Do Not Resist the Evil Person

Precisely because the evil faced by the disciple is utterly unjustifiable, they are not to resist but to bring evil to an end through suffering —- and so overcome the evildoer. Willing suffering is stronger than evil; it is the death of evil. There is no act of evil so great or powerful that it would justify a different response from the Christian. The more terrible the evil, the more willing the disciple must be to suffer. The evildoer must fall into Jesus’ hands—not mine. Jesus alone must deal with them

Do Not Resist the Evil Person

“You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ But I say to you, do not resist the evil person. But if someone strikes you on your right cheek, offer him the other also. And if anyone wants to sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. And if someone forces you to go one mile, go with him two. Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you” (Matthew 5:38–42).

Jesus aligns this command – “an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth” —- with the previously mentioned Old Testament commandments, such as the prohibition against killing in the Decalogue. He acknowledges it, as he did with those earlier commands, as an unequivocal mandate of God. It is not to be abolished but fulfilled to the utmost. Jesus does not recognize our tendency to rank the commandments of the Old Testament, privileging the Ten Commandments above the others; for him, all God’s commandments are one. Thus, he instructs his disciples toward their fulfillment.

Renunciation of Rights in Discipleship

The followers of Jesus relinquish their own rights for his sake. He calls the meek blessed. If, after surrendering everything to follow him, they now cling to a single remaining possession -— their rights —- they have already turned away from discipleship. This teaching is simply an unfolding of the Beatitudes.

The Old Testament law placed justice under the divine protection of retribution. No evil was to go unpunished. The goal was to restore right community, to confront and overcome evil, and to purge it from the people of God. Retribution sustained the force of law for this purpose.

Jesus affirms this divine intent and the power of retribution to expose and overcome evil, preserving the community of disciples as the true Israel. The disciple is to prove faithful through righteous retribution —- yet according to Jesus, such “righteous” retribution means simply: do not resist evil.

With this command, Jesus releases his community from political-legal structures, from the national identity of Israel, and forms it into what it truly is: a community of believers not bound to political or ethnic constructs. While God’s chosen people Israel responded to offense with lawful retaliation, the community of disciples -— who no longer claim political-legal authority—responds with patient suffering, so that evil is not repaid with evil. Only in this way is true community founded and preserved.

Here it becomes clear that the disciple wronged no longer clings to rights as personal possessions to be defended at all costs. Instead, the disciple is entirely free from all possessions and bound only to Jesus Christ. In testifying to this bond, the disciple lays the only true foundation for community and places the wrongdoer in Jesus’ hands.

Overcoming Evil through Nonresistance

The wrongdoer is overcome because their evil runs into emptiness – it finds no resistance, nothing to feed on, no new evil to spark further violence. Evil becomes powerless when it encounters no object to strike, no resistance—only willing endurance. There it meets an opponent stronger than itself. But this only occurs where all resistance is surrendered, where the refusal to retaliate is complete. Only then does evil fail to reach its goal. It is left alone.

Suffering passes by as it is borne. Evil ends as we endure it without defense. Disgrace and insult become visible as sin when the disciple does not reciprocate but bears them defenselessly. Rape is condemned by meeting it with no violence. The unjust demand for my tunic is exposed when I give my cloak as well. The exploitation of my service becomes visible precisely in the fact that I set no limit to it.

Freedom Through Suffering

The readiness to give everything when asked reflects the readiness to have only Jesus Christ, to follow him alone. Voluntary nonresistance confirms the disciple’s total attachment to Jesus and their liberation from self. In this exclusive bond, evil alone can be overcome.

Jesus speaks not just of evil but of the evildoer. The disciple’s response should not be to excuse or justify the violent person. Jesus has no use for sentimental rationalizations. The slap, the violence, the exploitation—these remain evil. The disciple must know and bear witness to this, as Jesus did. For only thus can the evildoer be struck and overcome.

Precisely because the evil faced by the disciple is utterly unjustifiable, they are not to resist but to bring evil to an end through suffering —- and so overcome the evildoer. Willing suffering is stronger than evil; it is the death of evil. There is no act of evil so great or powerful that it would justify a different response from the Christian. The more terrible the evil, the more willing the disciple must be to suffer. The evildoer must fall into Jesus’ hands—not mine. Jesus alone must deal with them.

Reformation Distinction: A Divergence

Reformation interpretation introduced a crucial distinction here: between harm done to me personally, and harm done to me in an office entrusted by God. In the former case, I must act as Jesus commands. In the latter, I am released from this command and even obligated by love to resist evil, using force if necessary to protect others. This has underpinned the Reformation’s stance on war and use of public legal measures.

But Jesus does not speak of this distinction between private person and officeholder as normative for action. He addresses followers who have left everything behind to follow him. “Private” and “official” alike are to be subjected entirely to his command. Jesus calls for undivided obedience. The proposed distinction falters in real life: Where, in real life, am I ever merely a private individual, and where only an officeholder? Am I not, whenever I am attacked, at the same time the father of my children, the pastor of my congregation, the statesman of my people? Am I not therefore obligated to defend against every attack, precisely because of the responsibility I bear in my office? And am I not, even in that office, always still myself —- an individual who stands alone before Jesus?

Only the Cross Justifies the Command

How can Jesus’ command be justified in light of experience —- that evil tends to erupt most violently against the weak and helpless? Doesn’t this command become mere ideology, blind to the reality of sin?

Jesus says: because you live in the world, and because it is evil, therefore this command stands —- you shall not resist evil. One can hardly accuse Jesus of being unaware of evil’s power; from his first day, he was in combat with the devil. He names evil for what it is, and precisely for that reason he speaks this way to his followers.

This would all be empty idealism if we took these words as a general ethical program, as a universal principle of life or politics. That would be irresponsible fantasy. Nonresistance as a worldly principle destroys the God-given order. But Jesus is not a theorist: he speaks as the one who conquered evil through suffering – who was overcome by evil on the cross, and who rose from defeat as the victor.

There is no other justification for Jesus’ command than his cross. Only those who find faith in the victory over evil at the cross can obey this command—and only such obedience is blessed.

The Promise of the Cross

What promise does this command bear? The promise of communion in Jesus’ cross and communion in his victory.

The Passion of Jesus as the overcoming of evil through divine love is the only firm ground for the disciple’s obedience. Jesus calls the disciple, through this command, again into the fellowship of his suffering. How could the message of Jesus’ Passion be visible and credible to the world if his disciples shun it, if they reject it in their own bodies?

Jesus himself fulfills the law he gives through his cross (note: it is irresponsible to claim, based on John 18:23, that Jesus did not fulfill his command literally, and thus to excuse ourselves from obedience). Jesus calls evil what it is, but he endures it without resistance unto death on the cross—and through this command, he graciously keeps his followers in fellowship with his cross.

In the cross alone it becomes true and real that retribution and the overcoming of evil is suffering love. The community of the cross is granted to the disciples by the call to follow. In this visible community they are called blessed.

This is a translation of Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s chapter on retaliation in “Nachfolge”, usually printed in English as “The Cost of Discipleship”