Brothers and sisters,
today we come to one of the most misunderstood passages in the entire Sermon on the Mount—Jesus’ words about lust, adultery, and cutting off our right hand or tearing out our right eye (Matthew 5:27–30). For generations people have come to these verses with fear or guilt, believing Jesus was describing a battle against sexual temptation so difficult that only self-mutilation would solve it.
But Jesus isn’t commanding us to harm our bodies.
And He isn’t shaming the weak.
He is actually doing something far deeper.
He is showing us the danger of spiritual pride, and He is opening a way to true faithfulness to God.
Let us look again with fresh eyes.
1. Jesus Begins With a Familiar Command
“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’”
Everyone listening to Jesus would have nodded.
That commandment is one of the pillars of the law.
No argument. No controversy.
But Jesus does what He often does—He takes something well-known and turns it inside out, not to condemn people, but to heal their hearts.
Then He says:
“But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart.”
Now many people stop here and think Jesus is only talking about sexual sins. But the Sermon on the Mount is not a catalogue of sins. It is a spiritual X-ray that reveals the hidden disease behind all sins: our tendency to think we are righteous because we avoid the big obvious wrongs.
In the passage right before this one, Jesus did the same thing with murder.
He said that anger and insults can bring us into judgment—not because anger is as bad as murder, but because the self-righteous heart thinks it is clean simply because it didn’t commit the outward act.
The same pattern is happening here.
2. The Real Issue Is Not Lust but Pride
If lust was the main point, Jesus could have taught about it dozens of times.
But He didn’t.
He barely mentions sexual behavior in His whole ministry.
What He does talk about constantly—almost every chapter—is self-righteousness.
That is the soil from which all other sins grow.
Jesus is speaking to people who believed:
“I have never committed adultery, so I must be pleasing to God.”
They thought their outward obedience made them spiritually safe.
Jesus says, “No. The problem is not that you have avoided the big sin. The problem is that you think your heart is clean because of that.”
The danger is not the lust; the danger is the illusion of righteousness.
3. What Is the “Right Eye” and the “Right Hand”?
Jesus then uses shocking imagery:
“If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out.
If your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off.”
Now no one believes Jesus wants people to literally blind themselves or mutilate their bodies. Even if they did, losing one eye won’t solve lust. Losing one hand won’t change the heart. Jesus knows this better than anyone.
So why does He say “right eye” and “right hand”?
Because in Scripture, the right eye is the eye of judgment, the eye by which we measure ourselves, the eye that says, “I see that I am righteous.”
And the right hand is the hand of power and achievement, the hand that says, “I can do what God requires.”
Jesus is saying:
“The part of you that must go is the part that thinks it sees righteousness in itself.
The part that must be cut off is the part that thinks it can achieve righteousness by its own strength.”
In other words, we must let go of our pride—our spiritual self-confidence—our sense that we are better because we haven’t committed the worst sins.
Only then can we truly follow God with a faithful heart.
4. Why This Matters for Real Life
Let’s be honest: most people who struggle with temptation already know their need for God.
The one in real danger is the person who feels spiritually strong, who thinks, “I am not like those sinners.”
Jesus always spoke harshest to the Pharisees—not because He hated them, but because He loved them enough to confront the disease that was killing their souls.
Friend, the greatest barrier between you and God is not lust, not temptation, not weakness—it is the belief that you are already righteous without His mercy.
If your heart is broken and humble, you are already close to the Kingdom.
If your heart is proud and confident in your own goodness, you are far from it.
That is why Jesus says it is better to lose a part of yourself—better to let your pride be broken, better to tear out the self-righteous “eye”—than to hold onto that pride and lose your soul.
5. The Good News Hidden in These Hard Words
There is a deep mercy underneath Jesus’ warning.
He is not saying,
“Destroy yourself to avoid sin.”
He is saying,
“Let Me destroy your pride so you can be healed.”
The person who humbles himself—whose false righteousness is torn away—finds a peace that lust can’t disturb, a purity that isn’t self-made, and a faithfulness to God that does not collapse at the first temptation.
The broken heart is the pure heart.
The humbled soul is the faithful soul.
The person who knows his weakness is the one who can finally rest in God’s strength.
Conclusion: The Eye We Must Lose to See God
So let us hear Jesus’ words again, but this time with understanding:
Don’t tear out your physical eye.
Don’t cut off your physical hand.
Instead, surrender the part of yourself that thinks it sees clearly without God,
and let go of the part of yourself that thinks it can stand without Him.
This is the eye we must lose.
This is the hand we must cut off.
And this is the surgery that leads not to despair, but to life.
For only the humble, Jesus says, will see God.
Only the contrite will enter His Kingdom.
And only those who throw away their own righteousness will receive the righteousness of God.
Amen.