<p>6:29 <i>To him that hits you on the cheek offer also the other- </i>&nbsp;You singular. Time and again the Sermons on the Mount and Plain seem to take a broad sweep in its record of the Lord&rsquo;s teaching to us all; and then He suddenly focuses in on the individual. The AV brings this out well through the use of &ldquo;you&rdquo; (plural) and &ldquo;thee&rdquo; (singular): &ldquo;Blessed are you poor&hellip; love your enemies&hellip; to him who strikes thee on the cheek&hellip;&rdquo;. Note how many times there is this change of pronoun in Luke 6. Clearly the Lord wants us to see our collective standing before Him, and yet not to overlook the purely personal nature of His appeal to us individually.&nbsp;The Lord was smitten on the cheek but enquired why He was being smitten, rather than literally turning the other cheek. But to do this would be so humiliating for the aggressor that it would be a far more effective resistance of evil than anything else. The power in the confrontation is now with the one who turns the other cheek. S/he is calling the shots, not the beater. The idea of not resisting evil and offering the other cheek we normally apply to suffering loss from the world without fighting for our rights. Yet Paul took this as referring to the need to not retaliate to the harmful things done to us by members of the ecclesia (Rom. 12:16,17; 1 Cor. 6:7; 1 Thess. 5:15). When struck on the right cheek- which was a Semitic insult to a heretic- they were to not respond and open themselves up for further insult surely a lesson for those brethren who are falsely accused of wrong beliefs. And yet the compassion of Jesus shines through both His parables and the records of His words; as does His acceptance of people for who they were. People were relaxed with Him because they could see He had no hidden agenda. He wasn't going to use them for His own power trip.</p><p><i>And from him that takes away your cloak- withhold not your coat also</i>- The simple principle 'Do not resist wrong judgment of you' is a very large ask. Even in this life, truth often comes out. And if we believe in the ultimate justice of the final judgment, we will not for ever be going around correcting others' misjudgements and wrong impressions of us. That is something I have had to deeply learn in my own life. It was forbidden by the Law to keep a man&rsquo;s outer garment overnight (Ex. 22:26,27). But the Lord taught&nbsp;<i>whilst the law was still in operation&nbsp;</i>that we should be willing to give it up, and even offer it. The threatened man could have quoted the Law and kept his clothing. But the Lord bids us go to a higher level, beyond using God&rsquo;s law to uphold our own rights. And in this He raises a vital if difficult principle: Don&rsquo;t always enforce what Biblical rights you have against your brother. Don&rsquo;t rush to your own defence and justification even if Scripture is on your side. Live on the level of true love and non-resistance to evil. In this case the idea would be that even if someone amongst God's people does something unBiblical to us, clearly breaking God's laws, we are still to not resist evil but rather by our grace to them, shame them into repentance.</p>