“You have heard the commandment that says, ‘You must not commit adultery.’ 28 But I say, anyone who even looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart. 29 So if your eye—even your good eye —causes you to lust, 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 hand—even your stronger 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 be thrown into hell” Matt 5: 27-30

 

Jesus is not only the Son of God, but God. In his capacity as God he has privileged information that any human being should not ignore. Jesus is a great teacher. Teachers teach what will help their students to succeed both in the exams and most importantly in their future endeavours. The issue is where do teachers get what they teach. Most times from prescribed sources from the institution that hired them. Some times  they don’t agree with the author on some subjects but whether they agree or disagree, they are there to explain or provide insight using those materials for the learner.

 

Jesus used the sermon on the mount to provide great insight on how to please God and how using that as a platform his disciples can reign with him eternally, because that was his motive for coming to seek and save the lost.  Using the reformation principles of the sermon on the mount he took time to explain why they should not go to hell , but most importantly what they must do to avoid hell, what I called the technical know-how of avoiding hell.

Some of them are really unbelievable! No wonder some people walked away from him. Imagine telling someone “remove one of your eyes so that you will not go to hell”.  Telling someone “cut off your strong hand so that you will not go to hell”. You mean hell is that serious? To the best of my knowledge Jesus is not a careless talker . Jesus is not just teaching from a prescribed book the bible, he is the bible. He is the Word. The epitome of righteousness. Recently some videos went viral because the vehicle where a Bible was kept got burnt down but the Bible was preserved . In another one some currencies in the Bible got burnt but not the Bible. All these tell you the Bible is spectacular! Among major teachings in the bible is do everything possible to avoid hell. 

 

What the Holy Spirit is saying today is, hell is real. Hell is not a good place. Hell is not a place to joke with.  The Bible describes hell as a terrifying and horrible place. Hell is described as “eternal fire” (Matthew 25:41), “unquenchable fire” (Matthew 3:12), “shame and everlasting contempt” (Daniel 12:2), a place where “the fire is not quenched” (Mark 9:44-49), and “everlasting destruction” (2 Thessalonians 1:9). Revelation 20:10 describes hell as a “lake of burning sulfur” where the wicked are “tormented day and night forever and ever.” Obviously, hell is a place we should avoid. Hell is not a play ground it is a place you will not wish for a moment to spend even an hour not to mention spending eternity.  The sad thing is that the devil has put many things in place to rail road human beings to hell fire . One of the serious warnings above is the use of the eyes.

 

God gave us the eyes so that we can see. For instance to see the woman to marry. The percentage of the population that is female varies across the world. Globally in 2017 the percentage of women in the world was 49.6%.  The population of the world is 7.7 billion. God warns us that after the choice of one woman,  keep your eyes off 3.45billion women. Don’t even look at them lustfully, if you do you commit adultery in your heart, the danger of that is if you fail it can lead you to hell. This adultery matter is so serious that God says if your eye is always rolling looking for women and polluting your heart, capable of sending you to hell, deal with it. What do we do to avoid hell!

 

1. Take the issue of hell seriously: In Gen 3, Satan told Eve(& Adam ) that God was a liar.  Curiously they believed Satan’s word against God’s and         they lost paradise.

 

2. Get born again: Spiritual things are not handled with physical, philosophical or logical reasoning. You are born physically, but you are a spirit being so get spiritually reborn. Be born again . Jn 1:12, 3:1-8, Rom 10:8-13.

 

3. Get yourself filled with the Holy Ghost : Acts 1:8. Do a refill as you go daily . After all you refill your fuel tank when needed. Your spirit tank needs more  refueling. Act 4: 31, 13:52 . No one born of a woman can avoid looking lustfully at a woman except the Holy Spirit helps him. Not with the culture of sexy dressing in vogue in our generation that exposes virtually all private parts of women on the street, magazines, movies, internet and social media.

 

4. Flee from dangerous adulterous locations:  It is difficult to explain what Jesus meant by saying ‘gouge out your eye’ because as much as possible we want to obey the bible literally. I know I don’t want to go to hell and I cannot avoid not seeing women. To avoid removing my eyes, my opinion is that I should avoid locations that make my eyes run wild to pollute my heart. Run away from club houses, brothels, pornographic sites. Avoid x-rated movies. Remove everything from you that promotes lustfullness. 

 

5. Flee fornication:1 Cor6:18. Don’t just flee from adulterous locations flee fornication. Fornication and adultery is a spirit and and they are highways to hell. 

 

6. Avoid the second look at women/ men: Yes, you cannot close your eyes to walk on the street and avoid seeing the person in front of you. But you can avoid the second look.

 

7. Pray: Pray that God will deliver you from whatever you can do that can send you to hell. Jesus says pray that you will not be led to temptation. Jesus says watch and pray. Dada says Pray. Pray. Pray ,hell is not a place for you and I. 

 

Conclusion : The sermon on the mount is reformation strategies based on the OT and NT. It is to teach principles that will help our behavioural patterns on earth that will determine our eternal place of rest. There are many things in that sermon that practically, mentally and physically we are incapable to execute on our own if we don’t want to go to hell. Surrender your life to Jesus and ask the Holy Spirit to help you in the journey of faith to heaven and not hell . May we never go to hell in Jesus name.