S.O.T.M. Go the Second Mile [Matthew 5:38-42]

We come again to verses 38-42, which we looked at last week, to get a better understanding of this challenging section. Last week we focused in on eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth, if you did not hear that message I would encourage you to go listen to it. This week we’re looking at the application of the principle our Lord uses, turning the other cheek, giving of the cloak, going the second mile, and giving to those who ask. All of these are essentially a practical illustration of the point that a Christians life is one of denying self. Our Lord is not giving us an exhaustive list of what to do in every circumstance and condition we meet in life, He’s telling us as a follower of Christ we must die to self! So let’s look at these closer.

Stand for the reading of the word of God Matthew 5:38-42]

In your bulletins is the illustration and the principle. The first principle is...

Turning the other cheek

“I tell you not to resist an evil person. But whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also.” What does this mean in light of the principles we’ve learned from our Lord? It means that we must rid ourselves of the spirit of retaliation, of the desire to defend ourselves and to revenge ourselves for any injury or wrong that is done to us. Our Lord starts on the physical level. He imagines a man coming along and, without any provocation, striking us on the right cheek. Immediately the instinct is to hit back and punish him and to have vengeance. The moment I am hit I want to retaliate. That is what our Lord is concerned about, and He just says simply that we are not to do it. ‘Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord.’

A good illustration of the principle comes from the life of the old evangelist, Billy Bray, who before his conversion was a coal miner that lived a vile life of drunkenness and brawling. After Billy’s conversion, another miner who used to live in mortal dread and terror of the mean and violent Billy, thought he had finally had his opportunity to get Billy. So without any provocation he walked up to Billy and struck him in the face. Billy, who could have revenged himself and laid the man out unconscious on the ground didn’t do so. Instead Billy looked at the man and said, “may God forgive you, even as I forgive you.” The result was that man endured several days of agony of mind and spirit, because he knew what Billy could have done to him but didn’t. Eventually that man was converted... God used Billy through what he didn’t do.

Keep in mind with turning the other cheek, while I, as a Christian, must be prepared to suffer any personal insult or indignity that someone may inflict upon me, I should at the same time believe in law and order. I assert to the biblical authority that the ‘powers that be are ordained by God’ and they are responsible for the restraint of evil, and I as a citizen should be concerned about law and order. That means we don’t turn our eyes from lawlessness but we know God is a God of law and order and when injustices are done they should be restrained and punished as well. For example, if I see the abuse of a child, I don’t turn the other cheek, I go to the defense of that child. Remember these are not mechanical they are principles to understand.

The second principle...

The tunic and the cloak

“If anyone wants to sue you and take away your tunic, let him have your cloak also”

Now what does this mean? It can be put as a principle in this way. Our Lord is concerned here with the tendency to insist upon our rights, our legal rights. He gives this example of a man coming and suing me in a Court of Law for my inner garment. Now according to Jewish law a man could never be sued for his outer garment, though it was legitimate to sue for an inner one. Yet our Lord says, ‘If a man comes and sues you for your [inner] coat, instead of resisting him let him have your cloak [outer] also.’

Here again is a very difficult matter, and the only way of dealing with the problem is to pay close attention to the principle, which is this tendency of men always to demand and insist upon their legal rights. We are all familiar with this at the present time, we talked a great deal about this last week. Isn’t the real problem in the world today is that everybody is talking about his rights instead of seeing to his duties. It is with this tendency that our Lord is dealing here. Men are always thinking of their rights and saying, ‘I must have them.’ That is the spirit of the world and of the natural man who, as one old preacher put it, “man must have his pound of flesh, and insists upon it too.” That is not the Christian spirit. He says we must not insist upon our legal rights even though we may at times suffer injustice as the result.

One might ask, “well what about Jesus and Paul they both at one point seemed to protest and insist on their rights?”

