Matthew Bible Study · Lesson 16 · Matthew 5:38–42
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Matthew Bible Study | Lesson 16 — Do Not Be Ruled by Retaliation
MATTHEW BIBLE STUDY
Lesson 16
Do Not Be Ruled by Retaliation
Matthew 5:38–42
GOVERNING BURDEN
Yahusha is speaking to people who already know that
Yahuah established measured judgment.
The question He presses is not whether judgment should
be righteous.
The question is what governs you when the injury is
personal.
GOVERNING THESIS
GOVERNING THESIS
Yahusha separates righteous measured judgment
from personal retaliation, and commands His people
to respond to personal wrong and personal need
from righteousness rather than from the demand to
get even.
MOVEMENT SPINE
▸ Movement 1 — What Torah Established About
Measured Judgment (Matthew 5:38)
▸ Movement 2 — Do Not Be Ruled by Retaliation
(Matthew 5:39–41)
▸ Movement 3 — Give to the One Who Asks (Matthew
5:42)
Matthew Bible Study | Lesson 16 — Do Not Be Ruled by Retaliation
OPENING FOUNDATION
Yahusha begins with words His people already knew:
"An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth."
Those words came from Torah.
They appear in Exodus. They appear in Leviticus. They
appear in Deuteronomy.
And in every place, the principle belongs to righteous
judgment.
Yahuah established measured consequences so judgment
would not become uncontrolled vengeance.
The wrong was to be answered according to righteous
measure. Not more. Not less.
So when Yahusha says:
"But I say unto you…"
He is not exposing Torah as unrighteous.
He is pressing another question.
What happens when the wrong is done to you personally?
What governs you when someone strikes you?
What governs you when someone presses you through
the law?
What governs you when someone compels you?
What governs you when someone asks something from
you?
That is where Yahusha takes the passage.
The issue is not whether wrong matters.
Matthew Bible Study | Lesson 16 — Do Not Be Ruled by Retaliation
The issue is whether retaliation rules your heart.
Yahuah established righteous judgment.
Yahusha now presses righteous response.
That distinction has to stay clear through the whole
lesson.
Movement 1 — What Torah Established About
Measured Judgment
Matthew 5:38
THE QUESTION IN THIS MOVEMENT
What had Yahuah already established when He
commanded, "An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth"?
THE TEXT ITSELF
"Ye have heard that it hath been said, An eye for an
eye, and a tooth for a tooth."
Matthew 5:38
This Command Comes from Torah
Yahusha is quoting Yahuah’s own instruction.
The phrase appears in three Torah passages.
Those passages give us the meaning.
We do not have to guess.
Exodus 21 — Measured Consequence for Injury
"And if any mischief follow, then thou shalt give life
for life, Eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand,
foot for foot, Burning for burning, wound for wound,
Matthew Bible Study | Lesson 16 — Do Not Be Ruled by Retaliation
stripe for stripe."
Exodus 21:23–25
The setting is injury.
The principle establishes measured consequence.
The punishment does not become whatever the injured
person feels like demanding.
It is governed. It is proportionate.
Yahuah places a boundary around judgment.
Leviticus 24 — The Same Standard of Judgment
"And if a man cause a blemish in his neighbour; as he
hath done, so shall it be done to him; Breach for
breach, eye for eye, tooth for tooth: as he hath
caused a blemish in a man, so shall it be done to him
again."
Leviticus 24:19–20
Again, the point is correspondence between the wrong
and the judgment.
The response is not uncontrolled.
Yahuah establishes a standard.
The injury does not become permission for endless
escalation.
Deuteronomy 19 — Judges and Righteous Investigation
"If a false witness rise up against any man to testify
against him that which is wrong; Then both the men,
between whom the controversy is, shall stand before
Yahuah, before the priests and the judges, which shall
be in those days; And the judges shall make diligent
Matthew Bible Study | Lesson 16 — Do Not Be Ruled by Retaliation
inquisition…"
Deuteronomy 19:16–18
Then the passage says:
"And thine eye shall not pity; but life shall go for life,
eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for
foot."
Deuteronomy 19:21
This passage makes the judicial setting plain.
There are judges. There is investigation. There is a
determination of what happened.
Then there is measured judgment.
This is not personal vengeance.
This is righteous adjudication.
What the Formula Establishes
"Eye for eye" establishes measured justice.
The wrong matters. The injured person matters. The one
who caused the harm is accountable.
But the judgment is not driven by rage.
It is governed by righteousness.
That is what Torah establishes.
What This Exposes
This exposes the misuse of Torah as though Yahuah ever
gave a man permission to say:
"You hurt me, so now I get to hurt you however I want."
