Romans 12:20 On the contrary: "If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head."
I think this is one of the more interesting and misunderstood verses in the Bible. On the surface, it would appear that if you want to get back at your enemy, then be kind to him. As if kindness will lead to punishment. Maybe it works like the Old Testament story of Jael, who went out to meet the evil General Sisera (Judges 4:17-21): "She said to him, 'Come, my Lord, come right in.
Don't be afraid.' So he entered her tent, and she put a covering over him. 'I'm thirsty,' he said.
'Please give me some water.' She opened a skin of milk, gave him a drink, and covered him up.
'Stand in the doorway of the tent, he told her. 'If someone comes by and asks you, 'Is anyone here?' say 'No.' ' But Jael, Heber's wife, picked up a tent peg and a hammer and went quietly to him while he lay fast asleep, exhausted. She drove the peg through his temple into the ground, and he died."
Sisera wanted water because he was thirsty and tired. Jael gave him warm milk. He came to her tent because he thought she was an ally. Instead, she was loyal to the Israelites. And when he fell asleep with a stomach full of warm milk thinking he was safe, she drove a tent stake through his head! Is that what our passage today implies? Give them kindness, until unsuspectingly they fall asleep, then when at their most vulnerable, give them what they really deserve. Truthfully, it might be more satisfying (at least temporarily), but I don't think fostering Jael-style attacks is the point of our passage today. So if it's not setting them up for the kill with kindness, what is it?
History tells us that in Paul's day, when a fire went out in a home, it was difficult to re-ignite. So if it did go out, a woman would be called to bring in hot coals, in order to re-light the fire. She would carry those coals in a clay pot on top of her head. With this in mind, the implication of this verse changes dramatically. Heaping burning coals is no longer a punishment preceded by kindness. Rather, it is kindness following kindness. The visual I have is: by being kind to my enemies, I am "warming" their thoughts toward me and by extension, to the God we serve. It is how we win souls for the Kingdom, by modeling God's love. We thereby become His instrument of reconciliation.
I am reminded of Jonah's words from Jonah 4:1-3: "But Jonah was greatly displeased and became angry. He prayed to the LORD, "O LORD, is this not what I said when I was still at home?
That is why I was so quick to flee to Tarshish. I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity.
Now, O LORD, take away my life, for it is better for me to die than to live." Jonah was disappointed the Lord didn't punish the people of Nineveh. They were Jonah's enemies yet God chose to forgive them.
When you are kind to your enemies do you have an ulterior motive?
The only one God says is appropriate is to win them for Christ. Most of us have great difficulty with this instruction because we naturally want our enemies to be punished. And if not at our hands, then at God's.
However, God wants reconciliation with all of mankind. Even our enemies.
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