The parable has wide-spread application.  The foolish parent cannot be saved from the sorrow inflicted by a spoiled child; the idle cannot be saved from hunger and want; the lazy cannot be given the rewards of the diligent.  The success that attends effort and rewards character cannot be awarded to the undeserving without paralyzing all the incentives to virtue and industry.  Christ came not to destroy the law—­either that revealed in the Word of God or that which was written on nature—­He came to fulfill.  In the brief years that He taught His disciples and the multitude He quoted the law and illustrated it.  He did not come to relieve men of responsibility—­He came to light the way—­“That they might have life and that they might have it more abundantly.”

Christ’s doctrines are not limited in time or to numbers.  They apply to everybody and last for all time.  Paul, in Romans 12:  20, interprets the Master’s teachings and applies them.  “Therefore, if thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink:  for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head.”  How different this way of dealing from the way the carnal man acts, and yet who can question the wisdom of the Saviour’s plan?  Hatred begets hatred; retaliation invites retaliation and the feud grows.  The mountains of Kentucky have furnished numerous illustrations of the futility of revenge.  Families were arrayed against families and sons took up inherited hatreds and died violent deaths bequeathing the spirit of revenge to their descendants.

We see the same false philosophy at work among nations.  One war lays the foundation for another; generation after generation is sworn to avenge the crimes of preceding generations; and much of it is done in the name of patriotism and glorified as if it were service to the country.

Paul gives us the remedy and it is based upon the injunction that Jesus gave, namely, Love your enemies.  Feeding an enemy is more effective than threats of punishment.  It is a manifestation of love, and love is the weapon for which there is no shield.  The philosophy that Paul applies to the individual is just as effective when applied to larger groups.  Nations that have been at war cannot be reconciled by the methods of war.  They can be suppressed by force but unless won by friendship there can be no reunion.

Paul concludes this chapter with a command “Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good.”  There never was a time in the world’s history when this kind of doctrine was more imperatively needed for the healing of the wounds of the unprecedented conflict through which the world has passed.  Christ has a remedy:  Let the wrongs of the past be forgiven and forgotten; let the world be invited to build on friendship and cooperation.  Let the rivalry be in the showing of magnanimity.  Who dares to say that the plan will fail?  The alternative policy has failed and failed miserably.  Why not employ the only untried remedy for the ills which afflict civilization?