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Welcome to the Daily Blade. The Word of God is described as the sword of the Spirit, the primary spiritual weapon in the Christian's armor against the forces of evil. Your hosts are Joby Martin and Kyle Thompson, and they stand ready to equip men for the fight. Let's sharpen up.

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All right, guys, we're wrapping up this week where we have been doing a series of episodes called yeah, that's Not what that Means, so I'm going to cover I ended up covering six this week of the most common misapplied and misunderstood scriptures in all of the biblical canon. Yesterday I talked about Jeremiah 29, 11 and Romans 8, 28, and we dispelled with the nonsense that somehow these two scriptures prove that our lives as Christians will always be happy and prosperous in an earthly sense. So today we're going to crush the dreams and spirits of pacifist Christians and I'm like super here for it and it's just, I'm just pumped, okay, and I'm pumped about that because we're going to be looking at the words of Jesus recorded in Matthew 5, 38 and 39. And it's just insane the number of people that just get this wrong. So let's go to the verse here. The verse is. Here we go.

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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. So here Jesus is hearkening back to a text that everyone in the crowd would have been familiar with and knew what he was referring to when he said an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth, because they would know that that would come from Exodus 21, verse 24, leviticus 24, verse 20, and Deuteronomy 19, verse 21. So Jesus is referring to Old Testament law. And if we back up to Matthew 5, 17, jesus says this do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets. I have not come to abolish them, but to fulfill them. Okay, so with all of that combined, you could easily see how someone could surmise that Jesus is telling people that if they are physically assaulted by somebody, that they should not defend themselves, that they should just, you know, turn the other cheek and allow the assault to continue. In a nutshell, the fundamental misunderstanding of these words from Jesus is that people think Jesus was referring to physical assaults. And yeah, that's not what that means, because, in its correct context, jesus is teaching us how we should respond to verbal assaults. Okay, the original intent of those three passages was to limit the amount. Again, those three passages from the Old Testament we just talked about was to limit the amount of punishment for a crime to that which would be equitable to the original crime so you weren't to give a greater punishment or exact a greater vengeance than the original crime would warrant. Okay, so now let's go to verse 39, turn the other cheek.

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Jesus commands turn the other cheek, and that has to do with our response to a personal slight or offense. Okay, some situations may call for self-defense physical self-defense, but not retaliation in kind. Okay, the context of Jesus' command is his teachings against the idea of an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth that we see in verse 38. Our self-defense is not vengeful, okay, it's not a vengeful reaction to an offense. Okay, in fact, many offenses can simply be absorbed in forbearance and in love and it's really not that big of a deal. But let's even look at the words here. Most of society's right-handed so sorry to left-handed people out there, but if I'm going to take my right hand and hit someone on their, on their left cheek, I'm going to hit them with my palm right. But if I were to strike them on their right cheek, again, they're looking at me. If I were to strike them on their right cheek with my right hand, I would be hitting them with the back of my hand. So in context we can even see that Jesus is talking about a verbal slight, because you heard about these backhanded compliments or these backhanded words that come from people. That's what's being said here. Okay, so Jesus has recorded in Matthew 5, is not advocating for us to not defend ourselves or other people, and actually, on the contrary, when you look at the narrative of scripture, we see plenty of examples that point to the opposite.

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Okay, In Luke 22, jesus told his disciples and let the one who has no sword sell his cloak and buy one. Okay. So, even though Jesus is using metaphor in this passage, it was common knowledge that having a weapon was normal for protection and self-defense in this age. I mean, you wouldn't use a sword to garden, right, and we can surmise that Jesus would not have used this language if he was expressly against the use of a sword for self-defense. Right. And even later on in that chapter, in verse 38, they acknowledge that they do have two swords amongst the apostles. Right, and I'm pretty sure that Jesus would have made them get rid of their swords if he thought self-defense was morally wrong, right.

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And then, if you go to Luke 11, jesus says when a strong man, fully armed, guards his own palace, his goods are safe.

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Again, why would Jesus use the language of self-defense in this parable if self-defense were immoral or sinful or wrong?

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And then go back to again one of my favorite parts of the Old Testament, nehemiah 4, verses 17 and 18. Those who carried burdens were loaded in such a way that each labored on the work with one hand and held his weapon with the other, and each of the builders had his sword strapped at his side while he built. Why would this story be held up as a beautiful thing that God's people did when they were ready to fight, ready to kill people? Right, defend themselves and defend the work that God had them doing, if that were a morally wrong or reprehensible thing? So if we look at the totality of the ministry of Jesus and of the narrative of the Bible, it is safe to say that when Jesus said to turn the other cheek, he didn't mean to just sit there and take a butt whooping Okay. So, guys, thank you so much for your attention this week. Don't keep the Daily Blade a secret. Share it around with the men in your life. Be back here Monday to hear from Pastor Joby.

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Thank you for listening to today's episode Before you go. If you want to help equip other men for the fight, share this podcast around and leave us a five-star rating and review. Stay sharp.