Everyday sayings of Jesus

Turning the other cheek

Someone insults you, but you refuse to insult them back. It’s a risky strategy, as it can be interpreted as weakness, but this is the essence of “turning the other cheek”.

This call to non-violence, which Jesus exemplified in his life, is one of his best-known sayings, and has had a huge influence, right down to our time. Mahatma Gandhi was inspired by it in his peaceful resistance to British colonialism in India in the 1930s and 40s, and Martin Luther King taught his followers to repay racist police violence with peaceful protest during the civil rights era in the 1950s and 60s. Here is the teaching of Jesus…

You know that you have been taught, “An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.” But I tell you not to try to get even with a person who has done something to you. When someone slaps your right cheek, turn and let that person slap your other cheek. If someone sues you for your shirt, give up your coat as well.
Matthew 5:38-40

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