To one who strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also, and from one who takes away your cloak do not withhold your tunic either.
English Standard Version (ESV)
This isn't just about turning the other cheek; it's a radical call to disarm violence by stripping away your own defenses. Jesus is urging us to go beyond mere reaction and embrace a posture so vulnerable that it leaves the aggressor with nothing left to take. This deliberate refusal to retaliate, even to the point of giving away your inner garment when your outer one is stolen, is meant to dismantle their power and expose the emptiness of their attack.
To one who strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also, and from one who takes away your cloak do not withhold your tunic either.
English Standard Version (ESV)
Jesus has just chosen his twelve apostles and is now speaking to a vast crowd gathered on a level plain, presenting them with his core teachings on discipleship. This teaching, often called the Sermon on the Plain, lays out the radical ethics of God's kingdom, challenging conventional ideas of justice and retaliation. Immediately following his beatitudes and woes, Jesus instructs his followers on how to respond to personal injury, emphasizing non-resistance and generosity even when wronged.
Jesus issues a command that sounds utterly impossible: 'offer the other cheek' and 'don't withhold your tunic.' What does He mean by this extreme language?
Jesus isn't just talking about not fighting back. This isn't about being a doormat or passively accepting abuse.
Instead, Jesus is teaching a radical principle of generosity in the face of injustice. When someone strikes you, offering the other cheek isn't about inviting more violence. It's a way to disarm the aggressor through overwhelming, unexpected grace.
Similarly, when someone takes your outer garment (your cloak), offering your inner garment (your tunic) means going beyond what's legally required or socially expected. It’s about demonstrating a love so profound that it refuses to be bound by the usual rules of self-preservation and retaliation.
Did Jesus Himself always turn the other cheek literally?
The Gospel writers are clear: Jesus' words here are meant to establish a powerful principle of non-resistance to evil, not a rigid, literal rule for every circumstance.
Consider Jesus' own experience. When struck by a guard in the high priest's courtyard, He didn't offer the other cheek. Instead, He asked, 'If I spoke wrongly, bear witness about the word, but if I spoke rightly, why do you strike me?' (John 18:23).
This shows that Jesus, while embodying the spirit of His teaching—rejecting personal vengeance and responding with grace—also knew when to speak truth and assert His dignity. The ultimate point is to break the cycle of retaliation with love, not to invite further harm indefinitely.
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Understand the original words
himation · Greek Noun
An outer garment or mantle, often of significant value and used as a covering or bed at night. Under biblical law, it was considered essential and was even protected from being kept as a pledge overnight.
chitōna · Greek Noun
An inner garment worn next to the skin, similar to a tunic or shirt. It was considered the most basic necessity of clothing.
This passage is the most direct parallel, as Jesus teaches the same principle of non-retaliation and generosity when wronged.
1 Peter 2:19Peter echoes Jesus' teaching by instructing believers to endure suffering unjustly, finding favor with God through patient endurance, which aligns with the spirit of Luke 6:29.
Romans 12:17Paul advises not to repay evil for evil, expanding on the principle by urging believers to bless those who curse them and to live peaceably with all, which is a broader application of the same radical generosity.
1 Corinthians 6:7Paul directly addresses the impracticality of Christians taking each other to court, implying that suffering loss and injustice from fellow believers (and by extension, others) is preferable to seeking legal recourse, a concept closely related to turning the other cheek.
barnesLuke 6:29: "And unto him that smiteth thee on the one cheek offer also the other; and him that taketh away thy cloke forbid not to take thy coat also."
See Matthew 5:39-40 .
pulpitLuke 6:29: "And unto him that smiteth thee on the one cheek offer also the other; and him that taketh away thy cloke forbid not to take thy coat also."
Verse 29. - And unto him that smiteth thee on the one cheek offer also the other. This and the following direction is clothed in language of Eastern. picturesqueness, to drive home to the listening crowds the great and novel truths he was urging upon them. No reasonable, thoughtful man would feel himself bound to the letter of these commandments…
This isn't just about turning the other cheek; it's a radical call to disarm violence by stripping away your own defenses. Jesus is urging us to go beyond mere reaction and embrace a posture so vulnerable that it leaves the aggressor with nothing left to take. This deliberate refusal to retaliate, even to the point of giving away your inner garment when your outer one is stolen, is meant to dismantle their power and expose the emptiness of their attack.
Jesus has just chosen his twelve apostles and is now speaking to a vast crowd gathered on a level plain, presenting them with his core teachings on discipleship. This teaching, often called the Sermon on the Plain, lays out the radical ethics of God's kingdom, challenging conventional ideas of justice and retaliation. Immediately following his beatitudes and woes, Jesus instructs his followers on how to respond to personal injury, emphasizing non-resistance and generosity even when wronged.
Jesus has just chosen his twelve apostles and is now speaking to a vast crowd gathered on a level plain, presenting them with his core teachings on discipleship. This teaching, often called the Sermon on the Plain, lays out the radical ethics of God's kingdom, challenging conventional ideas of justice and retaliation. Immediately following his beatitudes and woes, Jesus instructs his followers on how to respond to personal injury, emphasizing non-resistance and generosity even when wronged.
"To one who strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also, and from one who takes away your cloak do not withhold your tunic either." — This isn't just about turning the other cheek; it's a radical call to disarm violence by stripping away your own defenses. Jesus is urging us to go beyond mere reaction and embrace a posture so vulne…
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Last reviewed October 2026