That is not what the command says.
Matthew Bible Study | Lesson 16 — Do Not Be Ruled by Retaliation
Measured judgment is not personal revenge.
Yahuah established righteous boundaries around
judgment.
THE WORD IN ONE LINE
"Eye for eye" establishes measured judgment, not
permission for personal retaliation.
What This Requires of You
▸ Do not use righteous judgment as an excuse for a
retaliatory heart.
▸ Do not take what Yahuah gave for measured justice
and turn it into permission to get even.
Before Yahusha gives the examples that follow, this
foundation must be clear:
judgment has its place, but vengeance cannot rule you.
COMPREHENSION CHECK — MOVEMENT 1
1. Explain the text: Where does the "eye for eye"
principle come from?
2. State what this proves: What do Exodus 21 and
Leviticus 24 establish about the relationship between
the wrong and the judgment?
3. Defend from Scripture: What does Deuteronomy 19
show about the judicial setting of the principle?
4. Recognize the error: What is wrong with using "eye
for eye" as permission for personal revenge?
5. Identify the response: What must you separate in
your own heart between righteous judgment and the
desire to get even?
Matthew Bible Study | Lesson 16 — Do Not Be Ruled by Retaliation
Movement 2 — Do Not Be Ruled by Retaliation
Matthew 5:39–41
THE QUESTION IN THIS MOVEMENT
What does Yahusha require from you when the wrong
becomes personal?
THE TEXT ITSELF
"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. And if any man will sue thee at
the law, and take away thy coat, let him have thy
cloke also. And whosoever shall compel thee to go a
mile, go with him twain."
Matthew 5:39–41
"Resist Not Evil"
The Greek is:
mē antistēnai tō ponērō
The verb means to stand against, oppose, or resist.
Yahusha immediately shows us what He is pressing by
giving three personal examples.
You are struck. You are sued. You are compelled.
When someone imposes upon you personally, Yahusha
will not let retaliation rule your response.
"Whosoever Shall Smite Thee on Thy Right Cheek"
The Greek verb is rhapizō.
It means to strike or slap.
Matthew Bible Study | Lesson 16 — Do Not Be Ruled by Retaliation
The text is direct.
Someone strikes you personally.
Yahusha says:
"Turn to him the other also."
He does not tell you to answer the blow with another
blow.
He does not put the retaliatory impulse in charge.
The injury is real.
But the injury does not give your anger authority over
your response.
That is where the conviction lands.
When someone wrongs you physically, what rises first in
you?
The demand to repay?
The demand to prove you cannot be treated that way?
The demand to make them feel what they made you feel?
Yahusha presses another response.
You do not have to be ruled by the blow you received.
"If Any Man Will Sue Thee at the Law"
The Greek describes someone wanting to go to law with
you in order to take your chitōn — your tunic.
Yahusha says:
"Let him have thy cloke also."
The second garment is the himation, the outer garment.
The scene is legal pressure.
Matthew Bible Study | Lesson 16 — Do Not Be Ruled by Retaliation
Someone is coming after what belongs to you.
Yahusha presses beyond the demand to defend every
possession simply because it is yours.
The issue is not whether the other person’s action is
righteous.
The issue is whether the pressure they place on you
controls your heart.
Can you be wronged without becoming consumed by the
need to hold, fight, and retaliate?
Yahusha tells you not to let the demand to get even
govern you.
"Whosoever Shall Compel Thee to Go a Mile"
The Greek verb is angareuō.
It refers to being compelled into service.
The same word is used when Simon of Cyrene is
compelled to carry Yahusha’s stake.
This is not voluntary service.
You are being made to go.
Yahusha says:
"Go with him twain."
The person has imposed on you.
They have taken your time. They have taken your
strength.
They have placed a demand on you that you did not
choose.
Matthew Bible Study | Lesson 16 — Do Not Be Ruled by Retaliation
And Yahusha will not let resentment decide what you
become in response.
The first mile is compelled.
The second reveals what rules the heart.
The one who imposed on you does not get to determine
your righteousness.
The Circumstances Differ — The Heart Posture Does Not
In the first example, you are struck.
In the second, you are pressed through the law.
In the third, you are compelled into service.
Physical injury. Legal pressure. Forced service.
Three different situations.
One consistent command:
do not be ruled by retaliation.
The wrong done to you does not become permission for
the wrong spirit to govern you.
You do not answer every injury by demanding repayment.
You do not let resentment become your master.
You do not allow another person’s unrighteous action to
decide whether you will walk in righteousness.
