Beloved Brother just wrote an e-mail to us this morning asking about what we thought regarding the words of Jesus in Matthew 5:38-48. “”but I say to you, do not resist an evil person; but whoever slaps you on our right cheek, turn the other to him also…” His Men’s Bible study group had apparently tried to apply this to anyone who might have rushed at and assaulted the shooter in the Roseburg shootings in an effort to save lives. I assume they think Jesus requires us to not “assault” the bad guy but just let him do his evil. Hmmm. I disagree. Here is what I wrote to my brother.
Very interesting passage of Scripture your Men’s Bible Study tackled! We (Spouse, Mother and myself) discussed it over breakfast –thrashing out the issues your group must have worked over, too. “Spouse” is like you and knows if he were in a situation like the Roseburg shooting (or any of the ones in the past few years) that he would rush the shooter with the intent to stop the carnage. (He candidly admits his human instinct would be to “smash the guy’s face” in the doing.) His motive would be to defend others from the evil intent of the shooter to kill.
Turning the other cheek is often misread, I believe. Scripture teaches us to defend the helpless [Psalm 82:3, 4] and to seek righteousness [James 3:18]. KILLING IS A CLEARLY EVIL ACTIVITY in this context. [Exodus 20:13] Doing whatever you can to stop someone from killing is acting righteously.
Notice the wording of Matthew 5:39, 40. The aggressor is facing you, smacking you on the cheek. Now think about the shooting situation. To stand, watching, while someone else makes a punching bag or shooting target out of another is wrong. In contrast to this assault on other human beings, if someone smacks you they want to stir up a fight with you. It may be a verbal goad or an actual physical assault, but it is aimed at an individual trying to provoke conflict. We are called to be at peace with our fellow man in as much as possible it lies with [us][Romans 12:18]. So not retaliating (“turning the other cheek”) will make the perpetrator’s intention of confrontation fizzle. “FOR LACK OF WOOD A FIRE GOES OUT.”[Proverbs 26:20] We get to choose to live as people who are not quarrelsome and belligerent. We represent Jesus who always responded peaceably. However, if an attacker is trying to kill you or hurt you, defend yourself. But if he is only trying to pick a fight, don’t go there! Love him enough to not let him sin against his fellow man (you). Stop the fight before it begins.
Our contemporary culture has been trumpeting the humanistic idea that if we all are “nice” bad things won’t happen. But they do, no matter how pleasant we may try to be. We must stand for the right and yet must love our enemies. Sometimes love shows by saying, “I love you too much to let you continue in this evil activity. It will gather God’s wrath on your head, and you don’t want that.”
One of the most fundamental things about studying God’s Word is to remember that Scripture will never contradict itself. Scripture will interpret Scripture. Faithful study requires digging and thinking—and most of all a reliance on the Holy Spirit for the true teaching we need. Wisdom from God teaches us to hear the whole counsel of Scripture and to apply God’s wise principles on what we read and study. It is very easy to cherry pick verses from the Bible to satisfy any human idea. Probably you have heard this example of two different passages that show this: “Cain rose up against his brother Abel and killed him.” [Gen. 4:8] and then “And Jesus said… ‘Go thou and do likewise.’ ” [Luke 10:37]. Think the Matthew 5 passage through in light of all else you hear God saying in His Word.
Hope this answers your questions about what we think.
QUESTION: Are you a peacemaker or a willing participant in quarrels and fights?