Love--And The Angry Outsider Series

4. Make transformation a priority. “Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, ‘Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.’

“To the contrary,

‘if your enemy is hungry, feed him;

if he is thirsty, give him something to drink;

for by so doing you will heap burning coals on his head.’”

Hey, now that sounds good. Heaping hot, burning coals on your enemies head. Now you’re talking, Paul. Wouldn’t that fulfill a lot of fantasies? Talk about your bad hair day. If only Paul hadn’t said, “When it comes to pay-back, don’t.”

No matter how unjustly we have been treated, revenge should not find a place on our agenda. Notice how Paul addresses his readers in affectionate terms, “Beloved.” Maybe he does so because he is sympathetic with their pain and understands their desire to see some kind of justice here and now. Yet, he calls for them to have patience. They are to leave the matter in God’s hands.

Christians do believe there will be a final accounting, that everyone will face the Judge of the universe to have his or her fate pronounced. There may be delays and continuances but the Day is coming. Hurting Christians who long for justice can take some comfort in that. Yet, there’s a kind of fly in the ointment, Christians also believe in a bothersome thing called “forgiveness.” In fact, the Christian is only able to look forward to that Day of Judgment because we believe our sins have already been judged, judged on the Cross of Christ. We believe he received the punishment which should have been ours.

What if our enemy, the one who has been so cruel to us, should come to faith in Christ? Lets make this a little less personal. Suppose, for example, that Saddam, in his wanderings to elude capture, should come across a New Testament. Suppose he should read it and become convinced, contrary to all he had ever been taught, that Christ is the Son of God, that He died on the cross and rose again, that He is the way of salvation. Now, suppose further that this brutal dictator should place his faith in Christ. According to the New Testament he would be forgiven, accepted as a child of God, made our brother in Christ. Now, suppose the same thing should happen to your worst enemy.

That’s hard for some of us to imagine. Yet, if loving your enemy means anything, if wanting God’s best for your enemy really means wanting God’s best, we will want that for our enemy.

I suspect that’s why Paul won’t allow his readers to simply sit back and wait for God’s judgment to fall on their enemies. They are not just to avoid taking revenge, they are actually to act with positive kindness toward their enemies. Remember what he says, “if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink.”

One commentator pointed out that this covers meeting the basic needs of life. How easy it would be to watch our enemy starve, how satisfying it would be. Paul says we can’t; we would have to intervene.