Hit Him Back

One of the hardest lessons I have tried to teach my son is to turn the other cheek.

It is hard because it does not feel fair. When someone does something against us, every fiber of our being wants to retaliate. Many of us even grew up with a father figure who told us, “If someone hits you, hit him back.”

Revenge is not only natural. It is often taught.

But is it right?

Proverbs 24:29 says:

Do not say, “I will do to him as he has done to me;
I will pay the man back for what he has done.”

Let’s be honest: this is one of those verses in the Bible we are tempted to ignore.

Like Jesus’ call to forgive again and again, the command not to seek revenge does not sit easily with us. We want the guilty to be punished.

God does not disagree that evil deserves justice. What He challenges is our desire to take that justice into our own hands.

Paul quotes the Old Testament in Romans 12:

“Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.”

God will repay. Justice belongs to Him. I am not the punisher.

Proverbs tells us not to avenge ourselves or rejoice when our enemies fall (Proverbs 24:17, 29).

Jesus tells us to turn the other cheek and love our enemies (Matthew 5:39, 44).

Paul tells us to feed our hungry enemy and overcome evil with good (Romans 12:20–21).

This is not always what we were taught growing up. It is certainly not what comes naturally.

And it is hard to teach to a child who immediately asks, “But what if they started it?”

Yet this is the hard wisdom of God.

The question is whether we trust that His way is better, even when it feels unfair.

Will we trust God with justice, or will we insist on taking His place?