“Is a Christian to give all or loan all he has to anyone who asks? Is Matt. 5:42 to be taken literally, or does it teach an attitude of mind?”

This question was answered by Robert F. Turner in PLAIN TALK magazine in September 1972. The context from which the question arose was Matthew 5:38-42, and deserves a great deal of consideration in today’s financially and emotionally troubled times. Watch the video for the full answer, but here is Robert’s conclusion

“Jesus is teaching against taking vengeance or retaliation. Put positively, Jesus urges mercy, with good grace and cheerfulness in the place of resentment. A Christian returns good for evil, unselfishly…Jesus goes to the heart of these earlier laws: showing that measured retaliation, and giving (without usury) to brethren is not enough. We are to cultivate a generous, unselfish, 2nd mile attitude far exceeding anything found in the Old Law…It establishes an ideal toward which we can spend a lifetime of seeking, pressing, and striving. As certain also of our own poets have said, “The gift, without the giver, is bare,”.”