Bible Strands
Matthew 18:8
If your hand or your foot causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life crippled or lame than to have two hands and two feet and be thrown into the eternal fire.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — Jesus addresses his disciples regarding the necessity of removing personal stumbling blocks that lead to sin. He speaks this warning immediately after declaring woe to those who cause others to stumble in Matthew 18:7.
The words — χείρ (cheir) = hand and πούς (pous) = foot denote the physical limbs that can become instruments of transgression.
The thread — The same radical imagery appears in Matthew 5:29 regarding the eye, while Philippians 3:8 and Luke 18:22 echo the underlying principle of counting all earthly attachments as loss for the sake of Christ.
Why it lands — The text demands immediate and decisive removal of anything that leads to sin, prioritizing eternal life over present physical wholeness. It requires a reader to treat spiritual ruin as a greater threat than temporal loss.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Greek words
King James Version
Wherefore if thy hand or thy foot offend thee, cut them off, and cast them from thee: it is better for thee to enter into life halt or maimed, rather than having two hands or two feet to be cast into everlasting fire.
Cross-references
- Matthew 5:29 If your right eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell.
- Philippians 3:8 More than that, I count all things as loss compared to the surpassing excellence of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ
- Luke 18:22 On hearing this, Jesus told him, “You still lack one thing: Sell everything you own and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow Me.”
- Romans 13:12 The night is nearly over; the day has drawn near. So let us lay aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light.
- Ezekiel 18:31 Cast away from yourselves all the transgressions you have committed, and fashion for yourselves a new heart and a new spirit. Why should you die, O house of Israel?
- Matthew 25:46 And they will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”
- Luke 14:26 “If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters—yes, even his own life—he cannot be My disciple.
- Revelation 14:10 he too will drink the wine of God’s anger, poured undiluted into the cup of His wrath. And he will be tormented in fire and sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and of the Lamb.
- Revelation 20:15 And if anyone was found whose name was not written in the Book of Life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.
- Deuteronomy 13:6 If your very own brother, or your son or daughter, or the wife you embrace, or your closest friend secretly entices you, saying, “Let us go and worship other gods” (which neither you nor your fathers have known,