But if your enemy is hungry, feed him. If he is thirsty, give him something to drink. For in so doing you will be heaping fiery coals on his head. Do not be overcome by evil but overcome evil with good. Romans 12:20-21 HCSB
Today, we conclude our discussion on Christian Ethics. In these verses, Paul tells us to go even farther than loving our enemies and praying for them. He tells us to help them out when they are in need.
In Matthew 5, which was part of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, Jesus says in verse 39 not to resist an evildoer. He tells us to turn the other cheek. He tells us if someone sues us for our shirt, give him our coat as well. He goes on to say that if someone asks us to walk a mile with them walk two. In verse 44, he follows up on these instructions by telling us to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us.
If we are honest, the last thing we want to do is be kind to our enemies. We don’t want to help them when they are in need. We don’t want to give more than they ask for or turn the other cheek. We don’t want to feed them or give them something to drink. We want to be angry; we may even want to do to them what they did to us. This is what the flesh wants, but this is not what God wants us to do.
At some point in our lives, if we claim to be Christians, we have to surrender to God’s will. We have to let go of what we want and what we want to do, and we have to commit to living our lives in a way that is pleasing to Him. We can’t stay in that baby stage where we only want to please ourselves.
To please God, we must do things His way. While we are being totally honest, I must admit that when I read about heaping fiery coals on their head that sounded good. But this doesn’t mean we burn their scalp by shoveling burning coals on their heads.
I have heard this phrase explained in several ways. In biblical days they used fiery coals to keep their fires at home burning. They used these fires for cooking and heating their homes. If their fires went out, a neighbor might provide them with burning coals. This would be supplying yet another need.
However, I have also read there was an ancient Egyptian custom whereby someone who has done wrong is forced to walk around with a pan of burning coals on their head to represent the burning pain of his guilt and shame. Therefore, when believers lovingly help their enemies, it should bring shame and guilt to them for their hate and animosity.
Proverbs 25:21-22 says, “If your enemy is hungry, give him food to eat, and if he is thirsty, give him water to drink; for you will heap burning coals on his head and the LORD will reward you. As Christians, our job is to live as God calls us to live. It’s our job to please Him. He will take care of those who do us wrong. For us to take matters into our own hands is telling God we don’t trust Him to take care of us. We never want to do that.
If we do things the way we want to do it, we run the risk of being conquered by evil. If you set out to seek revenge on someone, the first thing you must do is bring yourself down to their level. Christians are not called to bring themselves down to the level of evil, but we are called to look up to God. We are called to give our worries and our cares to Him (1 Peter 5:7).
When you get down on your enemy’s level and perpetrate evil against them, you have allowed them to steal your joy and kill your witness. And my friend, you have been conquered by evil at this point. If you want to avoid this, conquer evil by good.
Do it God’s way. Pray to God for help with this, He will be glad to assist you. Trust in Him to take care of your problems. You can conquer evil with good, or you can be conquered by evil. The choice is yours.
Have a great day!