Jesus calls us to eradicate sin at any cost.

As a preteen, I developed an obsession with violence. Home alone frequently during the summer, I would turn on the family’s satellite TV and watch movies. No one knew what I was doing, and I was fascinated with the music, romance, and wit in films I had never seen before. But something else began to attract me even more: killing.

At eleven or twelve years old, I would secretly record TV-rated fight scenes and watch them, think about them, even dream about them.

In John 8:34, Jesus says that “everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin.” And thinking back on that time, I understand what he means. My little recordings of movie fight scenes became the most interesting thing in my life, and I felt compelled by them, obsessed with them, like I could not escape; indeed, I did not at all want to. My mind was heading down a dark path.

But in the same way my favorite movie bad guys executed their enemies, Jesus wants us to slash the things that are leading us to sin:

Matthew 5:29-30: 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.

In his Sermon on the Mount, Jesus advises us to take a no-holds-barred approach to cutting sin out of our lives. Does Jesus mean for us to literally tear out our eyes? No. In fact, he’s not even talking about sin. He backs up a step, exhorting us to stop the things that even lead us towards sin.

He tells us to eradicate anything we value that is leading to sin. The metaphor is genius. Because of how general it is, Jesus’ examples apply to whatever God calls to our conscience.

Is my favorite TV show causing me to sin? No matter the artistry, it has to go.

Is belittling others my favorite type of joke? No matter how funny it is, that type of humor needs to end.

Is my best friend leading me to sin? I need to keep different company.

Whatever it is (be it food, entertainment, employment, objects, or relationships), no matter how valuable to us, Jesus wants us to take sin so seriously that we’re willing to identify and ditch its roots.

After we cut off our proverbial “hand” to arrest sin in its tracks, a second temptation can arise: we may be tempted to universalize our method. We may be tricked into looking at our brother and saying, “I don’t listen to rap music anymore, and that’s how to be a good Christian. You shouldn’t listen to rap music either.”

We’re missing something here. Maybe I should avoid rap music (or violent movies, or that one person) to stop sin in my life; but my brother may need to avoid something completely different!

When we exert this kind of hand-chopping peer pressure, instead of allowing for diversity of thought and experience in our corner of the body of Christ, instead of encouraging each person to examine his or her conscience and address individual temptations, we become a group of people addressing just one thing—whether it’s right for each of us or not.

We become a left-handed congregation—a whole group of Captain Hooks, if you will.

Meanwhile, our poor brother or sister who needs encouragement as he/she plucks out an eye is instead approved as a “good Christian” for avoiding something else. To outsiders, we no longer make loving Jesus the standard of Christian fellowship. Instead, we display Christianity as “the people who don’t listen to rap music.”

Instead of defining ourselves by what we do, we become a people defined by what we don’t do. What an impoverishment of God’s vision for His people!

When we all gather our forces to avoid one temptation—forgetting the diversity of human experience—no one wins except sin, which reigns victorious.

How do we avoid this second temptation? In the discourse on just this topic (this time with a food metaphor in Romans 14), Paul advises the Roman church to respect each other’s consciences. The whole section is worth reading, but verse four is the heart of the matter, “Who are you to pass judgment on the servant of another? It is before his own master that he stands or falls. And he will be upheld, for the Lord is able to make him stand” (Rom 14:4).

Here, Paul recognizes the Lord Jesus in his elevated position as our master and tells us to remember that Christ is the judge, not us. The Lord Jesus is purifying, encouraging, and strengthening each of us. Even when it looks different from the work he is doing in you, let him do his work in your brother.

I am shocked at the grace of God to my pre-teen self. Somehow one day, I noticed what was happening in my heart. Somehow, God revealed to me the spiritual darkness growing in my obsession. Somehow, God gave me the strength and courage to give up what was then, to me, my very favorite thing.

God empowered me in that season of life to learn a pattern that would occur for years. Many times, He has generously brought
budding sin to my attention and given me the strength to cut it off. He is generous. He will give you what you need to do the same.