Caveat Emptor

Sir, I very much enjoyed your last two posts entitled "The problem of pain" and ""Treat Others" ... and Romans 12:9-21."

It is heart warming indeed to hear a Christian Fellow admit that he (or she) hasn't got all of the answers -- this humility is lacking in many religious people, over-zealousness on their part perhaps?

And reading Romans 12:9-21 (and thank you for posting it) I could almost believe that this is the Word of God. The first two passages are most beautiful. But in the third passage do you not see the hand of man at work to ruin such divine sentiment of the first two ... ?

"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.”

Unfortunately this assumes the following:

1) Inside you, you are harboring a desire to heap coals on the head of another living creature
2) God thinks that you have a desire to heap coals on someone's head and will aid you in doing so
3) It's ok to be two-faced

The other part that bothers me is:

"Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everybody."

I was dismayed by a Jehovah's witness whom I was debating with online on Boxing Day as the Tsunami news came it ... his immediate response was "we must be seen to be supportive and providing aid".

We must be seen.

Regardless of how he felt. My first thought was not about how we should appear. Maybe I just don't like politicians?

Thank you for the humilty and the beautiful words bagwell :-)