March 2026 Newsletter

Frank Paul
3 days ago
6 min read

Quotes of the month

When you tolerate what is wrong, you will always contaminate what is right.

Pastor James Merritt

Let the world race on, but for me and my house, we will stop.

Charlie Kirk, Sabbath observer

“Stop, in the Name of God”

(editor’s note: Stop, in the Name of God, is an excellent book by the late Charlie Kirk. Highly recommended)

Man’s law cannot make moral what God has declared immoral. Even if sin is legalized, it’s still a sin in the eyes of God.

J. C. Ryle

(editor’s note: See article about who J.C. Royle was on page 3)

Meditate much on heaven, it will help you press on and to forget the difficulty of the journey.

Charles Spurgeon

Each day is God’s gift to you. What you do with it is your gift to Him. Amen.

Battleborn Brotherhood website

(editor’s note: Of all the articles, newsletters, postings, et cetera that I have written over the past few years, none have resulted in more positive reader comments than my six-part series on Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount; most of which expressed a thank you because, “I always wondered what that really meant.” So with that intro, I thought I would re-publish them over the next few newsletters in case you missed it the first time. Thank you.)

A six-part series – Questions about the Sermon on the Mount answered – What did Jesus mean in today’s language

by Frank Paul

The main part of the Sermon on the Mount, or the Beatitudes, is found in the beginning of Matthew, Chapter 5; however, the Sermon on the Mount continues for another two chapters. This month let’s cover Mattew 5:39. “But I say unto you, that ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also.”

Common parlance transcribes this as, “Turn the other cheek.”

Well, this one is a humdinger. Really, Jesus, turn the other cheek? Out first reaction might be, “Sorry, Jesus, I can’t go along with this one.” But here we go again: What did “turn the other cheek” really mean in 1^st Century Galilean times?

In the historical context of Roman occupied Judea in the 1^st Century, the phrase “turn the other cheek” held a more literal meaning than what is commonly understood today. During the 1^st Century, Roman law allowed Roman soldiers to legally strike someone on the cheek. So when Jesus instructed his followers to “turn the other cheek,” He was not advocating for passive pacificism. Instead, He was addressing a specific situation in which Roman soldiers mistreated the local population. By advising people to “turn the other cheek,” Jesus encouraged nonviolent resistance within the constraints of Roman law. In other words, “turn the other cheek” in the 1^st Century had practical implications related to Roman occupation and legal restrictions. It refers to responding to insults without retort. Another explanation given by Stassen in his book “Just Peacemaking,” he explains that “turning the other cheek” has been misunderstood in Western culture that thought there were only two alternatives: violence or passivity. But since Gandhi and King, we can appreciate Jesus’ teaching better. In Jesus’ culture, to be struck on the right cheek was to be given a hostile, back handed insult with the back of the right hand. In that culture, it was forbidden to touch or strike anyone with the left hand; the left hand was for dirty things. “Turn the other cheek” was to surprise the insulter, saying nonviolently, “you are treating me as an unequal, but I need to be treated as an equal.” Jesus is saying: if you are slapped on the cheek of inferiority, turn the cheek of equal dignity.

And one last explanation I found in my research was that in 1^st Century Jesus’ culture, a slap on the cheek was an insult to you and your family, not necessarily the beginning of a fight.

If you are one of my former martial arts students, I am sure you remember my example I used many times in class about how and when to use our fighting skills. If someone walked up to me and said I can’t stand dagos, that doesn’t give me the right to elbow the idiot in the face. However, if he went to punch or tackle me, I was certainly within my rights to defend myself.

Jesus was telling his followers not to elbow the idiot in the face, and a simple insult should not result in a full blown fight; and in that day and age, a simple slap on the face was an insult, that was not going to be followed up with a series of punches, and that is why Jesus said to “turn the other cheek.”

Hopefully this helps clear up one of Jesus’ sayings during his Sermon on the Mount. We will address another one next month, Lord willing.

Who was J.C. Ryle?

by Frank Paul

John Charles Ryle, 1816 – 1900, was an evangelical Anglican clergyman and first Bishop of Liverpool. He was renowned for his powerful preaching and extensive tracts.

When in an unknown church one day during his later college years, he arrived late and the first words he heard were the reading of Ephesian 2:8-9. “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any man should boast.” The force of these words hit his heart, and from that point on he was assured of his salvation. He offered himself for ministry in the Church of England. He was duly accepted and ordained in December 1841. In 1844 he began writing his series of “Expository Thoughts on the Gospels,” which jump started his writing career. “Holiness” and “Practical Religion” are two of his most famous books and are still in print today.

J.C. Ryle was a man of the Word. He faithfully taught and preached the Word for several decades. His simple teaching and sage advice continue to strengthen and guide many to this day. One point that Ryle strongly emphasize is that all people have a place in God’s work. All of life must be yielded to God. He also emphasized the point that there is spiritual warfare around all of us believers, and we must not neglect to engage in that spiritual

battle. I personally never forget it is a spiritual battle because it rages around me every day. And do not be dismayed if you are experiencing the same fight. Satan is not going to pick on non-threatening people to his reign of terror and lies. He is going to go after the HVTs, high value targets; you and I and everyone else who daily prays, reads the Scriptures, and tries to live as close to Jesus as we can; and it is in that type of life that we live that we can drive Satan nuts and make Jesus happy. I’m in for a good fight; how about you? Especially when we consider our eternal prize is being in the presence of God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit.

We do not have to be a Charles Spurgeon, C.S. Lewis, or J.C. Ryle to help spread the Word. We all can do our little part, and all those little parts add up to a big whole by our life’s end. Amen…

J.C. Ryle quotes:

Praying and sinning will never live together in the same heart. Prayer will consume sin, or sin will choke prayer.

Do nothing that you would not like God to see. Say nothing you would not like God to hear. Write nothing you would not like God to read.

Let us watch against pride in every shape – pride of intellect, pride of

wealth, pride in our own goodness.

Men fall in private long before they fall in public.

Tidbits

What ASAP really means – Always Say A Prayer.

Truth wears well.

And God has placed in my heart the spirit of knowledge and understanding, truth and righteousness.

(Dead Sea Scrolls, page 450, English translation)

In order to follow Jesus, you must unfollow the world.