Love to the Loveless Shown

The Fifth Antithesis and the Sermon on the Mount

Well, this morning we press on now to the fifth antithesis as we've been slowly working our way through the Sermon on the Mount and as we come near the end of chapter 5 and look forward to beginning chapter 6, we've been dealing with these series of antitheses where Jesus either directly quotes or references some aspect of Old Testament law.

Now, it's significant that he doesn't quote it in ways that he often in other places quotes scripture where he says it is written, but here he says with the antitheses, you have heard it said of old. It's very significant because it points to, he's interacting with a larger teaching the way that it was popularly understood.

This is what you've heard and by implication, here's how you've applied and practiced it. But I'm telling you, the application goes a lot deeper and the practice is a lot more strict than what you've understood.

And so that's the significance of what we've been seeing with these antitheses. As we said last week, there's a certain shock value that Jesus is after with the sharp contrast that all of a sudden catches the hearer off guard.

What do you mean? That seems to almost be against everything we understand about the commandment, but you have to frame that with what Jesus says even before we got to these antitheses where he said, I have not come to destroy the law.

I haven't come to take away one jot or tittle of the law until all is accomplished. And so it's significant to see that he's revealing what the law has always held forth. He's blasting away the barnacles and crustaceans of fleshly interpretation.

And he, the divine law giver, is telling us what has always been true of the moral law of God. So this morning we come to the fifth antithesis, Matthew 5, 38 through 42. You have heard that it was said, an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.

But I tell you not to resist an evil person. But whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also. If anyone wants to sue you and take away your tunic, let him have your cloak also. And whoever compels you to go one mile, go with him too.

Give to him who asks you. And from him who wants to borrow from you, do not turn away. You have heard that it was said, an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. Now, this is a direct quote from several places in the Old Testament.

Exodus 21, verses 23 and following. If men are fighting and hurt a woman with child so that she gives birth prematurely, yet no harm follows. He shall surely be punished accordingly as the woman's husband imposes on him.

And he shall pay as the judge has determined. But if any harm follows, then you shall give life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, stripe for stripe.

And you see the significance of that passage not only with this larger sense of the retribution fitting the offense. But the significance also in this passage of the value of human life in the womb. Where if the life is lost, if premature birth, if the result of a pregnant woman being hit in the midst of fighting or because of the offense of some aggressor, then it's life for life.

That's a very significant passage for us in our understanding of the value of human life. And we have that right from Exodus 21. But it's not the only place where human life is valued. And this language of an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth is put forth as a scale for retribution.

Leviticus 24, if a man causes disfigurement of his neighbor, as he has done, so it shall be done to him. Fracture for fracture, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, as he has caused disfigurement of a man, so it shall be done to him.

Or Deuteronomy 19 .21, where just a larger principle is put forth. Your eyes shall not pity, life shall be for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot. So this is, again, the larger presentation of justice.

It's a legal principle, and we've seen in there some variations of how it would be applied as Old Testament case law. But the legal principle made famous by the so-called Code of Hammurabi, about 1700, 1750 years prior to the Lord.

And the Latin term is what it's still referred to by today, the Lex Talionis, the law of retribution. An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. It sets the standard for rectitude in punishment. And what that does is it prevents excessive punishment, that justice is served because the penalty fits the crime.

The penalty is exact or parallel with the offense. And so it discourages, on the one hand, excessive punishment, which is an evil, which is a corruption. But it also discourages sort of vigilantism or vigilante retaliation.

I don't know why, for the life of me, our culture has become so self-absorbed and so ethically degraded that you essentially have cheerleaders, you have young women fawning over some murderer named Luigi, because he killed a CEO of a company.

I'm sure the CEO wasn't exactly the friend or the Robin Hood for those in plight. But to think that you would cheer and fawn and applaud murder in cold blood. This is exactly what these laws, as we see here in Exodus 21 and other places, are trying to prevent.

Vigilantism, a sort of heartless, cold-blooded retaliation. A human life has been taken, life for life. It's what we see in the covenant that God makes with Noah after the flood. That he establishes that for man's blood to be shed, blood must be shed.

There's this principle of a penalty fitting the crime. And that's what makes the shock value of Jesus' words in Matthew 539 so powerful. Exact retribution, rectitude for offense. Eye for eye, tooth for tooth, wound for wound, offense for offense, strike for strike.