That is the weight Yahusha is pressing.
What This Exposes
This movement exposes the heart that says:
"If you do something to me, I am going to do something
back to you."
Matthew Bible Study | Lesson 16 — Do Not Be Ruled by Retaliation
That heart may call itself justice.
Yahusha exposes it as retaliation.
Righteous judgment has its place.
But when the matter becomes personal, the demand to
get even cannot rule you.
THE WORD IN ONE LINE
The wrong done to you does not have the right to
govern the righteousness required from you.
What This Requires of You
▸ Pay attention to what rises in you when someone
wrongs you.
▸ If your first demand is repayment, revenge, or
making the other person feel what you felt, bring that
heart under Yahusha’s words.
▸ Do not let injury turn into retaliation.
▸ Do not let pressure turn into resentment.
▸ Do not let imposition turn into bitterness.
Another person’s sin does not excuse yours.
Walk in righteousness even when the wrong was done to
you.
COMPREHENSION CHECK — MOVEMENT 2
1. Explain the text: What three personal situations does
Yahusha give in Matthew 5:39–41?
2. State what this proves: What consistent response
does Yahusha require across all three situations?
Matthew Bible Study | Lesson 16 — Do Not Be Ruled by Retaliation
3. Defend from Scripture: How does the use of
angareuō help establish that the third example involves
compelled service rather than voluntary help?
4. Recognize the error: What is wrong with saying, "If
they do something to me, I have the right to do
something back to them"?
5. Identify the response: What must rule your response
when someone strikes, pressures, or imposes upon you
personally?
Movement 3 — Give to the One Who Asks
Matthew 5:42
THE QUESTION IN THIS MOVEMENT
What does Yahusha require when someone comes to you
asking for help?
THE TEXT ITSELF
"Give to him that asketh thee, and from him that
would borrow of thee turn not thou away."
Matthew 5:42
"Give to Him That Asketh Thee"
The Greek is direct:
tō aitounti se dos
Give to the one asking you.
The command is dos — give.
Yahusha has moved from what happens when someone
wrongs you to what happens when someone comes to
you asking.
Matthew Bible Study | Lesson 16 — Do Not Be Ruled by Retaliation
Now the issue is not retaliation.
The issue is whether your hand is open or closed.
Someone comes to you asking.
Yahusha says: Give.
That command exposes what happens in the heart when
another person’s need reaches into what belongs to you.
Will compassion govern you?
Or will your first response be to close your hand?
"From Him That Would Borrow of Thee"
Yahusha continues:
"And from him that would borrow of thee turn not thou
away."
The person wants to borrow from you.
Yahusha says: Do not turn away.
The Greek verb apostrephō carries the sense of turning
away or turning oneself from someone.
The picture is plain.
Someone comes toward you with a request.
Do not make your response a closed back.
Do not shut yourself off simply because helping them will
require something from you.
Torah Had Already Addressed the Closed Hand
"If there be among you a poor man of one of thy
brethren within any of thy gates in thy land which
Yahuah thy Elohim giveth thee, thou shalt not harden
Matthew Bible Study | Lesson 16 — Do Not Be Ruled by Retaliation
thine heart, nor shut thine hand from thy poor
brother: But thou shalt open thine hand wide unto
him, and shalt surely lend him sufficient for his need,
in that which he wanteth."
Deuteronomy 15:7–8
Listen to the order.
Do not harden your heart.
Do not shut your hand.
Open your hand.
The closed hand begins with a hardened heart.
Yahuah does not deal only with whether something
eventually leaves your possession.
He deals with what is happening inside you toward the
person in need.
Deuteronomy Presses the Heart Further
"Beware that there be not a thought in thy wicked
heart, saying, The seventh year, the year of release, is
at hand; and thine eye be evil against thy poor
brother, and thou givest him nought; and he cry unto
Yahuah against thee, and it be sin unto thee. Thou
shalt surely give him, and thine heart shall not be
grieved when thou givest unto him…"
Deuteronomy 15:9–10
Yahuah exposes the calculation of the heart.
The person sees a reason why giving may cost him.
He begins calculating what he might lose.
Matthew Bible Study | Lesson 16 — Do Not Be Ruled by Retaliation
Then his eye becomes evil toward his brother and his hand
closes.
Yahuah calls that out.
Thou shalt surely give him.
And even while giving, Yahuah addresses the heart:
"Thine heart shall not be grieved when thou givest unto
him."
The hand can open while the heart remains closed.
Yahuah requires both.
"Therefore I Command Thee"
"For the poor shall never cease out of the land:
therefore I command thee, saying, Thou shalt open
thine hand wide unto thy brother, to thy poor, and to
thy needy, in thy land."
