Welcome to a firm foundation presented by Princeton Ministries with Dr. Ken Smith. This is Carol Smith, Ken’s wife. Please enjoy.

Without a doubt, the greatest sermon that was ever delivered was preached by Jesus. And it’s the sermon which we call the sermon on the Mount. Among all of the beautiful truths that were found from that sermon on the mount, there is nestled on that mountain, as it were, a small flower that often is unnoticed. Much to my surprise, as I spent time this week looking at various commentaries and seeing what some of the great expositors of scripture had to say on this subject, I was surprised to find that often these verses were jumped over by various expositors of the scripture.

Now, that is not to say that you can’t find a volume of material on the subject, but it did surprise me that in the midst of the sermon on the mount, there would be great peaks that are always to be found in the commentaries and the preaching of ministers through the decades. Well, this little flower, the verse that we will be looking at, Jesus said, whosoever compels you to go 1 mile, go with him, too. This verse has been responsible for one of the great fragrances of the christian faith. And you cannot talk about Christian ethics without referring to this verse. William Barclay says that there are few passages of the New Testament that have more of the essence of the Christian ethic in them than this particular verse. Whosoever compels you to go 1 mile, go with him, too.

Now, to put the verse in context, if you would look in your Bibles, you’ll notice that in Matthew, chapter five, verse 38, Jesus begins this instruction by referring to an old principle taken from the Old Testament. Jesus says, you have heard that it was said, an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. This is perhaps the oldest ethical law that man knows about. It’s been known as the Lex Talionus. It is referred to by us as the law of tit for tat. And so if you should poke out my eye according to this Teaching, then your eye should be removed according to this law. If your tooth is knocked out, then the law would require that he who knocked that tooth out would have his own tooth knocked out.

Well, as we look at that verse, there are some who have said, what a bloodthirsty principle. You mean that’s found in the Bible? Yes. It’s recorded no less than three times in the Old Testament as a principle, the principle of Lex Talionus, tit for tat. And so if you should cut my hand off, your hand is to be cut off. The problem, as we look back on this verse, is that often we don’t realize the context of the world in which this principle was being presented, because the context of that world was a world that believed in revenge, a world that loved and developed various forms of torture. And so the Romans would develop one of the greatest and cruellest tortures of crucifixion. And we find that in the world in which Jesus lived, the principle was not tit for tat.

The principle was that if you should hit me on the cheek, I’ll knock your head off. Not only your head, but anybody who’s in your family. If you should poke my eye out, the principle of that ancient world was that anyone related to you, we will come and destroy that village. So what we have in the Lex Talionus, an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, which Jesus declares as taken from the Old Testament, we have something that to our ears sounds bloodthirsty, it sounds savage. But if we would look at the context of the world and the principle that was being introduced to the world, I think before we criticize, we should notice several facts about this teaching.

First, that the law of Lex Talionus, tit for tat, an eye for an eye, rather than being a bloodthirsty principle, is one that in reality is the beginning of mercy into a pagan world that knew nothing of equal punishment for crime. I remember hearing about the Alca Indians in Ecuador back in the 1950s. Five missionaries went to share the gospel with these savage Indians, these Indians who believed in what they referred to as revenge spearings. And so if they felt that you had put a curse on their cow, an Alca Indian would wait in hiding along the path as you would go by with your family and out of the bush. In revenge, your life would be taken in the members of your family. The Alca Indians, over the course of decades, were decimating themselves, and there were less and less of those Indians.

And into that world walks five missionaries. And on a particular afternoon, they are attacked by a band of alkas. They have rifles. They could have protected themselves, but they shot not a bullet. Their lives were taken. As a result, the gospel of Christ was brought into that tribe. Today, there is a group of growing numbers of christian alchas who do not believe in simply taking a life for a life, nor do they believe in revenge.

But they have breathed into that culture through the spirit of God, the belief of forgiveness, the principle of an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, is that it was to present into that world, the belief that a person who committed a crime ought to be punished for that crime, not members of his family, not people who happen to live on the street with him, but the person who would commit that crime should be punished. Several years ago, Gilbert and Sullivan wrote the words to one of their operettas, let the punishment fit the crime. The punishment fit the crime. And that is what was intended by the Old Testament teaching of an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.

