Matthew 5:38-42

Abolition of the Law of Retaliation: cp. Luke 6:29; Luke 6:30. It is a difficulty to some that God should ever have sanctioned the barbarous principle of 'an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth' (Exodus 21:24). They do not reflect that in its own age this principle represented a farreaching moral reform. The thirst for vengeance is not naturally satisfied with an eye for an eye; it goes on to demand a life. Hence when Moses allowed the injured man to exact an eye and no more, he was imposing a salutary check on private vengeance. Our Lord goes further, and forbids private vengeance altogether. It is true that vengeance contains a good element, viz. righteous anger against wrong, but this is so bound up with personal vindictiveness, and so certain, if gratified, to let loose a man's worst passions, that our Lord forbids it altogether. Christians are not to resent injuries, they are not to attempt to retaliate, they are, in our Lord's figurative language, to turn the cheek to the smiter. Does this forbid us on fitting occasions to expostulate with a wrong-doer, or to bring him to punishment? By no means. There are occasions when in the interests of society, and in the interest of the criminal himself, it is necessary to resist evil and to bring the wrong-doer to justice. Our Lord elsewhere fully recognises this (Matthew 18:15).

38. See Exodus 21:24; Leviticus 24:20; Deuteronomy 19:21.