Turn the Other Cheek

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I invite you to take out your Bibles and turn with me to Matthew chapter 5.
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Once you get to Matthew chapter 5, if you would, make your way to verse 38.
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Last week, we began looking at verses 38 through 42.
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And I said that I knew that I wasn't going to be able to get through the message in one sitting, that I wasn't going to be able to go all the way through those verses, because I didn't want to try to do them justice.
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I wanted to try to spend as much time as is necessary to give an exposition of them.
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And really, we only got through verse 38.
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So today, we'll see how far we go.
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We don't rush through the text, but we're going to look at this as our foundation.
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And the subject of the morning, last week it was an eye for an eye.
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The subject of this morning is going to be turning the other cheek.
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And we're going to talk about how those two things relate to one another.
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So let's stand together and read the Word of God.
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Give it its due honor and reverence in standing.
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You have heard that it was said, an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.
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But I say to you, do not resist the one who is evil, but if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also.
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And if anyone would sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well.
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And if anyone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles.
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Give to the one who begs from you and do not refuse the one who would borrow from you.
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Our Father and our God, we thank you for this opportunity that we have to study your Word.
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I pray that you would keep me from error, as I certainly am a fallible man and capable of preaching error.
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I pray also that you would open the hearts of the people to the truth and that your Holy Spirit would be the instructor today, for only by your Holy Spirit can your people truly learn.
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I pray that you would use this to glorify yourself and edify your people.
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In Christ's name we pray.
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Amen.
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As is always necessary when you're doing a series, it's important that we go back and understand what we have learned up to this point.
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Jesus says in verse 38, you have heard that it was said, an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.
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My point in last week's message, for those of you who were not here, and especially for those of you who were, that you might remember, is that Jesus is not here condemning the principle of an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.
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It would be easy to think that He was.
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It would be easy to look at that and say, well here Jesus is contradicting the Old Testament.
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Because I demonstrated last week that that principle of an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth is repeated over and over in the Old Testament, is repeated in the divine law.
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It would be easy to say here, well Jesus is simply abrogating that law.
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He's simply saying, here's what's better or here's what's different.
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But what we must understand is that that law does continue to stand today, but was never intended for personal retaliation.
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But rather the law, an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth, and a hand for a hand and a foot for a foot.
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Jesus condenses it, but it goes on.
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That law was given to the law enforcers.
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That law was given to the legal representatives in Israel.
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It was a way for the government of Israel to establish equity in the law.
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That if a man did something which was a crime, that his punishment after the evidence had been weighed, and after it had been examined, and after he was found guilty properly, that the punishment should fit the crime.
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And I do not believe that Christ would deny the necessity of such a thing.
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In fact, I know that he's not denying such a thing here.
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Later on in the gospels, or rather in the epistles, the Apostle Paul makes it clear that the government does have a role in the life of the world, and that the government does not bear the sword in vain, but is set up as a minister to enact justice in the world, that it has a role in the world, and that these principles of equity in law are necessary.
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So what is it that Jesus is here condemning? Jesus is condemning the Pharisees who had twisted this principle from a legal principle into a personal principle for retaliation.
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And it had led to distortions and understanding of how people were to relate to one another.
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It had become the impetus for familial feuds.
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It had become the impetus for hatred among people.
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Many of you are familiar with the story of the Hatfields and the McCoys.
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I must tell you, I am not a student of that particular point in history, but I know enough to know this.
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It grew and grew and grew because of retaliation.
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One person did something to someone else, and they considered it an affront, so they did it back, and they considered that an affront, and they did it back, and that was worse, and it got worse and worse, and death and pain and suffering and hatred and feuding was the result.
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Well, this is the issue that Christ is dealing with.
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He is dealing with the problem of personal retaliation.
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And thus, when He is talking about this verse, it is very important that we understand that context.
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Because He says in verse 38, You have heard that it was said, an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth, but I say to you, do not resist the one who is evil, but...
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And He goes on after the word but, He goes on to give us four examples of personal retaliation that we should, as Christians, as followers of Christ, that we should avoid.
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And what we are going to do today in this sermon, is I want to break those four down.
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I want to show you the four things that He uses.
