Matthew 5:40 - Wesley's Explanatory Notes

Bible Comments

Where the damage is not great, choose rather to suffer it, though possibly it may on that account be repeated, than to demand an eye for an eye, to enter into a rigorous prosecution of the offender. The meaning of the whole passage seems to be, rather than return evil for evil, when the wrong is purely personal, submit to one bodily wrong after another, give up one part of your goods after another, submit to one instance of compulsion after another. That the words are not literally to be understood, appears from the behaviour of our Lord himself, John 18:22-23.

Matthew 5:40

40 And if any man will sue thee at the law, and take away thy coat, let him have thy cloke also.