If your enemy is hungry, give him food to eat, and if he is thirsty, give him water to drink.If your enemy is hungry, give him food to eat. If he is thirsty, give him water to drink;If thine enemy be hungry, give him bread to eat; and if he be thirsty, give him water to drink:If thine enemy be hungry, give him bread to eat; And if he be thirsty, give him water to drink:
3 sermons cite this verse
… So I'm going to read it to you guys. It's Proverbs chapter 25, verses 21 through 22. It says, if your enemy is hungry, give him food to eat. If he is thirsty, give him water to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head, and the Lord will reward you. And so that was his perspective. And it was very sobering for me. It was like, man, okay. But, like, so here's the kicker to this thing. I want you to check this out. God gave me some revelation on the scripture. Okay, talk about dig. You know what I'm saying? I dug a little bit deeper. And so what I noticed was, like, the perspective that I've had on this verse specifically most of my life, up until, you know, recently has been like, you know, this heaping coals, you know, it's like, you know, it's almost kind of spiteful to be honest with you, like, which is not our God. And so, but that's been my perspective. It's like, you know, you know, somebody makes you mad and you know what, just love many ways, you know, just show them love, do nice things to them. And then it's going to be like a burning thing on their head. It's going to burn them up inside, almost like kill them with kindness. You know what I'm saying? That kind of thing. And that's like, even that phrase is that ain't really God. Like we get it, but that's, is that the heart he wants us to …
… Something becomes active in them. In the Passion Translation, there's, out of Proverbs 25, verses 21 and 22, in the Passion Translation, he does something unusual with this verse, where he talks about generosity awakens the conscience of the people you give to. Think about that. That generosity actually awakens the conscience. It actually causes moral values to rise in a community. Generosity does. We actually contribute to the spiritual atmosphere of thankfulness and of this awareness of eternal values through generosity. People become awakened to purpose. They become awakened to accountability. to eternity. All these things become activated, moral value, moral conscience through generosity. And if that can happen from you towards somebody else, how much more does it happen from the Lord to us? He awakens things in us through his kindness that can't be awakened any other way. There's a verse here in Proverbs 11 that I want you to look at. Proverbs 11 verse 24 I make reference to this every once in a while because it fascinates me so much I love these verses that just kind of rattle your brain and I don't know if this one does that for you but it sure does for me there's three verses we're going to read verse 24 there's one who scatters yet increases more there's one who withholds more than what is right but it leads to poverty verse 24 again there's one who scatters, that is referring metaphorically as one who is generous, okay? …
… That is not Christ in us, the hope of glory. this is quoted from proverbs 25 21 and 22 if your enemy is hungry give him bread to eat if he is thirsty give him water to drink for you will heap burning coals on his head and the lord will reward you by the way that heaping burning coals on his head that is not another form of retribution. You are blessing your enemy with kindness in hopes that the kindness, the kindness, the kindness that you are showing will lead them to repentance. That kindness will bring them to repentance. That's what is meant here. There is no suggestion that the wrath of God will be visited upon the wrongdoer immediately. On the contrary, Everett Harrison writes, that wrath is the last resort. For the immediate future lies the possibility that the one who has perpetrated the wrong will have a change of heart and will be convicted of his sin and won over by the refusal of the Christian to retaliate. …