If your enemy is hungry, give him bread to eat, and if he is thirsty, give him water to drink,
By this it appears that, however the scribes and Pharisees had corrupted the law, not only the commandment of loving our brethren, but even that of loving our enemies, was not only a new, but also an old commandment, an Old Testament commandment, though our Saviour has given it to us with the new enforcement of his own great example in loving us when we were enemies. Observe, 1.
Commenting on Proverbs 25:21-22
If thine enemy be hungry, give him bread to eat,.... Which includes all manner of food; whatever persons may have in their houses, that they should bring out and feed the hungry with, even though an enemy; and if he be thirsty, give him water to drink; which was what was usually and in common drank in those countries.
(Compare Mat 5:44; Rom 12:20). As metals are melted by heaping coals upon them, so is the heart softened by kindness.