WWUTT 2322 Turn the Other Cheek (Luke 6:29-31)

Turn the Other Cheek and the Golden Rule

Jesus said, to the one who strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also. As you wish that others would do to you, do so to them. They're pretty straightforward instructions, so why can't we keep them?

When we understand the text.

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Here once again is Pastor Gabe.

Thank you, Becky. In our study of the gospel according to Luke, we've been in the Sermon on the Plain, Luke 6, where Jesus is teaching his disciples. We're looking specifically at that section where he tells them to love their enemies.

So let me read once again, verses 27 to 31. Hear the word of the Lord. But I say to you who hear, love your enemies. Do good to those who hate you. Bless those who curse you. Pray for those who abuse you.

To one who strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also. And from one who takes away your cloak, do not withhold your tunic either. Give to everyone who begs from you. And from one who takes away your goods, do not demand them back.

And as you wish that others would do to you, do so to them. That last line there, verse 31, we know to be the golden rule. As straightforward as these instructions are, as I mentioned yesterday, we seldom see them practiced, even among Christians.

There seems to be a general attitude that I can respond back to a person who wronged me in the same way that they wronged me. They started it, so they've given me permission to retaliate. But Jesus demonstrates here, especially in this instruction that we have in verse 29, to one who strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also.

There's a lot of encouragement here to deescalate the situation. And do not respond to them the way that they have treated you. We'll look at that further in some other passages related to this. But let me come back to verse 27 once again, where Jesus says, love your enemies.

Something that I did not define yesterday is who an enemy is. So Jesus says, love your enemies. Who qualifies as an enemy? Are we just talking about unbelievers here? Well, that may likely be the case.

Somebody who is not regarded as a brother, like a brother in the Lord. They're not a fellow believer. Because we certainly have certain instructions in scripture about loving brothers. And we have instructions about loving neighbors.

And there's instructions about loving your enemies. But you could probably understand an enemy here as anyone who does the following. Hates you, curses you, abuses you. That's what we have in those next three statements that follow.

Jesus says, love your enemies. Do good to those who hate you. Bless those who curse you. Pray for those who abuse you. So whether they might be defined in a category of brother or neighbor or enemy. It seems to be that an enemy would be anybody who does those three things.

Hates, curses, abuses. Whether they're a relative, whether they're a foreigner, whether it's somebody who works in the government, somebody of a different ethnicity, somebody who's of a different political leaning, someone who is an unbeliever or of a different religion.

If they hate, if they curse, if they abuse, then they fit in that category of enemy. And Jesus is saying, here's how you respond to someone who treats you in this way. Do good to those who hate. Bless those who curse.

Pray for those who abuse. And all three of those fall under that definition of love. By loving your enemies, you do good, you bless, you pray for them. And the enemies being those who hate, who curse and abuse.

Deescalating Conflict and Refusing Retaliation

And so as we go on to verse 29, the next portion of this instruction as we look at it today, to one who strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also. Now, this is the proverbial turning the other cheek.

And it's very clear here that Jesus is saying, do not retaliate against a person the same way that they treat you. We don't seem to have any indication in scripture, especially in the instructions that Jesus gives to his own disciples.

We don't have any permission there that we have a right to react to them the same way that they treated us. Now, that doesn't mean that we have to be pushovers. So anybody can do anything to me and I cannot retaliate at all.

Where we do have instructions in scripture as to how we should handle when somebody sins against us, specifically when somebody in the body of Christ within the church sins against us. There are manners and a process that we go through in order to point out a person's wrong and bring them to judgment if it comes to that.

Like if somebody has done you wrong, has done a wrong to you that is downright illegal, that would put them under arrest with the law. Well, the instructions we have in Romans chapter 13 is that you would turn somebody who's done something so illegal over to the state, over to the magistrate, because they do not bear the sword in vain.

They are God's avenger to do to the wrong person the justice that they deserve. So turn it over to the one whom God has put in authority, the governing authorities as illustrated there in Romans 13. And we also have that in first Peter chapter two.

So that's if somebody does something illegal to you. But how about somebody in the church who does some sort of wrong to you? Well, there's the church discipline process. You have that in Matthew chapter 18, verses 15 to 17, or maybe in Titus chapter three, where you have dealing with false teachers.

