“You have heard that it was said, ‘AN EYE FOR AN EYE, AND A TOOTH FOR A TOOTH.’ But I say to you, do not resist an evil person; but whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also. If anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, let him have your coat also. Whoever forces you to go one mile, go with him two. Give to him who asks of you, and do not turn away from him who wants to borrow from you.”
Sure seems like Jesus is teaching here that if someone does evil to you, if you are his follower, you shouldn’t do it back. When someone talks bad about your momma, you shouldn’t say something about their momma. When someone cuts you off in traffic, you shouldn’t speed up, tailgate and honk your horn. Most Christians understand that they should not respond with evil in these situations – although at times it is difficult.
But what about if someone steals from you? What about if someone threatens you? What if someone attacks you physically? What if one nation drops a bomb on another nation? How do those who follow this command respond then? To me, it doesn’t seem that there are limitations to obedience to Christ on this or any issue. What if someone does something really bad to you, should you still forgive them 70×7? What if you have preached the gospel earlier in the day when another perfect opportunity arises? These might seem silly, but I highlight them to illustrate that we should always be ready and willing to obey the words of the one we have confessed as our Lord.
Bottom line, if someone does evil to you - we cannot respond with evil. If we do, we are no different from the one who began the evil to begin with.
I have heard arguments that Jesus is not talking about physical violence when he says “if someone slaps you on the right cheek, offer up the left also” but rather that was a way of being insulted – do we have any evidence of this being true? Or is that just an attempt at a way out of the tense situations that might arise for those who follow Christ?
I have also heard that motive plays a role in this – if someone attacks you to get your wallet, and you beat them up to stop them, you haven’t done evil because you weren’t malicious – hmm…seems like the same exact action though. What do you think?
Clearly we resist evil by fighting against sin in our own life and we are told to “resist the devil and he will flee.” But Jesus says we cannot resist evil with evil – because as I have said above, we become just like the evil that is being done to us. Or perhaps as the verse says, we are not to resist evil people – because our true warfare is spiritual and that is why we do resist the devil….Thoughts?
Posted by Steve P on May 6, 2007 at 3:52 pm
Hi Victor,
I am in agreement with some of your points, however I wonder if part of the problem is that we are misunderstanding the context of Jesus’s remarks. Is it really “evil” to defend one’s family? Are Jesus’s words to be understood as never allowing for a Christian to defend his or her self under any circumstance? I’m not so sure anymore. I’m revisting this issue in light of new info and have linked some arguments for Christian self-defense for discussion purposes.
Steve
http://www.defenseissues.com/
http://www.defenseissues.com/TurningtheOtherCheek.html
Posted by Victor on May 23, 2007 at 12:46 pm
I was reading yesterday about the “myth of redemptive violence” and the author of the book made some interesting points – why do we believe that to respond to violence with violence doesn’t make the retaliation violence? Do we have Scriptural support for that perspective?
Steve, you bring up some good questions I hope others will speak to.
What points in my post did you agree with?
Posted by JohnO on May 23, 2007 at 2:34 pm
We believe that because of our cultural situation. We are brought up with Western 21st Century ethics, this includes the Age of Reason and Kantian ethics. Kant declared that the “ends justify the means”. Therefore, to protect one’s family is a loving act, whatever I do toward that end – the means – is justified. Jesus on the other hand does not lay out duty-based Kantian ethics. He lays down principle-based ethics. In a principle-based system the ends do not justify the means. Therefore it is loving to protect one’s family, but it is not loving to do so with violent force.
Posted by Mark on June 11, 2007 at 9:41 am
Well stated, John. If I’m not mistaken, aren’t there even specific moves in martial arts that are designed to block and disarm, but not injure the attacker? Also there is the possibility of driving off a would-be attacker (a loud noise when a thief is trying to break in at night, for example). There are other ways to protect and defend than just “beating the crap out of the guy.”
Posted by John on June 19, 2007 at 12:11 am
So, does violence = evil?
js
3
Posted by Ivar on May 27, 2008 at 1:28 pm
If a rapist comes into your home and threaten your family you wont offer him the next victim. You will stop him efficiently. If he is stopped and survives it with minimal damage then so be it, but if he is killed in the process of the struggle than it there was no other way.
Notice that you do not wish and desire to kill him, but that you protected your family.
This means practically that if : such a person comes knocking at the door late at night and brings again and commands one of the family members to come out and I was just going past the tool box on the way down the stairs. I would hide and when the intruder was come in to my doorstep I would knock him with the force of my hammer in the back of his head. Now he will be unconscious lying on the floor. Now we decide to not kill him but we certainly bind him and call the police.
Posted by Victor on May 27, 2008 at 3:26 pm
interesting comments Ivar. Thanks for logging on.
Do you think your strategy fits well with Jesus’ command to love one’s enemy and do good to those who hate you? Also, when someone does evil to you, don’t do evil back?
Looking forward to your thoughts.
