Yielding our Rights

“You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ But I say to you, Do not resist the one who is evil. But if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if anyone would sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. And if anyone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles. Give to the one who begs from you, and do not refuse the one who would borrow from you.”

(Matthew 5:38-42 ESV)

 

We’ll soon be celebrating our nation, we’ll soon be celebrating our freedom, as we ring in the 4^th of July. And these are blessings that are rightly celebrated. Living where we do is a great blessing, as are the freedoms we enjoy.

 

We sometimes, however, become quite stubborn when it comes to our freedoms. We become quite stubborn when it comes to protecting and maintaining our rights. And, on the surface, this makes sense. It makes sense because, if we surrender them, we’re not likely to get them back.

 

It can get to the point, however, where we worship them. It can get to the point where they become more important than anything or anyone. They become more important than even our neighbor.  And we’re unwilling to lay them aside, even briefly, for the welfare of those around us.

 

We see this as we look at the passage above. We believe that we have an inherent right to protect ourselves. We believe that we have a God-given right to protect our well-being and our possessions. And for this reason, we find the principle of “an eye for an eye” quite appealing.

 

Jesus, however, makes us rather uncomfortable. He tells us that we’re not to resist the one who is evil. He tells us that, if someone slaps us on the right cheek, which is more of an insult than an attack, we should turn to him the left. He tells us that, if someone sues us for our tunic, we should let him have our cloak as well. He tells us that, if anyone forces us to go with him one mile, we should go with him two.  And he tells us to give to the one who begs of us and that we’re not to refuse the one who would borrow from us.

 

This is something that’s hard to wrap our mind around. We feel that, if we put these words into practice, we’re allowing ourselves to be abused and we’re allowing others to take advantage of us.

 

This is exactly the point. We’re far too worried about such things. We’re far too worried about people taking advantage of us. And we’re far too worried about being abused.

 

Our tendency is to quickly retaliate. Our tendency is to hold tight to what is ours. And our tendency is to protect our rights before others.

 

If we are to err, however, Jesus would not have us to do so on the side of retaliation. And he would not have us do so on the side of selfishness. He would have us err on the side of yielding, of giving, and even being taken advantage of.

 

If we’re to err, we should always err on the side of loving our neighbor. We should always err on the side of extending grace. And we should always err on the side of generosity.