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Matthew 5:29 If your right eye causes you to stumble, 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.

Why not left eye? Why not just eyes? What's the spiritual significance?

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  • Most likely the same as that of the right hand in the following verse. – Lucian Oct 7 '20 at 22:09
  • One of our eyes is our 'sighting' eye. If our sighting eye is not sighting correctly, we will not see correctly. We will be out of focus. Better to pluck it out than 'see' wrongly and perish. (The sighting eye is usually the right one for right-handed persons and the left, likewise.) We are not being exhorted to blind ourselves, but to see aright. If someone is misusing their vision for improper purposes, they should 'see' aright that that is wrong. – Nigel J Oct 8 '20 at 6:19
  • Just my own personal application: as a warm-blooded man, who finds it tempting to look at a beautiful woman. I do not look with my full gaze...I look out of the corner of my eye. You cannot look out of the corner of both eyes. I don't think Jesus meant anything special about the right versus left. I also do not think there is any hyperbole: how can something be exaggerated when compared to hell? Needless to say: I have been taking it very seriously to thoroughly apply this warning to myself and my tendency to want to sneak a peek at a pretty or seductive lady. I think that is the meaning – Pieter Rousseau Oct 8 '20 at 12:06
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I think we need to read Matthew 5:27-30 instead of just 5:29. The verses cover part of adultery together.

Matthew 5:27-30 (NASB) “You have heard that it was said, ‘YOU SHALL NOT COMMIT ADULTERY’; 28 but I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart. 29 If your right eye makes you [a]stumble, tear it out and throw it from you; for it is better for you [b]to lose one of the parts of your body, [c]than for your whole body to be thrown into [d]hell. 30 If your right hand makes you [e]stumble, cut it off and throw it from you; for it is better for you [f]to lose one of the parts of your body, [g]than for your whole body to go into [h]hell.

Jesus mentions one eye and hand, and we might value one left or right more than the other, but that’s not the point. Nor is He saying we should mutilate ourselves. We should be ready to sacrifice anything for God vs give into ourselves, using our eyes and hands as we want and commit adultery. That would offend God.

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