If your right eye causes you to stumble, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into hell.

I see many people around me that are ultra-focused on one thing in this world, as if when it is perfected they will achieve happiness and fulfillment. Some focus on health and make it the most important thing. Nutrition and weight-lifting take most of their free time. Others focus on beauty. Others on wealth, vacations, power, or popularity. But none of these things will get us into heaven.

We must focus on obedience to God and a relationship with Jesus. He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. He is THE KEY to a heavenly entrance.

When we focus on other things, then God takes second place. This is sinful. It is easy to look at this passage and think about sins of commission, like murder, sexual immorality, and thievery. But sins of omission are just as deadly to us.

The encouragement here is related to spiritual health and our spiritual soul, as compared to our body. And he’s clearly not asking you to cut off an eye or a hand. What it is saying is that anything in our soul that gets in the way of our relationship with God, we should scalpel it out.

What is in the way of me having rich times with God every day?

Lord, thank you for this passage. It reminds us to stay true to you first and place you in the center of what we do every day. You should be the main focus of our lives.