Desperate situations sometimes call for desperate measures, and severing your supply line to your flesh means getting radical. Jesus puts it like this: ‘If your right eye leads you astray pluck it out and throw it away…better…to lose one of your members than that your whole body should be thrown on to the rubbish-heap. Yes, if your right hand leads you astray cut it off and throw it away…better…to lose one of your members than that your whole body should go to the rubbish-heap’ (vv. 29-30 PHPS). Jesus is advocating moral and spiritual surgery – and that’s radical! There is no way to argue, reason, or negotiate with sin. Whatever your personal battle – gambling, alcohol, drugs, wrong relationships, or internet porn – its purpose is to destroy you and it needs to be eradicated. The apostle Paul was familiar with Old Testament Scripture. He knew that when faced with similar temptation, Samson fell while Joseph stood strong. That’s why he wrote to his spiritual son, Timothy, warning him about the sin that could disqualify him and keep him from winning the race: ‘Run from temptations that capture young people’ (2 Timothy 2:22 CEV). Life in today’s environment is saturated with seductive influences, which means we can’t always eliminate the source. So Paul tells Timothy – when you can’t remove the influence, remove yourself! And furthermore, run, don’t walk. You can be free, but your carnal mind will only give you a few seconds before it decides for you. So don’t hesitate, don’t deviate, and don’t procrastinate. Do what needs to be done – and do it quickly.