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And what we must understand is these are all principial.
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None of them are meant to give an exhaustive understanding of personal relationships and personal retaliation, but rather they are principles upon which Christian relationships are supposed to be built.
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We are supposed to live peaceably, not only in the church, which that sometimes is an effort in and of itself, isn't it? Because there is conflict within the church at times.
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But we are not only supposed to live peaceably in the church, but we are also supposed to live and seek to live peaceably with people outside the church.
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As the Apostle Paul tells us, as far as it depends upon you, live peaceably with all.
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It is a hard thing to do.
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It is a difficult thing to do.
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And what it requires of us, as we will see as we go through this text verse by verse, it requires from us one thing.
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And all of these principles will rely on one thing.
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And if you get nothing else from today's message, if you write no other note on your paper, as I am looking at my children, as this week I was blessed to watch them take note after note after note during the conference, and I pray that that discipline continues, because it is a wonderful discipline to have.
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But if you write nothing else, this is it.
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What is required of a Christian is a supernatural willingness to forgive.
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It is a supernatural willingness to forgive.
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Why do I say supernatural? Because everything Christ is about to say is absolutely opposite of what our natural hearts will want to do.
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It is the absolute opposite of what our natural minds will tell us to do.
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So it must be a supernatural willingness to forgive, which means it's going to come from God the Holy Spirit and pressing it upon our hearts.
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I read a quote this week and it really got my attention.
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And I think that it is an amazing quote.
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It was a simple quote.
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But the quote was this.
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It was about forgiveness.
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And it says that God requires us to forgive the unforgivable in others, because He has forgiven the unforgivable in us.
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He requires us to forgive the unforgivable in others, because He has forgiven the unforgivable in us.
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So that being said, we're going to look at four different circumstances, principles, that Christ lays out for us in this text.
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The first one is the person who would insult us.
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Verse 39, the second half of the verse, the second sentence in the verse says, But if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also.
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Something important to note from this passage is that this blow, which Jesus is talking about, is not a blow of injury, but rather a strike of insult.
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And that's why I've labeled this portion of this message, the person who insults us.
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It's very clear when reading the text that Jesus is talking here about being struck, but He makes an interesting point that is often overlooked.
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He talks about being struck on the right cheek.
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I've done a little investigating into this.
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I've done some research and reading, because I've read it in multiple commentaries, but I wanted to go a little further and say, hey, what does this mean? By referencing the right cheek, He's talking about a backhanded slap, because a right-handed person who slaps you would slap you on the left cheek if it were an open-handed slap.
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And most people are right-handed.
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So the reference to the right cheek is a reference to a backhanded slap, which would be similar in our modern day to a spit in the face.
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It's not somebody who's pummeling you that you're not allowed to lift your hands and protect yourself.
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Such a thing is not what's in view.
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This is the person who is insulting you.
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This blow is a blow of insult.
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It is a strike of insult.
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And let me tell you, it's easy to fight back.
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When someone insults me, I'll speak from personal experience.
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I won't put it on you.
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I'll put it on me.
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When someone insults me with their words, I get offended.
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And when I get offended, what do I naturally want to do? Return the offense.
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You have said something which has cut me, and I want to cut you back, and I want to cut you twice as deep, and twice as long, and twice as hard.
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Because that's the natural response to the insult.
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And here Jesus is actually teaching a principle which is interesting because He's talking about escalation.
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Because when someone insults me, I see this all the time.
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I see this.
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It's interesting how the Internet opens up and shows us behavior patterns.
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Someone says something, then someone else says something, and it's ugly, and then it's ugly again, and it's uglier, and by the time you get to the fourth or fifth post, read Internet comment boxes.
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They're horrid.
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They're horrific.
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Because we've got to one-up them.
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We've got to say something worse.
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We've got to cut them deeper and harder and faster than we were cut.
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I mean, it's called escalation.
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You hurt me, I hurt you back worse.
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You hurt me back worse than I hurt you, and now it's back and forth, and it's the ladder that grows and grows and grows and grows.
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And Christ says, rather than striking back, forgive and do not strike back.
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Be willing to take the insult.
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You've got another cheek.
