When self-interest dominates, justice is replaced by vengeance

Matthew 5:38Ye have heard that it was said, An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth: 39but I say unto you, Resist not him that is evil: but whosoever smiteth thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also. 40And if any man would go to law with thee, and take away thy coat, let him have thy cloak also. 41And whosoever shall compel thee to go one mile, go with him two. 42Give to him that asketh thee, and from him that would borrow of thee turn not thou away.

Jesus formally abrogates an Old Testament command in order to intensify and internalize its application. This law originally prohibited the formal exaction of an overly severe punishment that did not fit a crime as well as informal, self appointed vigilante action.

Now Jesus teaches the principle that Christian kind ness should transcend even straightforward tit for tat retribution. None of the commands of vv. 39 42 can easily be considered absolute; all must be read against the historical background of first century Judaism. Nevertheless, in light of prevailing ethical thought Jesus contrasts
radically with most others of his day in stressing the need to decisively break the natural chain of evil action and reaction that characterizes human relationships.

Ex 21 23But if any harm follow, then thou shalt give life for life, 24eye for eye, tooth for tooth , hand for hand, foot for foot, 25burning for burning, wound for wound, stripe for stripe.

Dt 19 21An d thine eyes shall not pity; life shall go for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.

The reason is quite simple. It was a very good way of eliminating the possibility of blood feuds. Somebody cuts off my brother’s right hand. I go and knock off his head. Then there’s warfare. But if the limit of the punishment is that the chap who knocked off my brother’s right hand gets his right hand knocked off, that’s it. That’s the end of the matter. “An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth.” It’s restrictive , not prescriptive.

The difficulty is that as legalism developed, it became prescriptive and often exercised in the nastiest way.

When self-interest dominates, justice is replaced by vengeance be careful how you respond when you are insulted, our personal dignity,

’v39 “But I tell you not to resist an evil person. But whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also.

What do you do when someone insults you,

By nature we are revengeful people,

I am the center of the universe, how dare they insult me,,

Do people insult you because you live for Jesus?

verse 39. “If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also.” The word that is used is for a backhanded slap that is a gross insult. What you do in that case is you don’t get insulted. You don’t mind taking an other one.

Jesus says, “I tell you, do not resist an evil person What does this mean? Again, there are some who have taken it to illogical extremes. Tolstoy, for example, is the most famous. He says that because we are not to resist an evil person, therefore we should not have soldiers, policemen, or even magistrates, because they all resist evil people.

We must nevertheless definitely resist evil in certain contexts (cf. Jas 4:7; 1 Pet 5:9). Striking a person on the right cheek suggests a back handed slap from a typically right handed aggressor and was a characteristic Jewish form of insult. Jesus tells us not to trade such insults even if it means receiving more. In no sense does v. 39 require Christians to subject themselves or others to physi cal danger or abuse, nor does it bear directly on the pacifism just war debate . Verse 40 is clearly limited to a legal context

It does not mean that we should let evil triumph throughout our communities. Jesus is referring to private retaliation, not to public order, and he is instructing his followers not to be intent on getting their own back when someone wrongs them.

There will be occasions when protest is in order, as when Jesus himself drew attention to an illegality at his trial (John 18:22 23). But such occasions are never for the purpose of revenge or the like.

When a person is in danger by evil people and you step in and defend them, is that wrong.
Some take this prescription a little less severely and say, “Well, in that case, okay, but pacifism is what is taught in Scripture at the international level.” Is that what Jesus is dealing with?

This is a very difficult question, but it cannot be determined purely on the basis of Matthew 5. You are also going to have to wrestle with the fact that Paul says in Romans 13 that God gave the power of the sword to the state and that nowhere in the New Testament does either John the Baptist or Jesus or any of the apostles ever tell all of the soldiers to quit. He tells them to repent and to be content with their wages.

So there are difficulties with understanding this in a sweeping sense, yet at the same time it is not to be minimized. Remember, the failure to consider the context may become a pretext for perverting this text into a proof text. When you take something and ignore everything that is said around it and make your whole case out of that, and it’s called a PhD dissertation.

Again, this has to do with personal insult and personal imposition, as the four examples Jesus then enumerates give.

Be careful how you cling to what pleases you, your comforts.

v40 “If anyone wants to sue you and take away your tunic, let him have your cloak also.
Ex 22:26 If thou at all take thy neighbour’s raiment to pledge, thou shalt deliver it unto him by that the sun goeth down: Ex 22:27 For that [is] his

we have a right to our comforts and let the others eat cake, instead we are to give up our comforts to make things right,, the world does not understand this,,

In a situation like this when you give more than you are asked, you are showing that you regret any wrongdoing on your part; you are showing that you have no bitterness toward the other person, and you are showing that you want to make things right.

There are times when you should not see how little you can give, but how much you can give.
If anyone wants to sue you and take away your tunic, let him have your cloak also”(v.40). Now the situation that Jesus describes was very common in Bible days. If one person took another person to court, and the person did not have the money to pay the judgment, the court could order payment of the lawsuit in clothing. You could take the man’s tunic; you could take the man’s shirt, but you could not take his coat. Now the shirt was a type of tunic that was worn as an undergarment. The coat was an outer garment that served as a blanket at night. Most people in those days owned only one coat and perhaps one or two shirts. But the reason the coat is mentioned specifically is that was the most valuable garment that people owned.

