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.” Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
Now, that goes against our nature!! How many people today would embrace the above doctrine as their life-world-view? We, as a society, tend to do just the opposite. We do not avoid vengeance. In fact, if we even think someone is going to do us wrong, we are ready to do them wrong first. The above teaching of Paul is so, so contrary to the world he lived in and the world we live in. The passage that follows the above verses is Paul’s admonition to obey the leaders among us. Remember, Paul lived in the day’s of Nero, who, for sport, burnt Christians on poles as lanterns to light his gardens. The Roman culture was an “eye for and eye” society, just like ours. When Paul teaches us to not avenge ourselves, that is one thing. We can, at times, give it to God and remember that “vengeance” belongs to God and that will happen sooner or later. But, to go one step farther and be proactive in showing Christian love to someone who has done us wrong (or wants to) is just beyond our natural ability. Our sinful nature is to be, at least, passive aggressive to those who do us wrong. We don’t mind not taking out our vengeance, but, we also don’t mind simply avoiding them. Yet, Paul is teaching us to be intentional with our Christian love and to sacrifice ourselves for not just our loved ones, but for those who have done us wrong. This is NOT an option. Imagine if a marriage practiced this. Imagine if a church practiced this. Imagine if a business practiced this. What would happen if Washington D.C. practiced this? What would happen if the United Nations practiced this principal. This is one of the most powerful principals of life we can live out. It take supernatural love to do this and that ONLY comes from the Spirit of God. We are not giving an option here. But, we are giving the capacity. When we allow the Spirit of God to produce in us supernatural love (love the world can’t produce) we can practice the above command of Scripture. By the way, the verse just before this command is the reason Paul is saying this. We are more compelled to give water to our enemies when we understand that is the avenue by which we can practice this command of Paul, as well:
If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.
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