An Eye for an Eye! - Matthew 5:

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Eye for Eye
38 “You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.’39 But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also. 40 And if anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, hand over your coat as well. 41 If anyone forces you to go one mile, go with them two miles. 42 Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you.
Most of you have either heard about or seen footage of the recent shooting in a Texas church, which killed two members in the church.  Fortunately a member of the church's security team was able to stop the killing of potentially many others by killing the assailant.  
In the "Sermon on the Mount" today, Jesus gives several challenging examples of how Christians should respond to evil which is done against them.  It begs the question was the member of the church doing the right thing by shooting the man who was trying to kill as many as possible?  Should he have turned the other cheek and let the man keep shooting others, including the pastor?  
Most sensible people would say of course this should have been done to protect the lives of many innocent people.  But someone might say based on this text that the church members shouldn't have responded. The members of the team should have not resisted this evil person. They might even point out the example of Jesus' allowing himself to be captured and crucified as example of allowing our enemies to do terrible things to us.  
So you can see how interpreting this text might be very challenging for us in the light of situation where those who seek violence are intending to hurt someone and you might be able to stop them.  But I don't think this is what Jesus is talking about and here's why.  One commentator puts it this way, 
"It is wrong to think that Jesus means a physical attack cannot be resisted or defended against. When Jesus speaks of a slap on your right cheek, it was culturally understood as a deep insult, not a physical attack. Jesus does not mean that if someone hits across the right side of our head with a baseball bat, we should allow them to then hit the left side."

 Here is a link to another interesting article you might read.  

 https://plainsimplefaith.com/qa-because-jesus-said-turn-the-other-cheek-is-self-defense-wrong/

It points that if a person is to protect their family and home would they let a "would be" murderer or rapist have their way with a member of your family.  Again the obvious answer is no.  This is why it is so important to interpret the bible according to its context.  Though we are not to vindictively seek revenge on those who seek to do us harm, I don't believe Jesus is arguing against self defense. For instance, in the face of gross evil that was sadly brought upon the church in Texas.  As we would protect our family, so should we protect the family of God and any other innocent person in harms way.  

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