And if your eye causes you to sin,\u00a0pluck it out<\/span> and throw it from you; it is better for you to enter life with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into the hell\u00a0of fire.<\/em>\u00a0– Matthew 18:7-9<\/span><\/p>\n This passage from Matthew’s Gospel is rather interesting in that, in my experience, it’s a verse which fundamentalists never take literally (along with John 6<\/a> and Acts 2:38<\/a>). Now, you’ll find pockets of Christians who handle snakes (Mark 16:18<\/a>), but I have yet to meet someone to apply the same literalistic hermeneutic to that passage.\u00a0The funny thing about this passage is that the literal sense here is clear – it is better to lose everything in this life rather than to lose Heaven – even hands and eyes.<\/p>\n The central message Jesus teaches here is that we can’t take sin lightly. You can’t treat sin as though it were something with which you can negotiate. You don’t negotiate<\/em> with cancer! You don’t sit down with a tumour and ask it not to grow too large. No, you cut that stuff out! You eradicate it as quickly as possible because, if left unchecked, it’ll be your ruin. The same is true with sin.<\/p>\n What might be an application of this passage? Well, I would say that we can understand this passage in the context of what is known in Catholic circles as “the near occasions of sin”<\/em>, which the times and places where we know we can easily fall from grace. In particular, I’d like to apply this passage to the issue of porn.<\/p>\n![\"MrPotatoHead\"](\"http:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/MrPotatoHead.jpg\")
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