Whatever you do to me, I'll do to you. Now maybe, because I'm a servant of the most high God, I won't go tenfold. I won't go Lamex route. I won't be avenged sevenfold, but you better be sure I'm going eye for eye.

I'm gonna go tooth for tooth. Whatever you do to me, I will do to you. I will get what I'm owed. I will defend what belongs to me. And to that, Jesus says, I tell you, not to resist an evil person.

It's very striking.

Turning the Other Cheek, the Cloak, the Mile, and Generosity

What a shock value that would have had. To explain this, Jesus gives four illustrations of what he means. And we shouldn't restrict it to these four things, but see them as illustrative of what he's getting at with this idea.

And the first illustration is this. Whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also. There was a sort of cultural predilection for the right hand. You have a lot of metaphorical significance to those at the right hand.

This is the hand of favor. No offense to the left-handed friends in our audience here this morning. But the right hand is the metaphorical hand of significance. So to be struck with the right hand and then have to turn the cheek also, the right cheek to the right hand, means you've been backhanded.

This is perhaps something that's very formal, but it seems to be more just some strife that's exploded now. And there's been this insult that's given, an absolute insult. You've been backhanded. It's still a way we talk about someone doing something dastardly to you.

We say, that was backhanded, or that was a backhanded comment. It's like you've been swiped across the face. And the immediate result of that would be that stinging sensation, that sort of, where am I, what just happened?

And in the midst of that thought, you're already winding up and getting ready to return fire, as it were. And Jesus says, instead, turn your cheek otherwise. In other words, prepare to be hit again if that's what's necessary.

In other words, it's the farthest thing from retaliation he can muster. Now, we have to be careful that we don't stretch this beyond what Scripture would have to say. Again, there's a certain level of forceful rhetoric, of exaggeration to make the point.

And so certainly, Scripture commends the idea of self-defense. Christians aren't those who allow themselves to be beaten to a bloody pulp, necessarily. There is a value placed on human life, even to defend your own life.

But what Jesus is stressing is this idea of not seeking immediate retaliation, of having enough self-restraint that you'd actually be willing to receive another blow before you seek to defend or strike or injure another.

Now, some take this principle, some take this illustration, and they drive it all the way toward a whole theology of non-resistance. And you have that largely in the Anabaptist traditions, the Quakers, others that have convictions of pacifism.

And so they won't partake in military service or law enforcement or other types of work that would require you to get in scuffles and get into the fray, as it were. And it's because they have this conviction that to be a follower of Jesus, these kingdom ethics mean you have to be totally committed to non-retaliation, totally committed to non-resistance, absolutely no place for violence.

But again, as we saw with oaths and vows, Jesus makes an absolute statement. But then when you take a step back and look at the biblical balance on the whole, you start to see that there is a place. We have to be very mindful and careful about how we bring these things together, and that's certainly true with this.

The larger catechism is very helpful, and I won't go into all the verses it uses to support. But it says, in fact, the Sixth Commandment helps us understand this. You shall not murder, that's the Sixth Commandment.

But it says, as part of application, the sins forbidden in the Sixth Commandment are the taking away of the life of ourselves or of others, except in cases of public justice, lawful war, or necessary defense.

That's a right statement. That's clear just from the Old Testament itself. That's clearly what Jesus entails in Luke 22 when he says, sell your cloak and buy a sword. In other words, you may have to defend others, you may even have to defend yourself.

There's a time and a place for that. And like Jim Elliot and the missionaries, there may be a time to lay down the rifle, to lay down those weapons of self-defense. You recognize that you have a greater cause that you're after.

So the Christian determines to know the difference according to their own calling. So public justice, lawful war, necessary defense, these are right uses for us to defend ourselves. What Jesus has in mind is this heart for retribution, this thirst for revenge.

That's what he's banishing from his followers. In other words, you could put it like this, there's a difference between defending your own life and being bloodthirsty to defend your honor. Defending your life in a necessary way versus being vengeful.

Having such an ego that you can't take the slightest offense or sideways glance. Jesus would have us defend our own life, but he says to follow him means we, in many ways, will have to allow our honor to be trampled on.

And yet we're never to respond with a heart of vengeance. And this is crystal clear. Even if we defend ourselves or defend others, as will be necessary at times, it's never out of a heart of vengeance.

