![]() Better yet, give her more than she asks for before you ever enter the courtroom. If the judge tells you to give her $500, give $700 and apologize. ![]() “If anyone would sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well.” If your enemy wants to unjustly take something from you, give him more than for which he asks. Stand there and take it - as long as you need to - to do the work I’ve called you to do. So, Jesus is saying this: Christians, if someone insults you in a big way, don’t retaliate by insulting him back. In Israel, a back-handed slap was especially insulting. So, how would a right-handed person slap you on the right cheek using his right hand? It would have to be a back-handed slap. “If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also.” Just as in our day, most people in Jesus’ time were right-handed. In verses 39-42, Jesus gives us five examples of the way we should treat people who have hurt or wronged us. There is no room in his kingdom for petty, tit-for-tat vengeance. In other words, don’t stoop to an evil person’s level. He starts with this general principle: “But I tell you, Do not resist an evil person” (v. ![]() In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus reminds us that this law was not given as a mandate for personal vengeance. They could make that person pay for what he did, and they claimed that God’s law justified it. Every time someone offended, criticized or accidentally tripped them, they believed they could take the law into their own hands and get some payback. They used it to justify revenge - in their homes, neighborhoods and workplaces. But in Jesus’ day, the Pharisees used the law, which was designed for the courts, to justify private retaliation in their personal relationships. God gave the Law of Retaliation to Jewish courts as a guide for handing down just punishments on lawbreakers. Although murderers were routinely put to death for taking a human life, there is no record of local magistrates gouging out eyes, or breaking teeth or bones, in retaliation for a man’s crimes. However, I’ve found no evidence that ancient Israel ever carried out the Law of Retaliation literally. Under Hammurabi’s Code, it seems that eyes were literally gouged out, and stealing hands were cut off. So, was the Law of Retaliation carried out literally? It seems clear that in ancient Babylon, the answer was yes. And when God gave ancient Israel the 613 Laws of Moses, the Law of Retaliation was included: “But if there is serious injury, you are to take life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, bruise for bruise” (Exodus 22:23-25). The earliest known version was in the Babylonian Code of Hammurabi, which dates back more than 3,750 years. Retaliation comes from a Latin word that means “pay back in kind.” Over the course of human history, many countries around the world have had some version of the Law of Retribution, also known as the Law of Retaliation.
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