{"id":3840,"date":"2013-12-18T21:11:29","date_gmt":"2013-12-18T21:11:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pjhmail.wordpress.com\/?p=3840"},"modified":"2013-12-18T21:11:29","modified_gmt":"2013-12-18T21:11:29","slug":"eye-for-an-eye","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/3840\/eye-for-an-eye\/","title":{"rendered":"“eye for an eye”"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Pastor John,<\/span><\/p>\n

I was just reading in Matthew\u00a05:38-40\u00a0\u00a0and found this…<\/span><\/p>\n

You\u2019ve heard that it was said, \u2018An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth,\u2019\u00a0but I say to you, do not resist evil.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0On the contrary, whoever strikes you on the right\u00a0cheek, turn the other one to him, too.\u00a0\u00a0And to him who would sue you to take away your tunic, give him your cloak as well.\u201d<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

So, what was Jesus saying to “do not resist evil”, and then he speaks contrary\u00a0to\u00a0what was in God’s law?\u00a0 Is that the difference between old and new covenants?\u00a0 I want to learn what we read about the other night and to think with God’s thoughts … but then this stumped me \ud83d\ude42<\/span><\/p>\n

Leah<\/span><\/p>\n

===============<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Hi Leah.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

It is difficult to see sometimes, but there is a difference between speaking beyond the law and speaking contrary to the law. \u00a0In those verses, Jesus was not speaking contrary to the law; he was going beyond it, to a higher, holier standard. Look at Jesus’ other, similar sayings in this section of his Sermon on the Mount, in particular what he said about murder:<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

21. You\u2019ve heard that it was said to those in the past, \u2018You shall not murder,\u2019 and \u2018Whoever commits murder shall be liable to the Judgment.\u2019<\/span><\/p>\n

22. But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother without cause will be liable to the Judgment,<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

and what he said about adultery:<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

27. You\u2019ve heard that it was said, \u2018You shall not commit adultery,\u2019<\/span><\/p>\n

28. but I say to you that any man who looks at a woman with lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Technically, someone could argue that those two statements of Jesus were contrary to the law, but actually, they were beyond the law, on a higher, spiritual plain.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

In the section you quoted, it is more difficult to see, but the principle behind what Jesus said is the same. \u00a0We see that principle more clearly in John 8:1-11, in the case of the woman caught in adultery. \u00a0There, Jesus did not contradict the law’s judgment; he merely insisted that the right person enforce it.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Hope that helps.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Pastor John<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Pastor John, I was just reading in Matthew\u00a05:38-40\u00a0\u00a0and found this… You\u2019ve heard that it was said, \u2018An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth,\u2019\u00a0but I say to you, do not resist evil.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0On the contrary, whoever strikes you on the right\u00a0cheek, turn the other one to him, too.\u00a0\u00a0And to him who would sue […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3840","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-qa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3840"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3840"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3840\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3840"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3840"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3840"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}