Description
The Offending Toe
The Savior once said:
“If thy hand offend thee, cut it off; it is better for thee to enter into life maimed, than having two hands to go into hell…. And if thy foot offend thee, cut it off; it is better for thee to enter halt into life, than having two feet to be cast into hell,” (Mark 9).
And the Lord continues. However, the Lord was not speaking literally, but figuratively, that an offending hand was our brother who confesses not and repents not. And an offending foot is “he that is thy standard by whom thou walkest” (JST Mark 9:42) In other words, those we look up to as leaders and heroes.
How painful is it to turn our backs on family, friends, leaders, and associates that we love? Please consider this story.
Chandler Holbrook was a faithful pioneer man of God who endured many privations for the sake of the Kingdom of God. In his last years he settled with his wife, Eunice, and family in Fillmore Utah. The following story is related by his descendants.
“When Chandler was in his old age, one of his toes became a source of continual pain. He must have recalled the scriptures about if a member of the body offends us, then we are better off to cut off the offending arm, eye, or whatever, than to have it lead us in the wrong direction. Chandler decided his life would be better off if he did not have that offending toe. So, he got his chisel, hammer, and chopping block and in one whack he cut off that painful toe.”
Can you imagine how painful that would be? How painful is it to cut off those we love who are seeking to destroy us? So painful that the Lord likens it to chopping off a hand, a foot, a toe, or plucking out an eye, but evidently the pain of that social surgery is far less than the pains of misery, anguish and regret in the depths of hell.
Chandler Holbrook—what a man. And come what may, this was how he lived his life.
Sources:
JST Mark 9
