Matthew 5:38–42

Context

This passage belongs to the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5–7, the teaching Jesus gave his disciples and the crowds after going up on a mountain. Beginning in 5:21, Jesus reinterprets the teaching of the law six times using the formula "Ye have heard that it was said… But I say unto you." This passage is the fifth of these reinterpretations. It is followed immediately by the sixth, the command to love one's enemies (5:43–48).

"An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth" is the lex talionis, the law of retaliation, which limits repayment to the measure of the injury suffered. It appears in Exodus 21, Leviticus 24, and Deuteronomy 19. This law is commonly explained as having originally served, in judicial proceedings, to set the degree of punishment and to prevent excessive revenge. In its place, Jesus gives four examples—being struck on the cheek, being sued, being compelled to go a distance, and being asked to lend—to teach an attitude that does not retaliate but instead gives even more. A similar saying appears in Luke 6.

Interpretations

• Two-kingdoms reading: Martin Luther held that these words are addressed to the personal life of the Christian and do not forbid the state from carrying out its office of maintaining order and punishing evil. Many interpreters in the Lutheran and Reformed traditions likewise read the passage as prohibiting personal revenge while affirming the state's legitimate use of punishment and defense, citing Romans 13:3–4 in support.
• Peace-church reading: The so-called peace church traditions—including the Mennonites, who emerged from the Anabaptist movement, and the Quakers—have received these words as a literal command and have taken them as grounds for renouncing violence and refusing military service.
• Nonviolent-resistance reading: The American theologian Walter Wink and others do not read these words as a call to unconditional endurance. Pointing to the historical background—such as the insult of a backhanded blow to the right cheek and the practice by which Roman soldiers could force civilians to carry their gear for a set distance—they interpret the passage as a "third way" that exposes an opponent's injustice without violence.
• Dispensationalist reading: Some classical dispensationalist interpreters regarded the Sermon on the Mount as the ethic of the kingdom yet to come and were cautious about applying it directly to the present-day church.

Debates and Issues

The Greek tō ponērō can be translated either as "the evil person" or as "evil" (an evil deed). Depending on which rendering is chosen, the scope of "resist not" may be understood differently. In Korean Bibles, the "mile" and "twain" (two miles) of the passage are rendered as "five ri" and "ten ri," converting the Roman unit of distance, the milion (about 1.5 km, or roughly 0.9 mile), into a traditional Korean unit of distance.

Voices in pastoral counseling and church reform movements have consistently warned that this passage must not be used to pressure victims of domestic violence or of abuse within the church to endure it. They argue that the passage forbids revenge but does not call for tolerating injustice.

In the Korean Church

The sayings "whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also" and "whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him twain" (in Korean, "five ri… ten ri") are widely used even outside the church as expressions of tolerance and concession. In preaching, they are most often cited alongside the themes of love of enemies and forgiveness.

Related Passages

• Leviticus 24:17–22
• Luke 6:27–36
• Romans 12:17–21
• 1 Peter 2:23