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Thank you so very much for sharing your testimony and for all of your encouragements!

Of a truth, self-defense is an instinctive reaction of man - e.g. to raise his arm when someone is about to strike a blow - or to return a blow, especially in the hope of making it stop.

It takes enormous Spiritual discipline to turn the other cheek - it requires living the Great Commandment, loving God surpassing above all else, putting His will above our instinctive self-defense.

Letting go and letting God.

I suspect that we all struggle with it:

Ye have heard that it hath been said, An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth: 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. Give to him that asketh thee, and from him that would borrow of thee turn not thou away.

Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy.

But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.

For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same? And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more [than others]? do not even the publicans so?

Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect. - Matthew 5:38-48

I hasten to add that the command is to "be perfect" not to "do perfect things" or "say perfect things" which would be impossible for any man - as all our righteousness is but "filthy rags." We have all sinned and come short of the glory of God.

It is not what we think or say or do but Whose we are, where we live, in Whom we abide. We are not perfect, He is.

I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman. Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every [branch] that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit. Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me. I am the vine, ye [are] the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing. - John 15:1-5

Let go and let God. Love Him surpassingly above all else.

There is only One Great Commandment.

To God be the glory!

AMEN! AMEN! AMEN! AMEN!

I ain’t what I wanna be by too big a margin.

Thankfully, by His Grace,

I’z a whole lot bettuh than I wuz.

Then there’s that troublesome contingency when one is compelled to forcefully speak out on an issue when one knows it will be perceived as a personal defense. I hate those.

“It takes enormous Spiritual discipline to turn the other cheek - it requires living the Great Commandment, loving God surpassing above all else, putting His will above our instinctive self-defense.”

Indeed it does. Do you think that’s what you are doing, A-G, or is that what you are being told you are doing, either interiorly or from your co-religionists here on this thread?

That martyr to the Mohammedans I quoted earlier, +Kosmas Aitolos, said this:

“The self-indulgent are distressed by criticism and hardship; those who love God by praise and luxury.”