Cutting people out of your life

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 "If your right eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and cast it from you; for it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish, than for your whole body to be cast into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and cast it from you; for it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish, than for your whole body to be cast into hell." - Matthew 5:29-30

I've taken these verses to be talking about your sins, particularly around adultery. The immediate verses before and the verses after mention adultery and, with many others from talks I've had and stuff that I've read, seem to think the same about this verse.

But St. John Chrysostom gives insight in the way that the early church took it:

"He is speaking not of limbs, but of those who are close to us. So, if, He says, you love any one, as though he were like a right eye, if you think him so profitable to you as to esteem him in the place of a hand, and he hurts your soul, cut off even these. You see the emphasis: for He does not say, withdraw from him, but to show the fulness of the separation, He says 'pluck it out, and cast it from you.'" -Homily XVII on Matthew V

We hear often how we need to cut off poisonous relationships and here St. John makes it apparent that Christ emphasizes even if they are like a part of you, if you love them but they continually hurt you or your soul, remove them from your life. 

He also emphasizes not to separate for a time, but to completely remove the person from your life, the difficulty being that you love them like your own flesh.

Beloved, Christ's words are forever practical for our lives. The wisdom which He gives is not always desirable to hear but it is good for us to obey. That which is good for us is sometimes painful and that which is bad for us we can often be blind to.