But secondly, that this law of the lex Talionus, an eye for an eye, tit for tat, was never intended for private vengeance. Nowhere in the Old Testament is a person called to revenge for themselves an error that has been done to them. No. Rather, this principle was to be used to guide judges in the courts to exercise punishment for a crime. Third, we must understand that even though it is recorded three times in the Old Testament of this principle of an eye for an eye, that is not the entire teaching of the Old Testament related to ethics. No. Proverbs 25 verse 21, we read, if your enemy is hungry, give him food. If he’s thirsty, give him water to drink. Proverbs 24 Verse 29 says, do not say I will do to him as he has done to me.

Jesus takes this Old Testament principle of the lex Talionus, an Old Testament law, and Jesus takes it out of the dust of the Old Testament. He lifts it up and he blows upon it, and all of the ancient dust begins to settle, as he would hold this Old Testament principle before the eyes of his disciples, to teach them something which the Old Testament was never able to instruct. For Jesus said, do you think I came to destroy the law of the prophets? I did not come to destroy it, but to fulfill. And so Jesus is taking an old Testament truth and is going to breathe upon it the spirit behind the law. And it should come as no surprise if we look at Matthew chapter five, that we find that Jesus has been consistently doing this in the context of that chapter.

For example, Jesus says, you have heard it said that thou shalt not murder taken from the Old Testament, a law that had been encrusted with all types of Jewish legalism. Jesus takes that teaching out of the Old Testament and he blows upon it. The dust settles. And he says, but I say to you, whoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment. Then, as it were, Jesus takes out of the dust of the Old Testament another law, a law that says, thou shalt not commit adultery, that also had been built with all manner of legalism and Jesus takes that teaching on adultery. And he says, but I say to you, whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already commit adultery with her in his heart.

And then Jesus reaches down into the dust of the Old Testament, and he pulls and lifts again another teaching, that teaching. Furthermore, whosoever divorces his wife, let him give her a certificate of divorce taken from the words that Moses spoke. And Jesus breathes upon that law. He says, but I say to you that whoever divorces his wife for any reason except sexual immorality causes her to commit Adultery. Then Jesus reaches again, and he takes out of the dust of the Old Testament a teaching that we should not swear falsely, but shall perform our oaths to the Lord. And Jesus says, but I say to you, do not swear at all. Then Jesus reaches into that Old Testament dust, and he raises before the eyes of his followers. You have heard it said, an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.

And Jesus says, but I tell you not to resist an evil person. He gives examples. He says, if someone should smite you on the right cheek, then turn your other cheek. If someone wants to come to you and take away your coat, then you be willing to give him the cloak that would cover that coat. And then he raises before us this beautiful flower. And whosoever compels thee to go 1 mile, go with him too. Jesus, in this Context, is talking about personal injury. He’s talking about physically being attacked. He’s talking about someone who had come to sue you, someone who would personally want to take advantage of you. What is the christian response to such a person?

I believe if anyone who has been personally injured will begin to apply the truths of this portion of scripture to your life, that you are going to see tremendous things begin to take place in your personal relations. When was the last time that someone asked you to walk a mile with them? Probably it has never happened. But for us to understand these verses, it’s important to understand that in the reign of King Cyrus, who is the king of Persia, he is known as having established the first national postal system, and having established that system of carrying letters throughout his kingdom, there was a word that was used to describe the carrier who would be the postman. In the days of Cyrus, the word was Agwugarian. It’s the word that is used here in this context.

It is a Greek word that simply means courier, one who carries a burden. Now, as time went along, the Romans took this concept of compelling someone to carry a burden, and they developed it to the point that if you were a Roman centurion coming home from the battle, you could stop someone who was not a Roman citizen and compel them to take your baggage and to carry it 1 mile. And that was the law of Rome. And if you would deny a roman citizen that privilege, then you’d be put in prison. But at the same time, they could not compel you to walk more than 1 mile. And so as you would carry that burden for this centurion, you would know how many paces would make a mile.

And as soon as you would step that number of paces, you would stop, and You would say, I have completed the carrying of the burden. And then the centurion would look for someone else, and he would grab them out of the crowd or off the path, and they would have to pick up that burden and carry it another mile. Can you imagine a Jew walking quickly home to dinner or perhaps to a business meeting or perhaps to be with his family? And as he is trying to get there in time, suddenly he sees coming a centurion under the weight of some burden, some great amount of suitcases, and there you are. And you see him, and you lower your eyes, hoping that he will not catch yours.

