An Eye for an Eye, and a Tooth for a Tooth

[00:00:00] All right, let's go back to Matthew, chapter five, if you would. We will go through the next section. We have this section and just one more section to finish this chapter, Matthew 5. And we will read verses 38 down through verse number 42, Matthew 5, verse number 38. The Bible says this. Ye have heard that it hath been said, an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. [00:00:34] But I say unto you that ye resist not evil, but whosoever shall smite thee on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. [00:00:44] And if any man will sue thee at the law and take away thy coat, let him have thy cloak also. [00:00:53] And whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him twain. [00:00:59] Give to him that asketh thee, and from him that would borrow of thee, turn not thou away. [00:01:08] All right, Pray with me, if you would. [00:01:11] O Lord in heaven, we confess that we need your help as we study your word tonight. [00:01:18] Please help us. Please help our hearts to be open like the good ground. Help, Lord, our hearts to be receptive. [00:01:27] Lord, help us to take away all distractions from our mind that might be there and to just yield ourselves to you. Please, Lord, we ask you to be our teacher. [00:01:42] And Lord, we ask your blessing upon those who can't be here tonight because of illness and some are traveling. [00:01:49] Think of brother Vernon, and we pray that you'd give him a quick recovery. [00:01:54] And we pray as well that you would bless Pam and Sunny and Ms. Brenda and Ms. Judy and others that are traveling. Lord, please give grace to them and bring them back to us to our fellowship safely. [00:02:10] Lord, we pray that your word would be precious and helpful to us. Lord, you have given us many benefits. Your word has done a mighty work in us. And Lord, I pray that you are our, that we would grow tonight in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior. Just a little bit more as we look in your word in Jesus name, Amen. [00:02:31] Now, if you would hold your place here. And of course, in most of these passages, we've been looking back at the original references that some of these traditional sayings of the Jews, the source of them, look at Exodus chapter number 21 and Leviticus chapter 24, Exodus 21 and Leviticus 24 give you a little example of something to be careful of. [00:03:12] Exodus 21, verse number 24. So here's in Matthew 5, what the Lord is quoting is just like every other case, he is quoting a traditional saying of the Jews, something that's been passed down. Now, interestingly, I don't know how Many of you nerd out. But if you read the man who was the pastor of Metropolitan Tabernacle in London before Charles Spurgeon was a man named John Gill. And he has a lengthy Bible commentary. But the good thing about his commentary is he cites many, many of these traditional sayings that were recorded by the Jews. And so it's helpful to kind of overlap and to see that. And this is one of those traditional sayings. And John Gill, when I was just reading through some things related to this passage, he quotes several of these rabbinical writings that describe the different laws regarding the eye for the eye and the tooth for the tooth. But we want to look at the scripture. Verse number 24 of Exodus 21 says this. [00:04:26] Eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burning for burning, wound for wound, stripe for stripe. [00:04:39] Now, you probably saw when we read the introductory verse to this section that Jesus said, ye have heard that it hath been said, an eye for an eye and tooth for a tooth. The problem with that is that that traditional saying, because it wasn't based on the Scripture but on Tradition, as we've seen before, was in a classic way, cherry picked, lifted. Just as I read just a minute ago in Exodus chapter 21, 21, verse 24, I started in verse 24, but 24 is not the beginning of the thought. [00:05:17] Notice if you go up to 22, verse 22. If men strive and hurt a woman with child so that her fruit depart from her, and yet no mischief follow, he shall be surely punished according as the woman's husband will lay upon him, and he shall pay, as the Judges determine. And if any mischief follow, then now notice what it says. [00:05:39] Then thou shalt give life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, and so on. So that phrase, that sentence, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, occurs in a particular context. And that is key to this. Now look at one more in Leviticus 24. [00:05:59] Leviticus 24, Leviticus 24, verse number 20 says this. Breach for breach, eye for eye, tooth for tooth. As he hath caused a blemish in a man, so shall it be done to him again. And we say, yeah, they hurt me, I can hurt them back. But the problem with