Deuteronomy 15:11
This is not occasional generosity when you happen to feel
moved.
Yahuah commands an open hand toward the needy.
So when Yahusha says:
"Give to him that asketh thee, and from him that would
borrow of thee turn not thou away,"
He is pressing His people in the same direction Torah had
already established.
Do not harden the heart. Do not shut the hand. Do not
turn away.
Give.
Matthew Bible Study | Lesson 16 — Do Not Be Ruled by Retaliation
What This Exposes
This movement exposes the heart that sees another
person’s need mainly as an intrusion on what belongs to
you.
It exposes the heart that immediately searches for a
reason to close the hand.
Yahuah already warned against a hardened heart and a
shut hand.
Yahusha says:
Give. Do not turn away.
THE WORD IN ONE LINE
When someone comes to you in need, do not let a
hardened heart close the hand Yahuah commands
you to open.
What This Requires of You
▸ Examine what happens in you when someone asks.
▸ Do you immediately look for a reason not to help?
▸ Does another person’s need irritate you because
helping will cost you something?
Yahuah says do not harden your heart.
Yahusha says give and do not turn away.
Let righteousness govern what you do with what Yahuah
has placed in your hand.
COMPREHENSION CHECK — MOVEMENT 3
1. Explain the text: What two commands does Yahusha
give in Matthew 5:42?
Matthew Bible Study | Lesson 16 — Do Not Be Ruled by Retaliation
2. State what this proves: What does the command
"turn not thou away" require when someone comes
seeking to borrow?
3. Defend from Scripture: How does Deuteronomy
15:7–11 connect the condition of the heart with
whether the hand opens or closes?
4. Recognize the error: What is exposed when another
person’s need is treated mainly as an unwanted
intrusion on what belongs to you?
5. Identify the response: What should govern you when
someone comes to you with genuine need?
MATTHEW’S ARGUMENT
What Yahusha Establishes in Matthew
5:38–42
Yahusha begins with a principle Torah had already
established: measured judgment.
"Eye for eye" belongs to righteous adjudication. It places
boundaries around judgment and does not give a man
permission to be ruled by personal vengeance.
Then Yahusha turns to the heart.
You are struck. You are sued. You are compelled.
And in each case He refuses to let retaliation govern your
response.
Then He closes with another kind of pressure:
someone asks. Someone wants to borrow.
Matthew Bible Study | Lesson 16 — Do Not Be Ruled by Retaliation
Now the issue is not getting even.
The issue is whether your heart hardens and your hand
closes.
That is the movement of the passage:
▸ Measured Judgment
▸ Righteous Response to Personal Wrong
▸ An Open Heart and Open Hand
Yahusha is teaching His people that righteousness must
govern them both when they are wronged and when
another person comes to them in need.
EXPOSED ERROR
What This Passage Corrects
This passage exposes two heart problems.
The first is retaliation.
The heart says:
"You did something to me, so now I am going to do
something back to you."
Yahusha does not allow another person’s wrong to
become permission for your own unrighteous response.
The second is hardness.
Someone comes asking.
Helping will cost you something.
And the heart begins searching for a reason to close the
hand.
Matthew Bible Study | Lesson 16 — Do Not Be Ruled by Retaliation
Yahuah exposed that heart in Deuteronomy.
Yahusha presses against it again.
The issue in both cases is the same:
What rules you when another person places a demand on
you?
Injury can expose retaliation.
Need can expose hardness.
Yahusha requires righteousness in both.
REQUIRED RESPONSE
What Yahusha Requires of You
▸ When someone wrongs you, do not let retaliation
govern you.
▸ When someone pressures you, do not let
resentment govern you.
▸ When someone imposes upon you, do not let
bitterness govern you.
▸ And when someone comes to you in genuine need,
do not let a hardened heart close your hand.
Another person’s action does not determine your
righteousness.
Bring your response under Yahusha’s words.
Walk in mercy. Walk in generosity. Walk in obedience.
Let righteousness rule you when the demand is personal.
FINAL HEART CHECK
Matthew Bible Study | Lesson 16 — Do Not Be Ruled by Retaliation
Heart Check
Before you leave this lesson, sit with these questions:
When someone wrongs you, is your first desire to walk
in righteousness or to make them feel what they made
you feel?
When someone imposes on your time, possessions, or
strength, what rises in your heart: resentment or
obedience?
When someone comes to you in genuine need, is your
heart open enough for your hand to open?
What rules you when the demand is personal?
Lesson 16 complete.