Article February 6, 1984 Issue

Porters and doormats

MARCEIL RUTH DeLACY

When Jesus said, "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," Luke 6:29. was he requiring us to be what one might today call doormats—people who let others walk right over them without resistance? When Jesus commanded us to love and forgive our enemies, was he actually advocating nonresistance to aggression?

Perhaps this question can best be considered in light of another of Jesus' teachings: "For the Son of man is as a man taking a far journey, who left his house, and gave authority to his servants, and to every man his work, and commanded the porter to watch. Watch ye therefore." Mark 13:34, 35. Here and elsewhere he admonishes us to be watchful porters in order to avoid having our house broken into.

Surely we can't be porters and doormats at the same time! Metaphorically they represent opposites—the porter performs the function of watching and carefully screening entrants, the doormat passively offers no challenge as people wipe their feet on it and enter.

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