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its cause, as in the case of the Lord Himself, into the hands of Him Who judgeth
righteously.
The next item of exhortation is accompanied by an element of reserve and
qualification:
"If it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men' (Rom. 12: 18).
It is evident that the Apostle recognizes here that living peaceably with all men, in a
world that does not know God, is not always possible. The point is, that, so far as we are
concerned, the quarrel or the strife must not originate on our side. We must be willing,
for the sake of peace, to yield, where the law entitles us to enforce our rights. On the
other hand, where our stewardship is involved, or our loyalty to the Lord, we must, of
course, refuse to pay the traitor's price for a so-called peace. We can settle most cases of
conscience by remembering that, if it be a matter of our "rights", we can gladly forego
them for His sake, but if it be a matter of "His truth", we have no option but to stand fast.
That something like this is in the Apostle's mind seems evident from the next statement:
"Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is
written, Vengeance is Mine: I will repay saith the Lord' (Rom. 12: 19).
It has been suggested that, by the words; "Give place unto wrath", the Apostle implies
that we should give it room to spend itself, as a mariner does a storm. In Eph. 4: 27, he
warns us against giving place to the Devil by entertaining sinful anger. So here, the
Apostle seems to say, Give place to God, Who alone has the prerogative of vengeance. If
vengeance is to fall, then it will come from the hand of God, but the believer should
labour and pray that his enemy should, on the contrary be saved--so that, instead of
recompensing evil with evil, he should seek to overcome evil with good. If his enemy is
hungry, instead of letting him starve, he will go out of his way to feed him--for, in so
doing, he will "heaps coals of fire on his head".
What are we to understand by this figure? In Psalm. 140: 9, 10 we read:
"As for the head of those that compass me about, let the mischief of their own lips
cover them. Let burning coals fall upon them: let them be cast into the fire; into deep
pits, that they rise not up again."
This is just the opposite of the spirit manifested in Rom. 12:, where the Apostle is
quoting from Prov. 25: 21, 22. Dr. Bullinger, in "Figures of Speech", draws attention
to the fact that the word "heap" means "to take hold", and that an ellipsis must be
supplied as follows:
"The coals of fire which thine enemy casts at thee, thou shalt take them and put them
upon his head: he will thus get what he intended for thee."
The latter part of this comment is modified in The Companion Bible, where we read: