Replies

C.J.
It's kinda like a story I heard about an old circuit rider preacher who wrote about an event that occurred to him one day in his diary. This was a strong man and came into a town one day only to be abusively confronted by the town bully. The bully walked up to him and said "You the preacher?" The man replied, yes. Bully says "In the Bible it says that if your enemy smites you on the cheek then you are supposed to turn your head and present your other cheek to him, is that right?" Preacher said, "yes, it is." to which the bully pulls back his fist and punches the preacher straight in the jaw. The preacher regains his composure and the bully says "whatja gonna do about that." to which the preacher turns his other cheek to him to be hit again. The bully, on cue, pulls back his fist and hits the preacher again..., with that, the preacher wrote "there being no further admonition from Scripture, I proceeded to beat the devil out of him." :o)

True story. But the facts are, that while Jesus exalts us to be kind, he doesn't expect us to be doormats and he does expect us to "earnestly contend for the faith." He was not a doormat, nor were his apostles, nor am I.