suppose the allusion is to the practice of throwing firebrands upon the heads of the besiegers of a city, or to the fusing of metals. Paul does not mean to say, ' Treat your enemy kindly, for in so doing you will secure his being punished by God in the severest maaner.' His meaning is, ' Treat your enemy kindly, for in so doing you take the most effectual method to subdue him.' To heap coals of fire on the head is to inflict the severest punishment, one to which the sufferer must yield. Kindness is no less effectual ; the most malignant enemy cannot always withstand it. The true and Christian method, therefore, to subdue an enemy is to "overcome evil with good."
(21) Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good. It is only by disconnecting this verse from the preceding, and considering it as nearly independent of it, that any plausibility can be given to the first interpretation mentioned above of v. 20. That it is not thus independent of it almost every reader must feel. ' We are not to conquer evil by evil, but to treat our enemies with kindness. Thus we shall most effectually subdue them. Do not, therefore, allow yourself to be overcome of evil (i. e. to be provoked to the indulgence of a spirit of retaliation), but over- come evil with good, subdue your enemies by kindness, not by injuries.'