Turning the other cheek belongs to the command to love enemies
The Gospel paradox about the other cheek
Matthew 5:38–44 places the instruction after the rule of retaliation and before the command to love enemies. In the King James Version, Matthew specifies the right cheek; Luke 6:27–31 gives the parallel injunction without specifying right or left, alongside blessing persecutors, surrendering possessions and the Golden Rule. Chesterton's phrase is therefore a compressed allusion shared by both accounts, not an exact quotation that identifies one Gospel or translation.
The surrounding commands make the episode more than advice to avoid a fight: it concerns the response to injury and the treatment of enemies. Whether that response excludes every public or military use of force requires a further interpretation. The Gospel allusion itself does not settle the entire historical question Chesterton builds around it. King James Version, Matthew 5:38–44; Luke 6:27–31.
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