How do you handle somebody that deals falsely? You don't just turn the other cheek in that sort of a situation. We'll just continue to let them deal falsely. Let them preach heresies that are leading people to hell.

No, you don't leave that person alone. There are ways that you're supposed to handle that. So there are specific instructions that we find in the New Testament for dealing with those who would cause some sort of a conflict.

But in general, these instructions here are encouraging us to deescalate the situation. And Jesus very clearly saying, you don't have a right to react to them in the same way that they have treated you.

Just because they smack you doesn't mean that you can haul off and smack them back or even have permission to hit them harder than they hit you. There's a lot of contest even in reform circles right now, I'm noticing where it's like, who can be tougher than the other guy?

You're gonna be a tough guy to me, I'm gonna be tougher to you. Putting each other down with name calling and things like that, I see it on social media every single day. And we're backbiting and gossiping about one another in even in person, it seems like.

Even in the churches that we're a part of when that person walks away, now we speak ill of them. How many Christians do you see actually following this advice? Advice, I mean, it's exhortation, it's an instruction, it's a command that has been given to us by our King, how we are to love others.

If they strike us on the cheek, turn to them the other cheek. We have instructions in both the Old Testament and the New about deescalating a situation and not feeding a quarrel and making it worse. Consider in Proverbs chapter 26, we have several different verses here that talk about this.

Verse 17, whoever meddles in a quarrel, not his own, is like one who takes a passing dog by the ears. Verse 20, for lack of wood, the fire goes out and where there is no whisperer, quarreling ceases. If you don't feed the quarrel, then it can stop.

A person who is egging you on and saying evil things about you, you don't retaliate against them, it may just completely go away. This is how I've tried to conduct myself online, not just in social media like X or Facebook or Instagram or places like that, though I seldom respond to criticisms there, but especially on YouTube, there's people that have made all kinds of videos about me.

Some of these videos, two and a half hours long that are dishing out false statements, accusing me of believing or saying things I've never taught nor believed. And I don't have time to watch them. I've seen a few minutes of a few of those videos and I got the gist of where it was that they were going with that, but I don't have time to respond to all of that, to respond to all of the slander that people will put out there about me.

I would rather focus on ministry. And if I don't feed the quarrel, because inevitably what's going to happen is this, I'm going to respond with a video. Forget the two and a half hour videos. Let's just say somebody's making a video about me that's 10 minutes.

They make a 10 minute video, I respond with a 10 minute video. They make a half hour video. Okay, now do I have to respond with every single charge that's been made there? Well, that may take me 45 minutes to an hour and see how it just kind of gets more and more and more.

And in the eyes of the world, all they see is fighting, bickering. If this is a fellow Christian, a fellow believer who's making these accusations of me, then all we're doing is putting this witness before the world that we can't love one another and get along.

So if we can't do that within the brotherhood, what expectation does the world have of us that we're capable of loving our enemies? Let alone being able to show love to our brothers. So don't feed the fire.

Sometimes we may have to, at some point, take a step back from a quarrel and recognize no matter what happens here, if I continue here, if I keep responding to this person who is making these comments about me, they're just gonna, they're going to keep going.

They're not going to stop. It's never going to end. One of you has to be the bigger person in that conflict. One of you has to be the grownup. You've got to be the spiritually mature one. You have to be the one to step back or you have to be the one to go and apologize anything that would end the quarrel.

You have to be the one to see that I've got to stop this because no matter what happens, the other person is not going to stop. They're not going to relent. They're not going to apologize. And I have to be the bigger man or the bigger woman.

And I've been in that situation before. I've had to recognize that I'm not helping the situation by responding and I need to be the one to even apologize. I'm sorry for treating you in this way and be the one to back down.

There were two women in my church once who were quarreling and I can't even remember what the quarrel was about. I have it written down like in my journals. So I could probably go back and find out, but it's not really important to the story.

But two women who were arguing with one another over something. One was a deacon's wife and one was an elder's wife, but the deacon's wife was older than the elder's wife. And so when it came to trying to resolve this quarrel, I went to the deacon's wife, not the elder's wife.

And I went to her and her husband, and we talked about this. And at one point during the conversation, she said to me, why are you coming to me about this? Why are you not going to her? And I said, because between the two of you, I believe that you're the more mature person.

