Annotation XXVII

”But I say to you, resist not evil.” — Matthew 5:39

Whether it is lawful to seek redress for an injury in court.

Chrysostom, homily 18, expounding this sentence, says: “What then — ought we not to resist evil? We ought indeed, but not in that manner in which the Law commanded, but in that which he [Christ] enjoined: namely, that we offer ourselves to the suffering of injuries. For fire is not ever [quenched] by fire, but fire is quenched by water,” etc. This passage Bodius, in [his] Collectanea, reckons among those by which the Lutherans persuade [people] that it is not lawful for Christians in any way to demand back redress for an injury inflicted, nor retaliation of a loss, in court. Which error Jacobus Faber [Lefèvre d’Étaples] and Erasmus followed, in expounding this same law. But it is strange that these men — most sharp-sighted in many things — did not see that both Christ and Chrysostom counsel this as an evangelical counsel, which touches the perfect alone, and does not bind all by the obligation of a precept.