If your enemy is hungry, give him bread to eat; and if he is thirsty, give him water to drink:
All Commentaries on Proverbs 25:21 Go To Proverbs 25
Augustine of Hippo
AD 430
The apostle Paul teaches us in the clearest possible way that alms are to be distributed to everybody, when he says, “Let us be tireless, while we have the time, in doing good to all, though supremely to those at home in the faith.” This indeed makes it plain enough that in works of this kind the just are to be given preference. Who else, after all, are we to understand by “those at home in the faith,” since elsewhere it is stated plainly, “The just person lives by faith”? That doesn’t mean, though, that we must close our hearts to other people, even sinners, not even if they adopt a hostile attitude toward us. The Savior himself says, after all, “Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you.” Nor is the point passed over in silence in the books of the Old Testament; one reads there, you see, “If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him a drink,” a text the apostle also makes use of in the New. ..
