Commentary - Matthew 18:7-9

Bird's-eye view

In this potent passage, Jesus issues a dire warning about the certainty and severity of stumbling blocks, or offenses, in the world. He pronounces a formal woe upon the world system because of these snares, and a second, more personal woe upon the individual who is the agent of such temptation. The Lord then immediately pivots from the danger of causing others to stumble to the equally critical danger of being stumbled yourself. Using shocking, hyperbolic language, He commands a ruthless spiritual surgery. If a part of your body, a hand, foot, or eye, becomes an instrument of sin that threatens to drag you into eternal fire, you are to cut it off or tear it out. The logic is stark and clear: it is far better to enter into eternal life maimed than to be cast into hell whole. This is not a call for literal self-mutilation, but rather a visceral illustration of the radical measures a believer must be willing to take to deal with sin. The stakes are ultimate, life and death, heaven and hell, and so the response to sin must be correspondingly absolute.

This section is a crucial part of Jesus's discourse on the nature of the kingdom community. Having just spoken of the value of the "little ones" and the terrible sin of causing them to stumble (Matt 18:6), He now broadens the principle. The world is a minefield of temptations, and the church must be a place of radical holiness. The Christian life is a war, and in warfare, triage and amputation are sometimes necessary to save the whole person. This passage is a bracing corrective to any form of cheap grace or casual Christianity that underestimates the destructive power of sin and the terrifying reality of eternal judgment.

Outline

Context In Matthew

This passage sits within a larger block of teaching in Matthew 18 that deals with life inside the covenant community. The disciples had just asked Jesus who was the greatest in the kingdom (Matt 18:1), and His answer turns all their assumptions about power and status upside down. He places a child in their midst and calls them to humble themselves like that child (Matt 18:2-4). This leads directly into a stern warning against causing one of these "little ones who believe in me" to stumble (Matt 18:6). Our text, verses 7-9, then universalizes the principle of stumbling blocks. From here, Jesus will go on to teach about the Father's heart for the one lost sheep (Matt 18:10-14), the process for church discipline (Matt 18:15-20), and the necessity of radical forgiveness in the parable of the unforgiving servant (Matt 18:21-35). The entire chapter is a charter for the church, defining its values: humility, care for the weak, radical holiness, restorative discipline, and lavish forgiveness. The call for cutting off a hand or foot is part of what it means to be a holy community in a fallen world.

Key Issues

Radical Amputation

We live in a soft age, an age that prizes comfort and avoids pain at all costs. Our therapeutic culture tells us to manage our dysfunctions, not to kill them. But the language of Jesus here is anything but soft. It is the language of the battlefield surgeon, not the therapist. Cut it off. Tear it out. Throw it away. The Greek word for "stumbling block" is skandalon, which originally referred to the trigger of a trap. It is a snare, something that trips a person up and leads to their ruin. Jesus is telling us that sin is not a minor inconvenience; it is a deadly trap that, if not dealt with decisively, will drag us into the eternal fire of hell.

This is not, of course, a command for literal self-harm. The problem is never the physical hand or eye itself. The problem is the heart that uses the hand to steal, the foot to walk into temptation, or the eye to lust. If a man with a lustful eye plucks it out, he is still left with a lustful heart and one remaining lustful eye. The command is a vivid, unforgettable metaphor for the ruthless attitude we must have toward our own sin. Whatever it is in your life that serves as a conduit for temptation, whatever relationship, habit, subscription, or entertainment is tripping you up, you must be willing to make a clean and painful break with it. This is the doctrine of mortification, the putting to death of sin, and it is not for the faint of heart. It requires a clear-eyed assessment of the stakes: temporary pain now, or eternal pain later.

Verse by Verse Commentary

7 “Woe to the world because of its stumbling blocks! For it is inevitable that stumbling blocks come; nevertheless, woe to that man through whom the stumbling block comes!