that is that's exactly how the Jews interpreted it. [00:06:42] But look at the context. This is why it's important not to get our doctrine from Tradition, but from the Bible. [00:06:49] That's an important distinction. Look at verse number 17 and we'll start to understand the context. And again, this is a repeat of Exodus chapter 24, or 21 rather. So this is covering the same ground, if you will. Verse 17. And he that killeth any man shall be surely be put to death. And he that killeth a beast shall make it good, beast for beast. [00:07:13] And if any man cause a blemish in his neighbor, as he hath done, so shall he, so shall it be done to him, breach for breach, eye for eye, tooth for tooth. As he hath caused a blemish in a man, so shall it be done to him again. [00:07:32] And he that killeth a beast, he shall restore it. [00:07:35] And he that killeth a man, he shall put. He shall be put to death. You shall have one manner of law as well for the stranger as for one of your own country. For I am the Lord your God. [00:07:49] Now, what is the context of this passage of Scripture? [00:07:58] We have both of these passages, and we can kind of compare them to. [00:08:04] To. Let me get back to Exodus real quick. [00:08:14] In Exodus, chapter 21, verse number 24 that I just read a minute ago is. [00:08:23] Well, I'm trying to find the verse and talk at the same time, and it's not working very well. All right, here we go. [00:08:31] In both of these cases, the context is not referring to personal retribution. [00:08:39] In both of these cases, the context is referring to judicial punishment. All right, judicial punishment, that is a key distinction. In fact, back in Exodus, I don't know if you're still there, but if you want to look in there, in chapter 21, verse number 22, we actually read the verse and the word that indicates that this is referring to a judicial context and not to a personal context. Because in verse 22, at the very end, it says, and he shall pay as the judges determine. [00:09:16] Now, there is a difference between a judicial context and a personal context. But here's what happened in the time of Christ. [00:09:26] The eye for the eye, the tooth for the tooth principle, because it was not based on the text of Scripture but on tradition. With tradition, you can just cherry pick the sentence and drop it down into any situation that you see fit. [00:09:43] And this is a fundamental violation of biblical interpretation. You're not just allowed to do that. And that is exactly what they're doing. In fact, this is a perfect illustration in case of ripping a verse of Scripture out of the context and then using it however you see fit. And that is exactly what they were doing. Now, back in Matthew, chapter 5, what were the Jews doing by using verse number 38, an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. Here's what they were doing. Even though that verse was stated in both cases, in Exodus 21 and Leviticus 24, as in a judicial context, in other words, it was guidance. [00:10:27] It was sentencing, if you will, sentencing guidance for judges when a crime was committed. That's why it says eye for eye, tooth for tooth, using general body parts and breach for breach, and those things to give guidance so that there was an equality with the crime and the punishment. So the crime, the punishment matched the severity of the crime. That's all that's being described, right? [00:10:53] That is guidance for judges. What in that context was, what was never permitted or indicated was a license to retaliate against. [00:11:07] Against others. Who do you, do you evil? But because there was no context from the tradition, it was taken right out of this context and used once again, religion was used as an excuse to fulfill the lusts of the flesh. In this case, revenge. [00:11:29] That's what we have here. [00:11:31] Here's the thing. Look at a couple of the verses. Look at one in Proverbs, if you would. I want to show you that this was not the intention of eye for an eye, tooth for tooth. [00:11:41] Look at Proverbs, chapter 20. [00:11:44] This proves this, this point. [00:11:51] Proverbs 20, verse number 22 says this, say not, thou, I will recompense evil. Recompense. You know. Anybody know what that means? It's a simple, simple word. It means to repay reward. He says, say thou not, I will recompense evil. That's what Matthew 5 says. It says, resist not evil. Same idea. [00:12:22] But in this verse, the Lord is saying, don't say this, I will recompense evil, but wait on the Lord, and he shall save thee. Look at chapter 24, Proverbs, verse number 29. [00:12:36] 24, verse number 29 says this, say not, I will do so to him, as he hath done to me, I will render to the man according to his work. So you can see in these two verses and Proverbs, just as an example, does the Lord permit personal