Bible Passage: “If your right eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of the parts of your body than for your whole body to 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 the parts of your body than for your whole body to go into hell.” (Matthew 5:29-30)
Scripture Reading: Matthew 5:27-30
I live in a community in downtown Toronto, and we have a coyote problem.
In the past year, we’ve had over 90 attacks on dogs in our area. Four pets have died. I talked to someone recently who’s scared to visit our community because they’re worried about their child being hurt by a coyote.
One thing has become clear: the coyotes aren’t scared of us, but we are learning to have a healthy fear of coyotes.
Experts are split on how to handle this problem, but one thing’s for sure:
We should do everything we can to stay as far away from these coyotes as possible.
Temptation is like that. Often, we think we can coddle our temptations and get comfortable with them. We take it casually and think that they’re no big deal. After all, everyone’s tempted sometimes.
The reality is that a man should treat sin and temptation like we treat coyotes: Stay as far away as possible. Don’t get comfortable with them. See them as a danger in your life and take whatever action is necessary to protect yourself from them.
Understandably, the city isn’t crazy about us trying to kill the coyotes ourselves, so they’re trying to manage the problem.
But we face no such restrictions when it comes to temptation and sin. We should never settle for trying to manage them; we should kill them on sight.
In today’s verses, Jesus used hyperbole to make this point in His Sermon on the Mount. He instructed us to cut off our hands or pluck out our eyes to avoid sin. He didn’t mean this literally. After all, the problem is never our hands or our eyes.
It’s our hearts.
Jesus was making a point: we should take drastic action to deal with our temptations and sins.
Whatever your temptation is, take drastic action to deal with it. Treat it like a coyote that you must avoid at all costs.
Prayer: Lord, help me to see sin and temptation as a real danger, and to take proper action to deal with them quickly. Amen.
Reflection: What temptations in your life do you need to take more seriously? What can you do to drastically deal with them?
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