You have heard that it was said, An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.  But I tell you, don’t resist an evildoer.  On the contrary, if anyone slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also.  As for the one who wants to sue you and take away your shirt, let him have your coat as well.  And if anyone forces you to go one mile, go with him two.  Give to the one who asks you, and don’t turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you.

Matthew 5:38-42  HCSB

Years ago, you saw people wearing those little rubber bracelets that simply said WWJD.  This stood for What Would Jesus Do?  Let me say that most days, I have no idea what I am going to write about and I pray for God to lead me to the scripture, give me the title, and the words.  Yeah, I know it sounds lazy, but I trust in Him for everything because I have learned that on my own I don’t do so well.  When I opened my bible app this morning, it was on this scripture.  Now I will be totally honest with you, I don’t like this scripture passage.  I don’t like the idea of being kind to someone who is evil.  I don’t like the idea of turning the other cheek or going the extra mile for someone who is just being downright mean and hateful.  So, I almost abandoned the idea and went to search for a verse that was more to my liking, but before I could do that, God reminded me to think of what Jesus would do. He also reminded me of the times that I have followed his instructions and He has exacted revenge on my enemies (Romans 12:19). He reminded me of the many times He has worked bad situations out for my good and His glory (Romans 8:28-30).

You see if Jesus acted like us, we would all be doomed.  If it weren’t for God’s mercy and grace, our lives would be hopeless wrecks.  Romans 3:23 tells us that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.  But God is merciful and compassionate and will forgive us our sins, just as we forgive others.  There goes that little qualifier.  You see God wants us to do our best to follow the example that Jesus set for us.  God made us in His image and He loved us enough to send His only Son to show us how to behave.  The thing is, when we follow the example that Jesus has set for us, we bring glory to God and in turn God honors what we do.  Now take a minute and let that soak into your pretty little head.  I said we can’t go wrong when we follow Jesus’ example.  One prime example is when the devil tempted Jesus in the desert.  Every time the devil threw a temptation out there, Jesus responded with, “it is written”.  He threw scripture back at the devil.  This caused the devil to abandon that temptation and move on to something else.

Scripture is our instruction manual. In Ephesians 6:17 it is referred to as the sword of the Spirit.  In Hebrews 4:12 we are told that God’s word is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword.  When you respond to the enemy using scripture, you will be amazed at the effect that it has.  I have done it a couple of times and was well pleased with the results.  It helped in several ways.  For one, I didn’t sink to their level and use profanity and mean, evil words.  The second thing is that it stopped the enemy in their tracks.  The third thing is that I had no regrets knowing that what I said honored God because it was God’s own word.

You must remember that Jesus was fully human and fully God.  He felt emotions, he felt pain, he suffered just like you and I do.  He had emotions like anger, remember the money changers in the temple (John 2:13-16)?  He mourned the loss of Lazarus, a close friend and had compassion on Lazarus’ sisters (John 11:35).  He suffered the same anguish and pain and temptations that we do (1 Corinthian 10:13).  Jesus dealt with his emotions without sinning and in doing so, set the example for us to do the same.

You see if God didn’t turn the other cheek, then what would happen the first time we broke his heart with our sin?  What if he refused to forgive our sin?  And when He died for our sins, that certainly proves that He went the extra mile for us.  What if God resisted evildoer’s like you and me?  So the next time you are in a situation and you ask yourself what would Jesus do?  Remember all that He has done for you. When you do this, what he asks of us is not so unreasonable after all.

Have a great day!