What did Jesus mean when He instructed us to turn the other cheek?

Our Lord comes next to the case of any practical injury that may be done us. It is not that it is wrong for a man to punish according to the injury that has been inflicted upon another. "An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth" is perfectly righteous; but our Lord intimates that we ought to be much more than righteous, we ought to be gracious; and He presses this as the climax of this part of the discourse. First, He had strengthened the righteousness of the law, extended its depths, and put aside its license; now He goes further. He shows that there is a principle in His own ways and life which teaches the Christian that he is not to seek retaliation. "But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also." It is clear the Lord has no reference here to what governments have to do. The New Testament is written for the Christian, for that which has a separate existence and a peculiar calling in the midst of earthly systems and peoples. It belongs to those who are heavenly while they are walking upon earth. We become such by the reception of Christ, and to such the Lord says, "Resist not evil; but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also." Personal injury is meant here. The evil done may be ever so undeserved, but it has to be overcome with good. Show that you are willing to take even more for Christ's sake. "And if any man will sue thee at the law, and take away thy coat, let him have thy cloak also." There the law is evoked: that is, a man lays a claim, perhaps falsely, to one part of your clothing, and if he will "sue thee at the law, and take away thy coat, let him have thy cloak also." Here it seems not exactly a man appealing to the law, but the public officers themselves. "And whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him twain." The great principle our Lord marks in this — whether it is human violence, or the law ever so hardly or wrongly applied, — that while, according to the law, you might go one step, according to the gospel you would go two. Grace does twice as much as the law, whatever may be the point in hand. It was never intended in anywise to supplant obligations or to lower responsibilities, but, on the contrary, to give power and force to everything that is righteous in the sight of God. The law might say, "An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth;" here there is not only the endurance of that which is positively wrong, but grace that gives more than is asked. "The law was given by Moses; but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ." And this is one way of practically showing how far we value grace. It is not a question of the mere letter of our Lord's words. If you were to limit it merely to a blow on the face it would be a very poor thing; but the word of Christ is that which conveys to me the spirit that pleases God, and gives me the reality of grace. And grace is not the vindication of self nor the punishment of a wrong, but the endurance of evil and the triumph of good over it. Christ is speaking of what a Christian has to put up with from the world through which he passes. He is to receive tribulation as the discipline which God sees to be good for his soul; the great spectacle before men and angels — that there are men on this earth who are allowed and rejoice to suffer for Christ, because they have learned to give up their own will, to sacrifice their own rights, and to suffer wrongfully, looking onward to the day when the Lord will own whatever has been their sorrow for His sake, and when all evil shall be judged most solemnly at His appearing and kingdom.

The Lord Jesus uses four examples to make His words clear to us. The first one is: "But whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also." At that time a slap in the face was deeply insulting and was even more humiliating if it was given with the back of the hand and therefore landed on the right cheek. According to the Jewish Talmud this offence "weighed double" compared to an ordinary slap. The disciples of the Lord Jesus ought not to look for reparation before men but to suffer offences (cf. 1 Peter 2:20). We are reminded of the words Isaiah spoke prophetically concerning our Lord: "I gave My back to the smiters, and My cheeks to them that plucked off the hair: I hid not My face from shame and spitting" (Isa. 50:6).

(5) The Lord now takes up the necessary principle of law, to contrast it with that non-resistance of evil which He enjoins upon His disciples. The righteousness of the law of course remains righteousness, but it does not require of any that they should exact for personal wrongs. There is no supposition of the abrogation of law or of its penalties. The government of the world is not in question, but the path of disciples in it. Where they are bound by the law, they are bound, and have no privileges. They are bound, too, to sustain it in its general working, as ordained of God for good. Within these limits there is still abundant room for such practice as is here enjoined. We may still turn the left cheek to him that smites the right, or let the man that sues us have the cloak as well as the coat which he has fraudulently gained: for that is clearly within our rights. If the cause were that of another, we should have no right of this kind, nor to aid men generally in escape from justice or in slighting it. The Lord could never lay down a general rule that His people should allow lawlessness, or identify themselves with indifference to the rights of others. He speaks only of what is personal to oneself, ― "smite thee," "sue thee," "compel thee:" and here the law itself would recognize one's liberty.