Jesus begins with a formal pronouncement of doom, a covenantal curse. The first woe is directed at "the world," which means the fallen human system in rebellion against God. This system is characterized by stumbling blocks, by temptations and snares that lead people into sin and ruin. Jesus then states a hard reality: "it is inevitable that stumbling blocks come." In a fallen world, this is a given. Sin is, and therefore temptations to sin will be. This is not fatalism; it is realism. But this inevitability does not remove personal responsibility. Jesus immediately follows this with a second, personal woe: "nevertheless, woe to that man through whom the stumbling block comes!" God's sovereignty in permitting the existence of temptation does not provide a cloak for the man who does the tempting. God will use the sins of men to accomplish His purposes, but He will also hold those men accountable for their sins. Judas was chosen to betray Christ, and it was necessary for salvation that Christ be betrayed, but woe to Judas all the same.

8 “And if your hand or your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it from you; it is better for you to enter life crippled or lame, than, having two hands or two feet, to be cast into the eternal fire.

Having warned against causing others to stumble, Jesus now turns to the problem of our own stumbling. The logic is brutally practical. He presents us with a choice, a spiritual triage. Your hand is what you do; your foot is where you go. If your actions or the places you frequent are leading you into sin, you must take radical action. "Cut it off and throw it from you." This means a decisive, final, and painful separation. The alternative is to keep your two hands and two feet and be "cast into the eternal fire." Jesus makes it plain that the doctrine of hell is the great motivator for radical holiness. The choice is between a temporary, earthly loss and a permanent, eternal one. It is better, He says, to enter into "life," meaning eternal life, with a disability than to go into hell with your body whole. A Christian who has ruthlessly disciplined himself, who has given up certain pleasures or opportunities for the sake of his soul, may look "crippled or lame" to the world. But he has made the wise choice. He has chosen life.

9 And if your eye causes you to stumble, tear it out and throw it from you. It is better for you to enter life with one eye, than, having two eyes, to be cast into the fiery hell.

Jesus repeats the structure of the previous verse for emphasis, applying it now to the eye. The eye is the gateway to the mind and heart, and is particularly associated with sins of lust and covetousness. If what you look at is causing you to sin, the command is the same: radical surgery. "Tear it out and throw it from you." Again, the logic is laid bare. It is better to enter eternal life with one eye than to be cast into "the fiery hell" with two. The term for hell here is Gehenna, which referred to the Valley of Hinnom outside Jerusalem, a place where trash was constantly burned. It was a vivid, local picture of utter ruin, waste, and perpetual judgment. Jesus does not flinch from describing the awful reality of eternal punishment. He uses this terrifying reality not to paralyze us with fear, but to galvanize us into action against our sin. The fear of hell is a healthy and necessary motivation for the pursuit of holiness.

Application

The modern church is often embarrassed by passages like this. We prefer a gentle Jesus, a therapeutic Jesus. We don't like a Jesus who talks about hellfire and cutting off body parts. But this is the real Jesus, and His words are a profound act of love. He loves us too much to let us drift casually toward destruction. He shouts a warning because the danger is real and eternal.

The application for us is straightforward, if not easy. We must declare war on our sin. This is not about self-flagellation or a grim, joyless legalism. It is about recognizing that certain things in our lives are poison to our souls, and we must get them out. For one person, the "eye" that causes him to stumble might be his smartphone with its unfiltered access to the internet. Radical amputation might mean getting a dumb phone. For another, the "hand" might be a particular business practice that is dishonest, and cutting it off might mean a loss of income. The "foot" might be a group of friends that consistently leads one into drunkenness or gossip, and cutting it off means a painful break in relationship.

This kind of spiritual surgery is impossible in our own strength. It is only possible because we have a Savior who went through the ultimate amputation for us. On the cross, He was "cut off from the land of the living" (Isaiah 53:8) for our transgressions. He entered the darkness so that we could enter the light. Because He has defeated sin and death, we are not left to fight alone. We fight sin not in order to be saved, but because we have been saved. And we fight with the knowledge that any earthly loss we suffer in this battle is nothing compared to the eternal weight of glory that awaits us.