The attitude of a kingdom citizen, one who is truly righteous, should be willingness to surrender even one’s coat , his extremely valuable outer garment, rather than cause offense or hard feelings with an adversary. The court could not demand the coat , but it could be voluntarily given to meet the required debt. And that is precisely what Jesus says we should be willing to do.

If a legal judgment is fairly made against us for a certain amount, we should be willing to offer even more in order to show our regret for any wrong we did and to show that we are not bitter or resentful against the one who has sued us.

Does Jesus challenge you out of your comfort zone?

Be careful how you defend you private liberties. (lifestyle)

v41″And whoever compels you to go one mile, go with him two.

In light of God’s will and proper human justice, men have the right to certain freedoms. But like all other rights, freedom is not to be cherished and protected at the expense of righteousness or even of faithful witness.

Roman law gave a soldier the right to force a civilian to carry his pack for a Roman mile, which was slightly shorter than our modern mile. The law, designed to relieve the soldier, not only caused great inconvenience to civilians but was made even more despicable by the fact that the oppressed were made to carry the equipment and weapons of their oppressors. Outside of combat the Roman soldier was probably never more hated than when he forced someone to carry his pack.

When we are robbed of some of our cherished liberty, we should surrender even more of it rather than retaliate. In so doing we are obedient to our Lord and testify to His righteousness, knowing that in Him we have a dearer freedom that the world cannot take from us.

Does Jesus infringe on our lives?

40. Jesus envisages a further indignity and loss, the oppressor who wants to take the disciple’s tunic And if someone wants to sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well.”

It is like say, you are being sued for your shirt, give them your coat as well. It seems to be a question of a personal affront, a personal getting at you.

This is not outright robbery, but the process whereby the enemy adopts legal means of depriving the follower of Jesus of part of his clothing. Normally a person would seem to have worn a loincloth, a tunic, a cloak (outer garment), a girdle, a head covering, and sandals. Jesus envisages a situation in which someone adopts legal measures to deprive the disciple of his tunic. Take means here “take into one’s possession”; the verb can be used of seizing by force (21:35, 39). The proper response is not to fight back, but to be ready to let him have t he outer
garment as well, a more expensive garment and one that even the poorest had t he right to keep (Exod. 22:26 27; Deut. 24:12 13). A person had an inalienable right to his cloak; it could not be taken away from him permanently. For one to voluntary surrender it is significant.

The character of God, Exodus 26 “If you ever take your neighbor’s cloak as collateral, return it to him before sunset. 27 For it is his only covering; it is the clothing for his body. What will he sleep in? And if he cries out to me, I will listen because I am gracious.

(“I will hear, … I am compassionate”) is cited as the guarantee of this loan. With such a guarantee, no exact penalty need be specified (how could God not know how best to punish someone who broke one of his laws?). Proper fear of Yahweh would motivate Israelites to respect these laws just as well as or better than some sort of fine or corporal punishment could.

Verse 41: “If someone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles

The reference is probably to the Roman practice of commandeering civilians. By law, they could command any civilian to help them out. It was not uncommon for them to demand that a civilian carry their luggage, apparently for a prescribed distance, possibly a mile. If you have been commanded, don’t feel as if you’re hard done by and personally insulted. Offer to carry it for two miles.

Don’t hoard what you have been given.

v42 “Give to him who asks you, and from him who wants to borrow from you do not turn away.

Possessiveness is a part of our fallen nature,, we dislike giving up even temporarily that which belongs to us,, we tend to forget that it all belongs to GOD..

Now the implication here is that the person doing the asking has a real genuine need. If it is a real need, you should meet that need. Now that does not mean that you are required to respond to every foolish or every selfish request.

Do you have something someone can really use, why not share,

Also implied is the principle that we should offer to give what is needed as soon as we know of the need, whether or not we are asked for help.

The only person who is non defensive, non vengeful, never bears a grudge, and has no spite in his heart is the person who has died to self. To fight for one’s rights is to prove that self is still on the throne of the heart. The believer who is faithful to Christ lives for Him and, if necessary, dies for Him ( Rom. 14:8 ). It is impossible to live for self and for Christ at the same time.

Hudson Taylor, dressed in a Chinese costume, while waiting for a boatman to take him across the river, stood on a jetty. Presently a richly dressed Chinaman came and also stood waiting. When the boat drew near this man not seeing that Mr. Taylor was a foreigner, struck him on the head and knocked him over into the mud. Mr. Taylor said the feeling came to him to hit the man, but God immediately stopped him. When the boat came up, the Chinaman looked at Mr. Taylor and recognized him as a foreigner. He could hardly believe it, and said, “What, you a foreigner, and did not strike me back when I struck you like that?” Mr. Taylor said “This boat is mine. Come in and I will take you where you want to go.” On the way out, Mr. Taylor poured into that Chinaman’s ears the message of salvation. He left the man with tears running down his face. Such is the power of the Gospel of Christ.

Jesus calls his followers to give to those who ask and not turn from those who would borrow. He presumes that the need s are genuine and commands us not to ignore them, but he does not specifically mandate how best we can help. As Augustine rightly noted, the text says “give to everyone that asks,” not “give everything to him that asks”