Resistance and Retaliation

Jesus commands us that there are four areas where we are not to resist evil:

1. We are not to resist physical violence (verse 39)
2. We are not to resist legal contention (verse 40)
3. We are not to resist forced labor (verse 41)
4. We are not to resist the needs of those around us (verse 42).

"The rationalizations of the words of Jesus do not show that his words are impractical or exaggerated, but simply that the Christian world has never been ready and is not ready now to live according to this ethic" (John L. McKenzie in the Jerome Biblical Commentary).