You have heard that is was said, “You shall not commit adultery.” But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart. If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body go into hell.

Matthew 5:27-30

We rightly live in a time when we have needed to hear the encouragement “you are enough”. For a long time, we’ve lived under the pressure of working ourselves to death and insanity until we achieve perfection. We’ve very nearly actually cut out our eyes and cut off our hands, some of us, in order to live a perfect, excellent life.

Living an excellent life isn’t bad.

But, when we are living an excellent life in our own strength and by the pressure of our old colonial and slave masters, and for the purpose of (them) dominating everyone around us and the world, then it becomes a problem, and we’ve needed to hear the message, “you are enough.”

The only thing is, I’m afraid this may be interfering with our understanding that living a sinful, purposeless, apathetic life is not good, and not enough. Yes, you are enough in terms of where you are currently at in your output and ability, and in your pace of learning and growing. But, you are not enough if you are allowing sin to dominate you and keep you from doing the good works that you were created to do in your new life with Christ.

There are still moral standards in life. In every society, injustice and sin are dealt with in some way, are not tolerated or accepted. They may not necessarily be punished as much, but they are dealt with in some way.

There are standards God requires us to live up to. And if we are not living up to these standards, we will be justly judged by God, and go to hell. That’s how it is. That’s the way it’s always been. Christ, who is God in the flesh, in the above passage said that sin is not something we ought to mess with, as it will cause us to go to hell. Whatever it is that is causing us to sin, we need to cut it out of our lives. And no, we are not enough to do it in our own strength

Cutting off our hands and cutting our eyes out of our heads will not cure us and stop us from sinning. Only faith in Christ, continual fellowship with God, and the Holy Spirit living inside of us will cure us and stop us from sinning. These things we can never do enough of and we must always pursue these things until we die or Christ comes back. And making sure our eyes and hands stay plugged into “whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable-if anything is excellent or praiseworthy” is certainly going to help us to get in fellowship with God and compel us to be filled with Him on the daily.

So yes, we are enough in terms of our output and pace of growth. But we are never enough in our ability on our own to keep ourselves from sinning and we can never get enough of God, but God is enough for us and makes us enough in Christ.