It would be the equivalent of, and you see well-trained law enforcement officers, as soon as they stop the threat, what do they do? They rush in to give life support. And it's that kind of sense. I've now stopped the threat.

I've defended life, even if it's my own life. And now I'm gonna try to save life, you know? And so that's the idea here. It's crystal clear that it cannot be a heart of vengeance. Romans 12, 18 and following, as Paul says to the Christians in Rome.

If it's possible, very important caveat, if it is possible, as much as depends on you, live peaceably with all men. Beloved, do not avenge yourselves, Paul says. Rather, give place to wrath, for it is written, vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.

Verse 21, do not be overcome by evil, but rather, overcome evil with good. That is the original dogue or doge or however you pronounce it. Do only good every day, overcome evil with good, that's the idea.

So Paul tells these Christians, you're going to get into the fray. You're going to have offenses, threats, persecution. Cultivate a heart of willing sacrifice so that you're never tempted to avenge yourself.

Know that God will defend you, even if he requires your life, your sacrifice. Know that vengeance belongs to the Lord, so never seek to avenge yourself. That's what Paul tells these believers in Rome.

So this is the first illustration. If someone strikes you, rather than retaliate, rather than go to war, you simply lay down that bloodthirst, that sense of vengeance. You turn also, you're so willing to be one of these peacemakers that are so blessed that they actually see God.

That you're willing to turn and receive, as it were, another blow. The second illustration he gives, if anyone wants to sue you and take away your tunic, let him have your cloak also. This is most likely reflecting a legal situation.

We have that, I think, carried very well in our translation here. If anyone wants to sue you, it's more than just a request. Hey, give me that. I like your sweater. I like that jacket. Give it to me. That's not what's going on here.

There seems to be a legal case involving a lawsuit. This is technical language. It's really hard to understand and conceptualize the terms here of tunic and cloak. It's more like inner garment and outer garment.

But what we mean by inner garment's usually a lot more intimate and personal than what an inner garment was in antiquity. But the idea is you have your sort of inner garment, and you would think that would be the most vital thing, right?

That's the most intimate thing. But again, that's a misunderstanding. The most precious garment would be your outer garment.

That's your full covering.

In fact, if you're traveling, as you would do very often, averaging dozens of miles every day, perhaps, if you were on a lengthy route, that would be your bed. That was your mattress and your sleep sack all in one.

That was the original Snuggie or whatever they call those things. And so the idea was, this is your valuable garment. The lawsuit could take everything from you. It could totally, as it were, drain your savings account.

But what the law said was, even if everything is to be stripped away from you, you must have your cloak.

You have to have the cloak.

If a poor person has everything taken from them, the law said, just in the same sense of valuing life. Even where that offense is so grave that everything must be taken away, you shall not take away the cloak over the night.

At least need to have that bed sheet, as it were, that great massive cloak. And so we see that, for example, in Exodus 22, verse 26. If you ever take your neighbor's garment as a pledge, you shall return it to him before the sun goes down.

The law would not have them be without the cloak. Deuteronomy 24 says the same thing. If a man is poor, you shall not keep his pledge overnight. You shall return it to him again when the sun goes down, so he can sleep in his own garment and bless you.

Already you see this idea of Jesus leaning into law and recognizing, even in the case of retribution, of a lawsuit where the innocent party rightfully takes away from the offending party, the law already is showing mercy as a principle of not being vengeful or without mercy.

You shall return the garment to him that he may sleep. So what you see Jesus drawing upon is this willingness to relinquish even that basic necessity. He's saying that the law of old would at least give you your cloak at night, but here's what I'm telling you.

If you're gonna follow me, you'll even let him keep the cloak. In other words, there's nothing so basic, no necessity so vital that you can say, I demand this if you're a follower of Jesus. The shock value, again, is profound.

He's essentially saying what we regard as our rights by law must be forfeited if it is necessary for the sake of the kingdom. Paul enlarges on this principle, by the way, when he's castigating the church at Corinth in 1 Corinthians 6, because they're going to the courts, courts ruled by pagan Romans, as it were, and here they are as Christians, and he's saying, you have a much better sense of justice and mercy than some pagan Roman.

Why are you going to their courts to settle your disputes? And his argument in 1 Corinthians 6 verse 7 is, shouldn't you rather be wronged? Where is he getting that idea from? He says, well, as long as justice is served, all that ends well is well.

