Matthew 5:40 Commentary and Bible Study

Rather than taking revenge, the Christian is not to resist an evil person. Christ gives this concrete example in which someone is being sued for his coat. Why would that happen? Most commentators have identified this as something that takes place in connection with the giving of a pledge. You are a poor person and you have gone to ask for a loan from a better off person, and he wants a pledge from you to make sure that you will repay the loan, so you offer him your coat – the word ‘coat’ refers to the inner garment, the tunic, or we might say ‘your shirt’. But the lender is now threatening to go to law because by his reckoning, you have failed to repay the loan. He wants to go ahead and take the pledge, your inner garment. The assumption behind Christ’s illustration is that you are being wrongly accused and taken advantage of. Nevertheless, you are not to resist an evil person, and in this case you will give him what he unjustly asks for. Does he want to take away your inner garment? Very well, let him have your outer garment as well, which he did not ask for. Not only should we forfeit our rights and be ready to pass over revenge when we might be entitled to insist on it, but even in a case when we are obviously being taken advantage of and even defrauded, we should act graciously. Especially is this the case when for some reason the law is not on our side. The law of Moses put in place protections for situations like this (Exodus 22:26-27; Deuteronomy 24:12-13). In spite of the fact that the pledge had been given, the lender was not to force his way into the poor man’s house to take the pledged coat; and he must return it at sunset, even though the loan had not been repaid, because the poor man’s coat was so important to him: it was like a skin to cover him; it was all he had. The law constantly mixed mercy with justice, for mercy is to be part of the fabric of the believers life, and mercy is one of the weightier matters of the law.And yet Christ says we are not to resist unreasonable behaviour. Is this to be followed to the letter so that we must always capitulate to the unjust and unreasonable demands of those who would take advantage of us? Are we being disobedient to Christ if we do not in every case buckle before the wicked? Again, we learn how to interpret this instruction but seeing how the Lord Jesus Christ himself acted in such situations. We have already seen that when he was struck on the cheek during his trial, he did not literally turn the other cheek, but addressed the conscience of the evildoer. So then, is this teaching only a metaphor which we do not literally have to carry out? We ought to be very careful before saying that. The young Christian who reads this in God’s word may feel it is right to obey Christ to the letter. There is in the carrying out of this command from the Lord a perfect lesson in how to adopt that inner attitude that God requires of us. Why must we not resist evil? Because God has ordained that for a time evil will prevail in the world. The believer would despair if he thought that state of affairs would continue for ever. He lives in hope that God will judge the world and end all wickedness. But for now he is instructed to concentrate on his own behaviour, not the other person’s. He is under training in this life. He is to imitate the Lord who bears with evil graciously. God has a purpose even in allowing evil to be done to us in this fallen world. The giving of the outer garment when only the inner garment was asked for is a step which eliminates something from the heart of the believer in a very effective way. It purges out of him that insistence on immediate justice and the upholding of his rights which can so easily arise out of pride and self-importance. Sin cannot be entirely removed from within our hearts; not till the resurrection will we be free from it. But the carrying out of acts which directly contradict the wishes of the old nature, are effective by the power of the Spirit in mortifying and weakening it. The same spirit which is ready to yield up the outer garment in addition to the inner garment should always be in us. But as Christ did something else as well – even though he did not become resentful or angry, nevertheless he rebuked the sinner – so we too will learn to respond with wisdom, without letting go of the fundamental lesson embedded in this command.Now the disciples were being been prepared for Jewish hostility. After Christ had been put to death and had risen from the dead and ascended into heaven, and the power of the Spirit had come down upon the new church and thousands of Jews became believers, they were going to suffer tremendous hostility from the majority of Jews. They would have to practise community of goods and look after each other because so many had been thrown out of their homes and dispossessed and disowned by their families. They could not solve every problem by going to law; they could not get perfect justice in this world. They had to learn that their testimony was more important than the obtaining of justice.