Though Jesus’ words primarily focus on personal relationships, there is also a wider dimension in view. His words have implications for church discipline.

Under the old covenant, church and state were one and the same. Old covenant Israel was a theocracy, they had a king who was meant to ensure that God’s laws were applied in God’s land. That meant exercising judgments on those who disobeyed the Lord. An eye for an eye was the principle on which crimes were adjudicated. Worship an idol and you will be stoned. Kill your neighbour and you are killed in return.

In the new covenant, there is a division between church and state. The power of the sword does not lie in the hands of the church council. We are a spiritual rather than an earthly community, and those who sin and hurt their brother are not punished in relation to their crime, they are called to repentance and forgiven where they have done wrong. Those who persist in doing evil might be excommunicated (1 Corinthians 5:1–5), but that it is the limit of the church’s power. The death sentence is not in the hands of church office bearers.

This does not mean that individual Christian believers cannot be involved in government, or that we must not encourage the state to enact a judicial system that reflects what God has revealed. But it is to affirm that it is not the task of the council or office bearers to administer God’s justice in the present. There is a difference between the old covenant and the new—an eye for an eye is not the principle to govern church courts or relations. We turn the other cheek.