Love
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.” 21 Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
Paul adds to this a second consideration: There is a just and holy God in charge even when evil people do evil things. Christians are not called upon to set everything right in the world. They are not to repay the evildoers in kind or to take revenge. That will all eventually work itself out in God’s eternal court of justice. Hence drawing on Deuteronomy 32:35, the apostle can say, “Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: ‘It is mine to avenge; I will repay,’ says the Lord.”
But there is yet a third consideration that urges blessings and kindly treatment for enemies and evildoers. That motivation is the hope of bringing them to repentance and thereby winning them for Christ and his gospel. After telling the Romans not to avenge themselves, Paul says, “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.’”
When an enemy of Christianity has vented wrath on a Christian and done harm to the Christian, it may go against expectations and cause this person to reflect on his course of action if the Christian responds with kindness. If the evildoer in turn now sees the error of his ways and regrets his illconceived course of action against the Christian, his sorrow and remorse over his evil actions will make him feel as though he is carrying “burning coals on his head” (Proverbs 25:22). In this way the Christian’s “good” will have overcome an enemy’s “evil,” and the goal intended by Paul will have been reached. To be sure, things will not always turn out that favorably, but this nonetheless is to be the Christian’s goal, as Paul indicates when he closes this section with the general application “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.”