“If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body go into hell.” (Matthew 5:29–30, ESV) I must not let anything I can look upon or anything I can place my hand on to come between me and God. Instead of thinking wrong thoughts with the eyes of my mind and / or the eyes of my head, I have to take the thought captive, pluck it out before it ever even sprouts. The danger of my whole body going to hell is the danger we all face until we are reconciled to God through Jesus Christ. The only way we are reconciled to God in Christ is when, by grace alone through faith alone in Jesus Christ alone, we are born again in the Spirit. When we are born again, we belong to God in Christ Jesus. We must live with our eyes on Jesus not on the things of this world. If we (when we) fail, we confess and receive restoration of fellowship because our sin has been paid for in full by the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross. We all sin, but we cannot use that as an excuse to sin or continue in sin. We also must not claim to be without sin for when we do that we are a liar. But when we confess our sins, God is faithful and just to forgive our sins in Jesus and cleanse us of all unrighteousness. Amen.
