The Roman Law Behind a Radical Teaching of Jesus 

[Ben Light] We live in a society that is full of haters. Don't believe me? Go read any YouTube video comment section. It seems the number one pastime of the citizens of the internet these days is throwing rocks. And it doesn't seem to matter who you are. Even some of the most universally beloved public figures have been treated terribly online with the anonymity of the internet providing a certain level of digital courage to make comments about others that they would never make otherwise. People compete with one another for likes and clicks, and some of the most sarcastic and pointed comments get the most attention and can boost your digital reputation.

The result?

Certain corners of the internet have become a medium for vitrial. Toxic commentary that doesn't edify or build up those who read it. Instead, it only makes them angrier, more divided, more polarized as they unwittingly find themselves becoming the adversary of someone they've never even met.

Do you have haters?

Maybe not in the classical snidly whiplash sense, but in the sense that you have people who are actively opposed or hostile toward you and your ideas. People you don't always see eye to eye with and whose conversations frequently end in frustration or exasperation.

How do you deal with this?

Our natural human tendency is to retaliate. We may even appeal to the old phrase, an eye for an eye, as though it gives us permission to get even. But in scripture, that principle was a legal limit on punishment, not a personal license for revenge.

Still, we tend to want to respond in kind or sometimes even escalate the situation because deescalating feels like a loss.

Is that true? How should you deal with this? What does God expect of his people?

During the time of Jesus Christ, the Jewish people lived under the shadow of Roman power. Since Pompei's conquest of Jerusalem in 63 BC, Rome had exercised increasing political control in the region. By Jesus's day, the Roman authority was felt through taxation, military presence, rulers who operated under Rome's approval. This created deep resentment and tension. Many Jews viewed Rome as an occupying power, and the relationship between Rome and Judea was marked by conquest, taxation, military authority, and periodic conflict.

Adding to that animosity, the Roman military had a law known as the Lexenaria, the law of impressment. Under this law, Roman authorities and military personnel could conscript civilians, impressing a duty upon them to either supply labor, animals, or transportation to support the Roman state. Now, the law was strictly regulated, and it limited the Roman officials from enforcing the rule beyond one Roman mile, 4,860 ft. Can you imagine that?

You're on your way to the market to go sell your produce, pushing a heavy cart full of goods, and a Roman centurion comes alongside and asks you and your family to help reduce his burden by adding to your own and carrying his shield, his pack, and his gear. A soldier from an occupying army that your people had been fighting for centuries. Legally, in that moment in history, you had no recourse.

Early in Christ's ministry, He gave the sermon on the mount. Taking a moment before those gathered, He provided a commentary on the common beliefs and understandings of His day and systematically expounded on them to include the principles behind the law.

In Matthew 5, He describes a sort of character that His followers should display in the face of a variety of circumstances. Beginning in verse 38, He expounds on the law of retaliation. says, "You've heard that it was said, an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. But I tell you not to resist an evil person. Whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also. If anyone wants to sue you and take away your tunic, let him have your cloak also. And whoever compels you to go one mile, go with him, too. Give to him who asks, and from him who wants to borrow from you, do not turn away."

Christ was not overturning God's law. Nor was he teaching his followers to ignore evil. He was addressing the spirit of personal retaliation. The impulse, very human impulse, to repay insult for insult, injury for injury and evil for evil.

Christ tells those gathered that an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth, the lexalionus, the law of retaliation, was not to be misused as a personal justification for revenge. Instead, if someone slaps you on your right cheek, offer the other as well. If someone wants you to take your tunic through a lawsuit, give them your cloak also. And if a Roman soldier dumps his gear on you and forces you to carry it for him a mile, don't stop at that one mile. Instead, take it two.

Then He continues, "You've heard it said, you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I say to you, love your enemies. Bless those who curse you. Do good to those who hate you and pray for those who spitefully use and persecute you that you may be sons of your father in heaven."

Wait, what? Bless those who curse you? Do good to those who hate you? Love your enemies? Why? Because it isn't about us and the specific issues that we have with that particular individual. It is bigger than that. It's about becoming like God.

Christ was calling His followers to live by a higher standard. God causes rain to fall on the good and the evil. He causes the sun to rise upon both. When we only greet those who greet us and love those who love us, God says we are missing the point.

In Romans 5, Paul describes how while we were still enemies, while we were still separated from God as a result of our sin, that Jesus died for us. While we were in active enmity against God, He gave His son for us so that we could be reconciled to Him.

As Christians, we will be known by our love for one another. We are to love others with the love that we have been provided by God. Even the Roman soldier who was impressing us to carry his gear.

In a sense, that same kind of burden shifting still happens today. Many people are carrying difficult emotional and personal burdens which contribute to the way that they treat others. Their harsh words or poor treatment of others can feel as though they're handing part of that burden off to someone else for a time and compelling them to come along with them.

So, how do you respond?

Most circumstances these days, it involves us not taking the bait. Truth is, you don't have to attend every argument you're invited to. You can politely decline to engage in conversations that are not going to be profitable. But if those conversations find you anyway instead of responding in kind, which is the expected response, do the radical and unexpected thing.

Respond in love. Show genuine concern. Pay a compliment. Offer to help in some way. Pray for the individual who's causing you challenge. Truly pray for them for their well-being. For God to bless them. Pray that God can help them to see this issue in which you're both involved in a new light and for you to have favor in their sight.

Lastly, put on the character of God. Ask yourself, how would Christ respond in this circumstance? And if you're tempted to braid a whip of cords and start flipping tables, it's likely that the situation doesn't warrant that response. Loving your enemies feels very antithetical to our human nature. Feels like giving up. Feels like otherwise conceding the fight - goes against every fiber of our human nature. And that's exactly the point.

God is calling us out of merely human reactions and into His own character. Read "Seven Ways to Love Your Enemies" for more about living like Christ. If you found this helpful, please subscribe and follow us for more truth from the Bible.