'If thy hand or thy foot causeth thee to stumble, cut
it off, and cast it from thee.'-MATT. xviii. 8, R.V.
No person or thing can do our characters as much harm as we
ourselves can do. Indeed, none can do them any harm but ourselves.
For men may put stumbling-blocks in our way, but it is we who make
them stumbling-blocks. The obstacle in the path would do us no hurt
if it were not for the erring foot, nor the attractive prize if it
were not for the hand that itched to lay hold of it, nor the
glittering bauble if it were not for the eye that kindled at the
sight of it. So our Lord here, having been speaking of the men that
put stumbling-blocks in the way of His little ones, draws the net
closer and bids us look at home. A solemn woe of divine judgment is
denounced on those who cause His followers to stumble; let us leave
God to execute that, and be sure that we have no share in their
guilt, but let us ourselves be the executioners of the judgment upon
the things in ourselves which alone give the stumbling-blocks, which
others put before us, their fatal power.
There is extraordinary energy in these words. Solemnly they are
repeated twice here, verbatim; solemnly they are repeated verbatim
three times in Mark's edition. The urgent stringency of the command,
the terrible plainness of the alternative put forth by the lips that
could say nothing harsh, and the fact that the very same injunction
appears in a wholly different connection in the Sermon on the Mount,
show us how profoundly important our Lord felt the principle to be
which He was here laying down.
We mark these three points. First, the case supposed, 'If thy hand
or thy foot cause thee to stumble.' Then the sharp, prompt remedy
enjoined, 'Cut them off and cast them from thee.' Then the solemn
motive by which it is enforced, 'It is better for thee to enter into
life maimed than, being a whole man, to be cast into hell-fire.'