Turning the Other Cheek in Pretense

We also know of another kind of madness, which we find in some of the brothers under color of a counterfeit patience. For them it is not enough to have stirred up quarrels; they goad them on with irritating words so as to get themselves struck. And when they have been touched by the slightest blow, they at once offer another part of their body to be struck, as if in this way they could perfectly fulfill the command that says: “If anyone strikes you on the right cheek, offer him the other also.” Meanwhile they utterly ignore the meaning and purpose of the passage. For they imagine that they are practicing the patience of the Gospel through the sin of anger. Yet it was to root out anger completely that not only was the exchange of retaliation and the provoking of strife forbidden, but we were actually commanded to calm the anger of the one who strikes by enduring a double wrong. [a]