Answer: Question 10c in Lesson 18 of Part Three--Bible Study

The Gift of Eternal Life Berean Bible Study Course

PART III--The Way Of Serving God In Christ Jesus

F. Lesson 18--We Serve By Serving Others

c. How should we treat our enemies?

Answer: If our enemy is hungry, we feed him; of he is thirsty, we give him something to drink; by doing so, we heap burning coals on his head, (verse 20). This attitude AND action is our guarantee that we will not be overcome by evil, but that we will overcome evil with good, (verse 21).

MORE INFORMATION AND/OR OTHER SCRIPTURE REFERENCES:

This is a quote from Proverbs 25:21-22:

"If your enemy is hungry, give him food to eat; if he is thirsty, give him water to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head, and the Lord will reward you."

The love and faithfulness we display will win the favor of God AND man:

Proverbs 3:3-4: "Let love and faithfulness never leave you; bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart. Then you will win favor and a good name in the sight of God and man."

When Paul wrote this letter to the Roman Christians, he knew of their plight in a city filled with enemies--pagans everywhere! He urged Christians not to provide their pagan neighbors with any just cause for criticism.

One way to do this was just discussed in verse 19--non-retaliation. Now Paul expands upon this principle.

The early church, set as they were in naturally suspicious or hostile communities, needed wise and cool heads. It takes two to keep the peace, but the Christian must not be responsible for breaking it. It is the natural reaction to retaliate, a reaction based partly at least on an instinct for fair play. But, as we have just studied, it can safely be left to God eventually to get justice done, on the day of judgment. Vengeance is GOD'S right and so not man's right.

But there is one positive way in which the Christian may react. Scripture lays it down with vivid irony, as seen above in Proverbs 25:21-22. A "tit-for-tat" attitude/action would only aggravate the situation and set up a vicious circle. (Is it not true in gang wars, clan wars and wars among nations, who are in a vicious cycle of retaliation one against the other?) But there is a real possibility that repaying the other party's hostility with unexpected kindness and �treating him as someone in need' (Barth) will make him burn with pangs of guilt and remorse and realize the error of his ways. And so the breach will be healed and �vengeance be transformed into the victory of love' (H.C.G. Moule).

And there we are again at Luke 6:27-36: the teachings of Jesus about loving our enemies, and being just as merciful to them as the Father was (and is) to us. If the Father of us has an endless work of love and mercy, then so do we, His children, who only have life because of His Own grace, love and mercy to us.

God puts this "heaping of coals" upon the heads of our enemies in other practical terms in Exodus 23:4-5:

"If you come across your enemy's ox or donkey wandering off, be sure to take it back to him. If you see the donkey of someone who hates you fallen down under its load, do not leave it there; be sure you help him with it."

What possibilities we have every day to turn an enemy of God (and, therefore, an enemy of ourselves) into a friend of God (as we now stand as His friend in the blood of Christ) by using the love and mercy and kindness that was given to us--taught to us--by our Father!!

From Jim McGuiggan's commentary on The Book of Romans:

"If thine enemy hunger feed him ..." Annihilate the enemy is the advice of the world, but then, the Christian is not of the world. God's just punishment (called "vengeance") will overtake all transgressors. His day is coming. In the meantime, we have been given [our] orders [concerning the enemy]. "Feed him!" How many actual cases have you heard of where one soldier cared for the wounds of an enemy and was (rightly) praised for it? This is the way to destroy enemies. And if we praise such a soldier, don't we implicitly say, "This is the way we ought to go!" And if it is indeed the way we ought to go, ought we not then to go it?!

"This is the way we could go if," someone said to me, "that was the kind of world we were living in." I sympathize with that remark, but what can I say? It doesn't seem to meet the requirements of Christ's approach to enemies. Perhaps I've missed the whole point; I've done it before. Still..."Overcome evil with good!" He urges us. [A man named] Beet reminds us that there are only two options offered us. Either we overcome evil with good, or we will be overcome with evil. Being overcome with evil here clearly implies returning evil for evil.