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Bro. Turner:
 Is
a Christian to give all or load all he has to anyone who asks? Is Matt.
5:42 to be taken literally, or does it teach an attitude of mind?
Reply:
Let
us put the passage in its context: “Ye have heard that it was said, An
eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth: but I say unto you, Resist not
him that is evil: but
whosoever smiteth thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other
also. And if any man would go to law with thee, and take away thy coat,
let him have thy cloak also. And whosoever shall compel thee to go one
mile, go with him two. Give to him that asketh thee, and from him that
would borrow of thee turn not thou away.” (Matt. 5:38-42, A.R.V.)
Jesus
is teaching against taking vengeance or retaliation.
Put positively, Jesus urges mercy, with good grace and cheerfulness in
the place of resentment. A Christian returns good for evil, unselfishly.
Extreme
literalism would serve neither the contextual purpose of the teaching,
nor the actual examples in Scripture. (Pulpit Commentary says, “We may
notice that while our Lord most perfectly observed the spirit of this
command, he did not slavishly follow the letter of it (cf. Jn.
18:22-23). Nor did St. Paul (cf. Acts 16:35-ff: 22:25; 23:3; 25:9-10)”)
The
limited mercy of the “tit for tat” principle —(and “eye for eye”
was a limitation upon the vengeance which a judge could assess)— was
now to give
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way to the more noble principles of Christ,
whereby man learned to practice the “agape” love which God manifests
toward His creatures.
Business
loans are not under consideration here. Christ sanctioned the making of
money with money— via interest (Matt. 25:27), and in such loans sound
business principles would have to prevail. Nor do I believe Jesus was
urging indiscriminate giving. Note; 2 Thess. 3:8-10; Titus 3:14. Some
are unworthy of our assistance, and we are told not to encourage them in
their lazy unproductive ways.
The
Old Testament laws regarding usury or interest do not, in my opinion,
forbid business deals for such. Special consideration was given the “brother”
over strangers (Deut. 23:19-20), but usury laws were aimed particularly
against profiteering on the ill-fortune of others, or so as to “make
capital” of others’ desire to serve God. (See Lev. 25:35-f. Neh. 5.)
Now Jesus goes to the heart of these earlier laws: showing that measured
retaliation, and giving (without usury) to “brethren” is not enough.
We are to cultivate a generous, unselfish, “2nd. mile” attitude far
exceeding anything found in the Old Law.
“Give
to him that asketh of thee” is in the same vein, and teaches the same
general truth as “Resist not him that is evil... turn to him the other
also... let him have thy cloak... go with him two.” It establishes an
ideal toward which we can spend a lifetime of seeking, pressing, and
striving. As certain also of our own poets have said, “The gift,
without the giver, is bare,”
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