Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!cs.utexas.edu!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!rutgers!aramis.rutgers.edu!athos.rutgers.edu!christian From: sjreeves@eedsp.gatech.edu (Stan Reeves) Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian Subject: SOM Message-ID: Date: 20 Sep 89 08:23:52 GMT Sender: hedrick@athos.rutgers.edu Lines: 19 Approved: christian@aramis.rutgers.edu Should the "cut off one's hand, pluck out one's eye" in the Sermon on the Mount be taken literally? Well, sorta. I think Jesus was saying that if sin could be traced to a particular locality in the body, that it would be better to remove that part of the body than to sin. I believe Jesus was that serious about people dealing with the sin in their lives. The problem with actually carrying this out is, as Darren Provine pointed out, that sin can never really be traced to a particular part of the body. A blind man would still lust, and a thief would still covet. Getting rid of sin just isn't that simple. If it were, though, I believe Jesus would have wanted us to take even these radical measures to get rid of it. The general principle is this -- we should be committed to doing whatever it takes to remove the sin from our lives. Sometimes even a legitimate thing can become a source of stumbling in our lives. Jesus said that we need to be ready to get rid of things that cause us to stumble -- even those things that may be good or neutral in and of themselves. Stan Reeves