Walk Of Life – Day 25, May 2021 – Thoughts From The Book Of Proverbs – MAY
MAY WE FEED OUR ENEMIES
If your enemy is hungry, give him bread to eat; And if he is thirsty, give him water to drink; – Proverbs25:21
The main centre of the message of Jesus is to love. Mahathma Gandhi, The father of our nation was so much impressed by this message. Who on this earth has ever said to love your enemy. The one that interests me is that even many years before Jesus Christ King Solomon has placed this lofty and noble standard.
In the book of Romans, Paul talks about how to deal with our enemies and those who have wronged us. He instructs us on how to deal with others in the following passage.
Rom 12:17 Repay no one evil for evil. Have regard for good things in the sight of all men.
Rom 12:18 If it is possible, as much as depends on you, live peaceably with all men.
Rom 12:19 Beloved, do not avenge yourselves, but rather give place to wrath; for it is written, “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,” says the Lord.
Rom 12:20 Therefore “If your enemy is hungry, feed him; If he is thirsty, give him a drink; For in so doing you will heap coals of fire on his head.”
Rom 12:21 Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
There is one sentence that doesn’t seem to make sense – the one about heaping coals of fire on your enemy’s head. What did Paul mean by this? Clearly, it’s not literal. Paul is not talking about literally putting live hot coals of fire on your enemy’s head. It’s figurative, but what does it mean?
The first verse reads “Repay no one evil for evil”. If someone hurts us or is rude to us, our carnal nature wants to retaliate. However, God doesn’t want us to behave like that. God does not want us to repay evil for evil.
Furthermore, God wants us to show the person love, which is why it Romans 12:20 states, “If your enemy is hungry, feed him; If he is thirsty, give him a drink”. The same verse of Solomon is being used up here. If we resort to paying back like for like, whether it is being rude or mean, returning evil with evil, we are being evil, and we have been overcome by evil. If instead, we show love by our actions, then we overcome the evil with good.
May our Lord help us to be kind and loving to those who hurt us.
