When a person enters into any society or any fellowship, he takes upon himself the obligations to live a certain way, by certain standards. If the person fails to live the kind of life necessary, he hinders the purpose of the society.

Once we make the claim that the gospel of Jesus Christ is true then a claim is put on our lives. In today’s Scripture lesson, Jesus sets down behavior patterns for kingdom people.

No one needs to go to a Bible commentary to understand this text. It is a Word that challenges and instructs us. It calls into account and puts us in touch with matters that are eternal and final.

The old religious law had deteriorated into mere legalism. Jesus found the old law unsatisfactory. There had to be a new garment. The old garment could not be patched. The new wine could not be put in old wineskins. His teachings are clearly different from any other. He reverses the standards of value around which society is built. God is full of grace and the final work of grace is to make us gracious.

This Scripture deals with those who are victims. They are victims of mistreatment: hate you, curse you, abuse you, strike you, take your cloak and beg from you.

Have you noticed that much of Jesus’ teachings are addressed to victims? Perhaps he talked a lot about victims because they came close to him. They heard in his voice, saw in his face a sympathy and understanding. They found him also to be a victim. He knew what it was to have someone spit in his face. He knew what it was to be cursed, to be lied about, to be mistreated, to be slapped, to be mocked, to be nailed on a cross. Jesus knew what it was to be a victim. He was a kindred spirit.

We are all victims. Some are victims of a painful marriage, an unhappy home life. There are those who are victims of parents who are overbearing and demanding. Some are victims of children who are overbearing and demanding.

A man commented: “Who says that kids are rebellious, self-centered, and don’t listen to their parents? Last year I told my kids not to spend their money buying me an expensive Father’s Day present -- and they didn’t.”

There are those who are victims of disease, prejudices and terrible injustices in the world. Others are victims of age. The Country Parson made the observation: “Old age is when you don’t care what folks say about you -- if they’ll only say something.”

We are victims of computers. Have you ever tried to get a bill straightened out? All you get is that the computer has it mixed up and we’ll get it straightened out month after month after month.

Everybody is a victim. And, one can develop a victim mentality. We can use it as a means of being excused. “After all look at what he has been through….” to be excused from responsibility.

Such an evasion is a denial of that dignity and worth that belongs to the fact we are created in the image of God and recreated in Christ Jesus. There is a quality of dignity and worth and value we must not deny. A victim but refuse to be a victim!

You can always take the initiative. You can take control of your life. Do not reciprocate; do not let those who would victimize you determine your behavior, said Jesus. You take charge of your life and its situation by taking the initiative in loving, caring and giving.

When someone does you wrong, it’s his problem.

When you return wrong for wrong, then you have a problem. When we are hurt, how do we respond? For most of us, the answer is quick and easy. We fight back. Negative forces generate negative forces. You shout at me, I shout at you. You muscle me, I muscle you. You hold me down, and sooner or later I will bite your hand.

It was well-known that Lady Astor and Winston Churchill had a running battle most of their lives. One day Lady Astor said to him, “If you were my husband I would poison your tea.” To which the quick-witted Churchill replied, “And if I were your husband, I’d drink it.”

Something in all of us says, “right on.” This is how we feel about little slights, hurts, digs, isn’t it?

Look at the gentle Nazarene. Oppressed by hate, he responded with grace. He didn’t fight and he didn’t give up the cause either. He simply changed the pattern. He met opposition with quiet confidence. He responded to power with peace. And he overcame malice with a gentle touch and a genuinely caring attitude. “But Jesus, didn’t they take your life?” “No, no one took my life. I gave my life. I gave my life.”

All human behavior is a matter of selected alternatives. “Selected alternatives”… We choose how to respond. Ours is the choice no matter what the situation may be.

Paul 0. Sand, at a National Conference of Christians and Jews, quoted: “Do More…” by John H. Rhodes.

Do more than exist -- Live. Do more than touch -- Feel. Do more than look -- Observe. Do more than read -- Absorb. Do more than hear -- Listen. Do more than listen -- Understand.

“Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful,” says Jesus. Judge not… forgive… give… “For the measure you give will be the measure you get back.”

By the standards of the world, those teachings appear to be unreasonable, irrational, and foolish. But, the foolishness of Christ will still save the world. Paul, in 1 Corinthians, writes, “The word of the cross is folly… but the foolishness of God is wiser than man, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.”

Clara Barton, founder of the American Red Cross, was reminded by a friend of a cruel thing someone had done to her years before. Miss Barton seemed not to recall it. “Don’t you remember it?” her friend asked. “No,” was the reply, “I distinctly remember forgetting it.”

Viktor Frankl, a Viennese Jew, was interned by the Germans for more than three years. Later writing about that experience in a book Man’s Search For Meaning, he said: Occasionally I looked at the sky, where the stars were fading and the pink light of the morning was beginning to spread behind a dark bank of clouds. But my mind clung to my wife’s image, imagining it with an uncanny acuteness. I heard her answering me, saw her smile, her frank and encouraging look.

A thought transfixed me: for the first time in my life I saw the truth as it is set into song by so many poets, proclaimed as the final wisdom by so many thinkers. The truth -- that love is the ultimate and the highest goal to which one can aspire. Then I grasped the meaning of the greatest secret that human poetry and human thought and belief have to impart: the salvation of man is through love and in love.

The final summary is the “golden rule” given by Jesus. It covers all cases: “And as you wish that people would do to you, do so to them.”