No, he says, it's better to be wronged. He's essentially drawing the same idea that there's bigger things at stake than your own rights. There's bigger concerns for the kingdom of God and the testimony of that kingdom than your rights, than your necessities.

And so Jesus says his followers will not demand them. They'll be willing to relinquish them. Third illustration. Whoever compels you to go one mile, go with him too. Literally, I mean, miles is a perfectly fine translation.

Million is the Greek. You see the word mile within that. It roughly translates to the idea of 1 ,000 steps, 1 ,000, and I like that picture. Again, this is most likely a form of conscription, where Roman soldiers had this sort of tacit ability, and it had legal frameworks.

There were certain limitations placed upon that, where they could press into service any passersby. If they were out and they were dragging their kit, and Roman soldiers had a lot of stuff to drag around, they could find someone on the road and say, you, carry this burden with me for a mile.

And I like the idea of 1 ,000 steps, because if you have a begrudging, grating reaction to that, as almost all Judeans did, then you'd be counting down those 1 ,000 steps. You'd be measuring that mile marker.

As soon as I hit that limit, and you're kind of off, I'm out of here. You know, 999, 998, 990, you'd be going all the way down. I can't wait to be free of this burden, and I can't wait to be rid of the Romans.

And Jesus says to this oppressed people, actually go an extra mile. Go an extra mile. Go even beyond what they require, what they compel. Don't be counting down from 1 ,000 to 1, so that in disgust you can show your contempt.

As you're walking along the way, go, so, what's it like being a Roman soldier? What's it like occupying my land? Strike up a conversation. Who knows what the Lord's gonna do with that? Maybe you'll need an extra mile just to see what the Lord's gonna do with that.

Be willing, Jesus says. Fourth illustration, give to him who asks you, and from him who wants to borrow from you, do not turn away. Now, you have two things bound together here, both containing this idea of generosity, of giving.

The first giving seems to be far more general, although it's probably a way of reflecting almsgiving. In fact, when we begin chapter six after the last antithesis, that's, in the first four verses, that's what we're talking about, almsgiving.

When you do your charitable deeds, don't do it to be seen by men. And so you have this practice of almsgiving, of giving to charity, of giving to the poor, and Jesus seems to be reflecting on that here.

Give to him who asks you. The borrowing, the second part of this, from him who wants to borrow from you, do not turn away, this implies dealing with loans, with some sort of agreement, a person in need who asks, can I borrow this?

And Jesus says, don't deny them. If you have the ability to meet that need, don't deny it. Now again, there's all sorts of cases that need to be applied to this. Jesus anticipates that Jesus' followers are willing to meet needs.

They're willing to meet needs, that's the general principle. Just like in the last illustration, they're willing to go the extra mile. In other words, they're willing to go beyond what is asked of them.

This is true of Jesus' followers. But there's twin dangers here. If we misunderstand and misapply, give to him who asks you. From whoever wants to borrow, do not turn away. There's twin dangers. The first danger, on the one hand, we can absolutize this teaching.

And what does that do? That creates a society, it begins in a church, then it creates a society of everyone saying, give and let me borrow. Give to me, let me borrow. You know what Jesus says. Hey, you better give that to me.

You better let me borrow, you know what Jesus says. So if we absolutize it, then we're already going in a wrong direction. To the degree that giving alms actually becomes a means of enabling and ensnaring those who are in need.

There's a lot of books that have been written on this over the past several decades, and some of us just know this by direct experience. That there's a way of giving that's actually harmful and ensnaring rather than helpful.

And so the early church had to deal with this. They had to create not only the role of deacons to figure out in Acts 6 how to distribute bread to the poor because of the clamor between the Hellenist and Hebrew widows.

In other words, it wasn't as simple as just saying, let's just give. They had to say, well, we have to put out a certain way of doing this. And by the time you get to the pastorals, all right, if someone's gonna be on the roll, here's the criteria.

Here's the conditions that have to be met. So you never have a sort of superficial at face value, arms are always open with no criteria, no conditions. You just don't see that in scripture. A really important book that came out not that long ago, When Helping Hurts, that really draws out a lot of these principles.

Remember what Jesus says, the poor you'll always have with you. So on the one hand, we can absolutize this teaching, and we can ignore the warnings of scripture about hasty sureties. And Proverbs speaks to that.

