Romans 1-11 is filled with theological truths about God providing salvation from His wrath. Based on the teaching of Romans 1-11, Romans 12 begins a section of that deals with how Christians must act. At the end of Romans 12 comes this peculiar verse. “If your enemy is hungry, feed him. If he is thirsty, give him something to drink. For in doing so, you will be heaping fiery coals on his head.” The Apostle Paul is quoting from Proverbs 25:21-22. This quotation has two sections: the command to care for a hungry or thirsty enemy, and the result – heaping burning coals on his head.
The first section might be alluding to 2 Kings 6, where blindness strikes the Aramean armies that are about to attack the Israelite city of Dotham. The prophet Elisha leads them to the king of Israel, who asks if he should slaughter them all. Elisha tells him to prepare a feast for his enemies, then send them back to their master. They never came attacking Israel again. Jesus also said similar things in his sermons on the Mount and Plain, recorded in Matthew and Luke. Its meaning is clear – as the redeemed Church of Jesus Christ, God wants us to care for our enemies, not kill them. The second section is rather bizarre. What does it mean to heap coals of fire on someone's head? There are two predominant views on what the meaning is.
One possibility is that Paul was referring to the need for fire to survive in Ancient times. The fire was warmth and light, so it might keep your family alive through a cold night – who knows? According to this analogy, if someone's fire went out, they might go to their neighbor and ask for fire. Rather than carry the burning coals in their hands, they might heap some into a pot on their head. So heaping coals of fire on someone's head was providing salvation from a freezing night. In Genesis, God manifests Himself as a cauldron of fiery coals. Could this be an allusion to His covenant with Abraham?
Another possibility lies in the text itself. The preceding verse specifically mentions God's wrath and vengeance. Perhaps if it were not for verse 19, the first theory of rekindling a fire would be more plausible. However, since God's wrath is in the picture, the burning coals represent a future day in which God will avenge injustice. God's wrath is a very common theme in the book of Romans, especially in the early sections. Could this be an application of God's Romans 1 wrath against ungodliness?
The former argument is positive, the second is negative. The text is either saying that we should love our enemies for the goal of giving salvation to them, or that we should love our enemies and not take revenge, because God's wrath is coming against all ungodliness and unbelief. Both of these ideas are correct and biblical, but my goal is to figure out what this specific passage is saying, and it can only mean one or the other.
I am not entirely certain, but I think the second theory is more plausible. And regardless of the actual implication of Paul's (And Solomon's) analogy, the application of the passage is this – we should love our enemies and care for them, even when they hate and persecute us. Maybe we are giving them a piece of God's love and they will become Christians themselves; maybe God's wrath will be even greater because of how they have treated us.
