I think that the Bible is pretty clear on what Matthew 5 is saying. Simply read it word-for-word. There is no ambiguity or exception. (Just like there is no exception on the 2nd amendment.) It is just that if you keep turning the other cheek, soon you will have run out of cheeks to turn.
The cheek obviously was metaphorical, as Peter asked Jesus how many times a person ought to forgive another for a sin or injustice done against him (Seven Times?). Jesus' succinct answer was, "seven times seventy!". If you want be legalistic, you could say, that after infraction/sin number "490", your allowed to wack off the bad person's head or do them in, and God is not displeased. That's the way of the traditionalistic, legalistic Pharisees, and scribes of Jesus' day. They displayed religiosity on the outside, but as Jesus referred to them, they were white washed tombs. I.E. Empty or devoid of life on the inside.
Jesus of course didn't say "seven times seventy" as a limit-point, but as a way of communicating, that the Christian, must never stop "forgiving" those who trespass or sin against he or she or anyone, or God.
He didn't say not to defend one's self.
Folks have a hard time separating out being judgemental, and being discerning. So often, the Christian is called, "homophobic" or other monikers because they call things as they see them in respect to scriptural/biblical truths. Folks also don't understand that the Christian discerns and sees sin as bad, and also discerns or sees a person who transgresses God's moral authority as committing sin, but God emphatically says to "not" hate the sinner, but to love him/her. Jerry Falwell was always singled out as a "gay" or homosexual hater, yet, never did Falwell express this, but only expressed disdain for the sin, or act of homosexuality.
I will admit that the Christian community needs to work even more at living-out the "love" side of their faith, and not over balance it with so much scriptural mandate to the point of legalism. Love, as Paul said, must undergird all of the Christian's living, breathing life. Every action, on good and bad days must be injected with appropriating God's love in the Christians life. Christians have no reason, to not be thankful in heart, yet we do fall off the "wagon" at times, as we lose sight of where we once were, before we were picked up out of the mirey clay of living for ourselves and not living in faith in God.
Sin is sin in God's eyes. We pay for it one way or another on planet earth. We reap what we sow. Even when we confess our sins, it doesn't mean that we won't suffer the consequences of sin. That's the natural laws of the universe as set by the Maker. Gravity is gravity. We can defy it for awhile in an airplane or a space station, but gradually the law will win. The big difference is dieing or living, though a sinner.
One can hate the sinful act, and not hate the one committing the act. Folks that come from a non-biblical/Christian approach say that, "you" the biblical one, or Christian, should accept the whole package, or you're not being trully loving. In other words, they can't understand that the sinful act is separable from the person in respect to loving the individual. If there was no means of separating the perpetrator from the act, then Jesus could not have given His life for that sinner, as that sinner was doomed in soul by the act of rebellion to God.
Jesus stopped the adulterous woman from being "stoned" to death, yet told her, that He forgave her. The most important parting words, were, "
Go, and sin no more!". In other words, Jesus loved the sinner/woman, but abhorred the sin, or the sinful act that came out of her life's choice. He came to bridge the "sin gap" between humanity and it's Holy, loving, and eternal Maker.
That is the mandate for every true Christian. Love the person, not the sin. Christians have nothing to brag about, except Christ/God, as we aren't converted/saved by our goodness, as we are all sinners, and are only saved by the
unmerited favor of God or what is commonly referred to as "grace".
Sadly so many folks judge Christians, as "judging" people, when often all a Christian is expressing is disdain for sin, and not the one committing it. It has become very un "P.C." to discern.
Discern:
1 a: to detect with the eyes <discerned a figure approaching through the fog> b: to detect with senses other than vision <discerned a strange odor>
2: to recognize or identify as separate and distinct : discriminate <discern right from wrong>
3: to come to know or recognize mentally <unable to discern his motives>
intransitive verb
I will also say, that there are many Christians that do unbiblically judge others when they "judge" or discern that these people are not living Godly lives according to
their parameters. Sadly, many who claim Christ as their Lord of their lives, forget that they, too, were once "dead" in their sins, and received God's forgiveness,
though undeserved.
Christians can trully be very judgemental, and a few bad apples can spoil the whole barrel of apples.
Zacheus, the tax collector is a perfect example of how Christians need to respond or live out their new lives in Christ.
The very religious of Christ's time despised the likes of Zacheus. He was a Jew, that worked for the Romans, collecting taxes. That was one count againt him. The second was that he dipped in the tax till, and lived a live of debauchery, and probably broke nearly all ten of the commandments.
Yet, Christ, saw Zacheus up in a tree, trying to get a better view of this famous Man, Jesus, coming through his neighborhood. Jesus, called out to this gross sinner, Zacheus, and said, "I'm dining with you tonight.".
What a shocking blow to the very religious,
who judged people and their acts as one unholy package! Yet, Jesus, looked past the sins of Zacheus, and saw a human being. A human being that was created by God, in His image, yet was defiled with the fall of Adam and Eve from eons ago.
Jesus didn't go to Zacheus's house to join in a drinking, fest, or to involve Himself in debauchery of any kind. He went to Zacheus's house because He saw a "person", as He saw all "persons". He loved Zacheus, and desired to commune with him. He also realized that this, "sinner" climbed that tree, because, though he was "lost" and "dead" in his sins,
he was seeking. What did Zacheus do when Jesus extended love and friendship to him? Zacheus, repented of his sinful life, and said that he would return stolen tax moneys, and would thence after turn his life around to trusting God. Salvation had come to the household of Zacheus!
God's love, melts the hardest souls, if allowed to enter.
God knows our hearts better than we know them ourselves. Yet, He hung on the cross and said,
"Forgive them Father, for they know not what they do!". We all like sheep have gone astray, and badly need a shepherd. The bible says that God desires that not one of us, He desires should be lost. Yet, at the same time, God calls, He also endowed us with free will, so that when we approach Him for forgiveness and new life, it is not as robots or automatons, but as willful creatures, who have not been forced into subserviant life, but are willfully desirous, and thankful, for the "pardon" from total, eternal separation from our Creator.
Sadly, so many, want, Christians to be monikered as homophobes, and judgemental folks.
If you can make someone bad before others, then it takes the discerning "light" off of oneself. Deflect guilt, is the theme of now and the past. It has never changed. Cain kills Abel, and trys to make an excuse. We all try to deflect conviction against us, as it trully hurts, to face ourselves nakedly to the exposure of our true intents of soul.
Zacheus, was a courageous man, yet a sinner. A sinner is one who commits sin. He was courageous, because he faced his demons, and wanted "out", and realized that his life may have been worldly prosperous, but was a "dead end" without the prospect forgiveness, and peace with his Maker.
Christ knew that we have but, two cheeks, and He also told Peter before His other disciples and followers, that forgiveness isn't so much a command, as a expression of a life that realizes that they have no solid ground to stand on and judge others. Man can do all the charitable things possible in this world, but it can't remove the very nature that hides deep in some and in others exudes out easily. Romans 3:23 "All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.". "All"........Some will appropriate God's pardoning work through Christ, some will sadly, refuse.
) theologians, Jesus is already galloping through the clouds on Trigger to rapture his beleaguered but righteous WASP widgets up to his miserable, abstemious and hermaphroditic Heaven?