Posted by ShinXDestiny on September 10, 2009 at 2:48 pm
Loving your enemy doesn’t necessarily mean that you can let them do evil. How can you say that you love your brother when you ignore the evil in him? You are to protect you family, for God commands it. It is when your heart desires evil or even praises itself for causing pain that it sins. When someone does evil to you, if severe enough, you turn them to the authority of the land for God has placed them there to give judgement. There hopefully good change will happen to the person who has commited the sin. Remember that it is not the person we should hate, but the sin he has commited that we should hate, and by doing so we can teach ourselves not to sin in such a way. Keep your heart pure and filled with God’s love for they are your light. Fill your mind with God’s laws, they are your path.
Justice corrects us in a way that can teach us to love others. So dont be afraid of it, love and justice comes hand in hand(I believe that’s the correct term…)
But yeah, hahahaha. Just for those who dont know, dont really want to insult other’s knowledge by saying the obvious. No insults ment. And this is just what I know right now being 19, (-.-) still gots many more years of learning to go so hopefully what I said is correct and helps lots of people. God bless
Posted by dswerling on May 29, 2008 at 9:48 pm
Amen brother. Where have you been all my life?
It’s always amazing to me how often we ignore this critical issue. The utter selflessness of Christ, the call to forgive time and time again against our very nature is such a defining point of Christianity. And yet it seems as if this incredibly central part of our faith is often ignored today. I’m glad to see other people out there noticed this too.
Posted by ShinXDestiny on September 10, 2009 at 3:05 pm
Oh yeah, but according to this verse I think Jesus is just saying to give more than the evil person is demanding. It kinda connects to Romans 12:20
Romans 12:20
On the contrary: “If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head.”
Know that there is a difference between a non-believer and a “disciple”. The disciple has Jesus(eternal life, love from God, blessings, ect.) and a non-believer doesn’t. So when a non-believer does wrong towards the disciple, he does not need to worry because he already has everything that he’ll ever need, becaues God blesses those that he loves and will never allow his children to go hungry, he blesses them so much that it will over flow to all those around them. So give when you get the chance. You cant contain all God’s blessings anyways it will have to overflow.
Posted by MissCherie on October 2, 2009 at 2:04 pm
Whoever this ShinXDestiny is…. MAY GOD BLESS YOU!!! Your words have really made my day and your wisdom really resonates from the things you stated. I know this is really corny, but can we be email buddies? I would love to share bible scriptures and stuff with you because it has touched me just that much!!! WOW!!
Posted by ShinXDestiny on October 9, 2009 at 4:34 am
Eh… I dont really know what to say. Wisdom comes from God, what I said was just restating what the Bible says. But if you have any questions I guess you could e-mail me and I’ll try to answer the best I can.
Omni_Guardian_Angel@Yahoo.com
Posted by Joel G on November 6, 2009 at 7:11 pm
Now I am not a pacifist, and I will point out in a moment that the “turn the other cheek” passage is removed from it’s context in most applications today, but I must first affirm that Christ indeed calls us to “love our enemies and pray for and bless those that persecute us.” The Scripture also says, “the wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of God.” That one convicts me personally most of the time. It’s actually easiest to be wicked when we perceive we are acting in righteous anger.
But the verse about “turning the other cheek”…
Most of the time reading that passage or hearing it preached we are taking it to mean an act of physical violence, such as somebody starting a fight.
First, just being real here – who slaps somebody to really attack them or to start a fight? Isn’t that a wimp thing to do? If you really want to hurt a guy or attack them – you punch them in face, not slap them! Slapping is more a sign of disrespect or insult than an actual attack – and always has been.
So what is this passage actually talking about? Well I’ll admit my research is second hand, but consider this: In the first century Jewish context the average Jew lived in a theocratic society – one in which the Judaic religion of the nation was intimately intertwined with the daily lives of it’s people. You were not an Israelite without being a Jew.
This is not like in America where we are considering ourselves a “Christian nation” so most people are Christian but many are not. This is NOTHING like first century Palestine. When we talk about Israel being a Jewish religion – that means it was the official religion of the country, and to not be a Jew meant you were not part of Israel.
So enter the practice described by Jesus in Matthew 5:38-39 of being slapped on the cheek…
If you were a Jew at this time and ever you did something horrible enough that the Jewish religious leaders (also very much political leaders of that culture) wanted to kick you out of society, how they would do it is when you were in the temple they would ceremonially kick you out with the symbol of a physical slap in the face as you were kicked out. The implications of that were you would likely become jobless, a social outcast, if you were unmarried it is very likely you would not have been able to get a Jewish wife from your culture, etc. (not unlike believers who convert to Christianity in Muslim societies throughout the world even today*).
So for Jesus to say this to his followers – they were realizing the implications of what he was referring to that had nothing to do with violence – it had to do with being outcast because of the Gospel. Again, something which our 21st century Western minds simply cannot even identify with in our cultural setting.
Jesus was warning his followers there is going to come a time when you are going to be kicked out of “God’s house” in the name of God, because of the Gospel. And when that happens, you are not to defend your righteousness or to object, but to accept that form of rejection and suffering as the will of God and a testimony to those who have not yet accepted the Gospel, in hopes that they may eventually be won to it.
I’m almost positive that it has nothing to do with actual violence.
Posted by Joel G on November 6, 2009 at 7:12 pm
(sorry had to add this one to subscribe to the comments)