The Strategy of Coals: Overcoming Evil with Good Text: Proverbs 25:21-22
Introduction: Sentimentalism is Not a Strategy
We live in an age that is drowning in sentimentality. Our culture's understanding of love is a flimsy, syrupy thing, a cheap greeting card emotion that has no backbone and no stomach for a fight. When modern Christians approach a text like this one, they often do so with this treacly mindset. They read "give him food to eat" and think it means we are to be indiscriminately "nice," as though the ultimate goal of the Christian life is to beinoffensive. They assume that loving your enemy means pretending he is not your enemy.
But the wisdom of God is not sentimental. It is strategic. It is robust. It is covenantal. This proverb is not a call to a passive, milquetoast pacifism. It is a battle plan. It is a description of how to engage in spiritual warfare, not by mimicking the world's methods of carnal retaliation, but by deploying a divine strategy that overcomes evil with good. The Apostle Paul understood this perfectly, which is why he quotes this very passage as the capstone of his argument against personal vengeance in Romans 12.
We must disabuse ourselves of the notion that Jesus came to replace the supposedly harsh God of the Old Testament with a gentler, more accommodating deity. That is rank heresy. The God of Proverbs is the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. The ethic described here is the very same ethic Jesus preaches in the Sermon on the Mount. Love your enemies. Do good to those who hate you. This is not a new idea; it is a foundational principle of God's covenantal world. But it is not what you think it is. It is not about making your enemy feel affirmed. It is about placing him squarely before the throne of God, the God to whom vengeance belongs.
The Text
If your enemy is hungry, give him food to eat;
And if he is thirsty, give him water to drink;
For you will heap burning coals on his head,
And Yahweh will repay you.
(Proverbs 25:21-22 LSB)
The Counter-Intuitive Command (v. 21)
We begin with the straightforward, yet profoundly difficult, command.
"If your enemy is hungry, give him food to eat; And if he is thirsty, give him water to drink;" (Proverbs 25:21)
The first thing to notice is that the text assumes the reality of enemies. Christianity is not a religion for a world where everyone is already friends. The Bible is written for a world at war, a world full of strife, hatred, malice, and opposition. An enemy is not just someone who disagrees with you about politics. An enemy is someone who hates you, who seeks your harm. This proverb does not tell you to pretend that enmity does not exist. It tells you how to act in the face of it.
The natural human response to an enemy in need is to rejoice. Our fallen instinct is to see his hunger as a just desert, his thirst as a righteous consequence. We think, "Good. He's finally getting what's coming to him." This is the way of the world. It is the logic of retaliation, of an eye for an eye. If he is hungry, our impulse is to let him starve. If he is thirsty, we would rather watch him choke on dust.
But God commands the opposite. He tells us to meet our enemy's most basic, creaturely needs. Give him bread. Give him water. This is a radical, counter-cultural act. It is an act of objective, practical love. This is not about feeling warm feelings toward him. Love, in the Bible, is not primarily an emotion; it is a committed action. You are commanded to do good to him, regardless of how you feel. This action short-circuits the cycle of revenge. He throws a rock at you, and your instinct is to throw a bigger rock back. God tells you to throw him a sandwich instead. This is bewildering to the world. It is a sign that you are operating under a different set of rules, under the authority of a different King.
This command reflects the character of God Himself. As Jesus says, God "makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust" (Matthew 5:45). God extends common grace to His enemies every single day. The very breath in the lungs of the atheist, which he uses to curse God, is a gift from that same God. When we give food and water to our enemy, we are acting like our Father. We are demonstrating that we are true sons of the Most High, who is kind to the ungrateful and the evil.
The Surprising Result (v. 22)
Verse 22 explains the startling purpose and outcome of this counter-intuitive action. This is where we see that this is not sentimentalism, but high strategy.
"For you will heap burning coals on his head, And Yahweh will repay you." (Proverbs 25:22 LSB)
Now, what in the world does it mean to "heap burning coals on his head?" Many have tried to soften this. Some say it refers to an Egyptian ritual of repentance where someone would carry a pan of hot coals on their head to show their sorrow. Others suggest it means your kindness will cause him to feel a "burning shame." While your kindness may indeed lead to shame and repentance, and we should pray that it does, the context here and especially in Romans 12 points to something far more severe and judicial.
The Apostle Paul quotes this verse right after saying, "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'" (Romans 12:19). He then says, "To the contrary, if your enemy is hungry, feed him..." So, the alternative to taking personal vengeance is not to abandon justice, but to feed your enemy. How does that work? Because your act of kindness is a precursor to the wrath of God. Your refusal to retaliate clears the deck. You are stepping aside so that God can act. You are handing the case over to the only righteous Judge.
The image of burning coals in Scripture is overwhelmingly an image of divine judgment. "Let burning coals fall upon them; let them be cast into the fire" (Psalm 140:10). By returning good for evil, you are not letting your enemy off the hook. You are putting him on God's hook, which is a far more terrifying place to be. Your kindness highlights his wickedness. Your mercy isolates his malice. In the face of your undeserved generosity, his sin is left with no excuse, stark and exposed before the judgment seat of God. You are piling up the evidence for the day of reckoning. If he repents, wonderful. The coals of shame have done their work. But if he does not, the coals of judgment will.
This is why the verse concludes, "And Yahweh will repay you." Notice the transaction. You give up your right to personal repayment. You feed your enemy at your own cost. And in exchange, God Himself promises to repay you. You are entrusting your cause to Him. You are banking on the fact that He sees, He knows, and He will render a perfect verdict. This is an act of profound faith. It is faith that God's justice is better than your revenge. It is faith that He will vindicate you more thoroughly than you could ever vindicate yourself.
This is not a sneaky, passive-aggressive way to get back at someone. It is a sincere act of obedience that trusts God with the results. You do the good, you give the bread, you pour the water. And you leave the heaping of coals, whether for repentance or for judgment, entirely in His sovereign hands. You are to overcome evil with good. You are not to be overcome by evil, which is precisely what happens when you descend to your enemy's level and retaliate in kind. When you do that, evil wins. When you obey God, you win, because Yahweh Himself will repay you.
The Gospel Strategy
This proverb is a brilliant snapshot of the gospel itself. We were the enemies of God. We were hungry, with no bread of life. We were thirsty, with no living water. We were spiritually destitute, hostile in our minds, and engaged in wicked works (Colossians 1:21).
And what was God's response to our enmity? Did He let us starve? No. While we were yet sinners, while we were His enemies, Christ died for us (Romans 5:8, 10). God the Father gave us the ultimate food, the Bread of Heaven, His only Son. He gave us the ultimate drink, the Living Water that springs up to eternal life. He did not retaliate against us as our sins deserved. He overcame our evil with His good.
And in doing so, He heaped burning coals upon the head of sin and death and Satan. The cross was the ultimate act of loving one's enemies, and it was also the ultimate act of judgment. At the cross, God's kindness led us to repentance. The goodness of God, displayed in Christ, heaps coals of conviction on the hard heart, melting it into faith and gratitude.
Therefore, when we are called to love our enemies, we are being called to live out the gospel. We are to be little Christs. We demonstrate the logic of the cross in our relationships. We show the world that our God is a God who meets hostility with grace, and in that very act, demonstrates His perfect and terrifying justice. We give bread and water, and in so doing, we preach a sermon. We are saying, "This is how my God treated me when I was His enemy. This kindness is what He offers you. Receive it, and live. Reject it, and these coals will testify against you on the last day."
So do not be sentimental. Be strategic. Do not be passive. Be faithful. Love your enemy. Feed him. Give him a drink. And then stand back, and trust the God who judges righteously to handle the fire.