Cut It Off—If It Makes You Stumble

Discipleship Devotional, April 25th, 2025

“Woe to the world because of the things that cause people to stumble! Such things must come, but woe to the person through whom they come!
If your hand or your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life maimed or crippled than to have two hands or two feet and be thrown into eternal fire.
And if your eye causes you to stumble, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into the fire of hell.”
— Matthew 18:7–9

In our walk of faith, many things seek to derail us and cause us to stumble. We are not to be ignorant of this fact; rather, we must be ready to cut out anything that does. In our anchor text, Jesus takes it to the wildest of extremes—that if it is your hand or your eye that causes you to stumble, you should cut it out. This tells us how seriously we ought to take our lives. There is nothing in this world that you could lose or cut off that would be worth your eternity. If Jesus can say it is better to lose your hands and eyes, then what else in this world is so important that we cannot do without?

What this means is that there will be things that are not necessarily sinful, yet you may still need to cut them off. Social media, for example, is not a sin—just as watching TV is not—but if you notice that you are becoming bound by it and it’s causing you to stumble, you can decide to quit it. You will not be odd; you will not be the first. You must esteem your Christian walk far above everything else. If you notice that every time you watch certain movies you are derailed, then it is better for you to enter life without movies than to enter hell with them.

There are many things fighting for your attention. Their ultimate purpose is to drag you back into the world. The goal is to cause you to backslide and become hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. There are many church people who are in this state, but many do not realize it. They are the only ones who know how far they have been derailed. My counsel to you today is this: there is nothing so important that you can’t cut it off for the sake of your soul. Don’t forget the words of our Lord Jesus:

“What good will it be for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul?”
— Matthew 16:26

Prayer

Holy Spirit, expose to me everything that is trying to cause me to stumble. Help me to put them away. Amen.