³⁸ “You have heard that our fathers were told, ‘Eye for eye and tooth for tooth.’^{[a] 39} But I tell you not to stand up against someone who does you wrong. On the contrary, if someone hits you on the right cheek, let him hit you on the left cheek too! ⁴⁰ If someone wants to sue you for your shirt, let him have your coat as well! ⁴¹ And if a soldier forces you to carry his pack for one mile, carry it for two! ⁴² When someone asks you for something, give it to him; when someone wants to borrow something from you, lend it to him.

⁴ As you come to him, the living stone, rejected by people but chosen by God and precious to him, ⁵ you yourselves, as living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be cohanim set apart for God to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to him through Yeshua the Messiah. ⁶ This is why the Tanakh says,

⁷ Now to you who keep trusting, he is precious. But to those who are not trusting,

⁸ also he is

They are stumbling at the Word, disobeying it — as had been planned. ⁹ But you are a chosen people,^[d] the King’s cohanim,^[e] a holy nation,^[f] a people for God to possess!^[g] Why? In order for you to declare the praises of the One who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. ¹⁰ Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; before, you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.^[h]