Loving your neighbour means doing what is best for them. That requires some understanding and discernment. And note that the text says nothing about money. It simply says if you are asked to give something. There are all sorts of ways we should NOT do this. The principle here of freely giving is a good one. But like love itself, giving must be done in the context of what is wise and good. Indiscriminate giving is not biblical. 

As so often happens, a discussion, a debate, or even a knock-down, drag-out brawl on the social media can sometimes be the occasion for an article here. One recent discussion triggered this article about how we are to understand the words of Jesus. Let me start by offering this verse in its immediate context (Matthew 5:38-42):
“You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ But I say to you, Do not resist the one who is evil. But if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if anyone would sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. And if anyone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles. Give to the one who begs from you, and do not refuse the one who would borrow from you.”
The social media post that I had shared that started the debate going was this: “Hmm, so I get yet another friend request from some gal in the US – lots of religious and Bible posts, but the very latest was about ‘I am stuck in a hotel and I need money…’ or some such thing. Um, adios lady.”
Plenty of folks agreed that we must beware of scammers and con artists. But one fellow asked, “Bill, how do you interpret the meaning of this Scripture when people ask you for money? ‘Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you’.”
I made this quick reply: “There is nothing godly about lacking in discernment and being unable to discern what is of God and what is of Satan.” Then another fellow came along saying this: “Bill, Not sure I see the answer to his question in your comment.” So I answered him as follows:
We do not give indiscriminately and without knowledge and wisdom. If a jihadist wants me to give him money to kill Jews, I will not. If a drug addict on the streets wants me to give him money to support his lethal habit, I will not. It is called loving your neighbour as yourself. In the same Sermon on the Mount Jesus said, “Do not cast your pearls before swine”. Comprende? And in this case, it was clearly a scam which no Christian is obligated to take part in. We are called to be wise as serpents and harmless as doves – not clueless wonders with zero discernment!
But let me tease all this out a bit further. How we understand Matt. 5:42 clearly does matter. And two major principles of biblical interpretation of course arise here. One, we must look carefully at the context. The verses here – and those that follow – are about personal retaliation and dealing with enemies.
The other principle is the need to compare Scripture with Scripture. So when we read about ‘not resisting evil’ and so on, we must see it in light of the rest of the biblical revelation. We certainly are at times called to resist evil. I have discussed these matters previously. As to ‘turning the other cheek,’ see this piece, here.
And as to the lex talionis, see here.
Concerning this passage, John Stott rightly said this about it:
Christ’s illustrations are not to be taken as the charter for any unscrupulous tyrant, ruffian, beggar or thug. His purpose was to forbid revenge, not to encourage injustice, dishonesty or vice. How can those who seek as their first priority the extension of God’s righteous rule at the same time contribute to the spread of unrighteousness? True love, caring for both the individual and society, takes action to deter evil and to promote good. And Christ’s command was ‘a precept of love, not folly.’ He teaches not the irresponsibility which encourages evil but the forbearance which renounces revenge. Authentic Christian non-resistance is non-retaliation.
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The end of our love affair with sin doesn’t happen in one, sudden moment. This divine “take away” is a long, drawn-out goodbye that only finishes at death. We love the idea of spiritual short-cuts. We love the idea that holiness involves a technique. If there was a daily sanctification pill we could take, it’d be a huge hit. But instead, this line is a prayer the 80-year old saint needs to sing as heartily as the freshly-converted pagan. 

“Take away the loving of sinning”
That line always stood out and stuck in my head as a teen. It comes from the second verse of Charles Wesley’s famous hymn, “Love divine, all loves excelling”. I think I was particularly struck by its honesty. It was strange to think that all the smart, suit-wearing men, and prim, proper women surrounding me at church were people who loved sinning! But, at the same time, it encouraged me to hear us all long for “Love divine” to rip that sinful love out of our hearts.
I think it’s a particularly helpful line for us at the moment:
a) It reminds us that life is filled with love for unlovely things. The slogan: “Love is love” is lazy, nonsense. No one holding such a sign believes loving Hitler, and loving Martin Luther King are moral equivalents. Jesus explains that “people loved the darkness rather than the light” (John 3:19). With a “conversion therapy” ban in the pipeline, the government wants to give a particular sin a very special form of legal protection. There’s to be no questioning that sin, or naming that sin as sin.
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The atheistic worldview is literally that the universe came into existence from absolutely nothing producing hydrogen and helium gas and a little bit of lithium. Then given sufficient time it produced all the elements in the universe and all life including you and me. All unguided, defying the 1st and 2nd laws of thermodynamics all the way. It is totally delusional and the evidence, as discussed, points to the Creator. The Satanic Climate Change Cult has no knowledge of the Creator who designed the Earth, Sun, and solar system for life on this planet. It was no accident! All forms of energy are gifts from God. 