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You'll be okay.
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That's hard for us sometimes, because sometimes our skin is a little thin.
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One of the things somebody told me early in ministry was to do this job, you have to have a turtle shell, not thick skin.
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And I tell you, over the years, I have learned what they meant.
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So you don't have to have leather skin, you've got to have a turtle shell, because there are hurtful things that are said.
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There are hurtful things that are done.
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And it's not unique to ministry.
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Every one of you knows what I'm talking about.
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Every one of you has been hurt.
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And the response is we want to hurt back.
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We want to tear into the person.
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We want to let them know we were there.
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And yet Christ tells us that such a thing is not the road to godliness.
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Do you know how I know the Bible is supernatural? Because I don't know any natural person that would ask me to do this.
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This is supernatural.
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This is a supernatural command.
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And yet it is the command.
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It takes two to tango, they say.
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It also takes two to tangle.
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It's actually something we talk about in our self-defense class, in our little karate class, The best way to deal with conflict when somebody is trying to insult us and trying to hurt us is not to allow it to escalate.
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Because words become shouts, and shouts become screams, and screams become blows, and blows become injuries, and injuries become hatred, and hatred runs deep.
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Thus Christ tells us, supernaturally forgive the insult.
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Because in your natural self you will not.
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In your natural heart you will not.
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So call upon Him to strengthen you to do what you will not do in your own heart.
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So that's the first.
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The person who insults us, it's hard, it's tough, but it's Christ.
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Who are we? Who are you, old man, to answer back to God and say to Him anything? Very important.
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Number two.
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The person who sues us over something trivial.
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The person who sues us over something trivial.
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Look at verse 40 with me.
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Verse 40 says, And if anyone would sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well.
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Now this is an important distinction.
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Just like with the right side of the cheek and the left side of the cheek, Christ is making clear references to some things that are very specific.
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The tunic was a garment which was worn close to the body.
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It was a relatively inexpensive piece of clothing.
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And as such, when Jesus is talking about this, He's talking about something that is of relatively little consequence.
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But don't we know people who would fight to have the littlest of things? The most inconsequential of things? His point is that if someone is willing to contend with us over something small, over something inconsequential, why would we fight them to hold on to it? Why would we fight them to demand it? And I believe that in this, He is dealing with pettiness.
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Again, what I said earlier, these are principal lessons.
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The first one is the insult.
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This one is pettiness.
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Are we to mimic the petty by being even more petty? When they fight us over something petty, are we willing to let it go or do we fight back? Beloved, this is how churches split over the color of the carpets.
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This is the pettiness which drives wedges between Christians over things that are so inconsequential and should never be a wedge.
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Jesus even goes further to say that we are supposed to go further.
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He says if somebody sues you over the tunic, give them the cloak.
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The cloak was the more expensive outer garment.
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Jesus says, you know what, if it means parting with that, if it means letting go of that, if it helps settle the matter, if it helps put it to bed, if it helps put it to rest, then do it.
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Now, I want to make something clear.
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Some people have taken this to a ridiculous extreme.
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There are atheists who have gone to Christians' houses and said you must give me your house because Jesus said if I demand your tunic, you must give me your cloak as well, so give me your house and your car as well.
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It has been done.
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There's not much that hasn't been done in the history of the world.
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Mankind has sought every which way he can to mock the principles of godly living because he does not want to live godly.
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But such a thing as misunderstanding Christ's point.
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He is pointing specifically to an inconsequential thing to demonstrate pettiness as a lack of virtue, not a positive virtue.
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Pettiness is a lack of virtue.
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It is wrong that we fight over the most inconsequential of things, that we're willing to go to court over the most inconsequential of things, that we're willing to see our brethren suffer over the most inconsequential of things.
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And yet, don't we do that sometimes? It's hard.
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This is the hard part of the Sermon on the Mount.
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This is the part that many people gloss over or don't read or don't even seek to apply, but yet it is the part that again must be applied to the calling of God the Holy Spirit to give us a supernatural willingness to do these things.
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Because when somebody wants what's mine, when somebody's fighting over something petty, I want to fight back.
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But should I? Christ says no.
