Matthew 18:6
But if anyone causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin,
it would be better for him to have a large millstone hung around his neck
and to be drowned in the depths of the sea. . . . (8)
If your hand or your foot causes you to sin, cut it off and
throw it away. It is better for you to enter life maimed or
crippled than to have two hands or two feet and be thrown into
eternal fire. (9) And if your eye
causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it
away. It is better for you to enter life with one eye than to
have two eyes and be thrown into the fire of hell.
So significant is this teaching that it is
virtually repeated in the same gospel:
Matthew 5:29
If 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.
(30) And if your right hand causes you
to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one
part of your body than for your whole body to go into hell.