Healing

What Does Turn The Other Cheek Really Mean?

by Ernesto Aragon
10/25/17
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A popular verse most of us know is Matthew 5:39 which says, But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also. Does turn the other cheek mean that Jesus wants people to take advantage of us? Does this mean that we are to be naïve and let people with bad motives walk all over us? I would like to suggest that how we interpret Matthew 5:39 has nothing to do with what it actually says, and it has everything to do with what we’ve experienced.

If you were to ask a young child what that verse means, they would simply tell you something like, “It means that we should put others before ourselves since Jesus put all of the humanity before Himself by dying on the cross.” If you were to ask an adult the same question, they might say something like, “It means to put other people before ourselves, but we have to be careful and use wisdom so that people don’t take advantage of us.” While the adult answer sounds noble and there’s lots of truth to that statement, that’s not what the verse says.

Matthew 5:39 doesn’t say, “turn the other cheek, but be careful so that people don’t take advantage of you.” While the Bible is full of wisdom that can teach us how to not allow people to take advantage of us, Matthew 5:39 is simply telling us to put other people before ourselves, even if they’re evil; that’s it.

I can’t speak for anyone else, but the reason I used to read that verse thinking it was “wisdom” to turn the other cheek while making sure I’m not getting taken advantage of is because I had been taken advantage of by people in the past for other reasons. The reason children don’t think about getting taken advantage of is that they’re too young to have these types of bad experiences.

Being naïve is not the way God wants us to live our lives, but that’s why, in Matthew 18:3, Jesus told us to be child-like, not child-ish in our thinking. Jesus isn’t telling us to be naïve like children can be, but He’s telling us to put aside our bad experiences and all our baggage and love people the way He loved us when He died on the cross for our sins.

Putting our bad experiences aside, it is entirely possible for us to “turn the other cheek” without worrying about getting taken advantage of. Whenever we decide to “turn the other cheek,” our reason for doing this must not be grudgingly out of some religious obligation, but it needs to be out of a genuine love for people who don’t deserve that kind of love. Truthfully, we don’t even deserve that kind of love, yet Jesus still died for us.

How can we demonstrate the love of Jesus to people when our only focus is to make sure we protect ourselves from pain and discomfort? When we’re ready to get our hands dirty, put other people before ourselves when they don’t deserve it and love them when they least expect it, that’s when the real love of God becomes evident in and through our lives.