A Living SacrificeSample

"If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals on his head." (Romans 12:20 ESV)

In Paul’s school of How to be a Living Sacrifice, he uses an opportunity to show his vast scriptural knowledge and how the Old Testament ties into the New Testament as he pulls out a verse from Proverbs 25:21-22.

“If your enemy is hungry, give him bread to eat, and 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, let me remind you that a living sacrifice spends a lot of time in God’s Word so that God’s Word can get in him. There are 31 Proverbs, and many have enjoyed reading a Proverb every day of the month as a supplement to whatever other scriptural nourishment they are receiving. Solomon, the man to whom God granted wisdom, wrote the Proverbs, and they are ever practical to our lives.

Paul pulls in a Proverb in his exhortation about being a Living Sacrifice to help us see that it may seem radical and difficult, but is a life of Wisdom. And this verse, in particular, reminds us that when we choose to act in love and forgiveness, even with our enemies, it is quite a witness. Scripture says it is like “heaping burning coals on their heads.” A long time ago, I thought of that as, “You’ll show them. You’ll do something nice for them, and it will really burn them.” That attitude is one of vengeance, which Paul already told us to leave to the Lord.

Now I see that these burning coals are coals of love, grace, forgiveness that can’t help but affect someone’s thinking and melts away hatred, bitterness, discord. It is part of the “refiner’s fire” talked about in Malachi 3:3 and 1 Peter 1:7. I know a couple who took a couple of orphans in, and it didn’t go very well as the kids could not receive their generosity, but someone said, “These kids will always be haunted by a question. Why did this family do this for us?”

As we keep loving others and not seeking our own justice, God can do so much more than we could even ask for or imagine. (Ephesians 3:20)