‘If thy hand offend thee’ – the hand with which you work, and act, and do so many things: it stands for your activities. Do you have an activity, which is probably not unholy or sinful, but you practice it to excess. It's something you enjoy, something that's got you, something that you like. You do it so much that you neglect your wife, or your husband, or your family. It's a consuming interest, and it takes away your devotions, and you don't have any service for the Lord because you're so occupied with this activity, whatever it is. Maybe in itself it is quite free from sin, but actually it is not, because it is displacing spiritual things, and is exercised to excess. So it deprives and it steals and it hurts others. Well now, the meaning of this verse is that a Christian is ready to put it to death.
‘If thy hand offend thee, cut it off, for it is better for thee to enter into life maimed, than having two hands to go into hell, into the fire that never shall be quenched.’ Well, if you are going to hell, it means you are not a believer. You were never saved, because if you are truly saved, you will never be lost – the doctrine of the perseverance of the saints, which is all over the New Testament. So what do we conclude from this? That the believer will put this sin to death. This is a mark of grace. If something causes you to sin, or neglect your spiritual life and service, and you are not willing to put it to death, you are not a Christian. You are a nominal believer; you need to be saved. That as really what the Lord is saying. Because if you're heaven bound, however hard, you will be ready to put that out of your life: altogether, if necessary. ‘This thing has got hold of me and drives me. I cannot do it in moderation, even though it's not intrinsically sinful. I must get therefore rid of it altogether.’ A believer is ready, by the help of God, to put it to death. If your deeds are going to bring you into judgment, then take drastic steps to terminate that deed, plead with God to help you, do everything you can not to do that thing.