Heaping Coals

Romans 12:17-21

Kevin entered the boys’ locker room. He stopped in his tracks when Corey, one of his classmates, looked up. Kevin quickly retreated to his own locker. Corey slammed his locker shut. Then he banged Kevin’s locker as he passed by on his way out.

Kevin sat on the bench a long time. Corey doesn’t have to be such a poor sport just because his team lost to mine in gym class, he thought.

As Kevin walked home, a car pulled up beside him. “Need a ride?” a voice called. It was Mr. Williams, his Sunday school teacher. Kevin smiled and got in. He enjoyed talking with Mr. Williams. He told him about the way Corey had been treating him. “I want to get even with Corey,” said Kevin. “But I know you think I shouldn’t.”

Mr. Williams was quiet for a moment. “I think,” he said, “you should heap hot coals on his head.” Kevin looked up in surprise.

Mr. Williams grinned. “The Bible says to do that,” he said. “In Bible times, people needed fires to cook food and to keep warm. Sometimes their fires would go out. There were no matches back then, so the easiest way to start a fire was to get hot coals from someone else. A person needing to start a fire would place a container on his or her head and walk by everyone’s windows. Some people would show kindness by placing a few hot coals from their own fires in the container. So when the Bible says we should ‘heap burning coals’ on the heads of our enemies, it’s telling us . . .”

“To be kind to them,” Kevin answered as they pulled up in front of his house.

“Right,” said Mr. Williams. “But being kind doesn’t mean we let other people hurt us. It can mean doing something nice for a person, walking away from a fight, or standing up for yourself in a way that doesn’t hurt the other person.”

“I’ll think about what you said. And Mr. Williams, thanks a ‘heap,’” Kevin said as he got out of the car.

How about You?

Do you feel like being kind to people who mistreat you? Probably not . . . but the Bible tells us to be kind. (See Proverbs 25:22.) Maybe a small note or a smile would help.

Memorize:

“Don’t let evil get the best of you, but conquer evil by doing good.” Romans 12:21