Matthew 5:38-42 The Message
Love Your Enemies
38-42 “Here’s another old saying that deserves a second look: ‘Eye for eye, tooth for tooth.’ Is that going to get us anywhere? Here’s what I propose: ‘Don’t hit back at all.’ If someone strikes you, stand there and take it. If someone drags you into court and sues for the shirt off your back, giftwrap your best coat and make a present of it. And if someone takes unfair advantage of you, use the occasion to practice the servant life. No more tit-for-tat stuff. Live generously.
The Word of God for the Children of God.
Glory be to the Father,
and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost;
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and ever shall be,
world without end. Amen, amen.
What do you do when your spouse forgets to pay a bill on time?
Or when your friend makes an insensitive comment?
Or when another driver cuts you off?
What is your first instinct?
An extra lean into your vehicles horn an extra minute or two or three or more?
Follow after them with the idea that at the first opportunity to do the exact same thing and try to cut them off and endangering everyone around you too?
Road Rage? Hit their vehicle from behind with yours?
Road Rage? Wait until the next stop light to stop your vehicle next to theirs, get out of your vehicle and “rage against the system” and their vehicle with fists?
Or maybe, infinitely worse and infinitely more dangerous – reveal a firearm?
Maybe you are the kind of person cannot wait, who wants to fight back when someone hurts you or someone you love, or makes things too difficult for you?
You raise your voice.
You raise your stress levels
You raise your blood pressure and pulse rate.
Your mind and your body goes into dangerous measures of overdrive.
You “dip your tongue” in some ‘wildly inflammable rhetoric’ and light up.
Your soul is seething, light your tongue, You make personal verbal attacks.
Or maybe you’re not the type to lash out.
Instead, you give people the silent treatment.
You ignore them, you avoid them, you do not make eye contact, stop returning email and texts, or you walk out of the room and refuse to discuss any more.
The desire to retaliate is actually rooted in a God-given desire for justice.
We understand intuitively that people should definitely be held accountable for things that they’ve done. Consequences must come. But our best ideas of justice are far too easily tainted by our own anger, our feelings of self-righteousness.
In this passage from the Beatitudes, Jesus leads us in a better way, inviting us to entertain a different mindset, let go of revenge and to trust God as our defender.
God sees and knows our suffering.
God knows our bent to engage our self wills before we engage our prayer life.
But God is also very particular about how we go about engaging our neighbors.
Leviticus 19:17-18 New American Standard Bible 1995
17 ‘You shall not hate your [a]fellow countryman in your heart; you may surely reprove your neighbor, but shall not incur sin because of him. 18 You shall not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against the sons of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself; I am the Lord.
He longs for justice to be done. And in his mercy, God also desires that all people would turn to Him from sin, come to faith, and have new life in him.
Accept that Vengeance Is the Lord’s Department
Matthew 5:38-42 Easy-to-Read Version
Jesus Teaches About Fighting Back
38 “You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth.’[a] 39 But I tell you, don’t fight back against someone who wants to do harm to you. If they hit you on the right cheek, let them hit the other cheek too. 40 If anyone wants to sue you in court and take your shirt, let them have your coat too. 41 If a soldier forces you to walk with him one mile,[b] go with him two. 42 Give to anyone who asks you for something. Don’t refuse to give to anyone who wants to borrow from you.
When Jesus uttered these familiar words, to whom was He speaking?
Who was Jesus telling to “stand still,” endure evil and resist retaliation?
It may seem simple, but this question gets at an important distinction that was in the mind of the apostle Paul as he penned his letter to the Romans chapter 12.
Romans 12:17-20 Easy-to-Read Version
17 If someone does you wrong, don’t try to pay them back by hurting them. Try to do what everyone thinks is right. 18 Do the best you can to live in peace with everyone. 19 My friends, don’t try to punish anyone who does wrong to you. Wait for God to punish them with his anger. In the Scriptures the Lord says,
“I am the one who punishes;
I will pay people back.”
20 But you should do this:
“If you have enemies who are hungry,
give them something to eat.
If you have enemies who are thirsty,
give them something to drink.
In doing this you will make them feel ashamed.[a]”
In chapter 12:17, he exhorts his readers to “repay no one evil for evil” and to “overcome evil with good” (v 21), echoing the Lord’s teaching: that we should turn the other cheek.
And yet, just a few verses later in Romans 13, he says that God has established civil authorities as His servants for the purpose of approving what is good and punishing what is evil (13:1-5).
Obey Your Government Rulers
13 All of you must obey the government rulers. Everyone who rules was given the power to rule by God. And all those who rule now were given that power by God. 2 So anyone who is against the government is really against something God has commanded. Those who are against the government bring punishment on themselves. 3 People who do right don’t have to fear the rulers. But those who do wrong must fear them. Do you want to be free from fearing them? Then do only what is right, and they will praise you.
