Romans 12

[HeyThereDelilah]

I am going to quote some here:
This is from Romans..chapter 12
14 Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse. 15 Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn. 16 Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position.[c] Do not be conceited.

17 Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everyone. 18 If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. 19 Do not take revenge, my dear friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,”[d] says the Lord. 20 On the contrary:

“If your enemy is hungry, feed him;
if he is thirsty, give him something to drink.
In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head.”[e]

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How does this pertain to the countries who hate us and want to destroy us? Does this mean we are to bless them? "If your enemy is hungry, feed him" Do we send aid to our enemies? Do these verses mean we should be pacifists and not get into wars? Or was this pertaining to only certain enemies and if so, who?

[vicki]

Good, deep question. Can't wait to see answers......

[HeyThereDelilah]

Me and my deep questions. I'd really like to find a bible study group that is kinda a "question and answer" type thing. Where people could maybe submit questions and one or two questions would be picked to study for the night and we'd all dive into the Word and deep discussion.

Do you (or anyone who is reading) know of a forum like that? An active forum? You can PM me if you don't want to post it.

[Amy]

I don't believe they are talking about countries in those verses, but rather how we, as individuals are to treat our enemies.

[Lily]

Gen, My dh and I started one like that this summer. WOW!!! I cannot tell you the amount of people we were getting at our meetings1 (more than the wednesday night service, so the pastor asked if we could do it on wed. nights)
We have wonderful conversation and discussion!! Study texts are used,various bibles ... it is a wonderful time!

[Lily]

I don't know why it couldn't be used for countries. i thin k you would need to look at the words in the Hebrew/greek...
It would be interesting to see if the translation for enemy is the same as used when they are speaking of enemies in war.... I will try to get some studying on that this week. A very interesting question....

[Christine]

I don't believe they are talking about countries in those verses, but rather how we, as individuals are to treat our enemies.

That's exactly the same thing that came to my mind right after reading your question.

[Lily]

Isn't it all along the same lines....... Countries are composed of people....

[TamieJP]

Isn't it all along the same lines....... Countries are composed of people....

Countries are composed of people but trying to get a few million people to agree with a few other million might not be what is intended.

BUT - America is a blessed country. Perhaps some of our blessings are from doing just what Gen is asking about - blessing those that curse us.

BTW - I've always heard that 'heaping coals on one's head' is like making the person feel their own condemnation but a friend of mine once mentioned that it could be more like giving the 'enemy' a major blessing. The coals are taken from one home and taken to the other home to supply a fire.

Look at this picture of a young girl carrying COAL on her head!


Another

[Lily]

IGod is so capable of so much more Tami The point is enemies.....It does not state big or small and we know He is capable of big
I dont think we can say it means small unless we have studied...