In John 18:19-23, “The high priest then asked Jesus about His disciples and His doctrine. Jesus answered him, “I spoke openly to the world. I always taught in synagogues and in the temple, where the Jews always meet, and in secret I have said nothing. Why do you ask Me? Ask those who have heard Me what I said to them. Indeed they know what I said.” And when He had said these things, one of the officers who stood by struck Jesus with the palm of his hand, saying, “Do You answer the high priest like that?” Jesus answered him, “If I have spoken evil, bear witness of the evil; but if well, why do you strike Me?” Jesus protested this slapping of his face.

In Acts 16, Paul and Silas had been thrown into prison at Philippi and their feet were made fast in the stocks. Then, next morning, after the earthquake and all the other events of that memorable night, the magistrates realized they had made a mistake and sent down an order that Paul and Silas should be set at liberty. But see the reply Paul gave: ‘They have beaten us openly uncondemned, being Romans, and have cast us into prison; and now do they thrust us out privately? no; but let them come themselves and fetch us out.’ And the magistrate had to come down into the prison in order to release them.

How do we reconcile these things? Our Lord here in the Sermon on the Mount seems to be saying that invariably you must turn the other cheek, or if ever you are sued for your coat you must throw in your cloak as well. But He Himself, when He is smitten on the face, does not turn the other cheek, but registers a protest. And the apostle Paul insisted upon the magistrate coming down to release him. If we accept the original principle, there is no difficulty at all in reconciling the two sets of statements. It can be done in this way.

These instances are not examples and illustrations of either our Lord or the apostle insisting upon personal rights. What our Lord did was to rebuke the breaking of the law and His protest was made in order to uphold the law. He said to these men, in effect: ‘You know by striking me like this you are breaking the law.’ [a Jew was never to strike another Jew] He did not say: ‘Why do you insult me?’ He did not lose His temper or take it as a personal affront. He did not become angry, or show concern about Himself. But He was concerned to remind these men of the dignity and honour of the law. And the apostle Paul did exactly the same thing. He did not make a great protest about having been thrown into prison. His concern was that the magistrates should see that by throwing him into prison like that they were doing something that was illegal and were violating the law that they had been appointed to carry out. So he reminded them of the dignity and honour of that law.

The Christian is not to be concerned about personal insults and personal defence. But when it is a matter of honour and justice, righteousness and truth, he must be concerned and thus he makes his protest. When the law is not honoured, when it is flagrantly broken, not in any personal interest, not in any way to protect himself, he acts as a believer in God, as one who believes that all law ultimately derives from God.

Law and laws ultimately come from God. It is He who has appointed the bounds of every nation; it is He who has appointed kings and governments and Presidents and those who are meant to maintain law and order. The Christian, therefore, must believe in observing the law. While he is prepared for anything to happen to himself personally, he must protest when injustices are being done.

This is vitally important we understand the principles because a large number of Christians around the world are facing injustices from governments who are not doing what they were ordained to do, protect their citizens. Some countries have wicked leadership and the people in those nations suffer injustice, the Christian should be ready to stand against that injustice. It’s important to keep this in mind because, while we in America have not seen these kind of injustices done, it may very well be one day we will face them. So we must be clear on how to respond biblically.

The next principle is...

Going the second mile

“And whoever compels you to go one mile, go with him two” Be willing to go the extra mile has been a saying in our culture today. It’s origin came from the Persian empire and was adopted by the Roman empire. America is known for the ‘Pony Express’ the postal service of the old west where by mail was moved by horse back from place to place. That wasn’t invented by Americans, but it was adopted by Persians. The Persian empire invented this postal service or messaging system of riders moving letters, packages, and goods, etc. but to keep it going flawlessly, if by chance the rider or deliverer could not finish his route he could compel a citizen to finish the route for him. The Romans adopted the same system, you can easily see how such a system could easily be abused, and it was.

