Daily Devotional For Friday, September 27, 2024
It’s Friday and we are fast approaching the long awaited weekend. We have been making our way through Jesus’ Sermon On The Mount. Today, we come to a new section in Matthew 5:38-42:
“You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth.’ (39) 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. (40) If anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, let him have your coat also. (41) Whoever forces you to go one mile, go with him two. (42) Give to him who asks of you, and do not turn away from him who wants to borrow from you” (NASB).
We live in a country and culture where individual human rights are a big issue. We are all about rights in America, right? In our day the number of rights claimed has greatly expanded. Movements have developed for civil rights, women’s rights, children’s rights, workers’ rights, prisoners’ rights, and so on. Never has a society been more concerned about rights. The problem is that we can demand our rights to the detriment of others.
Pastor and author John MacArthur puts it this way:
“Inordinate concern for one’s own rights comes from inordinate selfishness and leads to inordinate lawlessness. When our supreme concern is getting and keeping what we think is rightfully ours, then whoever or whatever gets in our way—including the law—becomes expendable. Since it is not possible for everyone to have everything he wants, to insist on our own way invariably tramples on the rights and welfare of others. Respect for law and for the welfare of others is always among the first and major casualties of self-assertion. When self is in the foreground, everything else and everyone else is pushed to the background.
When self-interest dominates, justice is replaced by vengeance. Impartial concern for justice becomes partial concern for personal revenge. Concern for protecting society becomes concern for protecting self-interest. As James points out, that perversion is the source of wars and every other human conflict. “What is the source of quarrels and conflicts among you? Is not the source of your pleasures that wage war in your members? You lust and do not have; so you commit murder. And you are envious and cannot obtain; so you fight and quarrel” (James 4:1–2). When rights are first, righteousness suffers.
Probably no part of the Sermon on the Mount has been so misinterpreted and misapplied as 5:38–42. It has been interpreted to mean that Christians are to be sanctimonious doormats. It has been used to promote pacifism, conscientious objection to military service, lawlessness, anarchy, and a host of other positions that it does not support. The Russian writer Tolstoy based one of his best-known novels on this passage. The thesis of War and Peace is that the elimination of police, the military, and other forms of authority would bring a Utopian society.(Source: John MacArthur, The MacArthur New Testament Commentary, “Matthew,” p. 327).
So, let's start looking at this verse by verse over the next few days. Look at Matthew 5:38, “You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth’” (NASB). Jesus quotes directly from the Old Testament:
- Exodus 21:23-25, “But if there is any further injury, then you shall appoint as a penalty life for life, (24) eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, (25) burn for burn, wound for wound, bruise for bruise” (NASB).
- Leviticus 24:19-20, ”If a man injures his neighbor, just as he has done, so it shall be done to him: (20) fracture for fracture, eye for eye, tooth for tooth; just as he has injured a man, so it shall be inflicted on him” (NASB).
You may be wondering: why did God allow for the punishment to match the crime. Two reasons:
- First, to curtail further crime. We see this in Deuteronomy 19:19-21, “Then you shall do to him just as he had intended to do to his brother. Thus you shall purge the evil from among you. (20) The rest will hear and be afraid, and will never again do such an evil thing among you. (21) Thus you shall not show pity: life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot” (NASB).
- Second, to prevent excessive punishment based on personal vengeance and angry retaliation of the type of which Lamech boasted: “For I have killed a man for wounding me; and a boy for striking me; if Cain is avenged sevenfold, then Lamech seventy-sevenfold” (Gen. 4:23–24). Punishment was to match, but not exceed, the harm done by the offense itself.
God had provided in the Old Testament Law that once in a civil trial a person was found guilty, then justice was applied by the victim in like kind. This made this law a just law in that the punishment matched the crimes but it did not allow the punishment to exceed the crime. In this way it protected the community and society from wrongdoing.
God knows our desire for justice when we are wronged. He also knows how our brooding anger can grow into resentment, grudges and losing control in our response. Human vengeance never satisfies justice. This is why God says this in Deuteronomy 32:35a, “‘Vengeance is Mine . . .” (NASB). Selfish overreaction is always the result of our sinful human nature. We are tempted and vulnerable to want to do more than just “get even.” But this is not the way Jesus said. Look at these verses:
- Proverbs 25:21, “If your enemy is hungry, give him food to eat; And if he is thirsty, give him water to drink” (MASB).
- Matthew 5:44, “Jesus said, `But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you” (NASB).
- Romans 12:20, ““But if your enemy is hungry, feed him, and if he is thirsty, give him a drink; for in so doing you will heap burning coals on his head” (NASB).
What angered Jesus with His Jewish culture is that religious leaders had taken what God had said and distorted it to be that you have an unbridled license for revenge. Today was the fifth time in Matthew 5 Jesus said, “You have heard that it was said . . . but I say to you . . .” Jesus takes what has been said as truth and reveals that “truth” has been distorted to fix people’s personal agendas and selfish desires.
Questions To Consider
- Have you ever wanted personal revenge for some harm done to you or others? What was it and are you absolutely sure you did not in any way seek revenge? Meaning – you did not assassinate their character; slander them; gossip about them and etc. in light of what Jesus said in Matthew 5:44 above. Why do you think doing what Jesus says is so challenging and hard for us?
- In seeking justice, sometimes a pseudo name for revenge, we can go too far because as we have already seen in Matthew 5 from Jesus, anger in the heart leads to murder in the heart which can cause us to lose control in both our heart and our hands. If you could take matters into your own hands without any repercussions or punishment, who is it you would seek revenge on and why? What does this reveal about your heart and your relationship to Jesus Christ?
- Jesus is not teaching that we are to be sanctimonious doormats. So,what is He teaching us? What will it take for you to do this?
Scripture To Meditate On: Matthew 6:14-15, “For if you forgive others for their transgressions, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. (15) But if you do not forgive others, then your Father will not forgive your transgressions” (NASB),
Prayer To Pray: “Dear Jesus, please help me to let go of the hurt I have from others and especially the resentment I want for those who have hurt me. Lord, I know what I am supposed to do but it is so hard. I know the real issue is not what has been done to me by others, but what I am doing to You and my personal relationship to You in my thoughts. Lord, I am just going to say it. It isn’t fair. And my attitude isn’t faith either. And Hebrews 11:6 says I cannot please You without faith. Please help me to let it go. I love You Jesus. In Jesus’ name, Amen!”
I love you Southside!--Pastor Kelly