“To you who are ready for the truth, I say this: Love your enemies. Let them bring out the best in you, not the worst. When someone gives you a hard time, respond with the supple moves of prayer for that person. If someone slaps you in the face, stand there and take it. If someone grabs your shirt, gift-wrap your best coat and make a present of it. If someone takes unfair advantage of you, use the occasion to practice the servant life. No more payback. Live generously.”
Luke 6:27-30 MSG

Russell Moore, a former Southern Baptist leader, is recorded as saying in an interview with National Public Radio that multiple pastors had told him they would quote the Sermon on the Mount, specifically the part that says to “turn the other cheek,” when preaching. Someone would come up after the service and ask, “Where did you get those liberal talking points?”

“What was alarming to me is that in most of these scenarios, when the pastor would say, ‘I’m literally quoting Jesus Christ,’ the response would not be, ‘I apologize.’ The response would be, ‘Yes, but that doesn’t work anymore. That’s weak,’” Moore said. “When we get to the point where the teachings of Jesus himself are seen as subversive to us, then we’re in a crisis.”

Jesus teaching was and is pretty subversive. It flies in the face of our self-seeking justification culture. Jesus lived in violent times, in a country occupied by one of the most ruthless empires of it’s day. If he could say this and live it in that kind of environment, there is not get-out clause for us today. If we choose to go down this path it isn’t long before we’re not following Jesus at all, but rather some pale imitation we’ve made in our own image or the image of our cultural or religious tribe that we don’t dare to contradict.

However, if I climb down from my soapbox for a moment, I’m forced to say that I find it hard to live like that today, not because it’s weak but because it’s really hard. I get angry and frustrated with people, I want to at least come back with a stinging word if not a clenched fist. In my experience, if you refuse to be goaded into harsh words or physical retaliation it often makes the aggressor even more aggressive…it seems like a no-win situation.

I really want to be a wholehearted follower of Jesus, allowing the Holy Spirit to transform me into his likeness. I want to demonstrate the servant life and live generously but it’s such a battle sometimes. I’m in good company…even the apostle Paul lived in this constant tension between his self-centred human nature and the transforming work of the Spirit. He said,

I don’t really understand myself, for I want to do what is right, but I don’t do it. Instead, I do what I hate.
Romans 7:15 NLT

So, where do you stand on all this. Can we pick and choose which bits of Jesus lifestyle we adopt because we live in different times? Do you struggle in this area too?