And if your right eye causes you to stumble, tear it out and throw it away from you, for it is better for you that one of your members perish than for your whole body to be thrown into Gehenna.
In this passage Jesus emphasizes, in a vivid and forceful way, how seriously sin and temptation must be treated. He is not literally urging someone to remove an eye; rather, he shows that if something—even if it is very precious or important to us—causes us to sin, we must be ready to throw it away in order to avoid greater harm: spiritual ruin. Jesus affirms that it is better to lose something temporary, even something important (an eye, a hand, as a source of sin), than to fall completely into a greater danger: into Gehenna. This comparison suggests to us that the struggle against sin requires decisive steps, even if they seem difficult and painful. Thus, for the sake of spiritual salvation, Jesus calls us to be strict, to exclude everything that tempts and can turn us away from God’s path.