8-27-06 Rom 12 17-21

8-27-06 Rom12: 17-21 Our Responsibility to love our enemy

BIG IDEA   Do good to all , Be at Peace

Last week we talked about Our Responsibility as Christians is to Love

We were to love one another as Christian Brothers and Sisters being real and showing hospitality to one another Rom 12:9-16

This week we are going to talk about Our Responsibility to love our enemy OR TO Do good to all, Be at Peace like with everyone

You may remember I mentioned in V 14 it interrupts the call to Christians to love and to do good to one another.

Rom 12:14 Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse.(NIV)   

There we are to overcome evil with good by blessing those who persecute you.

This was a prelude to Rom 12: 17-21 17 If someone does wrong to you, do not pay him back by doing wrong to him. Try to do what everyone thinks is right. 18 Do your best to live in peace with everyone. 19 My friends, do not try to punish others when they wrong you, but wait for God to punish them with his anger. It is written: “I will punish those who do wrong; I will repay them,” n says the Lord. 20 But you should do this: “If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him a drink. Doing this will be like pouring burning coals on his head.”  21 Do not let evil defeat you, but defeat evil by doing good (NCV).

This tells how we should deal with our foes, our enemies, people that annoy us, grind us the wrong way etc. 

Let God repay them for the wrong they have done to you (12:17–19).

Also in

Live at peace with everyone   Do good to all , Be at Peace

When someone is being a jerk to you? Do good to all , Be at Peace

When someone steals from You?  Do good to all , Be at Peace

When your neighbors child keys your car! Do good to all , Be at Peace  

God says if someone does evil to you don’t be vengeful He will take care of it. As it is stated “Vengeance is Mine says the Lord”.

Also ref Deut 32:35   I will punish those who do wrong; I will repay them. Soon their foot will slip, because their day of trouble is near, and their punishment will come quickly.” (NCV)

Well than the Lord goes even a step further and tells us to Give them food when they are hungry and water when they are thirsty

In other words  Do good to all , Be at Peace  and this act of goodness will heap as it were burning coals upon their heads.

Notes. 20 The use of burning coals to symbolize shame and repentance.

The burning Coals may derive from an Egyptian ritual in which a person could purge his or her sin by carrying on the head a dish containing burning charcoal   New Bible Commentary : 21st Century Edition. 4th ed.

Reference Pr. 25:21-22 21 If your enemy is hungry, give him food to eat; if he is thirsty, give him water to drink. 22 In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head, and the Lord will reward you.

V 21—Do not be defeated by evil, but defeat evil with good — this is a fitting conclusion to this section (17–21)

What are some practical ways we can defeat evil with good?..............

Help someone in need.

Do not just look the other way when something bad is happening to someone step in.

These things are actually contrary to what the world teaches, aren’t they? Though God teaches us Do good to all , Be at Peace

Let us start to practice what God has taught us. Amen.  

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