"If your right eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and cast it from you; for it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish, than for your whole body to be cast into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and cast it from you; for it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish, than for your whole body to be cast into hell." - Jesus, Matthew 5:29-30
When we read Jesus' words in Matthew 5:29-30, several things come to mind: such strong conviction to live in purity, a passionate desire to be clean and spotless before God, and absolute danger when we fail to live Godly lives. When we think about it, though, we will take notice of one more thing:
That Jesus said "your right eye" alone, and not both eyes.
Why would Jesus zero in on just one eye, or just the right hand as stated in verse 30, and not consider both eyes instead?
Where is our focus?
Many commentaries and notes have been written about the aforementioned passage, many of them noting that the eyes are mere organs. Some say that lust and other desires begin in the heart, and rightly so; for all evil desires come from within, not without. But we do know that when we desire to do wrong, we naturally use our eyes to look at what we are planning to do, whether to lust or to cheat.
The Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary writes regarding the "right eye," saying that it's "the readier and the dearer of the two." While that may be true, it may not apply to all people, especially left-handed ones.
This lack of attention given to just one eye shows our lack of focus and attention to the most important things, and the same applies to what I believe Jesus meant when He said "your right eye."
Even the slightest hint
When we read the words of Christ, we come to notice a very important passage why he mentioned just the right eye:
"...for it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish, than for your whole body to be cast into hell."
In these words we realize that Christ was giving us the importance of total and complete purity and a perfect pursuit of holiness and righteousness. What do I mean?
What I mean is that God wants total holiness, complete consecration, and utmost devotion. We can't give 99.9% of ourselves to God and say "Lord, I give you ALL of my heart." If we're going to give ourselves to God, we've got to give ALL of ourselves to God, with no exceptions.
As such, we will not tolerate even the slightest of sins in our hearts. We will not allow any evil intent, malicious desire, and lustful craving, and excuse it by saying "I'm only human!"
In closing
Jesus clearly said it's better that we live life maimed than be at risk of going to hell and eternal damnation over one little bondage, one little unconfessed and unrepented sin, one little bitterness that we should've dealt with long ago.
And so, dear friends, to summarize all of this, I leave you with this one sentence:
It's not worth keeping even just "a little sin" in our hearts.
