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.
English Standard Version (ESV)
Jesus isn't literally telling us to rip out our eyes or cut off our hands. The "right eye" and "right hand" represent the things we hold most dear and useful – even our very senses – that can become traps, leading us away from God. The startling command highlights that any part of ourselves, no matter how precious, must be sacrificed if it's pulling us into sin and eternal separation from God.
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.
English Standard Version (ESV)
Jesus is continuing His teaching on the Sermon on the Mount, specifically elaborating on the Law's intent regarding sexual sin. He has just declared that lustful looking is equivalent to adultery, challenging the superficial understanding of the Law. To emphasize the seriousness of internal sin and the need for radical obedience, Jesus uses extreme, hyperbolic language about self-mutilation.
Jesus’ words are intense: tear out your eye! But what does he really mean by 'offend'? It’s not just about hurting someone’s feelings.
Jesus uses the word 'offend' from a Greek word that originally meant a trap or snare. Think of a hidden trigger in a hunter's trap meant to spring shut and catch an animal.
A Moral Snare
When Jesus says 'if your right eye causes you to stumble,' he’s talking about anything – a sight, a person, a habit – that acts like a snare, tripping you up and leading you into sin. It's not about accidentally offending someone, but about intentionally or unintentionally falling into sin because of something you are looking at or engaging with.
The Heart's Role
This connects directly to the previous verse, where Jesus says looking lustfully is adultery in the heart. Your eye isn't evil in itself, but it can become a gateway for sinful desires to enter and take root. It's about how you use your senses, particularly your sight, and what they lead you to desire or do.
Tearing out an eye sounds extreme, right? Jesus isn't advocating self-mutilation, but he's making a radical point about prioritizing eternity.
Jesus uses hyperbole – extreme exaggeration – to emphasize a crucial point: the value of eternal life with God far outweighs any earthly pleasure or possession.
The Cost of Sin
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He contrasts losing 'one of your members' (an eye or hand) with your 'whole body' being thrown into hell (Gehenna, a place of fiery judgment). This means the temporary loss of something precious is infinitely better than eternal damnation.
The True Profit
Jesus calls this drastic action 'profitable.' It’s profitable because it secures your eternal destiny. It’s not about inflicting pain for pain’s sake, but about making the ultimate sacrifice to avoid ultimate destruction. Think of it like a surgeon cutting off a diseased limb to save the rest of the body.
The Goal: Salvation
The message is clear: If something you hold dear – a habit, a relationship, a possession – consistently leads you to sin, you must be willing to let it go, no matter how painful. Your eternal salvation is worth more than any temporary attachment.
Understand the original words
skandalizō · Greek Verb
To entrap, trip up, or cause to stumble. It refers to anything that provides an occasion for falling into sin or leads someone away from the path of faith and righteousness.
geenna · Greek Noun
A term for the place of final, eternal punishment for the unrepentant. Derived from the Valley of Hinnom, it signifies a state of complete separation from God's presence and the judgment of fire.
sōma · Greek Noun
The physical human frame. While created good and destined for resurrection, it is often viewed as the instrument through which a person interacts with the world for either holy or sinful purposes.
melos · Greek Noun
A limb or part of the body. Theologically, these represent the various faculties or 'tools' of a human being used for either righteousness or sin.
This passage directly parallels the idea of 'putting to death' or 'mortifying' parts of ourselves that are connected to sin, much like Jesus' imagery of tearing out an eye.
Mark 9:43This verse contains a very similar teaching from Jesus, also using the graphic imagery of plucking out an eye or cutting off a hand to emphasize the absolute necessity of cutting off sin.
Romans 8:13This passage speaks of 'putting to death' the sinful deeds of the body through the Spirit, echoing the radical self-denial Jesus calls for to escape eternal consequences.
Matthew 18:9Another instance where Jesus uses the same extreme imagery, this time including cutting off a hand and foot, reinforcing the severe consequences of sin and the need for drastic action to avoid them.
vincentMatthew 5:29: "And if thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out, 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."
Offend (σκανδαλίξει)The word offend carries to the English reader the sense of giving offence, provoking. Hence the Rev., by restoring the picture in the word, restores its true meaning, causeth to stumble. The kindred noun is σκάνδαλον, a later form of σκανδάληθρον, the stick in a tra…
bensonMatthew 5:29: "And if thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out, 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."
Matthew 5:29-30 . If thy right eye offend thee — If any person or thing, as pleasant and as dear to thee as thy right eye, should be a stumbling-block in thy way, and an occasion of thy falling, or should be a means of insnaring thee, and leading thee into sin, pluck it out — With inexora…
Jesus isn't literally telling us to rip out our eyes or cut off our hands. The "right eye" and "right hand" represent the things we hold most dear and useful – even our very senses – that can become traps, leading us away from God. The startling command highlights that any part of ourselves, no matter how precious, must be sacrificed if it's pulling us into sin and eternal separation from God.
Jesus is continuing His teaching on the Sermon on the Mount, specifically elaborating on the Law's intent regarding sexual sin. He has just declared that lustful looking is equivalent to adultery, challenging the superficial understanding of the Law. To emphasize the seriousness of internal sin and the need for radical obedience, Jesus uses extreme, hyperbolic language about self-mutilation.
Jesus is continuing His teaching on the Sermon on the Mount, specifically elaborating on the Law's intent regarding sexual sin. He has just declared that lustful looking is equivalent to adultery, challenging the superficial understanding of the Law. To emphasize the seriousness of internal sin and the need for radical obedience, Jesus uses extreme, hyperbolic language about self-mutilation.
"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." — Jesus isn't literally telling us to rip out our eyes or cut off our hands. The "right eye" and "right hand" represent the things we hold most dear and useful – even our very senses – that can become…
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Last reviewed October 2026