4 Rulers are God’s servants to help you. But if you do wrong, you have reason to be afraid. They have the power to punish, and they will use it. They are God’s servants to punish those who do wrong. 5 So you must obey the government, not just because you might be punished, but because you know it is the right thing to do.
Sometimes, then, evil is quicker to be repaid, justice then served by governing authorities and at other times, unjustly, it is not—at least not immediately.
Both Paul and Jesus recognized an important distinction we must remember between the way individual Christians ought to respond to evil done to them (dealt with in Romans 12) the execution of rule of law (dealt with in Romans 13).
Christians are not to take justice into their own hands.
Rather, we are to entrust the repayment of evil to the authorities God has put in place. Civil authorities are one example. When they fulfill their roles rightly and justly, they serve as a deterrent to bad conduct but not to good. They are there to faithfully serve people, execute the rule of law, to punish those who violate it.
Understanding that God is perfectly just will free us to obey Jesus’ command to stand still, turn the other cheek. This is not a call to pretend that the evil done to us is not evil or to embrace a despairing outlook that says there is no justice or that justice is not equally applied or unjustly applied or it is vengefully applied.
Nor it is a call to accept, when we are victims, that we must not make recourse to the civil authorities for legislative and judicial actions to address injustice.
No, Christians are called to and can endure evil because vengeance belongs to the Lord (Romans 12:19).
On occasion, He permits that vengeance to be carried out in this life as He authorizes human governments to “wield, bear the sword” (Romans 13:4).
But on the judgement day of the Lord, He will be the one directly carrying out His righteous justice, and so every evil done in His world will be repaid in full.
We wont know what that will mean nor how the Lord will manifest His justice.
But, we absolutely must trust that God is always far more righteous than us!
Psalm 65:5-8 New American Standard Bible 1995
5 By awesome deeds You answer us in righteousness, O God of our salvation,
You who are the trust of all the ends of the earth and of the farthest [a]sea;
6 Who establishes the mountains by His strength,
Being girded with might;
7 Who stills the roaring of the seas,
The roaring of their waves,
And the tumult of the peoples.
8 They who dwell in the ends of the earth stand in awe of Your signs;
You make the [b]dawn and the sunset shout for joy.
You and I, then, are max free to seek justice from the authorities that God has instituted to protect people and punish wrongdoing. Equally, we are free to turn the other cheek, resisting the all-too-natural urge to take matters into our own hands and enact our own vengeance. Justice will come, and not from our hands.
In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,
Let us Pray,
Father, help me to turn my hurts over to you rather than seeking revenge. Give me the wisdom to respond with patience and compassion when I feel offended. Amen.
Psalm 65 New American Standard Bible 1995
God’s Abundant Favor to Earth and Man.
For the choir director. A Psalm of David. A Song.
65 There will be silence [a]before You, and praise in Zion, O God,
And to You the vow will be performed.
2 O You who hear prayer,
To You all [b]men come.
3 [c]Iniquities prevail against me;
As for our transgressions, You [d]forgive them.
4 How blessed is the one whom You choose and bring near to You
To dwell in Your courts.
We will be satisfied with the goodness of Your house,
Your holy temple.
5 By awesome deeds You answer us in righteousness, O God of our salvation,
You who are the trust of all the ends of the earth and of the farthest [e]sea;
6 Who establishes the mountains by His strength,
Being girded with might;
7 Who stills the roaring of the seas,
The roaring of their waves,
And the tumult of the peoples.
8 They who dwell in the ends of the earth stand in awe of Your signs;
You make the [f]dawn and the sunset shout for joy.
9 You visit the earth and cause it to overflow;
You greatly enrich it;
The [g]stream of God is full of water;
You prepare their grain, for thus You prepare [h]the earth.
10 You water its furrows abundantly,
You [i]settle its ridges,
You soften it with showers,
You bless its growth.
11 You have crowned the year [j]with Your [k]bounty,
And Your [l]paths drip with fatness.
12 The pastures of the wilderness drip,
And the hills gird themselves with rejoicing.
13 The meadows are clothed with flocks
And the valleys are covered with grain;
They shout for joy, yes, they sing.
Glory be to the Father,
and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost;
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and ever shall be,
world without end. Amen, amen.
Loving God, Living God, Loving Hope, Living Hope, Loving Living Life His Way! "Many things are possible for the person who has hope. Even more is possible for the person who has faith. And still more is possible for the person who knows how to love. But everything is possible for the person who practices all three virtues." - Brother Lawrence (1605-1691), Practicing the Presence of God (1692). 