Willing To Go To Any Lengths?

If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one of your members than to have your whole body thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one of your members than to have your whole body go into hell.

Wow that's pretty extreme, and I don't believe that too many people take this literally. After all, I have never walked into a church full of one-eyed, one-armed men. I believe that Jesus was overstating a point to stress just how important the point is. Another such saying is something I hear in the rooms of recovery at almost every meeting I attend. "If you want what we have and are ready to go to any lengths, then you are ready to take certain steps."

We have to be ready and willing. Jesus makes it very clear in the previous verses that the point is not the outer man but our inner minds and hearts. The fact is that my right eye can not make me sin, nor my left eye for that matter. Neither can my hand. Neither of these body parts have a mind of their own. It is my mind and the desires of my heart that manifest through actions I take with my eyes and hands and, more often, my mouth that cause me to act outside of the will of God.

I've heard someone say that they were ready to go to any length to get sober. They would stand on their head in a corner and eat peanut butter if someone told them that's what it would take. That's willingness, but it wouldn't work. Because the only thing that will get and keep a real alcoholic sober is a spiritual awakening and relationship with God. Nothing can be more important than that. Nothing can be allowed to stand in the way. No part of self is too important to sacrifice, because any part of me that I refuse to turn over to the care of God is what will lead to all of me being separated from Him.

My eyes and hands can not cause me to sin, so it would do me no more good to cut them out or off to change my behavior than standing on my head in a corner would change me. But the point remains. If I am going to find a life worth living and a relationship with God worth having, there can be nothing that stands in the way of that. If I can not walk into a convenience store without seeing and wanting to buy alcohol, then I need to stay out of convenience stores, no matter how inconvenient that is to my life. But the truth is that staying out of convenience stores will not keep me sober long. I have to fix the inner spiritual problem. Once I do, the beer aisle in a convenience store will no longer be a problem.

If I can not quit looking at others lustfully and therefore damaging my relationship with God and my relationship with my wife (I find it very interesting that these two verses are grouped with the previous verses on lusting in the heart being the same as adultery) then it would be better for my relationships and spiritual condition if I simply could not see. But that wouldn't last long. The problem is not a physical issue but a spiritual one. Sometimes my imagination works better with my eyes closed, and I don't imagine being blind would keep my mind from imaginations and lust. But if I allow God to make the necessary changes in my heart, I can keep my eyes and not fall into the trap of lust. I can walk with my wife through a liquor store and not find any desire to consume, I can drive down Martin Luther King Blvd. because it is the best route to some destination without being tempted to stop and purchase drugs, etc.

In the short term, when I am simply trying to stop the behavior long enough to fix the problem, i.e. put a cork in the jug and just don't drink or use no matter what, then certain outward changes and sacrifices must be options. I have to be willing to change playground and playmates, I have to be willing to make the physical outward sacrifices that will keep me from access to the outward manifestation of the problem. But if I want true freedom and a life worth living, then those outward sacrifices will never be enough. I have to solve the spiritual problem through conscious contact with God. The good news is that once that is done, as long as I maintain and improve upon that contact, those sacrifices are no longer necessary. There are no friends I can't see today. No store that I can't go into. No wedding reception with an open bar that I have to avoid. I do not have to keep my eyes shut or go blind to solve the problems of lust. I do not have to cut my hand off to keep from picking up a drink or a drug. I just have to give God total access to do what He wants to with and within my heart.