Human pride is very concerned about importance. The disciples revealed their hearts by asking Jesus, "Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?" (Matthew 18:1). By taking a little child as an example of dependency and trust, Jesus confronted them with the need to humble themselves (Matthew 18:4). Without humility they could never lead the church to be true disciples of Jesus Christ; people would stumble, and that would greatly offend the King (Matthew 18:6).
 
It is wicked to cause others to stumble and it is also utterly foolish to allow yourself to be tripped up and diverted from following Christ. Jesus said that radical action was needed to ensure that each disciple keeps on track. Each decision a Christian makes will either facilitate or disable effective discipleship. Jesus spoke about the hand, foot and eye as though they control the direction and destiny of the person. Of course, they are not independent intelligences, but a person's heart allows what is done and seen, and where the body goes. Wrong decisions will ferment wrong desires and quench godliness.
 
Jesus wanted His people to have holy hearts, determined to discipline destructive passions. Radical action was needed to ensure that the hand, foot or eye is the servant and not the master of the soul. Jesus could not have spoken more strongly: if a part of the body is allowed to dictate a disciple's course away from heaven and towards hell, the person is better off without it. The Lord certainly did not mean that people should mutilate themselves to escape temptation, because that would not deal with the problem which is the wrong desires of the heart. It is those wrong desires which want the hand to act wrongly, the foot to go to the wrong place and the eye to feast on the wrong things.
 
Excuses such as "Nobody can be perfect", "I could not help myself" and "I did my best" may be true statements about the past but they cannot justify sinful rebellion. We have the responsibility to identify those areas in which we allow ourselves to sin … ask the Lord to help us to change our heart's desires and take effective measures to prevent our flesh from controlling our souls. Where we have fallen to temptation, we need a humble heart desire to please the Lord; then change our physical patterns of life to put those temptations beyond reach. If we do not want to do that, what sort of disciples are we … where are we heading? Take action today and keep on taking it until you have formed new habits which Jesus will honour.