25 “Settle matters quickly with your adversary who is taking you to court. Do it while you are still together on the way, or your adversary may hand you over to the judge, and the judge may hand you over to the officer, and you may be thrown into prison. 26 Truly I tell you, you will not get out until you have paid the last penny. Matthew 5:25-26

On the face of it, you could say that Jesus was arguing for settling out of court, but the application is much broader than that. The last three section we discussed being peacemakers, hating, and reconciling ourselves to others. This is merely a continuation of that.

In fact, if we compare it to “If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone” (Romans 12:18), it makes much more sense.

I recall heated church discussions when I was a new Believer. In the end, one lady said, “We’ll just have to agree to disagree” and left it at that. They didn’t see eye to eye on a very unmemorable point, so rather than having the issue escalate beyond what was necessary, she dropped it. What she did with that anger after the meeting is anybody’s guess. Even though she couldn’t convince someone of her viewpoint, she realized that it was better to drop it than to proceed.

This very wise and certainly matches the spirit if not the letter of Jesus’ words here.

‘Agreeing to disagree‘ is great if the matter is dropped and there are no hard feelings. If resentment lingers, then the problem really hasn’t been resolved.