For if he should say to you, take my burden, that you would take it for the next mile, and then you would have to return home an additional mile. Well, that was the world in which you could be conscripted to carry another man’s burden. I assure you that this verse in the days in which Jesus spoke was not a verse that was unnoticed when Jesus would say, if someone should compel you to walk 1 mile, go two. There are only four ways that we can respond to evil, that we can respond when someone would come to us and put us in a suffering, an affliction. One of those ways is if they should show evil to us, that we in turn for evil would show good, and that would be a good thing. But what about those who show good?

There are in this world some who, when they receive good, exchange it for evil. And so you’re walking the streets with your pocketbook, being a good citizen, kindly, and someone would run and snatch your pocketbook. And that which is good is taken advantage of, and evil occurs. I think we can only say of that that is devilish and that certainly is not the principle of christian response to that which is good. But then there are others who, when they receive evil in like manner, return evil for evil. That is really the law of the jungle. You ever stepped on the tail of a lion? He’ll turn around and sink his fangs into your leg. You ever seen dogs? As one would bite another, they would exchange evil for evil. And that becomes the principle of beasts.

Then there are some who, when good occurs to them, are able to show kindness and goodness. I think this is a human trait. And Jesus responds to this, and he says, well, if you should show good to someone who is good to you, doesn’t even the tax collector, don’t even sinners do that? Why? That’s a human instinct. And so if someone should say good morning to you will automatically say, good morning. But if they should not greet you, perhaps after a period of time, you say, well, why should I say good morning? They don’t say good morning to me. But then there is a fourth response. And that is, when good is done to us, excuse me. When evil is done to us, that we would in turn do good. The last time that someone has done evil to you, how did you respond?

Did you simply return evil for evil? Or did you return good for evil? I remember a person several years ago who had done me great hurt. And I found myself in a situation where there he was. And everything in me found it so difficult even to raise my hand to say hello. And I thought to myself for a moment, what shall I do? Shall I exchange evil for evil? Pretend that I don’t see him? And a debate went on in my mind. I decided, no, I will show good. And it was as though there were a weight on my arm just to simply go and to shake hands and say, how are you doing? Yet I think each of us is constantly confronted by various forms of evil.

For which we would respond, all too often in a human way, by exchanging evil for evil. I think that the principle that Christ would present to us is that when evil comes to us, that we are to respond with good. That was the case of Abraham. Abraham, who gave the choice to lot as to which property he would take. And lot took the best property. But when he would learn that lot was taken captive, Abraham would go to save the life of his nephew. It’s the same truth of Joseph, who by his brothers was sent into prison, finds himself for years imprisoned. And when he finally meets his brothers, he says, you all meant it for evil, but God meant it for good. And rather than exchange evil for evil, he exchanged good for that evil.

What about your neighbors, your friends, the people who you work with, live with? What is the principle that you use with them simply to exchange evil for evil? Until you become good? I will not treat you properly until you become kind. I will not be kind to you until you become loving. I will be unloving. Or is the principle Christ like that? Even though you would show me evil, I will show you good. Justin Martyr said this, we who once hated and murdered one another, we who would not enjoy the hearth in common with strangers on account of the differences of our customs. Now we live in common with them. Why? Since the appearance of Jesus Christ, we pray for our enemies. We seek to persuade those who hate us to direct their lives to Christ.

Phillips Brooks was one of the most well respected ministers in Boston in the last century. And it was said of Phillips Brooks, it was not until you had done him a wrong that you felt the full brunt of his love. The principle that Christ has given to us is that even though it is a burden, even though it would seem so toilsome if someone should come to you and ask you to go a mile with them, Jesus said, even if they would compel you to go

Mile, go two thank you for listening to a firm foundation presented by Princeton ministries. This programming is supported by you, the listener. You may go to our website, princetonministries.org, or send your donation to Princeton Ministries post office Box 2171, Princeton, New Jersey 8543. That’s Princeton Ministries post office Box 2171, Princeton, New Jersey 8543. The Lord bless you, and Dr. Smith looks forward to hearing from you. We would like to thank Rones web development company for making this webcast possible. You can find their link at the bottom of our website, princetonministries.org.