If someone takes your cloak do not stop him from taking your tunic. v29. And if someone wants to sue you to take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. Mt5v40.

(1) An explanation.

In the days of Jesus the courts could take a debtor's tunic for payment but not his cloak as well. The tunic was a light inner garment. The cloak was a large thick robe worn by day and used as a blanket at night. A man without his cloak would be naked by day and cold by night. The law protected the poor man - it gave him the right to keep his cloak. See Ex22v26and27.

In Britain today there are many laws in place that give men and women important rights. On the whole we should be grateful that these laws exist! However, Jesus taught in a very provocative fashion that there are dangers in being a rights centred society.

(2) The downside of being rights obsessed.

(a) It makes people unnecessarily cautious. If individuals consider that they have a right to compensation when anything goes wrong insurance cover has to be obtained for slightly risky events. So we have the abandonment of things like pancake races because the cost of insuring against accident is too high. I read in today's Daily Telegraph that a survey has shown that many men are afraid of saying what they really think in the workplace for fear of being politically incorrect.

(b) Mischievous complaints make service providers cynical. A few days ago a man took Marks and Spencer to court because he trod on a grape in the store car park. He claimed that the squashed grape on the sole of his shoe contributed to an accident in which he wrenched his ankle. The man lost his case. Incidents like this - and there are many - make companies wary about all claims for compensation - whether justified or not.

(c) It can create a tense and legalistic environment. In some schools it is impossible for a teacher to place his hand on a pupil's shoulder without being told, "Get your hand off me. I know my rights. I'll get you into trouble." I think it is difficult for a teacher to be happy or to be at her best amongst pupils like that.

(d) In my experience those who are most insistent about their rights are not equally concerned for their responsibilities. Football managers who are very vociferous about their star player's right to protection from the referee don't have much to say about their own players responsibility not to dissent from referee's decision.

A Christian should be wary of exercising the following rights: to say what he thinks, to be consulted, to be kept informed, to be upset, to choose and of precedence.

The right of precedence is both widespread and pernicious. George Thomas, the former Speaker of the House of Commons, saw fit to record this incident in his autobiography. In the last week of April 1976 Thomas read to the Commons the resignation letter of Sir David Lidderdale as Clerk of the House after 42 years service. Immediately afterwards he read the resignation letter from Mr D.C.L. Holland the Chief Librarian who had a total of 32 years service.

Sir David complained bitterly that Thomas had read the letter from the librarian at the same time as his own. He also said that when the time came for a motion of thanks to be put down in the House his name should not be linked with that of anybody else. He considered the Clerk of the House was a very special position.

Reading this you probably think, 'How petty can you get!' But this is how 'great' men are. I was amused to learn from a TV documentary on the last days of the Second World War that Admiral Karl Doenitz, briefly Hitler's successor as German Head of State, was furious because he was imprisoned in cell 7. He considered, such was his importance, that he should be held in cell 1.

The right of precedence is not absent from the church by any means. Jesus condemned the Pharisees because they loved the chief seats at feasts. In hierarchical churches like the Church of Rome the right of precedence is strongly developed. It upsets me to see the Pope on his throne, receiving pilgrims on their knees. That is not how his Master received supplicants! However, it doesn't pay for any of us to be complacent; the right of precedence can be exercised from the pastor who has to do all the preaching in his church to the lady in charge of the flower arrangement rota. I heard recently of a woman who began attending a new church and asked to go on the flower rota. She was told, "Sorry but it is full up." How can a rota be full up! I wish we had some new members of our congregation who asked to go on the graveyard grass cutting rota - that is not full up!!

(E) Renounce the spirit of possessiveness.

"Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what belongs to you do not demand it back." v30.

(1) A word of caution.

This statement of Jesus cannot be taken too literally. I don't think that there is too much danger of that! Common sense tells us that if this command was taken at face value there would soon be two groups - the idle rich who ask and take and the industrious poor who earn and give. Paul who was not much given to paradox wrote: If a man will not work, he shall not eat. He writes more besides about the idle poor in 2Thes3.

(2) A warning against possessiveness.