The Satanic Climate Change Cult would have you believe that you need to commit suicide to ‘save the planet’ because the sources of clean safe energy are so few. If we use anything but wind, solar and hydro we’ll destroy our planet by catastrophic heating and global boiling. But that is a devilish lie.
Let’s put this into a proper perspective.
In the beginning, God created energy from which He formed the whole universe. He created numerous sources of energy for humanity because life on Earth needs abundant energy sources. Below you’ll see it is no accident that we have it available on the same planet we live on.
Many of you may know the famous equation E = mc2 derived by Albert Einstein. The equation shows us the equivalence of matter (m) and energy (E) where the parameter c is the canonical speed of light, a universal constant. Therefore we can state that matter is a form of energy. Energy from the sun, from nuclear reactors, and nuclear bombs is evidence that matter is convertible into radiant energy. The fact that the value of c2 is such a large number tells us that an enormous amount of energy may be derived from a tiny amount of matter.
We can thus conclude that energy may be divided into three states (photons/radiation, matter and plasma) in addition to gravitational energy. More on this below.
Energy was providentially given to us in a form available to do work. Without this property, it is essentially useless. This field of study in physics is called Thermodynamics. ‘Thermo’ means related to heat and ‘dynamics’ means motion. Without this type of energy, life could not exist. Life needs to move and without heat, it dies.
The form of the energy provided to us means we can extract useful work from it. As it is used that energy is converted into a form that can no longer do work and the universe tends to a cold uniform temperature.
In physics geek talk we say the universe was created in a low entropy state. It means it started off in an ordered state with useful available energy. It was not chaotic and disordered. But how did it start off this way?
It certainly was not from the big bang! The big bang never happened!  It can only be alleged from an atheistic worldview. And so much evidence has now accumulated against that non-biblical worldview. It is really just a fairy tale for children. Sorry, … but it is too scary for children. They wouldn’t believe it anyway. See 20 Big Bang Busting Bloopers.
The concept of energy rises from the first law of thermodynamics and the concept of entropy from the second law of thermodynamics. The second law effects are very familiar as we all see processes that create disorder, e.g. when ice melts or wood burns etc. An increase in entropy is inexorable and defines the flow or arrow of time.
From a study of thermodynamics, we learn that the state of the universe came only from the intelligent Mind of the Creator. It cannot come from materialism, i.e. from only matter and energy.
This has been acknowledged by intelligent reasoning physicists. I quote here from one of my old university-level physics texts on thermodynamics wherein the authors wrote:
“… we see the second law of thermodynamics as a description of the prior and continuing work of the creator, who also holds the answer to our future destiny and that of the universe.” (my emphasis added)
Richard E. Sonntag and Gordon J. Van Wylen, 1982, Introduction to Thermodynamics, Classical and Statistical, 2nd Edition, John Wiley and Sons, page 271.
The biblical worldview supports the fact that the Creator of the universe providentially created all energy and placed it in the universe in a low entropy state. That is, He created it in the useful forms needed for life.
You’ll note we call this 2nd law a law because it is never broken. There is no way to defeat it except by intelligent design (like a refrigerator), and never by random chance processes.
Gravitation is worth mentioning here. Gravitational energy was created concomitant with the creation of the solar system with a central star, the Sun, and planets bound together by Newton’s invisible force, or, as Einstein’s General Relativity theory describes it, a geometric property of spacetime.
The Sun was imbued with all forms of energy. It appears to be mostly comprised of hydrogen, helium and heavier elements undergoing thermonuclear reactions. The planets derive their energy in all forms from the Sun.
The planets were created with some nuclear unstable elements that decay (i.e. increase entropy) producing nuclear radiation including gamma rays and energetic particles. It is from these decay processes that some scientists claim the age of the earth is 5 billion years. But without knowing the initial conditions, including amounts of initial elements in the rocks, such a conclusion is impossible.
However it is worth mentioning that some nuclear reactors are natural. A natural nuclear fission reactor is a uranium deposit where self-sustaining nuclear chain reactions occur. The Oklo natural nuclear reactor is such and was discovered in Gabon in 1972 by scientists from the French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission (CEA) while prospecting for uranium in the region.
Heavy elements like Uranium-238 were created in the crust of the planet as a fuel source. This form of uranium is a natural nuclear fission fuel source. The Oklo reactor is natural. So you should never believe the Climate Change cultists who say we should only use natural renewable energy and that excludes nuclear.
But solar and wind are not renewable! The 2nd law proves that. And that is evidenced by the fact that their idols like solar panels, lithium batteries, windmill propellers, bearings etc have limited life spans.
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