Several Proverbs speak to the foolishness of becoming a surety, a sort of hastily becoming a surety and putting your own means, your own livelihood on the promise of another. These things have to be weighed out and reflected upon.

But on the other hand, I said it's a twin danger. On the other hand, we just completely ignore Jesus' teaching. We don't want to absolutize it, we don't want to ignore it. We need to understand the larger concern.

Jesus wants us to have a certain compassion for those in need so that we can live generously according to our means, and according to the providential opportunities that he supplies. Part of that is, again, just what means do we have and what opportunities does he present us with?

And it could be a very small opportunity, little things like you're in line at Hannaford and you see some old man and he's got milk, bread, and eggs in his cart. And he's rifling through looking for that last nickel.

And you think, you know what? I'm just gonna pay for that. I'm assuming, it could be as simple, and I've done this before, it's like, it would be a lot faster if I just pay for these few things. Cuz it's gonna take 20 minutes for him to find that nickel.

So I'm just gonna pay for it.

Well, the reality is, it's just, here's a providential opportunity. Who knows what the Lord has in store for that? All sorts of ways that, according to our means, and something that is an afterthought for us, could be something that carries all sorts of significance and leads to all sorts of wonderful testimony.

And so we have this idea, again, on the one hand, we don't want to enable or ensnare those who are in need. We have to be thoughtful about how we give. The early church had to figure that out. But we also don't want to ignore the larger concern.

And I would say we're probably erring on the latter, generally speaking, as Christians, than on the former. I think it's that we don't see with eyes of compassion in the way that Jesus would have us see with eyes of compassion.

If we're prone to making mistakes, it's probably there. I know that's true in my own life, at least. Now clearly, non-retaliation, in other words, not defending your honor, not seeking revenge, not returning reviling for reviling.

And having a sort of sacrificial witness. I go the extra mile. You can keep the cloak. I know the Lord will be enough for me. That these things are characterizing those who belong to the kingdom. Remember, Jesus says, blessed, blessed, blessed, blessed.

We make it all the way through the Beatitudes and we already have this radical portrait of those that are blessed. It was unlike anything we had thought if we hadn't had Jesus' teaching. The paradoxes of those that are blessing are actually the hungry, the thirsty, those who are mourning, those who are meek.

Not the boastful, proud, the ones that seem to be doing so well. So you're already thinking, wow, there's something radically different about this kingdom. And then you press forward even more, and you see these antitheses.

Now you really have a picture. This is a picture of sacrifice. This is a picture of allowing yourself to be wounded. What kind of kingdom is this? Well, it's not a kingdom like the world. We know that.

I tell you not to resist an evil person. That means that the followers of Jesus refuse vengeance on the one hand. On the other hand, they actively seek to live generously. Refuse to avenge themselves, refuse to return dishonor for dishonor, and then actively live generously.

This is what characterizes the life of a disciple. This is what characterizes the life of Jesus. That means in the church of God, there's no grounds for a bullying Mike Tyson, or a miserly Ebenezer Scrooge.

Neither of these are worthy of the kingdom of God. Jesus is opposing the selfish mindset which makes so much of one's honors and rights that retaliation is not only inevitable, it's necessary. I have to do this.

What Jesus is saying in this passage is that his followers won't stand upon their ego in that way. They don't demand their rights and their honors. They won't swiftly retaliate. They won't seek revenge to such a degree that they can even let go of their most basic possessions, their most basic necessities.

They hold with a loose hand, and that includes not only their resources, but even their time. Craig Keener, I think, puts it so well. It is not, we have to be clear, it is not that the Christian must never respond or resist in any way.

Wasn't there some movie made, I know some of us were talking about it in years past, Hacksaw Ridge? About a pacifist who was enlisted in the war effort, and he had a conviction that he could not fire upon an enemy.

That's tremendous, a powerful testimony of him falling through on his convictions. And so let me just applaud that. What a hero, what courage. Let me also say, you cannot win a war like that.

You cannot win a war.

And Jesus does say in Luke 22, sell your cloak, buy a sword, which translates in our day to don't buy a fall wardrobe, buy an AR -15, at least when you could get them in our state. So it's not that the Christian must never respond or resist in any way, but it is this, the Christian must value others above themselves in concrete and consistent ways.

