SUNDAY March 1, 2020
What Is More Profitable?
“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. 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.”
Matthew 5:29-30
In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus gave a good analogy to get his point across to people. They needed to understand that sin has to be dealt with. Sin is destructive; it causes people to perish in hell. Jesus taught it was far more profitable for a person to enter heaven without a right eye or a right hand than to have the whole body cast into hell. A person may sin with their eye, but the whole body would suffer punishment––so why not pluck the eye out!
Of course a person should not literally pluck their eye out! Why? It would not stop them from lusting. Seriously, they would still have a problem with lust in their mind! The word Jesus used for pluck means “to get rid of your sin.” Think about it. If a person has gangrene, they would not let the infection spread to poison the rest of their body. If the gangrene in one part of the body could not be cured, then it has to be cut off; otherwise, the rest of the body would become infected, and the result would be death.
Jesus told people to get rid of sin––cut it off––or it would destroy them! Are you allowing sin to infect your life, or are you willing to cut sin out of your life? It is an eternal life or eternal death decision. Which will you choose?
Everyone wants to enjoy heaven after they die, but they don’t want to be heavenly-minded while they live.
~Dwight L. Moody~
For more from Raul Ries, please visit SomebodyLovesYou.com!