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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadBob Utley You Can Understand the Bible - Matthew 5:27 - 5:30
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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Mat_5:27-30
27"You have heard that it was said, 'You shall not commit adultery'; 28but I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart. 29If your right eye makes you stumble, tear it out and throw it from you; for it is better for you to lose one of the parts of your body, than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. 30If your right hand makes you stumble, cut it off and throw it from you; for it is better for you to lose one of the parts of your body, than for your whole body to go into hell."
Mat_5:27 "adultery" Here the term is moichaomai. It is a quote from the Ten Commandments found in Exo_20:14 and Deu_5:18. The Greek term from the Septuagint is porneia. This word usually referred to extramarital intercourse, but it also had the added connotation of any improper extramarital sexual activity, such as homosexuality or bestiality. In the OT adultery was a sexual affair involving a married person. Jesus redefined sexual sin as an attitude of the heart. Sex is a gift of God, a good and wholesome thing. But God has also put boundaries on its expression for our well-being and long term enjoyment. Prideful, self-centered humans always want to go beyond the God-given bounds. These words of Jesus by inference would also refer to premarital sexual activity.
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Mat_5:28 "heart" See Special Topic at Mat_5:8.
Mat_5:29-30 This is obviously hyperbolic for emotional impact! Sin is dangerous and its consequences eternal!
Mat_5:29 " if" These are first class conditional sentences which were assumed to be true from the author's perspective or for his literary purposes. Humans have been affected by Genesis 3. We are not what we were created to be.
NASB "makes you stumble"
NKJV, NRSV,
TEV "causes you to sin"
NJB "should be your downfall"
This term was used of the baited, triggering mechanism of an animal trap. See the parallel in Mar_9:43-48 and Jesus' second mention of this subject in Mat_18:8-9. Since all humans are affected by sin (different ones for different individuals), we must take personal responsibility to remove ourselves from places/things/occasions of temptation (i.e., Proverbs 1-9; Eph_4:27; Eph_6:10-18; Jas_4:7; 1Pe_5:8-9). We will not be able to blame Satan, or heredity, or circumstances for our sins when we all stand before God and give an account of the gift of life (cf. Mat_25:31-46; Rev_20:11-15). We are free moral agents made in God's image, accountable to Him for our lives!
▣ " lose" This term is in both Mat_5:29-30. See Special Topic: Apollumi at Mat_2:13.
Mat_5:29-30 "hell" There is an eternal hell and sin is the ticket to get in! See Special Topic at Mat_5:22.