That's what it means to follow Jesus. Now this is a challenging call. It was shocking to the hearers then. If we hear it rightly, and we don't dismiss it with 1 ,000 qualifications, it will shock us as well.

This demands something radical about our lives that is not natural to us. It's certainly not natural to the world that forges us. This world says it's dog eat dog, so just press ahead however you can.

You know, it's survival of the fittest, essentially. You know, if you've got it, go for it. It's essentially every man to himself. We all felt that creep out of our nature with COVID, right? All of a sudden, you were the one that needed the TP and the Lysol, right?

Didn't matter what everyone else needed. You needed that cart full. This is a challenging call because it calls us to something fundamentally opposed to the way of this world, which is this, self-denial.

The world is governed by an ethic of self-assertion. Jesus calls his followers to an ethic of self-denial. The extremity of separation could not be more pronounced. At every stage of sanctification in the life of a believer, self-denial is required.

You simply cannot grow in God's grace if you're not growing in self-denial. To grow in grace is to see less of yourself and desire to see less of yourself and to see more and more of Christ and to serve more and more.

And so, sanctification requires this challenge. It requires this call. Finding our life with the Lord means losing our life apart from him. And the only way to begin walking in these ways is to begin dying to self.

In a fundamental way, I say you cannot grow in God's grace unless you learn how to deny yourself, die to yourself. And in many ways, becoming a Christian is the initial act of dying to yourself. And that's why conversion, the experience of coming to salvation, is presented in this language of you died with Christ.

Now your life is bound up with him. And we give this picture through baptism.

You are buried because you died.

And now we raise you up, as it were, out of that watery death. Your new life is in him. In a way, we're saying the Christian life begins with dying to yourself.

You're dead.

And now your life is in him. And therefore, your life will be for him. And it's this life of continual self-denial. I remember reading in Vance Havner, an old Southern preacher, and he was talking about missionaries on their way to the African coast.

And you have, of course, galley ships going back and forth during the Atlantic passage, the days of chattel slavery. And these really callous captains and pilots that would take these passages and had no issues at all about throwing the sick overboard to drown.

You can just imagine the kind of heinous men these were, men like John Newton before he came to Christ. Just completely callous, blood all over their hands. And they're watching these missionaries that are making their way to go and actually save and convert and spread the gospel there on the coast of Africa.

And Vance Havner recounts a captain mocking these missionaries. Don't you know they're just gonna kill you? You're going to die there. Even if they don't kill you, you're gonna starve or get some disease.

In other words, why are you wasting this trip? Why are you going to Africa? You're just gonna die there. And the missionaries responded, we died before we left. We've been dead. We died to ourself, our needs, our rights a long time ago.

That's why we're going. We're already dead.

Do you see?

That's the logic. That's what it means to follow Jesus. To fulfill Jesus' call then, we need a radical change in the way that we view other people. And to fulfill that radical change in how we view other people, we need to have a radical change in the way we view ourselves.

You cannot begin to look at others rightly until you see yourself rightly in the mirror of God's word. And this is where self-denial arises. When we see that reflection in the mirror, there's a tendency to give a lot more attention to outward standards than to the inward state of the heart.

In other words, what we like to do is just take a quick peek in the mirror and go, that's enough. And then we wanna quickly focus on all the external things.

Where do we line up?

How do we measure up? How do others compare? We're just looking at the external things. We're still very much self-focused. It's still all about me and mine. But when we begin to reflect on the internal state, that's where we can all of a sudden begin to see others in a different light.

We recognize, I am not right with God. And for that reason, I've been flattering myself and I've been very hard on others. But when I begin to recognize that I need to be made right with God, I can view others who are not right with God in a totally different light.

John Newton himself, I just mentioned John Newton. John Newton himself said, when people are right with God, they're apt to be hard on themselves and easy on others. But when they are not right with God, they are easy on themselves and hard on others.

That's invariably true. So again, to fulfill Jesus' call, we need a radical change in the way we view others. And in order to do that, we need a radical change in the way we view ourselves. This is the crucial point.

We are not to practice self-denial ultimately for our own sake. It's such an important point. Jesus here in Matthew 5, 38 through 42 does not call us to have this radical change in the way that we approach and relate to others for our own sake.

Jesus is not saying, deny yourself so that it will really help you and make you stronger and make you wiser and make you more holy. That's not why he says you should deny yourself. We are not to practice self-denial ultimately for ourselves.