And I think that you will receive my advice and I don't think she will. I think it would become a fight and this kind of exchange, exactly this right here. If she would be the one asking me that question, why are you coming to me and not going to her?

That would just feed the fire all the more and make her angry and make it seem like this is not fair. You should be asking her to back down, not asking me to back down. But I'm saying to this deacon's wife, I think that you're the more mature one and you are capable of going to her and apologizing just to end the quarrel.

And she was really quite flattered by that, that I considered her to be the more mature person. And so that's exactly what she did. She went to the other woman that she was quarreling with and just simply said, I'm wrong.

And I apologize and I'm sorry. And do you forgive me? And the other woman said to her, yes. And so she came to me, the deacon's wife came to me later on that morning. This was on a Sunday when they went through this apology.

And she came to me that morning and said to me, it's done, I've taken care of it. And she said, I want to thank you for coming to me and believing that I would be the bigger person to handle that. And so I have, and I thanked her for that.

And just to prove that I went to the right person and asked her to be the one to deescalate the situation, the elder's wife came to me that same morning and said to me, I took care of the problem. She wasn't going to be big enough to apologize to me.

So I've gone to her and I've apologized. And now it's all over, it's taken care of. And I already knew that wasn't true. She lied to me. She lied to me and said that she was the one that had ended the quarrel when I knew that wasn't true.

And so sometimes you have to recognize that you're the one that has to be willing to step back in order to end a quarrel that may exist among brothers or sisters or whatever. Because as we also see in Proverbs 26, for lack of wood, the fire goes out where there is no whisperer, quarreling ceases as charcoal to hot embers and wood to fire.

So is a quarrelsome man for kindling strife. Let us not be that way. Let us not try to feed the fire, but heed those other instructions that we've been given about deescalating a situation and leaving it to the Lord to handle matters that maybe we cannot resolve.

We have no ability to resolve it. The other person's not gonna back down. I'm never going to get justice in this particular situation. What do we do about that? Well, Paul says in Romans 12, 14, bless those who persecute you, bless and do not curse them.

Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep, live in harmony with one another. Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly. Never be wise in your own sight. Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all.

If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, vengeance is mine. I will repay, says the Lord.

To the contrary, if your enemy is hungry, feed him. If he is thirsty, give him something to drink, for by so doing, you will heap burning coals on his head. That's a quote coming from Proverbs too, Proverbs as well, by the way.

And finally, verse 21, do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. And so Jesus says to his disciples, to the one who strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also. And from one who takes away your cloak, do not withhold your tunic either.

Becky and I have shared this on the program before, but we've been defrauded before. And if we were to tally up all of the money that we've been defrauded out of, it would be tens of thousands of dollars.

And it gotta be difficult to explain the scenarios. And unfortunately, explaining the scenario might reveal who it was who did certain things to us. But it's all just to say, we've been in this position.

We have sat together at the table or laid together in bed, holding hands and thinking about the way that we have been treated and just realizing in the midst of this situation, we're just supposed to give it to the Lord.

We're going to go ahead and eat the offense and not retaliate, not sue the other person, not turn this into this full-blown thing that very few people even know about as the situation stands. We're gonna eat the loss and give it to the Lord so that we may press on in ministry without having to do all of this and juggle quarrels at the same time.

And quarreling is exhausting and it can consume all your energy and everything that is going on around you. We've got so much to do. We've got kids to raise. I can't be dealing with all these conflicts and these quarrels if I were to feed that fire and it become this bigger thing than it already is.

So I'm fully experienced in this. I'm not speaking as a person on this side of the microphone that's never been through such a quarrel before. I know what it means to give my tunic also. I'm not boasting in myself.

I'm just trying to give you some encouragement to let it go, let go and let God as the saying goes. But indeed, as we've just read from Romans 12, don't avenge yourselves, leave it to the Lord. Verse 30, give to everyone who begs from you and from one who takes away your goods, do not demand them back.

I had a scenario that happened, oh, this would have been 12 or 13 years ago now, but there was a pastor friend of mine who actually hit a really deep rut and found himself with all kinds of bills that he couldn't pay.