Israel was an occupied territory under Roman rule. Which meant the Jewish people were legally required to aid and assist Rome when compelled to do so. So you could be going about your business, doing your work and if a Roman soldier came up to you and told you you must carry this baggage, you had to carry it. We see an example of this when Simon of Cyrene was compelled to carry the cross of our Lord when Jesus was unable to. The Jewish people hated this practice because it publically illustrated the humiliation of a people who were not free at all.

But there were limits, the law only required that you carry the load one mile, one thousands paces, beyond that you were not required to carry it any farther. But what does our Lord say? When you reach the required distance the law requires, don’t stop there, don’t drop the load at your oppressor’s feet…carry it another mile. Do it voluntarily, not for a king of this world but for the King of heaven. Obligation dictated the first mile, compassion dictates the second mile.

The Roman soldier would be surprised by such an act as this and would wonder why it is you voluntarily serve your enemy? When we go above and beyond gospel opportunities abound for us to show and tell people. I serve you because I’ve been served. Let me tell you about the one who came to serve us both and who came to serve the whole world and bearing the burden of its sin all the way to the cross.

Here again is a most important and a most practical matter. The principle is that, not only are we to do what is demanded of us, we are to go beyond it is the spirit of our Lord’s teaching here. This passage is concerned with a man’s natural resentment at the demands of government upon him. It has reference to our dislike and hatred of legislation of which we do not approve, to Acts of Parliament, for example, which we do not like and which we have opposed. ‘Yes’, we tend to say; ‘they are passed by our government. But why should I obey? How can I get out of this?’ That is the attitude our Lord is condemning. Let us be perfectly practical.

Take the question of the payment of taxes. We may dislike and resent them, but the principle involved is exactly the same as in being willing to go a second mile. Our Lord says that not only must we not resent these things, we must do them willingly; and we must even be prepared to go beyond what is demanded of us. Any resentment that we may feel against the legitimate, authoritative government of our land is something which our Lord condemns. The government that is in power has a right to do these things, and it is our business to carry out the law. Even further, we must do so though we may entirely disagree with what is being done, and though we may regard it as unjust. If it has legal authority and sanction it is for us to do it. Obviously laws that violet man, such as abortion we are not required to adhere to, but that doesn’t give us the right to oppose everything the government says.

To take this even farther, Peter said in his Epistle [1 Peter 2] “servants, be subject to your masters.” Peter goes on to teach the same principle our Lord teach’s here. Not only are we to do what’s required of us but we should go beyond what’s expected. As Christians, we should be more concerned about our duties then our rights. There is a rebellious spirit in the heart of man and that affects every aspect of life. From doing as the government demands to listening to our boss at work and doing our job above and beyond what’s expected, to listening to our teachers and doing the extra credit work. As a Christian, if you are an employee, you should be the best kind of employee because you always do more than expected of you. If you are an employer, you should be the best kind of employer, because you’re always treating your workers beyond what they expect. If you’re a student you should be the best kind of student always doing extra. etc.

Too many men and women today spend too much time complaining about how their employer does this or doesn’t do that right. Too many employers complain how their employees don’t do enough or don’t do it how it is asked of them. Students complaining about teachers, teachers complaining about students. Too many people complain about the government and how they over regulate and over tax us. If we become excited about these matters, or lose our temper about them, if we are always talking about them and if they interfere with our loyalty to Christ or our devotion to Him, if these things are monopolizing the centre of our lives, we are living the Christian life, to put it mildly, at the very lowest level if at all.

No our Lord says, if you’re doing your job and this soldier comes along and says you have to carry this for a mile, not only do it cheerfully, but go the second mile. The result will be that when you arrive this soldier will say: ‘Who is this person? What is it about him that makes him act like this? He is doing it cheerfully, and is going beyond his duty.’ And they will be driven to this conclusion: ‘This man is different, he seems to be unconcerned about his own interests.’ As Christians, our state of mind and spiritual condition should be such that no power can insult us.

