Matthew 5:30

And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to depart into hell.

Berean Standard Bible

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Study note

Setting — Jesus addresses his disciples during the Sermon on the Mount, intensifying the moral requirements of the law. He speaks directly to those following him about personal accountability for sin.

The words — The Greek σκανδαλίζει (skandalizei) literally means "causes to stumble," while δεξιὸς χείρ (dexia cheir) translates to "right hand." The text commands physical removal of the offending limb to prevent total spiritual ruin.

The thread — This teaching echoes in Mark 9:43, which repeats the command to cut off a hand that causes sin, and parallels Matthew 5:29’s warning about the eye. The motif of stumbling appears in 1 Peter 2:8, where disobedience to the word causes people to fall.

Why it lands — The passage demands immediate and uncompromising action against personal sin, prioritizing eternal survival over temporary comfort. It requires the reader to evaluate what habits or relationships are leading to spiritual destruction and to remove them without hesitation.

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

And if thy right hand offend thee, cut it off, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell.

Cross-references

Mark 9:43 If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life crippled than to have two hands and go into hell, into the unquenchable fire.
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.
1 Peter 2:8 and, “A stone of stumbling and a rock of offense.” They stumble because they disobey the word—and to this they were appointed.
Romans 14:20 Do not destroy the work of God for the sake of food. All food is clean, but it is wrong for a man to let his eating be a stumbling block.
Matthew 18:6 But if anyone causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to stumble, it would be better for him to have a large millstone hung around his neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea.
Luke 17:2 It would be better for him to have a millstone hung around his neck and to be thrown into the sea than to cause one of these little ones to stumble.
1 Corinthians 8:13 Therefore, if what I eat causes my brother to stumble, I will never eat meat again, so that I will not cause him to stumble.
Matthew 13:21 But since he has no root, he remains for only a season. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, he quickly falls away.
Luke 12:5 But I will show you whom you should fear: Fear the One who, after you have been killed, has authority to throw you into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear Him!
Matthew 22:13 Then the king told the servants, ‘Tie him hand and foot, and throw him into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’