Matthew 5:41

Shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him twain. - αγγαρευσει. This word is said to be derived from the Persians, among whom the king's messengers, or posts, were called Αγγαποι, or angari. This definition is given both by Hesychius and Suidas.

The Persian messengers had the royal authority for pressing horses, ships, and even men, to assist them in the business on which they were employed. These angari are now termed chappars, and serve to carry despatches between the court and the provinces. When a chappar sets out, the master of the horse furnishes him with a single horse; and, when that is weary, he dismounts the first man he meets, and takes his horse. There is no pardon for a traveler that refuses to let a chappar have his horse, nor for any other who should deny him the best horse in his stable. See Sir J. Chardin's and Hanway's Travels. For pressing post horses, etc., the Persian term is Sukhreh geriften. I find no Persian word exactly of the sound and signification of Αγγαρος; but the Arabic agharet signifies spurring a horse, attacking, plundering, etc. The Greek word itself is preserved among the rabbins in Hebrew characters, אנגריא angaria, and it has precisely the same meaning: viz. to be compelled by violence to do any particular service, especially of the public kind, by the king's authority. Lightfoot gives several instances of this in his Horae Talmudicae.

We are here exhorted to patience and forgiveness:

First, When we receive in our persons all sorts of insults and affronts, Matthew 5:39.

Secondly, When we are despoiled of our goods, Matthew 5:40.

Thirdly, When our bodies are forced to undergo all kinds of toils, vexations, and torments, Matthew 5:41.

The way to improve the injustice of man to our own advantage, is to exercise under it meekness, gentleness, and long-suffering, without which disposition of mind, no man can either be happy here or hereafter; for he that avenges himself must lose the mind of Christ, and thus suffer an injury ten thousand times greater than he can ever receive from man. Revenge, at such an expense, is dear indeed.

5:40-41 Where the damage is not great, choose rather to suffer it, though possibly it may on that account be repeated, than to demand an eye for an eye, to enter into a rigorous prosecution of the offender. The meaning of the whole passage seems to be, rather than return evil for evil, when the wrong is purely personal, submit to one bodily wrong after another, give up one part of your goods after another, submit to one instance of compulsion after another. That the words are not literally to be understood, appears from the behaviour of our Lord himself, John 18:22,23.