A guest post by Scott Jamison

If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body go into hell. [Matthew 5:29-30]

One thing I do as I’m teaching my kids about what they can take away from fighter verses, is try to help them see the joy in them. Kids like joy. They resonate with joy.

Obviously they resonate with warning and fear, also. And this verse has it: losing members, cutting of your hand, tearing out your eye, hell (twice). All harsh (and important) images. But is there joy to be found here?

I say ‘Yes’. And it has to do with releasing.

So I asked my kids – Have you ever sincerely thought, “No, that thing has value, it cost me money. I can’t get rid of that even if it does tempt me to sin.  I’d honestly like to get rid of it, but I would feel guilty for bad stewardship of getting rid of something with value.”

Thanks to these verses, we can disregard all such feelings of guilt.

Jesus says you can and should get rid of any item (or activity, habit, practice) if it is hindering your walk with God. In fact, he commands that you do it. Even if it’s something really important, like your hand. But most likely it’s not really that important.

So thanks to the fact that Jesus uttered these words, you can allow yourself to remove this from your life, guilt-free. There can be joy in that. So get rid of whatever it is and then thank God for the peace you feel afterwards.

There is another joy, though, almost hidden under the surface of this verse: That those of us who are redeemed will not be thrown into Hell, but welcomed into heaven. And the things we’ve cut off and thrown away will not seem like a sacrifice then.