His disciples are not only to yield, but to show readiness, at least, to do more. They are not to be overcome of evil, but to overcome it with good. They are under a higher than any earthly government, which will take abundant care of them, and are freed from the need of advocating their own cause, or taking arms in their own defense. And they are partakers of such royal bounty that they are to be themselves bountiful. "Give to him that asketh of thee, and from him that would borrow of thee turn not thou away."

Under the old economy we find that the law laid down the principle, in righteousness, "An eye for an eye" (Ex. 21:24), thereby restraining the wrath of man. Otherwise he would have demanded two eyes for one, in vengeance. But here an entirely new principle is introduced. "I say unto you that ye resist not evil." It is the very opposite of nature, which loves to avenge itself. It is different from righteousness, which measures out even-handed justice. It is the beautiful spirit of grace, manifested in all perfection in Him who "when he was reviled, reviled not again; when he suffered, he threatened not." Even so the disciple should be more than righteous: he should be gracious, and while walking through this world, it is better to lose his "cloke" than give up those lovely principles of grace that mark him out as one who belongs to Christ.

"Whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek turn to him the other also" (ver. 39). Of course we must be careful that we understand these principles. This is not the spirit of defiance; for in this there may be real pride. It is non-resistance to evil. Look at the dignity of the Lord Jesus when they smote Him. He did not turn the other cheek. We must seek to understand the principle of the thing. Was Paul acting according to this when he said, "God shall smite thee, thou whited wall"? There was only One Who was the fine flour of the meal offering. The greater the pressure the more the perfection of the fine flour is shown out. Even the blessed apostle there failed; his impetuosity came to the top. In the O.T. we read, "He who rules his spirit is greater than he that takes a city." A saint of God is not to keep company with an angry man. Grace, however, at once showed itself in the apostle. When they said, "Revilest thou God's high priest?" he said, "I wist not, brethren, that he was the high priest; for it is written, Thou shalt not speak evil of the ruler of thy people: he bowed to the word at once. Let us remember what Peter says, for it is in keeping with the principle here. A saint suffering for what is right, and taking it patiently is a plain instruction for us. What a splendid testimony we should bear if we all carried out these principles! The infidel could not say then that Christianity is a failure. It is the neglect of the word of God that has brought things where they are. It is not the fault of the word, but of the neglect of it. Ah better never to have had a revelation than, with the knowledge of it, to have turned aside from the holy commandment. Spite of all the corruptions of Christianity there is a contrast between those countries which have had but the outward knowledge of Christianity and those that are still heathen.

In verse 38 the Lord quotes from Exodus 21:24. "An eye for an eye" is fully righteous recompense, expressing the firm inflexibility of the law. Of course the sentence must be passed by a judge, not by the offended party. If one takes the law into his own hands, he will practically in every case inflict worse treatment than he received.

But in verse 39 it is no question of how a judge should settle a case, but of how one should handle his own case. Only faith can respond to this. What unbeliever would meekly turn the left cheek after his right cheek had been struck? But when a believer thinks of the Lord Jesus bearing the cruel, shameful treatment of men "as a lamb led to the slaughter and a sheep dumb before her shearers," it is not so difficult for him to meekly accept insult and injury.

Then in verse 40, it is the spirit of the thing, not the literal turning of the cheek, etc. In the Epistles we have what is even higher — to be forgiving, not self-assertive, meek and lowly, following the Lord, not answering railing for railing (1 Peter 2). This should be our character; not yielding, however, where there is evil, for then we ought to be as firm as a rock. Yet should it be a quiet firmness, not a lot of clatter like a horse's hoof, but like the clean animal which had a divided hoof (Lev. 11). There was never one so unresisting as the blessed Saviour Himself. Such a spirit is what the world despises, tramples under foot, and thoroughly misunderstands, they put graciousness down as cowardice, yet never was one so faithful as He who is the pattern of grace. Look at Ps. 40:9. The great congregation was Israel, when all the males had to appear before Jehovah and He went up with them. "I have preached righteousness in the great congregation" — the very opposite of cowardice. And quite compatible with the most perfect faithfulness is His meekness and gentleness. The faithful man of this Ps. 40 is the poor man of Ps. 41. I have no doubt, too, the spirit of Christ in the remnant is also there. A greater number have gone astray in the proper under standing of the Psalms than in any other part of the scripture. They call for greater subjection of mind to rightly divide them, than perhaps any other book of the Bible. We shall be kept right if we have the Lord ever before us, as revealed in the word. Christ is the key to it all.

