Give to him that asks you, and from him that would borrow of you turn not away.
All Commentaries on Matthew 5:42 Go To Matthew 5
Jerome
AD 420
Thus our Lord by doing away all retaliation, cuts off the beginnings of sin. Sothe Law corrects faults, the Gospel removes their occasions.
Mystically interpreted; When we are smitten on the right cheek, He said not, offer to him thy left, but “the other;” for the righteous has not a left. Thatis, if a heretic has smitten us in disputation, and would wound us in a righthand doctrine, let him be met with another testimony from Scripture.
If we understand this only of alms, it cannot stand with the estate of the most part of men who are poor; even the rich if they have been always giving, will not be able to continue always to give.
But it may be understood of the wealth of doctrine: wealth which never fails but the more of it is given away, the more it abounds.
