Turn the other cheek?

I just read a very interesting blog post here. In this blog post a pastor rants about his anger towards people who had stolen the trailer in which they stored many of the tools they used in their ministry. The pastor goes on to tell about how they (the church) has forgiven the individuals that stole the trailer, but that there are consequences for this and that if they (the church) found these individuals as he said, “I can promise we will kick the crap out of you.” He then goes on to say, “As soon as I hit publish on this blog post a church of about 1000 crazy people will know that our black, children’s trailer has been stolen and I can promise they will be on the lookout for it. You would much rather me find you then one of them.”

I think of two verses when I read this,

 Matthew 5:39 (NIV) “If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. and if someone wants to sue you and take away your tunic, let him have your cloak as well.” I like the way The Message paraphrase says it even better, “Don’t hit back at all. If someone strikes you, stand there and take it.”

Or, how about Ephesians 4:26 where Paul tells us, “Be ye angry, and sin not” (KJV).

While I do not condemn this pastor, or his congregation, I do question his stand. I have given two examples of where the bible tells us not to retaliate against those that sin against us. Heck the Lords prayers asks that God, “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those that trespass against us. If this how we “forgive” those that trespass against us, then how is it that we should expect God to “forgive” us.

I certainly don’t claim to know everything there is to know about everything. As such I ask anhybody reading this to show me the scripture that tells us we should respond in this manner. Again, I amnot judging this pastor for his post, I just question the wisdom of it. As Paul said in 1 Corinthians 10:23, “Everything is permissable - but not everything is beneficial. Everything is permissable - but not everything is constructive.”

This entry was posted on July 14, 2008 at 07:13 and is filed under Thoughts on Things. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.

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