Jesus said, “You
have heard that it was said, ‘an eye for an eye’ and ‘a tooth for a tooth.’ But
I am telling you not to resist those who wrong you. Instead, if someone slaps
your right cheek, expose the other one to them as well.”
—
Matthew 5:38-39
(USC)
Kingdom-building is what every Christian is interested in when they are
Christian by nature and compelling and not simply by name.
To build Christ’s
kingdom we are to be other-than the world. We are to be positioned to offer
what the world cannot offer. When the world offers charmless obscenity, we
offer what we can only get from God: wholesome purity. When the world offers
hateful retribution, we offer what we can only get from God: merciful kindness.
This is the essence
of what Jesus is getting at in this section of the Sermon on the Mount. There
is no point to the execution of personal justice. We are better off seeing how
the person who insults us reacts when we don’t react, or not respond in a way
that the worldly person would respond.
The most important
thing in this other person’s life is his or her salvation.
How can I get them
closer to the point of accepting what Jesus has done for them?
If I behave in a way
that they expect me to behave they are still blind to the Presence of the
Kingdom. But, if they see me acting mercifully we have their attention for
God’s purposes.
Is his or her
salvation something we believe in or are even aware of?
Can we picture
ourselves saying these things?
“My enemy, the
person before me who has insulted me, let me be your friend; not because I’m
afraid of you – for that’s not the point – but because God loves you I must
also love you.”
“Even though I hate
you for what you did, God insists that I love you, and, because I trust God, I
will love you however I’m able.”
God does something
mysterious in us when we act on his compulsion to love our enemies. As we hear
ourselves utter words otherwise unpalatable we experience the moment’s ease.
Doing what we thought would be so hard becomes something we do actually without
much thought.
Isn’t it great when
God proves us wrong!
God’s kingdom power
is with those who turn insults and offenses into opportunities to serve and
bless.
***
QUESTIONS in REVIEW:
1. What has God done for you that
you feel God wouldn’t be prepared to do for another? Or, what has God done for
someone else he wouldn’t do for you?
2. What are some of the creative
ways we can respond to an insult received by returning serve with a compliment?
3. How can we serve the person with
an ugly attitude or character?
© 2015 S. J. Wickham.
Note: USC version is Under the Southern Cross, The New Testament in Australian English
(2014). This translation was painstakingly developed by Dr. Richard Moore, a NT
Greek scholar, over nearly thirty years.
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