Matthew 18:8 (WEB)

Passage

If your hand or your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off, and cast it from you. It is better for you to enter into life maimed or crippled, rather than having two hands or two feet to be cast into the eternal fire.

Nearby Context

Matthew 18:6 but whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to stumble, it would be better for him that a huge millstone should be hung around his neck, and that he should be sunk in the depths of the sea.

Matthew 18:7 “Woe to the world because of occasions of stumbling! For it must be that the occasions come, but woe to that person through whom the occasion comes!

Matthew 18:8 If your hand or your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off, and cast it from you. It is better for you to enter into life maimed or crippled, rather than having two hands or two feet to be cast into the eternal fire.

Matthew 18:9 If your eye causes you to stumble, pluck it out, and cast it from you. It is better for you to enter into life with one eye, rather than having two eyes to be cast into the Gehenna of fire.

Matthew 18:10 See that you don’t despise one of these little ones, for I tell you that in heaven their angels always see the face of my Father who is in heaven.

Study Lenses

The verse centers on "hand", "foot", "causes", "stumble", "cast", "better", "enter", and "life". It is saying that the verse draws attention to "hand" and "foot", so its meaning should be read from those terms before moving to application.

The nearby context moves from verse 7's "Woe to the world because of occasions..." into verse 9's "If your eye causes you to stumble...", so "hand" and "foot" belong inside that flow. In Matthew context, the local focus is Christ, faith, and discipleship.

A plain takeaway is to answer the verse's own emphasis on "hand" and "foot" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.