Luke 6:29 Commentary - Dr Peter Masters

Navigator

Luke 6:29

Comments

Now the Lord Jesus Christ gives practical examples. There is the heading of the sermon, there are the three points, and then there are the practical examples and illustrations on the end, the personal application is doubled up upon. ‘Unto him that smiteth thee on the one cheek offer also the other and him that taketh away thy cloak forbid not to take thy coat also.’ We can see that this is not to be taken literally. The way in which he begins – ‘unto him that smiteth thee on the one cheek offer also the other’ – is so preposterous in a way that it's quite plain that it is a figure or an illustration. Obviously it was a proverbial saying at the time, something of that kind. But what it means is this: don't retaliate or take revenge, don’t avenge yourself the instant you get insulted. Indeed don’t avenge yourself at all, even if it leads to further hostility. That's what it means. Somebody strikes you on the one cheek, offer the other. It means, yes, even if you know that being patient and absorbing the insult is going to immediately result in another, you must be ready for that. ‘Oh but this attitude as a Christian which I am to manifest, is not going to be a sensible policy, because I know him this person; if I don't cut him off straight away he will only do the same thing again.’ It doesn't matter. And if you know that the correct attitude is going to make matters worse, you carry on with the correct attitude, with courtesy and patience and calmness, and on no count show vindictiveness and retaliation. That is what the expression means. You may leave yourself exposed to further insult and injury; it doesn't matter. You do what is right in this dealing with the personal relationships with your enemies. You are trying to win the person, and your reasonable behaviour may be used to convict him, but there are other things going on as well. You are avoiding being overcome by evil and returning the same in kind. You are also having a witness towards him which will leave him without excuse, something that God will remind him of on the Day of Judgment.‘And him that taketh away thy cloak forbid not to take thy coat also.’ The cloak stands for the outer garment, the coat the next garment. Some more modern versions try to render it with coat followed by shirt. At least, that does justice to the picture. The idea is that you are gradually having your outer clothes taken away. Once the cloak is gone then the coat is next. And that goes and then perhaps the shirt or the flowing robe is next. In other words, be willing to be insulted in a way that strips you stage by stage of your dignity and self-respect rather than retaliate, rather than get into a hostile verbal fight, rather than get into an unworthy, unChristian and wrong response. It's the same illustration, and has the same meaning as that of turning the other cheek. It means you will respond in a right and proper way according to God's standards even if it gets you into deeper trouble and into greater hurt.

Application

There are much deeper things in life than our dignity. There are much more important things. Our project, our assignment in life is to represent the Lord and to think in terms of grace being poured out upon those around us, even our enemies and salvation. Grace is everything. We're engaged in building relationships for witness. That's our assignment. I go to work for this company, I go to study at this college, I am in my family, and what is my assignment? To engage in battles, verbal battles, showing hostility to those around me? No, my duty and my assignment from the Lord is to build relationships for the purpose of salvation and grace. I have always got that in mind. Whoever it is, that is my highest aim. Relationships for the demonstration of Christian character and for making a way for the gospel.

Christ is telling his disciples that it doesn't matter what men do to them for his name's sake, and remember that persecution was very rife in those early days of the early church, and indeed it is prevalent in these days in some parts of the world. But he is saying to Christians under persecution, it doesn't matter if they take everything away from you. It doesn't matter what they do to you. You are the people who are truly blessed, in the scales of eternity, and have joy and peace and something to live for.

And all the vehemence of hell and Satan and all the forces of this world and all the persecution and enmity imaginable cannot shake that man's spiritual house. Because he's related to the Lord and he knows him and he loves him and God has changed him. It's a spiritual house, not a self-made house. And God will hold him and keep him. He's a child of God. He will be strengthened by God and marvellously rewarded. God will in a remarkable way vindicate himself and make himself real to him.

Questions

This is not about the forfeiting of your proper social, public, legal rights. It doesn't mean to say that a Christian can never go to law. It doesn't mean to say that your neighbour can tear down your boundary fence, build across your garden, do what he likes, when he likes, how he likes, and you never make any response and that you forfeit and forego your legal and proper rights in society. It isn't talking about that at all. Indeed, in society, some of those rights are God-given. They were provided for, for God's people in Old Testament times, by the very sanction of the Lord: social and public and legal rights are the will of God, and when they are properly provided for, we have a perfect right to use them. But what this passage is talking about is our verbal, deed, prayerful attitude to people. We are never to respond in kind. We are never to do to them what they do to us. We are never to speak to them in an unreasonable or in a hostile way. If we should come to the point where we are obliged to protect ourselves at law, either as a church or as individuals, then they will be quite stunned by the manner in which we do that, and the unfailing courtesy we continue to exhibit and the reasonableness and the proper and honest and just way we go about it. So it's not about the forfeiture of our rights. It doesn't mean to say we can never speak to a person about their unreasonableness or remonstrate with them or seek to get wrongs put right. But we are never to retaliate, and we are never to do it in a hostile, worldly, rude, slanderous manner. We are always to do things in such a way that we would not be ashamed to pray for them at the same time.

Outline

Purpose

Introduction

Luke 6:29 Commentary and Bible Study