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Number three, the person who compels our service, the last person wanted something that is ours.
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This person wants us.
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This person demands of us.
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Read with me verse 41.
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And if anyone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles.
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Most of us are familiar that it is in the vernacular, the term going the extra mile means to go out of your way to help someone in need.
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But this is different because normally when we talk about going the extra mile, we're talking about something we were already doing.
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We wanted to help this person.
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You know, this person's moving.
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I told him I would help him move.
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And hey, they need me for an extra day, so I'll go the extra mile and help them out.
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That's normally how we use it, right? That's the modern way of using it.
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That's not the way Jesus is using it.
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Jesus is using it for something we didn't want to do to begin with.
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Jesus is using it for something we are demanded to do and don't want to do at all.
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You know how this word is used elsewhere in Scripture? The same word where it says forces you to go one mile? That word forces, it's the same word that was used of Simon of Cyrene.
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You know who Simon of Cyrene was? He was the man who was found while Jesus was carrying the cross and he kept falling down and he couldn't carry his own cross, so they pulled the man out of the crowd whose name was Simon of Cyrene and they compelled him to carry Christ's cross.
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He didn't want to do it.
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They had to make him do it.
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That's the same language that's being used here.
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If someone insults us, we get angry.
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If someone sues us, we get angry.
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And if someone demands that we do something that we don't want to do, we get angry.
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We don't want to do it.
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And that's the point.
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We're supposed to be agents of grace, but it is hard because it is so unnatural.
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In fact, that's what makes it the godly response that it's unnatural.
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If compelled to do something, I have a burden not to the person, but to God.
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God commands that rather than hate the person or hate their demand, that I try to fulfill their demand and I even go further than they have asked.
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A.W.
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Pink says this.
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Arthur Pink is a great reformed writer, by the way.
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If you've never read any of Pink's books, I commend to you The Sovereignty of God by A.W.
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Pink.
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It is a tremendous work on understanding the character of God.
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Just mentioning that.
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But this is something he says in regards to the Sermon on the Mount because he also wrote a commentary on the Sermon on the Mount.
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This is what he says.
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In regards to this specific, going the extra mile, this is what he says.
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The law of God is not expounded more spiritually in any single precept either by Christ or His Apostles than in this exhortation.
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The law of love I said the law of God, I read it wrong, I'm sorry.
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The law of love is not expounded more spiritually in any single precept either by Christ or His Apostles than in this exhortation.
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This is love.
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Well, how did Paul tell us what love is? Love is patient, love is kind, does not seek its own, is not wrathful, is not vengeful.
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You know, we know 1 Corinthians 13 every Valentine's Day.
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We know that passage.
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We know what love is.
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This is love.
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That sometimes we do the things we don't want to do and we do them well and we do even more than we had to because we do it for Christ and not for them.
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There are times when service must be compelled even in the body of Christ.
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We need things done.
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Things need to be done.
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It shouldn't be compelled.
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It should be the natural response of the believer that when we see the things that need to be done, we do them.
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Fourthly, the person who begs or borrows from us.
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Verse 42, give to the one who begs from you and do not refuse the one who would borrow from you.
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Now, this one I must admit in my studying of the passage of my preparing for this sermon of sitting down with the Word of God and the original languages and the commentaries and studying and investing, I must say I felt like this one was out of place.
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Not that I would ever in any way question the Word of God, but I understand or at least I understood an insult makes me angry.
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Somebody suing me over inconsequential things, or somebody suing me for anything, would probably not make me happy.
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Someone forcing me to do something I don't want to do would not make me happy.
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But then it's just somebody begging.
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How does that fit? We understand insults make you angry.
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These other things lead to anger, but how is giving to the one who begs from you? Well, beloved, I think that it fits for this reason.
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We've been dealing with the issue of personal retaliation.
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We all know that's the subject.
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And I believe that sometimes our refusal to give to others is retaliatory in nature, especially in cases wherein we are angry with the person or we feel like the person does not deserve our help.
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And I don't know about you, but I have met many people who my first initial fleshly instinct was, you don't deserve my help.
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And I'm sure there are some of you who are much more pious than I who've never had such an awful thought.
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And that's fine.
