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Friday, March 29, 2024

Heaping Burning Coals Romans 12:19-20

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Encouraging, comforting, and urging you to live lives worthy of God, who calls you into his kingdom and glory. (1 Thess. 2:12 NIV)

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Heaping burning coals on your enemies head

Do not avenge yourselves, dear friends, but give place to God’s wrath, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay,” says the Lord. Rather, if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him a drink; for in doing this you will be heaping burning coals on his head.
Romans 12:19-20 NET

Romans 12:9-21 is a short guide to Christian ethics. This passage contains a series of short directives for living as a child of God. These include life within the body as well as relationships with people outside the body, especially with those who are causing you grief in some form.

One of these directives deals with our response to those who insult or hurt us somehow. How should you respond to that person? Our natural reaction is to want to get back at them if we can–an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.

But as a Christian, my response should be very different. I am to leave vengeance in God’s hands, allowing him to settle accounts for me. That would be easy to do if we could see God take immediate action against them. Most of us would probably enjoy seeing God thump them on the head when they hurt us.

But Paul takes this a step further. Rather than sit back and wait for God to punish them for hurting me, I am to take positive action toward them. If he is hungry, I should feed him. If thirsty, give her a drink. And I should meet any other need they might have if I can. While Paul does not explicitly say so here, we should give to them with a loving attitude rather than grudgingly.

Why should I do that? Because by doing so, you are heaping burning coals on their head. It is uncertain just what was meant by this expression. It could be that the burning coals represent shame–that as you lovingly respond to their hurt, they will be ashamed of their behavior and repent. Alternatively, it could be that the burning coals represent God’s punishment. Their punishment is greater if you respond to them in love and they continue to hurt you.

But whatever the burning coals represent, my response is summarized in the following verse. Don’t be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good (Rom. 12:21). Defeat your enemies, not by taking vengeance, but by showing love. That is not the way of this world. But it is the way of God’s kingdom.

Thursday, March 28, 2024

Grafted into the Olive Tree of Israel – Romans 11:17-18

A Clay Jar

Encouraging, comforting, and urging you to live lives worthy of God, who calls you into his kingdom and glory. (1 Thess. 2:12 NIV)

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Now if some of the branches were broken off, and you, a wild olive shoot, were grafted in among them and participated in the richness of the olive root, do not boast over the branches. But if you boast, remember that you do not support the root, but the root supports you.
Romans 11:17-18 NET

Following Jesus’ command, the early church took the gospel first to the Jews and then to the Gentiles (Acts 1:8). This led to the salvation of a great many Gentiles. So much so that Gentiles made up the majority in many churches. This led to a question concerning the status of unbelieving Jews. How did they fit into God’s plan for Israel? A question that many continue to have today.

In order to answer this, Paul used a horticultural example of grafting. Grafting is the process of attaching a branch that produces a desired fruit, leaf, or flower onto a plant or tree that has a superior root system.

Paul used grafting an olive tree for his example. And he told his Gentile audience that this olive tree was the heritage of historic Israel. “Theirs is the adoption to sonship; theirs the divine glory, the covenants, the receiving of the law, the temple worship and the promises. Theirs are the patriarchs, and from them is traced the human ancestry of the Messiah, who is God over all, forever praised!” (Rom. 9:4).

God broke off some of the original branches of this olive tree–Jews who rejected their Messiah. And he grafted branches from a wild olive tree into the tree–Gentiles who believed in Jesus as the Messiah. As Gentile believers, we now share in what God has been doing with Israel from the time of Abraham. We are a part of the olive tree that is Israel.

But the branches broken off were not without hope. If they believed, they would be grafted back into the tree. And he looked forward to a time when that would take place. When the unbelieving Jews would turn to their Messiah, believe, and be grafted back into the tree. And then both the native and grafted branches would share in the nourishment of the one tree—Israel.