retribution? Absolutely not. [00:13:00] Yet the Jews were using a verse out of context, out of context to justify something that God condemned, just to justify something that God condemned. So if you would go back to Matthew 5 and let's look at the rest of the verses. In the section, verse 38 says, Ye have heard that it hath been said, an eye for an eye and a tooth for tooth. So did the Bible say that? Be very careful. Be very careful. Just because someone says the Bible says, and the Bible does actually say that does not mean that it's being used correctly. It does not mean that the application of that thing is correct. And it does not mean that it means what they claim it means. We must look at what the text says and look at it in context because this is a misused verse. Verse 39. Now in, in contrast to the idea of retribution, he hurt me. I'm going to get him back in full measure. [00:14:01] The Lord says this, but I say unto you that ye resist not evil. [00:14:11] That ye resist not evil. And then he gives several kind of examples or qualifications, clarifications if you will, in the following verses, but notice that, that ye resist not evil. Now I gave you one biblical interpretation principle which is you have to look at the context. You can't just extract something out of its context and put it in a different context and make it mean what you want it to mean. Okay, here's the second one. [00:14:37] The phrase that, the part that says that ye resist not evil. [00:14:43] You got to be careful that you. That when we look at this verse, that because this verse has been argued about for hundreds and hundreds of years, it's been used to argue a lot of different things. We have to be careful that when we interpret the verse of Scripture that we do so in light of the whole of Scripture. [00:15:04] So we cannot interpret this one verse to the exclusion and plug our ears and blind our eyes to every other verse of Scripture that is related to this same subject. The Bible is unified. It does not contradict, therefore what this. This must be interpreted in the. In the broader context of the rest of the Scripture. In teaching on this particular subject, for instance, some people have used this verse that ye resist not evil. And they say, see, this is absolute. There are no exceptions, there are no qualifications. We are not supposed to resist evil. [00:15:43] And people have used this verse to justify what is called pacifism. [00:15:51] To say that, for instance, entering the military is something that Jesus forbids. [00:15:57] Which again you got to look at the broader context. People have used it to, to deny the right of self defense because resisting evil. In fact, I know a preacher by the name of John Piper, some of you might have heard of John Piper who actually said that when he was questioned, and I heard this with my own ears, that when he was questioned about with the hypothetical of someone breaking into his house and doing harm to his wife and to his children. [00:16:30] He believes in pacifism based upon verses like this. And he said that he would. That in response to that he would go into another room and pray for those that were doing the harm. [00:16:46] It's a misuse of a verse. You see what I'm saying? This is why we have to interpret it in the broader context. So look at the verse, verse 39, Resist not evil. [00:16:59] So this verse should not be understood in the absolute and strict sense, that is, that we should never oppose any kind of evil. If so, then what in the world was I doing this morning when I was opposing the evil of dishonesty or lying? Right? [00:17:19] What would we do? And in fact, the reason why we got to take it together is because the Scripture is full of commands to resist evil of different sorts and varieties. Let me give you some examples of this. [00:17:32] In Titus, chapter one, Titus chapter three, Galatians, chapter five, Heretics and false teachers are to be rejected and opposed. [00:17:41] In First Corinthians 5:13, the Bible says that wickedness that is found within the church body is to be taken out of the church body. That's opposition, is it not? [00:17:53] Do you remember Ananias and Sapphira? You remember them in Acts chapter five, when they came and lied to the Holy Ghost and Peter confronted them. You know what that is? That's resisting evil. The very fact that Peter confronted them just verbally. [00:18:09] And we know what happened to them. The Lord took their life because they lied to the Holy Spirit. That's a form of resisting evil. [00:18:19] In Exodus chapter 22 and verse number two, if you would look at that real quick, because some of these things I want to see, because I know they're kind of hot button issues a little bit. Exodus 22, Exodus 22 and verse number two. [00:18:52] Now remember, this is the law of God that Jesus said he came to fulfill. He