Bible

[plugger]

Interesting: I suppose this is one I personally really need to work on.....Now after saying this, we have here a big subject that requires much search outside of personal opinion.....Like I said, something I really need to work on-----Sometimes in Bible Study we come upon things that really step on our toes---OUCH !!

Proverbs 25:21-22
New King James Version

If your enemy is hungry, give him bread to eat;
And if he is thirsty, give him water to drink;
For so you will heap coals of fire on his head,
And the Lord will reward you.

Then in the notes I see:
Scholars believe the phrase "heap coals of fire on their heads". probably refers to an Egyptian custom whereby a person publicly demonstrated contrition for wrongdoing by carrying on his head a pan of hot burning coals to represent the burning pain of his shame and guilt. The point of the illustration is that when we love our enemy, we become the burning pan of coals on his head. Our love and good works toward our enemy is a painful reminder to him of his evil deeds and (hopefully) shames him into wanting to correct his ways.......

God's plan is for you to replace your enemy's evil with good: to replace his hatred with love; to replace his unkindness with kindness. Only in doing so will we keep the total reservoir of evil in his world from getting bigger and bigger, which is what happens when we repay evil for evil. To think in accounting terms, the only way we can cancel out the evil done is to pay back with good, thereby keeping the books balanced. To add evil to evil just puts us further and further into a deficit of good in the world. If we take vengeance into our own hands, we become the one who suffers. But when we love our enemy we become a reminder to him of what he has done.