Matthew 5:39

My Notes

What Does Matthew 5:39 Mean?

Matthew 5:39 is one of Jesus' most radical and most misunderstood commands: "But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also."

The specific detail — the right cheek — matters. In a right-handed culture, a blow to the right cheek would be a backhanded strike — the slap of insult and social dominance, not a fist fight. A master backhanding a slave. A Roman striking a Jew. A superior humiliating an inferior. Jesus isn't addressing a mugging or a military invasion. He's addressing the daily humiliation of people under oppression — the systemic degradation that was built into the social fabric of occupied Judea.

Turning the other cheek isn't passive submission. It's a radical refusal to accept the terms of the humiliation. By offering the left cheek, you force the aggressor to hit you with a fist (an open-hand backslap can't reach the left cheek from the right hand). A fist strike was the blow used between equals. You're saying: if you're going to hit me, hit me as an equal, not as an inferior. The turn isn't surrender. It's a redefinition of the encounter. You refuse to be degraded on the aggressor's terms while simultaneously refusing to return violence with violence. It's the most subversive kind of resistance — the kind that exposes the aggressor's cruelty without matching it.

Reflection Questions

• 1.Have you understood 'turn the other cheek' as passive submission — and does the cultural context (backhanded slap of dominance) change that understanding?
• 2.Where are you being 'backhanded' — treated as inferior — and what would it look like to refuse the degradation without returning the violence?
• 3.How does Jesus' third option (neither fight nor flee, but redefine the encounter) apply to a specific situation of injustice in your life?
• 4.What kind of courage does turning the other cheek actually require — and is it more or less than the courage of hitting back?

Devotional

Turn the other cheek. Most people hear this as "let people walk all over you." It's not. It's the most confrontational act of nonviolence Jesus ever taught. Because turning the other cheek doesn't accept the hit. It redefines it. It takes the backhanded slap of superiority and forces the aggressor to face you as an equal or escalate to a violence that exposes them for what they are.

Jesus is teaching oppressed people — people under Roman occupation who were backhanded daily, literally and figuratively — how to resist without becoming what they're resisting. Violence answers violence with violence. The cycle perpetuates. The victim becomes the aggressor and the whole system continues. Jesus breaks the cycle by introducing a third option: neither fight nor flee. Stand. Turn. Let the other cheek say: I am not what you've called me. I will not accept the category you've put me in. And I will not use your methods to prove it.

This is not doormat theology. This is the most dignified, most confrontational, most unsettling response to humiliation imaginable. The person who turns the other cheek hasn't given up. They've taken control of the narrative. They've refused to be defined by the blow and refused to answer it in kind. That kind of resistance requires more courage than hitting back — because hitting back is instinct. Turning is decision. And the decision exposes the aggressor's cruelty in a way that retaliation never could.

Commentary

Trusted original commentary from respected historical Bible scholars and theologians.

Cross References

Related passages throughout Scripture