didn't come to change it. [00:19:01] All right? Do you understand why this is important that we look at it? So when he says, you resist not evil. The one who said that believed what we're about to read also, you understand? He believed it. He fulfilled it. [00:19:15] He was not changing it. He was not abrogating it. He was not getting rid of it or canceling it. [00:19:21] So if we were to say, well, this means that you can't defend your home and your Property, well, Exodus 22, verse 2 says the opposite. Look what it says. If a thief be found breaking up and be smitten, that he die, there shall no blood be shed for him. Which is to say, the one who killed him is innocent. [00:19:42] Verse 3. If the sun be risen upon him, there shall be bloodshed for him, for he should make rest, full restitution. If he have nothing, then he shall be sold for his theft. [00:19:53] You see that? So the idea is, and this is talking about goods, this is talking about your home, but the Idea is if someone breaks into your house at night, you don't know why they're there. [00:20:08] You don't know if they're there to harm you, to rob you, or to burglarize or steal your property. You don't know. So you just go off. You start hacking or shooting, as the case might be, right? Shoot first, ask questions later. Ain't that right? That's what you do. [00:20:24] Because you can't see them. You don't know where their intentions are. So in this is not only the defense of property, but also the defense of your life. [00:20:32] And we could go into the different biblical principles regarding self defense, but here's the thing. The fact that this is here shows that resistance to evil is permitted. [00:20:43] The Lord is not saying go high. [00:20:46] The defense of your home, that is permitted. So what the Lord is saying is, what the Lord is not saying is, well, you can't. If anybody's doing anything evil, you can't oppose it. [00:20:57] Not only that, but get this. Jesus himself at the end of his life said to his disciples, even though before he told them not to take a purse, a script basically go out, just completely, completely bare, no provision for themselves at the end of his life. He says something different. In Luke chapter 22, verse 36, he says, if you don't have a sword, paraphrasing, if you don't have a sword, sell a garment and buy one. [00:21:26] That's what he says. Why would he tell anybody buy a sword? [00:21:30] There's only one. It's not for hunting. Okay, it's not for hunting. I don't think a sword would be a very good hunting. [00:21:40] No, the sword was for defense, right? That's the purpose of the sword. [00:21:46] Well, what would you need to be defended from evil? Right? [00:21:53] And that's what Jesus said to do. Not only that, what other, what other examples of resistance to evil do we see in Scripture? Civil government was established by God to resist and to punish evil. [00:22:08] Like the police in the military. Romans, chapter 13. It's all about that. [00:22:12] What we just read in Exodus and in Leviticus is talking about civil government, the judicial system. It's found in the law of Moses. Jesus followed that law, which included the law and the punishments for the law. All of that is forms of resisting evil. [00:22:31] What about our children? Do any of your children ever do evil? [00:22:36] Do you, do you oppose the evil that your children do? I sure hope you do. Because if you don't, you want to do what they call it positive parenting. Joseph. You guys practice positive parenting. I'm sure you are positively gonna get whipped if you don't pay. [00:22:51] No. [00:22:55] When we oppose our children's misbehavior, the evil that they do, what are we doing? [00:23:00] We are resisting evil. [00:23:06] And here's the thing. Look at one more. Look at Proverbs 24, Proverbs 24, verse number 11. [00:23:33] Notice this. [00:23:37] If thou forbear, that means like withhold. [00:23:42] If thou forbear to deliver them that are drawn unto death and those that are ready to be slain. If thou sayest, behold, we knew it not. Doth not he that pondereth the heart consider it? And he that keepeth thy soul, doth not he know it? And shall not he render to every man according to his works? What is this? [00:24:02] This is a statement regarding resisting evil that happens to others, right? And I would say this verse almost rises to the level of a duty to protect others in harm's way. Right? You see that? [00:24:20] Now, going Back to Matthew 5, what is the point? [00:24:26] It's easy to read a verse of Scripture and to read, resist not evil, and to say, well, Jesus didn't mean that. And Jesus didn't mean that. And didn't mean that. And didn't mean that. And didn't mean that. The reason I brought up all of those examples is to show that this is not intended to be taken by the Lord as an absolute and strict. In the