Cut out the garbage

The verse for 5/30 is from Mat 5:30, "And if your right hand leads you to sin, cut it off and throw it away.  It is better for you to lose a part of your body than to have all of it go into hell."  (God's Word Translation)

In His wisdom, God knew what sin would do to us.  And, in His wisdom, He tells us over and over again to resist temptation, to flee from the enemy, to turn away from sin.  What is it about sin that makes us think it is worth the pain it causes us and others?  How do we fall for the devil's schemes, when the author of truth exposed his lies from the beginning of time?  I suppose it is our human, sinful nature, but God wants us to recognize our sin, and stop our behaviour, while we still can.

The Message translates verses 29-30 this way, ""Let's not pretend this is easier than it really is. If you want to live a morally pure life, here's what you have to do: You have to blind your right eye the moment you catch it in a lustful leer. You have to choose to live one-eyed or else be dumped on a moral trash pile. And you have to chop off your right hand the moment you notice it raised threateningly. Better a bloody stump than your entire being discarded for good in the dump."

Now, that'll give you something to think about!  Getting rid of sin in our lives may require extreme measures.  I think these verses are saying that unbridled sin will leave us in a heap of destruction.  Little by little, it will consume every part of us, until our whole life is filthy; nothing but garbage.  On the other hand, calling our sin what it is, and cutting out it's cancer before it spreads to our entire life, will save us from total ruin.  There's no shame in preserving a less than perfect body or life.  The shame is in not trying and losing everything.  We can't go backward and start over, but we can move forward and cut out the garbage.