A friend rendered an opinion on a piece of Scripture and asked for comment. Basically he did not agree that Jesus really meant it when He advised us in Matt.5:39 “But I tell you, Do not resist an evil person. If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also.”
Did Jesus really intend for us to follow that verse to the letter?
My friend thinks not. Apparently one of his kids asked him what to do if a bully came up and knocked him down, and he instructed his son to hit him back and make him pay. Okay assuming the bully was an evil person, did my friend give his son some bad advice or good advice?
Hmmm…
When I was a kid a bully didn’t have to hit me, if anyone so much as looked at me wrong I would make them pay – (dearly). Heck I might even hit them if they didn’t look at me. I was literally in hundreds if not thousands of fights while growing up. When I found Christ, the most difficult thing for me to overcome was my violent temper.
If you’ve read my book you know that prior to becoming a Christian I was indeed sadistically violent beyond measure. I was evil through and through. After accepting Christ I tried to change that aspect of my life along with others, but long thereafter I still had a violent temper. One time I got mad at one of my employees who was sleeping on the job and beat him unmercifully and very nearly lost my job in the process. Next I beat up a guy at a Jaycees party, and not only did I lose the friend who got me into that organization, as far as I know I was the only one to ever get kicked out of the Jaycees. And finally one day I even lost my temper and did the unthinkable and hit my wife.
So I was faced with very nearly losing my job, my friends, and even my wife, all within weeks of each other because of my stupid violent temper. I prayed about it for weeks and God revealed to me that fighting is wrong in practically every situation.
The Bible states that God is love. Jesus exemplified this when on the cross. He looked down at the jeering, cursing, profane crowd that was spitting on Him and crucifying Him in the most sadistic fashion and He said, “Father forgive them for they know not what they do”. He could have asked God to zap them all, make their eyeballs pop out, and ordain that they die slowly from a thousand scorpion stings, but He didn’t. He asked for mercy for them.
I think that is our God and He is as pure as the new fallen snow, and we are told to emulate Him in every way.
Some will argue that Jesus is God and is perfect and we can’t rise to that level of grace and spirituality, and yet the Bible states that we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us. Isn’t it heresy to question the Bible or God’s power to help us achieve His desire for our lives?
Is anything impossible for God?
His transformation of my life answers that for me and the answer is a resounding no; as my nurse in the hospital, Lydia, once said, “Jesus is God and He can do anything He wants; including changing “yo” sorry tail!”
Without question it is possible to obey that command, and all of God’s commands, but we must be willing to surrender to God, lose our precious pride, and go against our own human logic and natural reactions. The Bible states that God’s ways are not our ways. What comes natural to us is not good.
I can say that in the last 40 years I have been madder than a hornet thousands of times and yet I’ve only been in two fights, both entirely unavoidable and self defense on my part. Further during that time I founded 11 businesses and managed them from the ground up over those same decades, and in spite of uber-turmoil I never once was sued by a client or a vendor and never sued anyone.
How did I do it? I can tell you that it was not easy for this old sociopath, and in fact it took Christ to assist me by providing me with the necessary willpower to contain my foolish pride and walk away when with all of my fiber I wanted to sue, or literally punch out some people. But I did it, and if I could do it, so could most anyone.
Personally I don’t think God was talking about our not trying to literally fight off a mugger or some dangerous criminal breaking in our home in this passage. If someone broke into my house tonight, they would be in the morgue soon thereafter, provided I could shoot straight. (I might have to shoot them three times like my trophy turkey, but I would be throwing down a hail of lead I tell you.) I will do whatever I have to do to protect my family’s safety.
Personally I think Jesus was addressing issues like not arguing among ourselves, (Scriptural debates, jealousies, foolish pride, political fights, family feuds, sibling rivalries, marital fights, lawsuits, grudges, and all that stuff that yields nothing but pain). I’ve found that it is relatively easy to avoid trouble, by just not going and looking for it and by being willing to be fair and friendly.
I think Jesus was warning us in His unique fashion to try to get along with each other no matter what the provocation, even to include those times when we are wronged. Just let it go. What’s the big deal?
I believe that is how God wants things to work.
God is love and He wants us to love one another and get along. He also wants us to show the world that His children are different than those who do not know Jesus. Few if any businessmen make it forty years without a lawsuit, but it can be done. It takes a cool head and a desire to settle things peacefully.
Today I try to get along with people as best I can. Yes I get frustrated, but I walk away. If someone is a trouble maker I avoid them like they are carriers of the bubonic plague. Maybe you think that it is just cowardly defeat on my part, but the Bible states otherwise.
Think about it. Selah…
1 Cor. 6:7
The very fact that you have lawsuits among you means you have been completely defeated already. Why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be cheated?