absolute and strict sense. It's intended to be taken in the sense in which he is giving it, which is in the sense of personal harm and insults. And that's what we see here. [00:25:01] So let's keep on going through the verses. [00:25:06] Verse number 39 says this. [00:25:09] But whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also. Now, here's what's interesting. In John chapter 18, at the trial of Jesus, a man with open hand slaps Jesus across the face. You guys remember that? [00:25:28] What did Jesus do? [00:25:32] Did he turn his cheek? He didn't. [00:25:35] He didn't. Which is an interesting fact, considering he says this. He didn't. He said, well, let me just. Let me just read it. It's in John 18, verse 23, if you want to look at it. You are welcome to John 18, verse number 23, verse 22 says, and when he had thus spoken, one of the officers which stood by struck Jesus with the palm of his hand, saying, answerest thou the high priest? So that's just a comical statement. [00:26:09] It's hard to even fathom that someone would say that to the Lord Jesus. But they did. Jesus answered him, If I have spoken Evil. Bear witness of the evil. But if. Well, why smitest thou me? Now notice our Lord is not retaliating. What is he doing? [00:26:24] He's pointing out the sin that they have smitten him without giving the reason, which is a violation of the law of God. You know what he's doing? He is rebuking their sin. [00:26:41] See what He's. [00:26:44] He's giving no resistance. Right? He's giving no resistance. He's not retaliating, which is the core of what our Lord is saying here. But he does rebuke them, which tells us, when someone does evil to you, it is perfectly acceptable to rebuke them over it, which is what he did. [00:27:02] Now, going Back to Matthew 5. [00:27:06] Whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if any man will sue thee at the law and take away thy coat, let him have thy cloak also. [00:27:16] And whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him. Twain. So in each case, what do you have? There's three cases here. In each case, what do you have? You have. Excuse me. [00:27:29] You. You have an act of evil committed against yourself personally. Okay. Someone slaps you, someone sues you, someone compels you. [00:27:46] This is a personal injury or insult. This is not in the context of the police or of the government. [00:27:54] It's not in the context of personal defense of life for property. [00:27:59] So you have to remember, this is all in the context of verse 38, an eye for an eye and the tooth for tooth. And it's misuse the idea that the Jews are saying, he said that about me. I'm going to get him. [00:28:15] He insulted me. [00:28:18] He sued me. I'm going to countersue that guy and take everything he's got. [00:28:22] He cut me off. I'm gonna. I'm gonna show him. Right, Brother Ari? I bet you showed that guy, didn't you? [00:28:31] Well, he showed you, too. [00:28:35] This is referring not to any of those things, but to personal insults or injuries. [00:28:43] So the question is this. [00:28:48] When someone does us harm, when someone slanders us, when someone hurts us, when someone. [00:28:57] When someone insults us or does some sort of personal injury against us, what is. Or. Say it's just outside of the religious realm. Say we're driving, or someone's rude in the grocery store or in the line at Starbucks, or just any kind of personal situation like that, which is what we're talking about here. [00:29:21] What is. Before you even have a chance to think, before you have a chance for it to go through your holy Spirit, filter What do you want to do? [00:29:34] You want to answer in kind, right? You want to retaliate. [00:29:40] And sometimes it's hard to catch yourself because it's that flesh comes so fast, right, that anger flashes before you can even really think about it. Thankfully, the Holy Spirit is not bound by the realm of time. So even before we do stupid, he's already ahead of us. So that's a blessing. But that is, it is totally natural and normal to want to retaliate to people that harm you, whether it be physical harm or otherwise. It's totally natural to want to do that. I sometimes like to watch Judge Judy. Y'all know what Judge Judy is? My wife doesn't like Judge Judy. You don't like Judge Judy. Okay, well, whatever judge show you might like. But you know what? You know, what you find here is you find people going after each other, but inevitably it's never one guy is suing another guy for some issue, you know, and there's always personal background, always. But it's always the one guy suing the other guy, and then the other guy is countersuing this guy because he's trying to get back at him. That's the whole. That's the whole way it works. [00:30:46] That is natural. [00:30:50] But what the Lord says here is totally