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But I have thought awful things.
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I have said in my heart awful things.
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And I think that sometimes our refusal to want to help is based on an anger that this person doesn't really deserve our help.
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An internal push that they deserve what they're getting, whatever it may be.
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In either event, our refusal to give aid demonstrates at best an apathy for their condition.
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And at worst, an antipathy.
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We think they deserve their condition.
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Neither one is a godly thought.
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I must add something to this.
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And I don't add it to correct the Word of God.
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I add it because I think that we must always seek to understand the entire Word of God.
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Anytime we look at one verse, we must compare Scripture with Scripture and understand certain things about the call that we're being given.
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I do not believe that Jesus is here requiring that we give indiscriminately without discernment.
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Because if a believer were to do such a thing and to never have any discernment and never have any discrimination in how he handles his funds, he would very quickly become one of the ones who was begging himself.
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What is the obvious assumption in the command to give those who are in need? You're not.
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That's the obvious assumption in the statement to give to the needy is that you have to give.
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This is why there are commands in Scripture that Christian men are supposed to work, that Christian men are supposed to work or they're not going to eat.
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You know, these commands to actually wage for your family, to work and earn for your family.
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These are important principles that are there.
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But again, the principle does not release us to greediness.
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Just because we are to be prudent in how we give does not mean that we are to not give.
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Let me read to you a quote from Brian Swartley.
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He is one of the commentators and I think he's done a masterful job on the Sermon on the Mount.
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This is what he writes.
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He says, As with all these illustrations, it is important that we interpret them within the broader teaching of Scripture.
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If we do not do this, then this passage could be used as a proof text for indiscriminate giving and the subsidizing of wickedness.
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It would be immoral for a Christian to hand money over to a drunkard or a drug addict so that he could feed his addiction.
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Paul says that if a man is not willing to work, then he should not eat.
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He instructs younger widows to be cared for by their families so that they will not be a burden to the church.
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Verse 75 and verse 16.
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Does that mean that if I see somebody that needs help, that I should automatically start taking them down a checklist of things? OK, you look like a drunk.
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OK, you look like this.
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OK, you look like that.
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No, not not necessarily.
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But this is something I've and I hate to I don't mean to call you out, brother.
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But Adam and I have talked about this many times.
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His job is a job wherein he sees people all the time who are professional panhandlers, professional people who are there to take and get money.
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And that's what they do.
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That's that's how they earn their living.
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And certainly encouraging that is not always the best thing to do.
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This is why we have proper methods of giving out things from the church.
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Because if we simply handed a twenty dollar bill to everyone who came to the door.
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Number one, how soon would our would we would be would we totally be in debt? But number two, the church would become the Oceanway ATM.
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It certainly would.
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It certainly would.
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And I know this from empirical evidence, because when I first became the pastor, I thought that's what I was supposed to do.
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I have learned started this job.
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Well, I started ministry when I was 20 years old.
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I started this job when I was 26 years old.
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And in the last eight years, I have learned a lot.
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One of the things that I did learn, though, is that as a church, we have to be prudent in the way we manage the church.
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And one of the ways we are prudent is we give food.
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We give gas.
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We give to those who have needs.
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We save money for people in the church who have needs.
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And it's different than what we give outside the church, because within the church, we know we are told specifically within Scripture to take care of those within the church, the widows and the orphans, those within the church who have needs.
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They are the focus of our benevolency primarily, and then we give outside the church.
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And if you don't believe that, I can show you clearly in Scripture that the church is supposed to take care of those within the church as a primary thing.
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The benevolency outside of the church is a secondary thing.
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So I'm just making the point here that Jesus is building the idea that we're supposed to be generous.
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He is building the idea that we're supposed to be cheerful givers.
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We do not hold back our help of others out of spite or anger or some feeling of superiority.
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Such a thing would be a demonstration of sin and pride.
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But He's also not denying that we are to be prudent and discerning.
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It's the same thing people say we judge not lest ye be judged.
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Well, that means that we never have an opinion on anything.
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No, it doesn't.
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And to say such a thing is ignorance.
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The best rule for giving is simple.
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Be discerning.
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When in doubt, give generously.