Ye have heard that it hath been said, "An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth;" but I say unto you, that ye resist not evil; but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also; and if any man will sue thee at the law, and take away thy coat, let him have thy cloak also; and whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him twain. Give to him that asketh thee, and from him that would borrow of thee, turn not thou away. MATTHEW v. 38-42.
Jesus said, at the outset of his Sermon on the Mount, that he came not to destroy the Law or the Prophets; but here we have, apparently, a sharp and clearly defined contradiction. He quotes the old law of retaliation, and in the next breath says: Do not retaliate. If we look beneath the surface, we shall see that this apparent contradiction is not real. The old law was intended to put a stop to personal violence, and this retaliation was the penalty to be inflicted for violation of the law.
What Jesus says has nothing to do with the law itself, and is confined exclusively to the penalty, or to the method of treating the offender after the offence has been committed. He would forbid the infliction of a wrong upon the person of anyone, just as much as would the law. The law would punish the offence in kind, by making the offender suffer the same pain he has inflicted; but Jesus denies the right to do this, and commands an opposite course. He does not interfere with the law, but he reverses the procedure which is to follow its violation. The broad principle on which this course is based is further elucidated in the verses which follow the text.
