What do these scriptures mean?

[fullarmor2]

Jesus speaking.   "If your eye offends you, pluck it out, for it is better to go through life with one eye than to be cast into hell where the worm does not die and the fire is not quenched".
     Jesus said something similar to this again only that time he talked about cutting off your hand if it offends,  and then he said the same thing about hell. What do these verses mean or what do they teach us?
              Thank you in advance for help on this.
   

[Craig]

It is not literal, it is metaphorical. He was talking to the Body of Israel, the assembly of people who have been held back from the God because of certain men. These men were religious bigots, who created laws upon laws to justify their sins, instead of submitting to God. So Jesus was talking about the Pharisee and Saducee would lead Israel into the Lake of Fire, and Israel had a choice cut them off or they will be cut off. You find more understanding concerning this in Matthew 23 and the judgment of Gehenna.

[bobf]

I think Jesus is teaching us that if we serve idols intead of God, God will judge us and it won't be fun.  So, at all cost, don't serve them.

[rosered]

 

good concept Craig , seeing that 
  but also seeing it more personally  as Paul claims for us  having members [ within and without ,as well as  others]member , hand foot  eye etc....... with Pauls mind he delighted to serve the Living God having now the mind of Christ [ or Christ being the Head]  and  he would  follow the Spirits leading and Will [desires]  but he speaks of in his members [body of death ] that went to warring with his  New Mind ,   this is what to me Jesus refers to as  saying  do you think i come to  bring  peace ?  nay  BUT divisions ![ its  starts within us first to me ]  in luke 12 verse  48-53
our members   must be   brought down to all obedience to Christ or CUT OFF ,,
thats what im seeing  as well as your   concept bro .. 
for all  inward jews as we are  as the  first   that shall be LAST   as scribes , readers of the  LAW . pharrisses , Seperate our selves from the world as holy  but smoke in Gods NOSTRILS  and hypocrits  ,  SAY BUT DO NOT DO!   as Jesus told one to do as they say , but not as they do ...    say they love God and yet hate their brother   a good example  for me anyways ..

   1Cr 9:27 But I keep under my body, and bring [it] into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway.
a Castaway..........Gr. adokimos, ( 1Cr 9:27), one regarded as unworthy ( R.V., "rejected"); elsewhere rendered "reprobate" ( 2Ti 3:8, etc.); "rejected" ( Hbr 6:8, etc.).
  like   the bad fish parable or tree branch etc ..

  hope this may  help in some  way   a little  fullarmor2 

  peace and Gods grace to you and yours  rose

[Taffy]

good concept Craig , seeing that 
  but also seeing it more personally  as Paul claims for us  having members [ within and without ,as well as  others]member , hand foot  eye etc....... with Pauls mind he delighted to serve the Living God having now the mind of Christ [ or Christ being the Head]  and  he would  follow the Spirits leading and Will [desires]  but he speaks of in his members [body of death ] that went to warring with his  New Mind ,   this is what to me Jesus refers to as  saying  do you think i come to  bring  peace ?  nay  BUT divisions ![ its  starts within us first to me ]  in luke 12 verse  48-53
our members   must be   brought down to all obedience to Christ or CUT OFF ,,
thats what im seeing  as well as your   concept bro .. 
for all  inward jews as we are  as the  first   that shall be LAST   as scribes , readers of the  LAW . pharrisses , Seperate our selves from the world as holy  but smoke in Gods NOSTRILS  and hypocrits  ,  SAY BUT DO NOT DO!   as Jesus told one to do as they say , but not as they do ...    say they love God and yet hate their brother   a good example  for me anyways ..

   1Cr 9:27 But I keep under my body, and bring [it] into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway.
a Castaway..........Gr. adokimos, ( 1Cr 9:27), one regarded as unworthy ( R.V., "rejected"); elsewhere rendered "reprobate" ( 2Ti 3:8, etc.); "rejected" ( Hbr 6:8, etc.).
  like   the bad fish parable or tree branch etc ..

  hope this may  help in some  way   a little  fullarmor2 

  peace and Gods grace to you and yours  rose

yo Rosebud.
LOL..
The pharisees being the example of all flesh,inward by application,..all things made NEW in HIM

That SMOKE in his Nostrils..That self righteous stench of unclean Rags

Isa 65:5 Which say, Stand by thyself, come not near to me; for I am holier than thou. These [are] a smoke in my nose, a fire that burneth all the day.

[wannabelieve]

I think it's helpful to know that here and in several other places in the Gospels (14 times total), the word "hell" is the Greek word "gehenna" and was a literal reference to a real place that the readers/listeners would have recognized. It was the "Valley of Hinnom" that is mentioned several times in the OT as a place of physical judgment, where dead bodies burned in a perpetual fire. It's very likely that Jesus was talking about temporal, earthly judgment here, of the kind that took place in AD 70 when the Roman General Titus wiped out the city Jerusalem.

