Turn the Other Cheek
Nonviolent resistance to evil breaks cycles of retaliation and transforms conflicts.
Jesus teaches radical nonretaliation: turning the other cheek, giving the cloak also, going the extra mile. This is not passive acceptance of evil but creative resistance that refuses to mirror violence. By offering the other cheek, one exposes the injustice and invites the aggressor to see the victim's humanity. These teachings inspired Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. to develop nonviolent resistance movements that transformed nations. Roman soldiers could compel a civilian to carry a pack one mile — the verb used of Simon of Cyrene. The second mile was freely chosen.
But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also.
Walter Wink interpreted these teachings as 'Third Way' responses—neither fight nor flight, but creative nonviolent resistance that exposes injustice.
Gospel of Matthew
Written about in
- What Christianity says about forgiveness
Turning the cheek is not submission. A Roman soldier could legally compel a civilian to carry his pack one mile; the second mile was the civilian's own choice, and that was the whole point. Walter Wink read these sayings as a third way between fighting and fleeing — forgiveness that still names the injustice out loud.