Jesus must mean something when he says: "Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what belongs to you do not demand it back." v30. I think Jesus is warning against possessiveness - a trait of small children squabbling over their toys in the nursery - a trait that can persist into old age!

(a) Some folk are very possessive where money is concerned. They have earned it and intend to hold on to it for as long as they can. They are certainly not going to give their money away to people who don't deserve it.

There are Christians who are poor at parting with money under any circumstances. They are reluctant to pay wages, bills and taxes. I was talking recently to a friend about a Christian farmer now long dead. He would never pay for casual labour until you knocked on his door and asked for it. He would stand humming and hawing about the number of hours worked. Then he would fish out a matchbox and pencil and calculate carefully to the nearest penny how much he owed. His worst nightmare was to pay a shilling more than necessary.

(b) It is also possible to be possessive about property and possessions. Jesus said, "If anyone takes what belongs to you do not demand it back." There are quite a few Christians who fiercely defend the inerrancy of Scripture who treat this command of Jesus with what amounts to contempt. Jesus was saying, "Don't be the sort of person who says, 'That's mine - give it back.' or 'That's mine - get off.' or 'Why didn't you ask if you could borrow it?'"

A long while ago now, during my days as a sports organiser at a Christian camp, I can remember chasing a couple of children during a wide game over a field of stubble. The farmer, an elder of the local Plymouth Brethren Church, caught me in the act. He gave me such a telling off and made the children and I retrace our steps. Let me make it quite clear: We were not doing any damage at all. The crop had been harvested and the field was waiting to be ploughed. The farmer was being possessive. He was angry because we were trespassing on his land. We had no right to be on his land! That is precisely the attitude Jesus spoke against.

Just after Christmas this year I was given a complimentary copy of a Christian magazine. It contained a series of testimonies that I found very encouraging. I found it helpful to quote from the testimonies in two expositions on Luke's gospel. I then e-mailed the editor of the magazine to tell him how much I appreciated the testimonies and that I had made use of them on my website. I received a very cold, brusque e-mail in reply asking me to remove the quotations from my website as I was in breach of copyright. The editor claimed he had a duty to protect the intellectual property of his authors. Now I daresay I was partly in the wrong but there is no doubt that the editor was not acting in the spirit of Christ's command - "If anyone takes what belongs to you do not demand it back." It is quite as bad to be possessive about intellectual property as it is any other kind of property. I cannot imagine the apostle Paul claiming that the epistle to the Romans was his intellectual property and prohibiting anyone making copies of it.

When Jesus said: "Give to everyone who asks you, ... ." he is surely urging us to be generous. Let me give a few examples of the generous spirit to take away the sour taste of possessiveness:

(a) I have noticed that the Brockley cricketers are quite willing to share their kit. If someone needs a pair of pads or a bat they pick up what is available - and hope for the best! There are very rarely any incriminations. I have been told on more than one occasion - try my bat JR. Sad to say it no longer makes much difference what bat I use! The reason for the fairly relaxed attitude taken by my fellow cricketers to their kit is the existence of team spirit. If you subscribe to the team ethic - 'one for all and all for one' - you cannot be possessive about your kit.

(b) Sir Timothy Berners-Lee, the inventor of the world wide web, showed incredible generosity by not patenting his intellectual property but making it freely available to all. The wonderful thing is that millions contribute to the World Wide Web in the same spirit. It is a free source of knowledge and exemplifies the truth of the Beatitude, "Blessed are the merciful for they will be shown mercy." Mt5v7. (See, 'The reproductive power of kindness')

(c) There are several characters in the New Testament who are mentioned for their generosity: Barnabas, Dorcas, Lydia and Mary who poured out the precious ointment on Jesus. It is people like Dorcas who are truly missed when they are taken home to glory. Luke records: All the widows stood around him (Peter), crying and showing him the robes and other clothing that Dorcas had made while she was still with them. Acts9v39.

Very few mortal men gave more than Paul. He could write with authority: Each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. 2Cor9v6to15.

No-one has given more than Jesus. "For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many." Mark10v45. So, he is able to say:

"I gave My life for thee;
My precious blood I shed,
That thou might'st ransomed be,
And quickened from the dead.
I gave my life for thee:
What hast thou given for Me."