commit, not that trick of youth, as the world excuseth it, but that great wickedness, as he there counts and calls it. {a} Visas, colloquium, contactus, osculum, concubitus, They see, they talk, they touch, they kiss, they lie together, are the whoremonger’s five descents into the chambers of death. Off therefore with such a hand by all means; cry out of it, as Cranmer did of his unworthy right hand wherewith he had subscribed; and as John Stubbes of Lincoln’s Inn, having his right hand cut off in Queen Elizabeth’s time with a cleaver driven through the wrist with the force of a beetle (for writing a book against the marriage with the Duke of Anjou, entitled, The gulf wherein England will be swallowed by the French match, &c.), he put off his hat with his left hand, and said with a loud voice, God save the Queen. So when God strikes a parting blow between us and our dilecta delicta, our right hand sins, let us see a mercy in it, and be thankful: let us say to these idols, Get thee hence, what have I to do any more with idols? Isa 30:22; that God may say, as there, "I have heard him, and observed him: I am like a green fir tree. From me is thy fruit found," Hos 14:8; when he shall see thee pollute those idols that thou wast wont to perfume, Isa 30:22.

And not that thy whole body be cast into hell] Our Saviour is much in speaking of hell. And it were much to be wished (saith St Chrysostom) that men’s thoughts and tongues would run much upon this subject, there being no likelier way of escaping hell than by taking ever and anon a turn or two in hell by our meditations. {b} A certain hermit is said to have learned three leaves, a black, red, and white one; that is, he daily meditated upon the horror of hell, the passion of Christ, the happiness of heaven.

" Mors tua, mors Christi, flos mundi, gloria coeli,

Et dolor inferni sunt meditanda tibi."

{a} Principiam dulce est, at finis amoris amarus.

Laeta venire Venus, tristis abire solet.

{b} Utinam ubique de gehenna disseretur. Non enim sinit iam gehennam incidere gehennae miminisse

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

And if thy right hand offend thee - The right hand is selected for the same reason as the right eye, because it is one of the most important members of the human body. The idea is, that the dearest earthly objects are to be sacrificed rather than that we should commit sin; that the most rigid self-denial should be practiced, and that the most absolute self-government should be maintained at any sacrifice, rather than that we should suffer the mind to be polluted by unholy thoughts and impure desires.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Should be cast into hell; Revised Version, go into hell (eiv geennan apelyh), both word and order laying stress, not on the action of the Judge, but on thy departure, either from things of time and sense, or from his presence. (Mat_25:46)

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

30. If thy right hand. The same thought as in verse 29, with a new illustration.

B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.

30. Second application.

(L) And if thy right hand is causing thee to stumble, cut it off, and cast it from thee: for is better for thee that one of thy members perish, than that thy whole body go away into Gehenna.]

For the hand as an instrument of lust, see Bab. Niddah 13, quoted by Lightfoot. For the greater value of the right hand cf. bab. Berakh 62a. Vv. 29, 30 occur again in substance in 18:8, 9; and it has been questioned whether their position here is not artifical v. 30 is omitted by D and S1. But they may well have been spoken in this connection. The lustful look, v. 28, suggests the thought that the offending member, the eye, should be plucked out; and this leads quite naturally to the thought of another member, the hand, which is a ready instrument wherewith to satisfy desire. Sight and contract which stimulate passion are alike to be avoided. For sight in this connection, cf. Job 31:1

30. Is omitted by S1. This and the previous verse have the same ending in S2, and the verse may have been passsed over for that reason by the ending scribe of S1.

International Critical Commentary — older volumes (1896–1929), various authors — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.