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Does God Want Us To Hurt Our Bodies?
Question:
In Matthew 5: 27-29 Jesus said, “"You have heard that it was said to those of old, 'You shall not commit adultery.' But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart. And if your hand or your foot causes you to offend, cut them off and throw them from you. It is better for you to enter into life lame or maimed, rather than having two hands or two feet to be cast into everlasting fire. And if your eye offends you, pluck it out and throw it from you. It is better for you to enter into life with one eye, rather than having two eyes to be cast into the hell of fire."
Does Jesus really want us to cut our hands off and pluck our eyes out?
Answer:
A good discussion of this topic can be found at http://www.studylight.org/col/ds/archives.cgi?date=20040902&sn=81&pn=7 in the September 2, 2004 article “Pluck out your right eye", in the “Difficult Sayings Archives” column of www.studylight.org.
About Jesus statement on lust, the author says, “Jesus is not saying anything particularly new; rather he is expounding the 10th commandment as well as the 7th (Exodus 20:14,17). To covet your neighbour's wife with your eyes is where the sin of adultery begins. The Mosaic Law already condemned the thought as well as the deed."
The author goes on to say: (beginning of quote)
Some rabbis argued that looking at any part of a woman constituted lust:
"R. Isaac said: A handbreadth [exposed] in a [married] woman constitutes sexual incitement. In which way? Shall I say, if one gazes at it? But has not R. Shesheth [already] said: Why did Scripture enumerate the ornaments worn outside the clothes with those worn inside? To tell you that if one gazes at the little finger of a woman, it is as if he gazed at her secret place [hmqwe htwv lit. 'the devouring place'!]. - No, It means, in one's own wife, and when he recites the Shema'. R. Hisda said: A woman's leg is a sexual incitement, as it says. Uncover the leg, pass through the rivers, and it says afterwards, Thy nakedness shall be uncovered, yea, thy shame shall be seen (Isaiah 47:2-3). Samuel said: A woman's voice is a sexual incitement, as it says, For sweet is thy voice and thy countenance is comely (Song of Songs 2:14). R. Shesheth said: A woman's hair is a sexual incitement, as it says, Thy hair is as a flock of goats." (Babylonian Talmud, Berakhoth, 24a, Soncino edition)
(end of quote)
The author indicates that Jesus did not hold the position that it is sin to look at a woman. While some rabbis did hold this position, Jesus did not. Jesus had plenty of contact with women in the Gospels and there is no indication he thought it was sin when he looked at them or had contact with them.
The author goes on to say: (begin of quote)
The context is actually an acknowledgement that adultery is done with body but begun in the heart-mind: … It is the heart not the body that needs cutting out and curing, which is indeed God's promise, "and I will give you a new heart" (Ezekiel 11:19; 18:31; 36:26). In Matthew 5 Jesus consistently argues that sin proceeds from the inner man and since the thought inspires the deed, so it too is sin.
"For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders" (Mark 7:21)
So, he speaks hyperbolically that it is better to maim oneself than for your body to go to hell. But from his own words this self-mutilation or self-castration would not help for the sin would still be present in the mind's eye. Thus the correct response to his saying is 'who then can save himself?' - the answer to which is 'nobody' except 'God' who transforms (in the Greek by a metamorphosis) and renews the heart-mind (Romans 12:2). In the prior verse (Romans 12:1) Paul calls for us to present our whole bodies as a "living sacrifice" not to physically sacrifice only our limbs and organs (cf. Romans 6:13). We are to "put to death" our "members" (Colossians 3:5) but those members are the sins of the body not the body itself.”
(end of quote)
From my own study of the Bible, I had come to these same conclusions. The conclusions were that Jesus was not introducting new law when he said it was sin to covet a woman in your heart or mind. This was simply a combination of the 7th and the 10th commandments. And so Jesus was not saying it was sin to look at a woman, but rather Jesus was saying the physcial sin of adultery starts in the mind.
Paul does not advocate cutting off hands or plucking out eyes, or even keeping rules. In Colossians Chapter 2 verses 20 to 23, Paul says:
(begin of quote)
"Since you died with Christ to the basic principles of this world, why, as though you still belonged to it, do you submit to its rules: "Do not handle! Do not taste! Do not touch!"?
These are all destined to perish with use, because they are based on human commands and teachings.
Such regulations indeed have an appearance of wisdom, with their self-imposed worship, their false humility and their harsh treatment of the body, but they lack any value in restraining sensual indulgence.”
(end of quote)
Paul explains that rules do not restrain sensual indulgence. God does not require Christians to keep a set of rules. God wants to change our hearts, our attitudes.
Jesus said in Matthew 9:13, "But go and learn what this means: 'I desire mercy, not sacrifice.' For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners." Jesus wants Christians to show they love God by showing mercy and love to our spouse, our family, our neighbors, our brothers and sisters in Christ and to the world. God also wants us to tell others about the good news that Jesus is God and that Jesus died for their sins.
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