Kill Sin or Sin will Kill You
“If your right eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and cast it from you; for it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish, than for your whole body to be cast into hell. 30 “And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and cast it from you; for it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish, than for your whole body to be cast into hell” (Jesus, Matthew 5:29-30)
“Either be killing sin or sin will be killing you” are the words penned by the great puritan writer of the 17th century, John Owen. Sin is destructive. Left untreated its contamination will consume and eventually destroy its victim. Dealing with sin is simple, as indicated by Jesus in Matthew 5:29-30. First, sin must be identified: “If your right eye causes you to sin.” Second, it must be destroyed: “pluck it out and cast it from you.” Jesus is not advocating the mortification of the body but rather the mortification of sin. If a man were to pluck out his eyes he could still lust in his mind, just as a man could steal with his left hand in the absence of his right.
Jesus’ teaching is simple; identify and destroy. Although we may fail to destroy sin, sin will not fail in destroying us: “it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish, than for your whole body to be cast into hell.”
Identify. Destroy.
Jeff Gravitt
Jeff Gravitt's Blog 