There are thousands of Christian people around the world who are in this position today in occupied countries living under tyrannous rule, and we know not what may be coming to us. It may be that we shall be subjected ourselves some day to a tyrannous power which we naturally hate and which will compel us to do things we dislike. This is the way in which you are to behave in such circumstances, says Christ. You do not stand up for your rights; you do not show the bitterness of the natural man. You have another spirit. We must get into that spiritual state and condition in which we are invulnerable to these attacks which come upon us in different ways.

There is one thing which must be added. This injunction does not say that we are not entitled to a change of government. But this must always be done by lawful means. Let us change the law if we can, as long as we do it constitutionally and in a lawful manner. It does not say that we must take no interest in politics and in the reform of law. Certainly, if reform seems necessary, let us seek to achieve it, but only within the framework of the law. If we believe that a particular law includes injustices, then in the name of justice, not for our own personal feelings, nor for our own private gain, let us try to change the law. Let us be certain however that our interest in the change is never personal and selfish, but that it is always done in the interest of government and justice and truth and righteousness.

The last illustration...

Give to him who asks

“Give to him who asks you, and from him who wants to borrow from you do not turn away.” Of course, this again could be interpreted in a mechanical and literal manner so as to make it ridiculous. But what it really means can be put in this form. It is this denial of self once more. It is just our Lord’s way of saying that the spirit which says, ‘What I have I hold, and what is mine is mine; and I cannot listen to the request of those other people because ultimately I may suffer’, is completely wrong. He is rebuking the wrong spirit of those who are always considering themselves first, whether they are being struck on the face, or whether their coat is being taken, or whether they are compelled to carry the baggage or to give of their own goods and wealth to help someone in need.

With this there is immediately the question of what about those frauds and professional beggars or drunkards? To put it plainly, say for example a man comes up to you under the influence of drink or drugs and asks for money. Though he may say he wants food or something, your initial thought is what? He wants to spend it on more drink or drugs. Our Lord doesn’t encourage us to help such a person. That’s not the way in which our Lord is considering this statement. What He is considering is the tendency of a man because of self, and a self-centered spirit, not to help those who are in real need. It is this holding on to what is mine that He is concerned about.

let me put it like this. We must always be ready to listen and to give a man the benefit of the doubt. It is not something we do mechanically or thoughtlessly. We must think, and say: ‘If this man is in need, it is my business to help him if I am in a position to do so. I may be taking a risk, but if he is in need I will help him.’ As John says in his epistle [1 John 3:17-18] those who have the world’s goods and sees a brother in need should have compassion upon him if the love of God is in him.

Frankly, The man under the influence of drink who asks us for money is not in need, neither is the man who lives by this sort of thing and is too lazy to work. Paul says of such: ‘If any would not work, neither should he eat.’ So your professional beggar is not in need and I do not give to him. But if I see someone that is in need and I have this world’s goods and am in a position to help him, I must do so. The love of God is a love that gives of itself in order to help and strengthen those who are in need.

Finally then, having simply studied these illustrations one by one and step by step, and having considered this teaching, we should see clearly that it takes a new man to live this kind of life. This is no theory for the world or for the non-Christian. No man can hope to live like this unless he is born again, unless he has received the Holy Spirit. It is to the Christian that our Lord addresses this noble, exalted and divine teaching.

It is not a comfortable teaching to consider and I can assure you that it is not an easy thing to spend a week or two or three with a text like this. But this is the Word of God, and this is what Christ would have us be. It deals with our whole personality, down to the little practical details of life. Holiness is not something to be received in a meeting; it is a life to be lived and to be lived in detail by the Spirit. We may be truly interested and moved as we listen to wonderful addresses about giving of ourselves, and so on. But we must not forget our attitude towards legislation which we do not like, and the rates and taxes and the ordinary pin-pricks of everyday life. It is all a question of this attitude towards self which we will look at again next week and how to deny ourselves. God have mercy upon us and fill us with His Spirit.