>27 “But I say to you who hear, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, 28 bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. 29 To one who strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also, and from one who takes away your cloak do not withhold your tunic either. 30 Give to everyone who begs from you, and from one who takes away your goods do not demand them back. 31 And as you wish that others would do to you, do so to them.
So there's the oft cited explanation for a couple of the verses in here which are said to be about 'fighting back smartly without the need for violence' or similar. Knowledge of ancient Roman culture is bought in to support this such as:
Turn the other cheek = force the slapper to backhand you and therefore slap you as an equal, as open palm slaps were for people below you (might have been the other way round i can't remember) and the fact that slapping with the left hand wasn't the done thing.
There's also a similar explanation about the 'going the extra mile.' I thought this was pretty neat to read about, and its normally highly enlightening when meanings are expounded by those with indepth knowledge of the time and place and intended audience something was written in/to that we modern readers without that knowledge wouldn't obviously see in the text. But coming across it in Luke the other day, I'm struggling to see how these meanings fit in their context?
The whole passage is about loving your enemies? I know love is about willing the good of the other, and not necessarily being 'nice' and a doormat, but the 'fighting back smartly' reading really jars with the whole tone of this set of passages does it not? To me it seems that it just doesn't fit with the immediate passages and verses around it? What would be the point of fighting back smartly? What would be the point of embarrassing the transgressor in front of their fellow men, in their time and culture? Shouldn't Christians be more concerned with making a transgressor realise their sin, which is eternal and unchanging, which they will have to answer for in front of a Holy God? And that is the real moment of "embarrassment" or "shame" (to put it extraordinarily lightly) that we should be concerned with making the trangressor, or at least those around the transgressor aware? I just don't see the purpose of trying to 'fight back smartly' by way of making fools of others? To what end does it serve? Some 'heh c we xtians smarter dan u fink silly romans lol made u blush xDDD. wanna convert cos we cool?' thing? Surely not. Sorry if this is a dumb post.
>32 “If you love those who love you, what benefit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. 33 And if you do good to those who do good to you, what benefit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. 34 And if you lend to those from whom you expect to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, to get back the same amount. 35 But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return, and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, for he is kind to the ungrateful and the evil. 36 Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful.
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