He was actually in between jobs. And I felt like the way that he was fired from his job was unjust. It was unjust the way that he was treated. So he called me up and he said, knowing that I didn't have a lot of money at the time either, but he said, we've got these bills and I don't have any way to pay them.

Is there anything that you can give to me? And I said, sure, I'll give you, I think it was $200 or something like that. And he said, he was very, very grateful. He said, thank you. Received the money.

Well, it was a few weeks later, he was online boasting about these new cell phones he got. They even had 3D capability or something to them. I seem to remember that being a feature. Funny thing is, you know, I've been through all manner of smartphones since then.

I don't ever remember having a smartphone with a 3D feature on it. But he was boasting about this new phone that he got. And I got mad. I was angry about it because you said you couldn't pay your bills.

I can barely pay my own bills, but I still have a job and you don't. So I sent you money and what did you do with it? You blew it on smartphones with 3D capability? And so I sent a message to him about that.

It wasn't public. It was private, but I sent him a message and I was a little upset. And he responded back to me really with outrage. I mean, worse than anything that I said. But he said, we got these phones from my in-laws.

They were a gift to us. I didn't buy them with the money you sent. But if it's going to bother you that much, I'm going to send it back. And he did. He wrote me a check and sent back the money. And I felt bad about that.

I really did. And it put quite a strain on our relationship. In fact, I should have just let it be. Once I have given that money to him, it's not mine anymore. And if he's going to misuse it, well, that's between him and the Lord.

I should have just let it be. Give to everyone who begs from you and from one who takes away your goods, do not demand them back. That's what I should have followed. That's what I should have been doing.

And all of these instructions here, Jesus sums up this way in verse 31. And as you wish that others would do to you, do so to them. It's the golden rule. It's very simple. It's very basic. How do you want others to treat you?

Do you wish that they always had you under a microscope? That they were always analyzing every little thing that you did and reading into it thoughts and intentions that you really didn't have? Is that the way you want?

People to treat you? Then don't do it to them. Don't have this graceless attitude toward other people. You're constantly judgmental of their actions or thinking less of others and making judgments, whether they're spoken judgments or not, but even judgments that would cause you to seethe, that would cause you to have emotions, thoughts in your mind and in your heart that would not be honoring of God and certainly not honoring to the other person, whether or not they're aware of you having those thoughts.

How do you want to be treated by others? It's a simple question with a simple follow-up. Then treat others that way. As you want to be treated, treat others. Do so to them. Now, Jesus doesn't say it here in Luke 6 31, but the way that we have the golden rule in Matthew in the Sermon on the Mount is that by doing the golden rule, by doing unto others what you would have them do unto you, you are fulfilling the law and the prophets.

And what is that instruction that we have in the law? That you love one another. And that takes you back up to verse 27. Love your enemies. Don't you wish that your enemy would love you? Then love them.

And hopefully by that show, that act of kindness, you will be able to fulfill what is said there in Romans 12. If your enemy is hungry, feed him. If he is thirsty, give him something to drink. For by so doing, you will heat burning coals on his head.

Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. And even if the other person that you are loving is not overcome by the good and the love that you show to them, ultimately in the end, they will be.

Because all of these judgments, all these determinations are in the Lord's hands. Let us imitate Christ here as said in 1 Peter 2, 21. For to this you have been called because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example so that you might follow in his steps.

He committed no sin. Neither was deceit found in his mouth. When he was reviled, he did not revile in return. When he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly.

And may we do the same. Heavenly Father, we thank you for what we've read, these instructions, the commands that have been given to us by our King in the Sermon on the Plain. And may we desire in honor of Christ to treat others this way.

Somebody strikes us, we turn the other cheek. Someone tries to take from us. We give to them even more and don't demand anything in return. What we wish that others would do to us, may we treat others that way.

And so fulfill the law given to us to love one another. You loved us when we did not deserve it. We were your enemies and you showed love to us by giving Jesus to die on the cross for our sins. And so as you have shown so great a love that we could never even measure up to, because of this gift that you've given to us, let us be willing to give love to others.

It's in Jesus' name we pray, amen.

Pastor Gabe keeps a regular blog sharing personal thoughts, alerting readers to false teachers, and offering commentary on the church and social issues. You can find a link to the blog through our website, www .utt .com.

Thank you for listening and join us again tomorrow as we continue our study in God's word, when we understand the text.