It's important that we try to read the Scriptures as they were understood in their time, not as we have read into them based on our background/culture/religion/etc.

[painterb]

I believe that the Jews of this time would have heard Jesus say Gehenna adn thought back to what Gehenna actually was.  It was the dump and also in Jeremiah it was the place where bodies were thrown and burned.  The worm did not die because there was an ever supply of bodies then trash and the fire was not quenched because they contiued to keep the fire going.
b

[70sevens]

Quote ----------------------------------
It is not literal, it is metaphorical.
He was talking to the Body of Israel,
the assembly of people who have been held back from the God because of certain men.
------------------------------------------

I guess it is a very convenient scripture reading method.

"If scripture says somthing bad, it is for other people,
if good, it is for 'myself'"

That's the way our oldselves read the scripture.
Thus, the word of God always fail to heal 'me'.

Jesus is talking to each individual here now.
"Pluck out your eye"
Be it metaphorical or otherwise.

[Craig]

I believe that the Jews of this time would have heard Jesus say Gehenna adn thought back to what Gehenna actually was.  It was the dump and also in Jeremiah it was the place where bodies were thrown and burned.  The worm did not die because there was an ever supply of bodies then trash and the fire was not quenched because they contiued to keep the fire going.
b

It was also a judgment known to the Jews prescribed by Jeremiah and Isaiah, that Israel, Judah, Jerusalem and the Temple would be cut off from God. The Jews knew exactly what Jesus was talking about, King Josiah descrated the valley of Ben Hinnom to signify and bring to rememberance the wrath that would be consumated through them for sacrificing their children to other gods, and murderering their prophets. This is what Jesus was talking about in Matthew 23, when He accused the Pharisee of sacrificing their children, sons of Gehenna and accusing them of murdering the prophets. Sure enough, after that they crucified Christ. The physical valley being a garbage dump is not what Jesus was talking about, the reason it was a garbage dump is what Jesus was talking about.

[Craig]

Quote ----------------------------------
It is not literal, it is metaphorical.
He was talking to the Body of Israel,
the assembly of people who have been held back from the God because of certain men.
------------------------------------------

I guess it is a very convenient scripture reading method.

"If scripture says somthing bad, it is for other people,
if good, it is for 'myself'"

That's the way our oldselves read the scripture.
Thus, the word of God always fail to heal 'me'.

Jesus is talking to each individual here now.
"Pluck out your eye"
Be it metaphorical or otherwise.

It was for someone else. That doesn't mean the principle does not apply to us. Maybe if people stopped to think about what I say as a whole, that they won't attribute their assumptions to me. Jesus was specifically talking about Israel; Paul later comes up and says if Israel was cut off for unbelief, how much easier would it be to cut off the gentiles for their unbelief. Everything applies to us, but not every said was talking about us. When Jesus made these points, he was warning of Gehenna Judgment which was coming.

[70sevens]

Quote----------------------
It was for someone else. That doesn't mean the principle does not apply to us.
Maybe if people stopped to think about what I say as a whole, that they won't attribute
their assumptions to me. Jesus was specifically talking about Israel;
Paul later comes up and says if Israel was cut off for unbelief,
how much easier would it be to cut off the gentiles for their unbelief.
Everything applies to us, but not every said was talking about us.
When Jesus made these points, he was warning of Gehenna Judgment which was coming.
------------------------------

The bible is not kind of history book.
When we read the history surely we get some principles to follow, or not to follow.
But that way we never ever able to have our nature changed.
And if that way is workable, Jesus does not have to come and die.

Some people read the bible as ethical/moral guidebook.
Some people read as historical and/or archaeological fact book.
Some people read as future events book.
That's not the way we should read the bible.
We should pluck out this eye, because it offends us all the time.

To talk about Gehenna Judgment, it is not to come. It is here already.
So we should not be afraid of the forthcoming ET, but be afraid of the current ET.
The leper does not sense the torment even if their fresh is being rotten.
As spiritual lepers, we do not feel the current Torment as torment.
The judgment day for those lepers would be when they realize their miserable status.
Then they will beg grace of God.
The grace of God will only be given to those lepers.

So when reading the scriptures, don't focus on the future and/or past.
And do not focus on the others.
Only focus on 'myself'.

[Luk 23:28]
Jesus turned and said to them, "Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me;
weep for yourselves and for your children.

[Craig]

I don't think you understood me, if you did you would recognize I am specific. That is my downfall; Jesus WAS not talking to you or I, but He was telling us a principle which you and I must see and follow or the example will also be made of us.