RESIST NOT EVIL

 RESIST NOT EVIL

 

Around the Year with Emmet Fox

 

May 3

 

Read Matthew 5:38-42.

"But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil. . ".

 

Matthew 5:39

 

Jesus is a revolutionary teacher.

He turns the world upside down

for those who accept his teaching.

When once you have accepted

the Jesus Christ message,

all values change radically.

The old law was that whatever man did to man,

he should himself be made to suffer

by way of punishment.

If he put out another man's eye,

his own was put out by the officers of justice

if he killed, he was killed.

The desire to "get even," to get one's own back,

to level things up somehow or other,

when we have been hurt or have suffered injustice,

or witnessed things of which we did not approve,

will remain with us until the time

when we definitely

take ourselves in hand and destroy It.

"Revenge," said Bacon, "is a kind of wild justice."

Now Jesus reverses this and says that

when someone injures you, you are to forgive him.

No matter what the provocation may be,

and no matter how many times it is repeated,

you are to loose him and let him go,

for thus only can you be freed yourself.