In the Old Testament, the law said, “An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.” This was a law that God gave in Exodus 21, Leviticus 24, and also in Deuteronomy 19. What God was saying there was not that if somebody takes out your eye you must take out his eye. What He was saying is, don't take out both of his eyes if he took out only one of yours. The point is that you can forgive the offender and let him go, and not take any of his eyes out. That would be the best way. God was limiting punishment by saying, “An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.”
But Jesus raises the standard higher, and says, “Do not resist the one who is evil; if somebody slaps you on the right cheek, turn the other to him. If someone sues you to take your shirt, give him your coat as well. Whoever forces you to go one mile, go with them two” (Matthew 5:39-41). Roman soldiers would sometimes force the Jewish people who were their slaves to carry their baggage and military equipment for a mile. The Jews were slaves so they had to do it. Jesus tells us that in situations like these we should go two miles with the person, to not fight with him about it, to give to him who asks of you, and to not turn away from him who wants to borrow from you.
We need to take these words in the spirit in which they are spoken. We need to see exactly what Jesus meant. Was He telling us to be like doormats? Are we to let people do whatever they like? It cannot be. Whenever you don't understand the Scripture properly, look at the example of Jesus Christ Himself - because He is the Word made flesh. In the Old Testament, they had scribes who examined the law to explain every jot and tittle in it. In the New Testament, we don't need to analyse verses as much as we look at Jesus, since we have His example now.
What did Jesus mean by, “If someone slaps you on your right cheek turn the other cheek”? We see that Jesus Himself, when He was standing before the chief priests in the trial just before his crucifixion, was slapped and didn't turn the other cheek. He said in John 18:23, “If I have spoken what's right, why do you slap Me?” They didn’t respond to that (they probably slapped Him again and He didn't fight back). When they slapped him, He didn't offer His other cheek to be slapped as well. So, we need to be careful to understand the spirit of what Christ is saying, otherwise we would have to accuse Jesus Himself of not practicing what He preached.
The principle here is: I don't desire revenge; I'm not seeking to get back at someone for what was done to me. If someone calls me a devil, I'm not going to call that person a devil. If I am slapped, I will not slap back. I'd rather just sit back and trust God to protect me from being taken advantage of.
What does He mean when He says that if somebody sues you in court to take your shirt, give your coat also? For example, if somebody unrighteously tells a lie and sues you for your own property saying it is his property - perhaps he got some false documents in court and wants to take away your house from you - what are you supposed to do? Are you supposed to tell him to take your house and offer your other house as well? Is that the meaning?
That’s not at all what Jesus meant. Again, we need to understand the spirit. If somebody forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles. In other words, if someone forces you to do something, do more. You must understand the spirit of it. Jesus also instructs us not to turn anyone who wants to borrow from us away. Is He saying that you should give money to every single person who wants to borrow from you? Here in India, if you give money to someone once and you get a reputation as one who freely keeps on giving to anyone, you’ll end up bankrupt in no time at all!
If you don't understand the spirit of these words, and blindly take them literally, you're going to get into a lot of trouble. Jesus is teaching us to have a radical attitude towards sin, just like when He instructed us to be as a blind man is, or as the one with an amputated hand. That's the spirit in which we need to understand all of these things: don't seek to take revenge, be willing to be taken advantage of, and even be willing to die to myself; but it doesn't mean I have no rights.
A brother, who worked as a bus driver, once testified in a church meeting that as he drove down the street, he would sometimes at night see someone coming toward him in a car in the opposite direction with glaring headlights that would blind his eyes. They're supposed to dip their lights when there's another car coming in the other direction, but these people didn't. Because their lights were blinding his eyes, he felt like making his bus headlights also glare back at them in much greater brightness, blinding the other driver back to teach him a lesson. He suddenly realized that he was a Christian and shouldn't take revenge so and he decided not to do it. Notice the revelation that that brother got on what it means to take revenge: to hurt another person in the same way that he hurt him!
If I understand the principle Jesus taught, I will discover the application of that principle even when driving down the road as somebody is allowing his headlights to glare into my eyes. This situation may not be written in Scripture anywhere, but I'll understand the principles and be willing to yield, recognizing that my time and my money and my energy primarily belong to the Lord. I'm not a slave of men and I'm not going to allow every Tom, Dick, and Harry to reduce me to become their slave. I'm primarily a slave of the Lord and I'm not going to be a slave of men.
So if I keep that in mind, I understand these principles: I never want to take revenge, I never want to treat that person the way he treats me, and I don't want to speak back to him the way he spoke back to me. I want to yield, I want to be gracious, and I want to give up my rights.