supernatural. [00:30:56] What the Lord says here is supernatural. Even though we want to retaliate in kind to the evil done to us, he tells us to not retaliate and instead do good in return. [00:31:15] That's hard to do. You know, the only way we'll do that is if God is in us and in control of us. [00:31:23] And if we make a conscious decision to do that, because that takes a whole lot of a large pride pill that we have to swallow in order to do that kind of thing. [00:31:36] But here's a. Before we get to the last few verses, I want to look at in regards to these, I just want to. I want to give you a few points regarding these three examples, if you will, that the Lord gives in all three cases. Smiting the cheek, suing at the law, compelling to go a mile. And there's background with that. How the Roman government could force you to carry something a thousand paces, and you had no choice in the matter, which is talking about compelling going a mile. [00:32:07] But in each case, what we're not talking about is we're not talking about defending oneself prior to the insult. We're talking about, you have already been injured. [00:32:18] It's over. They did it. [00:32:20] What are you going to do? [00:32:22] What are you going to do? [00:32:27] Where, as I Said before. In each case, we're dealing with personal insults or injuries, not public policy, not laws and rules and sentences and punishments. [00:32:39] We're not talking about crimes. Crimes. Listen, and this is a difficult thing. People that are Christian, people that are victims of crimes sometimes have difficulty with verses like this. [00:32:53] Should I go to the police? Should I not go to the police? [00:32:57] The context is not dealing with this question. [00:33:02] Again, that's a question of the civil government. This is a question of personal injury. You see the difference there? Is it. That's why the context is so important. [00:33:14] So that's what we're dealing with here. Not crimes, not public policy. None of these things are crimes. All right? The next thing is this. [00:33:23] Whenever this. It says, resist not evil. So whatever of these things, these evil things that are done to me, they are done to me when I did not deserve them. [00:33:35] Listen, if you. [00:33:37] If you give someone an unkind gesture and then they pull in front of you and break check you. I don't want to hear it. [00:33:46] I don't want to hear it. Right? If you're rude and unkind and you mouth off and someone replies to you in that way, and you say, oh, well, they're doing evil. No, you can't claim that. You can't claim that. [00:33:58] So this, this tells us that we are we. These things, these evils are being done to us, even though we don't. We've not done anything to deserve them. That's the third thing, the fourth thing. [00:34:11] These evils are committed against me, not another. [00:34:18] These things are committed against me and not another. Here's the difference. [00:34:23] Is it okay for you and me to resist evil done to others and not done to ourselves? [00:34:34] Absolutely. [00:34:37] See, and actually, in one of the books I was reading through these passages, he actually, the author brings out a very good point, that the main theme in this is actually self, because he talks about giving to those that ask him. Right? [00:34:52] The main theme that he's referring to is the idea of self. [00:34:58] And then the fifth thing is this. In place of retribution. [00:35:03] Give good. [00:35:06] He says, turn to him the other cheek. Give thy cloak also. Go with him, twain. The idea is not only do you refrain from retaliating, on top of that, you do additional. [00:35:25] Look at Romans chapter 12. [00:35:39] Romans 12 is a perfect companion passage of scripture for what we're reading here. Romans 12, verse number 17, verse 17 says this. [00:36:05] Recompense, no man evil for evil. [00:36:10] See that? Resist not evil. They do evil to me. The Lord says, recompense, repay them. No man evil. This is exactly what Jesus was Saying, but this is in the epistles. [00:36:24] Provide things honest in the sight of all men, if it be possible. As much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men. Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath. For it is written, vengeance is mine, I will repay, saith the Lord. Therefore, if thine enemy hunger, feed him. If he thirst, give him drink. For in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head. Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good. And here's the takeaway from that. If someone does evil to us and we retaliate, evil has defeated us. That's what these verses are saying. [00:37:08] If we retaliate in kind, evil has defeated us. It has overcome us because we have now given ourselves to it also. [00:37:19] Now, I know you all, every one of you, all of us in here have known and felt the sting of a personal insult, a personal hurt or harm. [00:37:31] You might actually be dealing with that right now. I mean, because it's constant and oftentimes it happens within your family. [00:37:39] And what we do is we try our best to hold our tongue. We try our best to restrain ourselves. That's not what the Lord says. He doesn't just say, resist. Not evil. That's one thing. But instead of restraining and withholding ourselves from retaliating, which is what we naturally want to do, be careful of anything you naturally want to do. [00:38:06] If you want to do. If you want to do something naturally, it's probably bad. If you want to do something that is a result of the influence of God in your life, that's probably the right thing. But I digress. [00:38:19] So we try to hold back. When someone injures us, we try to hold back and not retaliate. But actually what the Lord doesn't want us to do is just stop there. He wants us to, on purpose, seek out a way to do good to that very person, to do good to them sincerely, intentionally. [00:38:42] You know, what's interesting is if we do that, it can diffuse. It sometimes can diffuse the evil that has come upon us. [00:38:55] So the hard part is just remembering to do that. Going out of your way to do them good, going out of your way to do them good. [00:39:13] It's one thing to pinch your mouth closed and not reply, but it's another thing entirely to go out of your way to bless them. [00:39:22] But that is what the Lord says to do. That is exactly what the Lord himself did when he was on the cross. He repaid good for the evil he received. [00:39:36] He retaliated with good and grace and mercy to those that did him harm. [00:39:46] Now lastly in Matthew 5, I do want to cover the last few verses, or the last verse rather, in this section, verse 42. This verse has caused me a fair amount of trouble in my own mind. [00:40:04] Verse 42, Give to him that asketh thee, and from him that would borrow of thee, turn not thou away. [00:40:16] Okay, just like verse number 39, resist not evil. And how some people have taken this absolutely. As if there's no other verse in the Bible that deals with this subject. So people do that with verse number 42. [00:40:32] But what if you don't have enough? What if you don't have sufficient to provide for your own, your own self and your own family? [00:40:39] So here's the thing. Verse 42, we should be generous. We should be giving. We should have a default generosity about us, right? Kind of a. Our default natural response to people that ask and have needs should be, how can I help them? That's what's being spoken here. [00:41:00] But there are boundaries, scriptural boundaries and principles that deal with that. Let me just give you a couple very quickly. [00:41:07] Are you providing, Are you rather able to provide for your own house? [00:41:13] That is first priority. The Lord does not want you to impoverish yourself so that you can help others. Based upon this verse. You and I, we have a duty to provide for our own. Number one. Number two, First Timothy tells us that we should not be partakers of other men's sins. [00:41:39] So if I give money to this man in verse 42 who's asking me and who wants to borrow from me, but I have a very strong suspicion that he's going to take that money and go out and buy liquor or methamphetamine or some other kind of drug or some other kind of destructive, to fulfill some destructive habit. I am not under an obligation to give it to him in that case. [00:42:08] Right? That's a boundary. [00:42:12] Number three. [00:42:14] If a man who is able bodied is asking for help and he is unwilling to work, the Bible says neither should he eat, I should not give him money. [00:42:29] And just as a practical note, often money is not the best thing to give somebody anyway. [00:42:34] If you want to help them, give them something they can consume at that time that is not fungible, that can be turned into something that shouldn't be. They shouldn't have with those three. Those three. And there's other principles, but with those three. Because I know sometimes we, especially people who are large hearted and they want to help others, they feel they have a conscience about saying no. But lud. But Honestly, if the man is on method and you know for certain that he's going to run out and buy meth, it's okay to say no. [00:43:10] It's okay to say no. In fact, you have an obligation because the Lord says, be not partaker of other men's sins. If the man is able to work and refuses say no. [00:43:22] That doesn't mean you're generous. That means the Scripture is the boundary to what you do. The principles that are the boundary. [00:43:31] But the heart, the intent, the desire is verse 42. Give to him that asketh thee, and from him that would borrow of thee, turn not thou away. [00:43:44] Let's pray together.