Always Turn the Cheek?
So What Do You Do?
Steve Martin
"You have heard that it was said, 'An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.' But I tell you not to resist an evil person. But whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also.” (Matthew 5:38-39, NKJV)
“Love, love, love. All you need is love” were popular song lyrics growing up in the ‘60s and ‘70s, made famous by a foursome who needs no introduction. So, I won’t. At one time they declared they were more popular than God. I wonder what some of them believe now.
In this edition of “So What Do You Do?” I want to write of another common thought that has been held by believers in the Living God for far too long. It is that false misconception that Christians are to simply allow others to walk over them, give out “love, love, love’, and all will be just dandy.
Jesus Himself did say, as quoted above, “whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also.” And yet when the Sadducees and the Pharisees spoke out loudly against Him in the public market, what did He do? In Matthew 12:34, He spoke right back at them, “You brood of vipers, how can you, being evil, speak what is good? For the mouth speaks out of that which fills the heart.” (NASU)Jesus was no coward and did not walk in fear.
There are plenty of examples in the full Bible, including what we call the Old Testament, where God the Father, whom the Son of God revealed to us when He, Jesus, walked this earth, destroyed those who broke His laws and killed His people. Did He just “turn the other cheek” and let His everlasting love overrule His righteous acts of judgment? He certainly did not.
God the Father and Yeshua (Jesus) are the same. “I and the Father are one," Jesus said. (John 10:30, NASU)
We are to take the whole Bible, from Genesis to Revelation, as the roadmap to life. One verse doesn’t give the entire picture of the Lord’s heart. If we are to know Him and follow after Him, we must understand Him and His ways.
When people and nations resist, reject, and seek to remove the eternal laws that the God of the Universe has put in place, for our protection and well-being, we also are not just to turn the other cheek and let them have their way. While we are certainly to pray against the forces of darkness that envelope the hearts and minds of people, at the same time we must take proper and righteous stands to uphold what we know to be right.
Am I calling for civil war? No. Am I seeking to speak the truth and be heard? Yes.
We are called to speak out against those who seek to murder unborn babies; steal and destroy the lives of innocent children for sexual pleasure; and force on us ungodly social media propaganda as “rights” people have.
We are called to stand against anti-Semitism and racism.
When we allow “whatever will be to be”, we continue to lose the solid ground founded on true freedom, of living within safeguards in place for both ourselves and our children. When we let the ungodly take over our schools, government, and religious institutions in the name of “tolerance” and unholy “love”, we face the reality that our choice in seeking and obeying the heavenly Father will no longer be allowed, as it will “inhibit the freedom” of others, or so they will have us to believe.
When we let down our guard, and not give any resistance to those who seek to take away what we have been given by God to us, we will have no one to blame but ourselves.
There are times when we are to turn the cheek and take what comes as being believers in the Lord. They hated Him. They will and do hate us.
There are also times when He will direct us to stand up, declare the truth, and not back down when the enemy comes at us. I wouldn’t let someone come into my house and kill my family without putting up a fight. Neither should you.
Our American founding fathers fought the good fight – literally behind the pulpit and on the front lines. So did our grandfathers, grandmothers, fathers, and mothers give their lives to stop evil from taking over other nations.
Martyrs throughout history gave their lives speaking out against those siding with the devil, who was killing, stealing, and destroying lives.
I expect to be martyred someday. Many of our fellow brothers and sisters in other nations are already giving their lives even now as they have lived for the Lord and now die in His arms. But until that day comes, I will not go down, sitting around, letting our world go to hell, without putting up the glorious fight of faith.
Be one wanting to know His full ways, always, and then share them with the world He has put us in.
Ahava and shalom,
Steve Martin
Founder/President
Love For His People ministry
Charlotte, North Carolina
P.S. If you think I am stopping my regular messages, Now Think On This, have no fear! I certainly am continuing those, and they will appear on our current website, Love For His People, and our new one that will be in the works this summer, for its fall debut.
These messages will also be posted on our Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn pages. Yeah!
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Love For His People, Inc.
P.O. Box 414
Pineville, NC 28134
Todah rabah! (Hebrew – Thank you very much.)
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“Always Turn the Cheek?”, #4 - in the year of our Lord 07.16.19 – Tuesday, 6:45 pm
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