THINK TOGETHER.
Do you ever stare at things? Good things? Bad things?
READ TOGETHER.
Matthew 18:9. And if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into the hell of fire.
Have your parents ever told you to stop staring? Staring is rude, isn’t it? Is it hard for you to not stare?
There are some good things that we are allowed to stare at though, aren’t there. Several years ago, when my kids were young, our family drove across America. There were so many beautiful things to stare at. The Grand Canyon. The Rocky Mountains. The Pacific Ocean.
But there are also many bad and dangerous things that we might find ourselves staring at too. Things that are tempting and sinful. Or good things that belong to others, but we covet them and want them for ourselves. Looking at what others have and being jealous is causing us to sin.
What about the things you look at in TV, movies, and video games? Does it cause you to sin? By watching bad behavior do you also start to act badly? If you watch people being mean in a movie, does it make you act mean too? If you see something inappropriate do you keep thinking about it? Probably.
Guarding what we look at with our eyes is very important. Jesus once said that “the eye is the window to the soul.” What does that mean? It means that we become like the thing we look at. That’s why Jesus said that our eyes can cause us to sin. Then he told us that if our eye (what we look at) is causing us to sin, then we should tear out our eye and throw it away.
Yikes! Did Jesus really mean that we should try to pull our eye out when we look at bad things and it makes us sin?
No. Jesus is using exaggeration to make an important point. He does not really want us to tear out our eyes every time we sin. We can still sin even without eyes, can’t we? Sin comes from the heart. So what is Jesus trying to teach us? He’s teaching us that sin is very serious. Sin leads to Hell – separation from God. We must realize how deadly our sins are. But the truth is that we can never get rid of our own sins can we? Not by tearing out our eyes or cutting off our hands. We might wear blindfolds and mittens all day and we would still find ways to sin.
There’s only one way for our sin to be dealt with – the cross of Jesus. Jesus took our sin upon himself and paid the price for it on the cross. He took sin very seriously. So seriously that he was willing to die in our place for all of our sins.
We should take sin seriously too. Not by getting rid of parts of us, but by giving every part of us to Jesus.
Because of Jesus our sins are paid for and we don’t have to hurt ourselves to stop sinning.
With Jesus we can give every part of ourselves to God.
DO SOMETHING TOGETHER
Take turns wearing a blindfold while trying to walk around the house. Do you think that having no eyes would keep you from ever sinning again? Where does sin come from?
PRAY TOGETHER
Father, help me to look at things that remind me of you and your love for me. Keep me from looking at the things that make me jealous and sinful. Amen.
TLICfamily 