There may be even physical violence, and not only is this to find us unresisting, but willing to bear further injustice, turning the other cheek. If a school bully were to beat up my child, this is not a question of my own rights merely. Rather, I am responsible for the child, and this should be reported to the school principal or to the parents of the bully. If one steals even our necessary garment (our cloak), we are not to strive to hold on to a garment more necessary still (our tunic) (v.29). Generally one would not steal another's garment unless he needed it, and we are to consider this. If it were a matter of a person stealing to increase his wealth, or, for instance one stealing a car for the fun of it, the police would actually require us to make a report, for the robber would be a threat to others besides ourselves.

Some Christians would like to take away a little of the sharpness (for the flesh) of these words of the Lord Jesus and to practice them only in certain circumstances. They seek to prove their view from John 18:22-23, saying that the Lord Jesus rebuked the officer but did not turn the other cheek to him. They add that on certain occasions in the Book of Acts Paul claimed his rights as a Roman (Acts 16:35-40; 25:11). But the Lord Jesus put His justified rebuke in the form of a mere question, and bore all other abuses silently (Matt. 27:27-31; John 19:1-3). It also remains to be seen if the attitude of the apostle Paul in Philippi and before Festus was according to the will of the Lord. Some argue that a Christian ought to report injustice done to him in order to prevent criminality. But as Christians in this present evil world, from which we have been delivered according to Galatians 1:4, we are not called to seek justice for ourselves. Of course, we must not renounce our duty in relation to others if the authorities so demand it (i.e. as a witness in court, etc.) We must submit ourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake, as Peter writes in his epistle (1 Peter 2:13).

Nevertheless the Lord says: "Resist not evil." The word used for "evil" here (Greek: poneros) does not mean Satan (as in Matt. 13:19; Eph. 6:16; 1 John 2:13), but it is not very clear whether the correct translation is "evil," that is sin (Luke 3:19; 1 Thess. 5:22), or "the evil," that is the offender (Luke 6:35; 1 Cor. 5:13). As everywhere in the New Testament we are told here too not to resist and not to seek justice for ourselves when evil is done to us by men of the world. We are, by grace, able and called to follow in the steps of our Lord "who, when He was reviled, reviled not again; when He suffered, He threatened not; but committed Himself to Him that judgeth righteously" (1 Peter 2:23; compare also 1 Peter 2:19; 3:14, 17; 4:13). As to our attitude to believers Paul's words to the Corinthians are still valid (1 Cor. 6:7): "Now therefore there is utterly a fault among you, because ye go to law one with another. Why do ye not rather take wrong? why do ye not rather suffer yourselves to be defrauded?"

We see the way the Christian is to live, and this founded on the place in which he has been put by grace. After that he speaks of all things as to be reconciled to God, while the church He has reconciled. First he takes the great truth of what our life is and our walk, and what it is founded on. There is a path in this world, the spring and character of which is that God's will is in it, a path the vulture's eye has not seen, which was perfectly fulfilled in Christ. "He that saith he abideth in him, ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked," 1 John 2:6. The saint is given a path through this world which has nothing to do with the world, but which displays the character of Christ in it. "But I say unto you that ye resist not evil; but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also," Matt. 5:39. This would not be righteousness, but Christ displayed. You will see this immense privilege of walking down here like Christ, who could speak of Himself as "the Son of man who is in heaven," who lived a heavenly — more than this, a divine — life down here. There was not a single motive in Christ which governed the world, or a single motive in the world which governed Christ. "I will even make a way in the wilderness" (Isa. 43:19), that is the Christian's path.