In Matthew 18:7–9, we are informed that we must be willing to deal with those occasions to sin as though we were excising the offending member, be it our hands, our eyes, or our feet. The options before us are clear: Get rid of the offending member or be damned. Conquer the sin at any cost. It is not a matter of gaining or losing rewards. It is a matter of life and death.

It soon becomes clear to every true child of God that if he is to be serious about personal holiness, sanctification, and growth in grace, he must become serious about guarding his eyes. As he becomes familiar with the contents of his Bible, he soon discovers the strategic place of the eye-gate in biblical revelation. The opening pages of the book of Genesis confront him with the critical place the eye-gate had in the entrance of sin into human experience. He reads that when Eve “saw the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes . . . she took of its fruit and ate” (Gen. 3:6).

Some time passes, and we read the record of a national tragedy when the nation of Israel is defeated by an inferior army. The reason for this failure in war is revealed when a man named Achan confesses his sin, declaring:

Truly I have sinned against the LORD God of Israel, and this is what I did: when I saw among the spoil a beautiful cloak from Shinar, and 200 shekels of silver, and a bar of gold weighing 50 shekels, then I coveted them and took them. And see, they are hidden in the earth inside my tent, with the silver underneath. (Josh. 7:21)

Who reads and does not tremble at the account of David’s tragic fall with Bathsheba?

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