Matthew 5:38

Our Saviour here vindicates the sixth commandment, which obliges us to do no wrong to the body of our neighbour. God had given. law to the public magistrate, to require an eye for an eye, and. tooth for. tooth, when. person was wronged: hereupon the Pharisees taught, That. private person, wronged by another, might exact satisfaction from him to the same degree in which he had been wronged by him; if he had lost an eye by another, might revenge it, by taking away the eye of another.

But, says Christ, I say unto you, resist not evil; that is, seek not private revenge, but leave the avenging of injuries to God and the magistrates; and in trivial matters not to appeal at all, and, when forced, not for revenge sake: teaching us, That Christians ought rather to suffer. double wrong, than to seek. private revenge. Christianity obliges us to bear many injuries patiently, rather than to revenge one privately. Religion indeed doth not bid them welcome: we are not to return evil for evil, but are rather to endure. greater evil than to revenge. less.