Turning the Other Cheek

 “If someone slaps you on one cheek, offer the other cheek also. If someone demands your coat, offer your shirt also” (Luke 6:29 NLT)

For this week’s bible discussion, we aimed to define what it means to turn the other cheek, and understand how Christians should apply this idea into their daily lives.

A dangerous misconception of turning the other cheek is that Christians are to tolerate abuse and expose themselves to receive more of it from others. Yet we discovered that this bible verse is a figure of speech only. You should not tolerate disrespect or abuse. If someone actually does “slap” you, you have all rights to report it to the authorities, especially the police. Turning the other cheek is showing our best side to others that wish us harm, hence why we “offer the other cheek.”

For what major accomplishments can Christians make by showing our good side only to those that love us? That is an easy thing to do. We earn more credit by making the effort to bring down our pride and giving our best to those that aren’t kind to us, and disrespect us. This requires focus in keeping ourselves from reacting out of anger or pride, and demands humbleness and forgiveness.

In Luke 6:27-8 Jesus says, “Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you” (NIV). In order to love our enemies, we must be in the practice of giving our best to those who do not deserve it. A good tip is to try to think of your enemies as yourself and determine the kind of treatment you would like to receive from others, and then act accordingly to that. We demonstrate that we are true sons and daughters of God by being able to do these acts of genuine love.