Romans 12:20—“… for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head”

Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord. Therefore if thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink: for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head. Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good. (Rom. 12:19-21)

NOTE:

The theory of common grace and the well-meant offer teaches that the reason why we are to love all of our enemies is because God Himself loves all of His; and that our kindness and acts of love toward all are tokens of God’s love for all.

Romans 12:20, however, seems to show that God has a different purpose towards some human beings with our acts of love and kindness …

(I)

Rev. Kenneth Koole

[Source: Reflections on the Free Offer and the Charge of Hyper-Calvinism, pp. 44-47]

That God calls us to do good and show love as a Christian neighbor even to those for whom He may have no love at all is demonstrated in a passage such as Romans 12:20: “Therefore if thine enemy hunger, feed him: if he thirst, give him drink: for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head.”

      

It must be noted that Paul is here quoting (in summary form) an Old Testament passage: Proverbs 25:21, 22.

      

What is of interest is how those of the free offer and Arminian flavor of things attempt to explain that troubling phrase, “... for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head.” What the promoters of the WMO want no part of is explaining the phrase in terms of God’s wrath, as if the apostle were suggesting that those whom God calls us as believers to love in the most neighborly and merciful way may very well be those for whom He has no love at all, but are numbered amongst those for whom He intends wrath and burning destruction; and in fact, it is to that destructive end that God intends to use our very deeds of mercy and love.

      

Such an idea is foreign to contemporary Christianity, no matter what one’s denominational affiliation these days. And yet such is the text. To get around this plain and simplest explanation of the text, some rather fanciful explanations have been offered. At one time, the most common attempt to remove the offending explanation was to speak of the coals of fire in terms of the Christian’s love, his returning good for evil, a burning love causing the unbeliever pain, the pain of remorse and shame. And so, through the believer’s loving deeds, the ungodly enemy feels pain of conscience, as if coals of fire had been applied to him. And so, a purification occurs.

      

Today, along the same lines, the popular explanation suggests that this heaping of coals of fire on the heads of one’s enemies is a reference to an ancient Arabian method of attempting to heal various diseases, namely, by the application of hot coals to one’s head and body. So likewise, by kind and merciful deeds the believer addresses the disease of hatred in the heart and mind of the ungodly man, and thereby the ungodly is cured of his hatred and cruelty.

      

The simple fact is that these are strained explanations to get around the simple and plain meaning of the text. They are the result of coming at the text with certain theological presuppositions that are imposed on the text, resulting in strained exegesis that grasps for an explanation that will harmonize somehow with one’s system of doctrine—in this instance, the “free offer” (God desires the salvation of everyone) mentality.

      

In response to this notion that the text could have some ancient Arabian method of healing in mind, we point out that the text does not refer to a mere applying coals of fire to someone, but to heaping coals of fire on someone—and that is a figure of judgment.

      

This is confirmed by the Proverbs 25 passage, which adds the phrase, “... and the LORD shall reward thee,” immediately following the phrase, “For thou shalt heap coals of fire upon his head ...” In other words, the phrase “heaping coals of fire on his head” stands in contrast with how God treats the believer for his deeds of mercy upon his enemies. For deeds of kindness towards one’s enemy, the Lord rewards the believer; in contrast to that is how the Lord will deal with the believer’s enemy, namely, by a judgment of burning, ignited by these coals of fire.

      

Old Charles Hodge certainly had it right in his brief commentary on the Romans 12 passage when he wrote, “The most common and natural meaning of the expression, to heap coals of fire upon any one, is to inflict the greatest pain upon him, to punish him most severely ... To rain fire upon any one, is to visit him with the severest and surest destruction.”

      

The phrase is found elsewhere in Scripture, and all without exception use it in the above described manner. Psalm 140 (an imprecatory Psalm) reads, “Let burning coals fall upon them: let them be cast into the fire” (v. 10). And again Psalm 11:6, “Upon the wicked he shall rain coals, fire and brimstone, and an horrible tempest.”

      

The question is not whether we relish such a notion; the question is, is it scriptural? Plainly it is.

      

But having referred to this text, perhaps we need to say a bit more about its explanation. We of the New Testament may blanche at the notion that in Romans 12:20 the apostle could be suggesting to Christians something so pragmatic as—if you desire that your enemy be punished in the severest manner, then treat him kindly. In fact, Hodge labels this a “revolting ... interpretation” and opts for an interpretation that for all intents and purposes makes the “coals of fire” refer to the potential saving value of the believer’s love after all.

      

Hodge is mistaken, and our blanching misplaced.

      

What must be kept in mind are two things: first, the apostle is quoting (in summary form) an Old Testament passage—Proverbs 25:21, 22 (as already pointed out); and second, he quotes this passage in the context of calling believers to refrain from taking vengeance into their own hands. The simple fact is that Old Testament believers had no reservations about wanting vengeance upon their enemies and calling God’s wrath down upon them. What they had to learn as believing children of God was to refrain from taking matters into their own hands. Leave such to the Lord. And certainly the Gentile Christians to whom Paul wrote, living in a culture where taking revenge was considered a matter of personal honor, were not so far removed from this spirit either.

      

What the apostle and the writer of the Proverbs before him are dealing with is the practical reality of human nature and life, the believer’s included. The practical reality is that there are times when wrongs suffered move one to righteous anger and to a desire for justice and vengeance. Let one slander the name of your beloved spouse, or have a trusted business associate cheat you and manipulate law in such a way that results in his evicting you from your own property and taking over the business you founded and developed, and you will know what the texts are talking about. One’s very nature cries against such injustice and wrong. It happened in Old Testament Israel—do not think it did not. It happens today. When it does, what pastoral counsel does one give?

      

This: You are a Christian. You may not take vengeance into your own hands. Vengeance is the prerogative of the Lord. Leave it with Him! And consider this: if indeed what you as a believer are looking for is justice and judgment upon those who have so abused you and your family, the surest way to accomplish it is not by taking matters into your own hands and giving as ‘good’ as you got. Do that, says God’s Word, and you will bring judgment on yourself. Rather it will be by returning good for the evil, and leaving the vengeance to the Lord.

      

This simply is a solid, common sense, shrewd, wise (in the ‘Proverbial’ sense) approach to human nature as we find it even in ourselves as believers. It is the apostle’s way of saying, in his pastoral shrewdness, if indeed the one who has done you these grave wrongs is as wicked and incorrigible as you at the moment are convinced he is, then leave it with the Lord; and it will be your doing good to this enemy of yours in return for his evil that will bring just condemnation upon him, not your behaving in like manner to him. What the apostle is pointing out by implication is that the Lord alone knows who is truly incorrigible as an enemy and who is not. Let Him be God, working it out, bringing to repentance those whom He may be pleased by your good deeds yet to save, and hardening others whom He has fitted to destruction—in the words of Romans 2:8, numbering them amongst those who treasure up unto themselves “indignation and wrath.”

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(II)

More to come! (DV)