Matthew 18:8

Jesus says it is better to cut off a hand or foot that causes sin than to be cast into eternal fire. He calls for radical, decisive war against whatever leads us into sin.

Cross-references · 21

• Matt 5:29–30If your right eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell.
• Phil 3:8–9More than that, I count all things as loss compared to the surpassing excellence of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ
• Luke 18:22–23On hearing this, Jesus told him, “You still lack one thing: Sell everything you own and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow Me.”
• Rom 13:12The night is nearly over; the day has drawn near. So let us lay aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light.
• Ezek 18:31Cast away from yourselves all the transgressions you have committed, and fashion for yourselves a new heart and a new spirit. Why should you die, O house of Israel?
• Rev 14:10he too will drink the wine of God’s anger, poured undiluted into the cup of His wrath. And he will be tormented in fire and sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and of the Lamb.
• Rev 20:15And if anyone was found whose name was not written in the Book of Life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.
• Matt 25:46And they will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”
• Luke 14:26–27“If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters—yes, even his own life—he cannot be My disciple.
• Luke 16:24So he cried out, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue. For I am in agony in this fire.’
• Luke 14:33In the same way, any one of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be My disciple.
• Mark 9:43–49If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life crippled than to have two hands and go into hell, into the unquenchable fire.
• Deut 13:6–8If your very own brother, or your son or daughter, or the wife you embrace, or your closest friend secretly entices you, saying, “Let us go and worship other gods” (which neither you nor your fathers have known,
• Isa 33:14The sinners in Zion are afraid; trembling grips the ungodly: “Who of us can dwell with a consuming fire? Who of us can dwell with everlasting flames?”
• Rev 21:8But to the cowardly and unbelieving and abominable and murderers and sexually immoral and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars, their place will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur. This is the second death.”
• Matt 25:41Then He will say to those on His left, ‘Depart from Me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.
• Matt 15:30–31Large crowds came to Him, bringing the lame, the blind, the crippled, the mute, and many others, and laid them at His feet, and He healed them.
• Isa 2:20–21In that day men will cast away to the moles and bats their idols of silver and gold—the idols they made to worship.
• Matt 14:3–4Now Herod had arrested John and bound him and put him in prison on account of Herodias, his brother Philip’s wife,
• 2 Th 1:8–9in blazing fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus.
• Isa 30:22So you will desecrate your silver-plated idols and your gold-plated images. You will throw them away like menstrual cloths, saying to them, “Be gone!”

Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Greek word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.