Well, we continue our study tonight in the book of Romans after some time, and we last time considered submission to governing authorities, and tonight we come to verses 8 through 10. I'll read through verse 14 to give a little more context, but the text tonight is Romans 13, 8 through 10, found on page 1127. Let's give our attention tonight to the holy and wonderful word of the Lord.
"Owe no one anything except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. For the commandments, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not murder, you shall not steal, you shall not covet, or any other commandment are summed up in this word: you shall love your neighbor as yourself. Love does no wrong to a neighbor. Therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law. Besides this, you know the time that the hour has come for you to wake from sleep, for salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed. The night is far gone, the day is at hand, so let us cast off works of darkness and put on the armor of light. Let us walk properly as in the daytime, not in orgies or in drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and sensuality, not in quarreling and jealousy, but put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh to gratify its desires."
There we'll end the reading of God's Word. Again, the text tonight is 8 through 10.
I'd like to begin tonight this sermon, beloved in the Lord, by thinking about if you remember the sermons from Matthew, there were a series of tests, and we ended on the last test at the end of Matthew chapter 22, where the moral issue of the law was raised with Jesus. Remember, there was a political test, and then there was a doctrinal test, and then it ended on the law of God as a test from that lawyer. And they came to Jesus, and they asked him, remember, this lawyer came to Jesus, and he asked him. He said, "What is the greatest commandment?" And Jesus openly said it. It seemed like such a simple passage: "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and the second is like it. You shall love your neighbor as yourself." And the section just ends. It doesn't give us the context we looked at as the other passages do in Mark and in Luke, and what was surprising about it is for me, when we looked at that, if you recall, was that they knew Jesus knew the answer to that. Did they really think that would stumble Jesus? "What is the greatest commandment?" The Shema, we remember, was cited three times a day by the Jews. So how did they think they could catch Jesus on such a question as "What is the greatest commandment?"
And remember, what we looked at in that regard, what we looked at was that lawyer was doing something very purposeful to sort of catch Jesus in a trap. And it would be like, as I gave the illustration, if my children were breaking commandments in the house and I had the single great commandment and I asked my children, "Children, what is the greatest commandment?" I know they know it. I know they know it. What do I want my children to do? Say it. And why do I want my children to say it? Because they're not doing it. And I think they said, "We got you. Are you loving God and neighbor? Are you?" You remember what happened? Jesus had his question for them: "Do you know who God is?" So it was a really fascinating section.
Now, why do I raise that tonight? We come to this service gratitude section of Romans that we've been in. And there is something that is captured here of the truly forgiven Christian. You know this. He has been loved with an everlasting love in Christ. And when he knows that, when he understands that, when he begins to comprehend that, Paul assumes here and pushes us to recognize that kind of love begins to take shape in the heart of the believer. Love. Tonight, he takes it's as if he takes everything he's been saying about the Christian life in the gratitude section of Romans 12 and forward so far, and he takes everything he's been saying, and he summarizes our whole duty in the one line. But don't we know that? That's my question. Don't we know that by now?
Paul, what he does for us tonight, is take the law of God and frames it positively in one way so that we would understand that this is our obligation in gratitude to the Lord in how we are to live and respond. And you know this. You know what this is. It's the single great command to love to love our neighbor. It challenges us in a unique way. At initial glance, it seems to communicate something that every Christian, you would think, would know. Every Jew would know this. Now, the question larger question of who is neighbor is interesting, because they thought the neighbor was only the Jew, and Jesus clearly had broader applications than just that. He saw the neighbor as all of the people made in the image of God.
But how may all the law be summed up? The Pharisee would have heard this tonight. Now, let's just take the Pharisee's understanding, who's listening to Paul in Romans 13, and he hears all the commandments are summed up in this, in the second table, in this one regard. It is: "Love your neighbor as yourself." That's the summary of the law.
I think the important question for us tonight is, what does it actually look like to keep it? What is the way that this is truly honored in the Christian life? That's what we're looking at. That's what Paul is thinking about: motivations. And that's the simplicity of Romans 13. We have the command to love, this beautiful necessity for it, and he's helping us to understand the way of love, what is sort of markedly different for the Christian. And I believe what he wants is for us to hear it afresh now. Why would I say "afresh"? Because we've been through the whole gospel in Romans. He's explained the whole gospel, and he wants us to hear the commandment in the new way of life that we've been given. He wants us to think about it that way.
And what has the gospel done for us? What makes the Christian different in the world? What does love look like in the world? Well, it's given in the most succinct way in these few verses here in Romans 13, verse 8: "Owe no one anything except to love each other, for the one who loves one another has fulfilled the law." That is quite a statement.
The peculiar way he speaks here is important. He's talking about obligations. Obligations. He's been talking about obligations, hasn't he? The verb here he gives is the sense of "do not keep on owing anyone anything except love." "Do not keep on owing anyone anything except this ongoing obligation of love."
Now, it's important because he's just got done telling us that there are basic obligations that we have in the Christian life, right? We have to pay our taxes, and we have to give honor to whom honor is due. We are required to show these things in these settings, and they would have understood that. But when we've done that, we've fulfilled the obligation. Aren't you all looking forward to that obligation on April 15th, right? You fulfilled it. You've done it.
Well, the world does that. There are people we know, people have to pay taxes. That's the one thing that we know. Death and taxes are true, and maybe not always the most desirable thing to do, but the world may do it because they have to do it, and even then they may find ways around it, or they may find ways to get around it. But Christianity, Something different is captured here. Something that I really wrestled with this text because it's common language. It's common language that the Jews would know. It's common language that we know. We find this in the Old Testament: "Love your neighbor as yourself."
There's something here captured about the Christian life that is not just about fulfilling obligations. You see that? He wants to offset the whole thinking that the Christian life is just about fulfilling obligations: "Do this, do this, do this."
It's really fascinating how he approaches this important subject with regard to love. There are obligations, period; we fulfill them. But what Paul has embedded here for the Christian is that there's something different. that is wrapped up with this obligation to love. There's something so unique about it in the Christian life. There's something offset about it in the Christian life.
Now, you'll remember the context to all this even the governing authorities. All of this was put within a sort of sandwich here: governing authorities, which is the hard thing for us, within the obligation to love. He's been working with love for a while, since verse 9: "Let your love be genuine," remember? And then he called us to, in verse 12, verse 9: "Let your love be genuine; abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good; love one another with brotherly affection; outdo one another in showing honor." He's called us to what Calvin recognized without the Holy Spirit is something very difficult that we could never do, because the obligation here seems so radical: "Bless those who persecute you. Love those who hate you. Don't return evil for evil, but return good. Never take the attitude of how dare these awful people are like this to me? I'm done with them Instead, when they persecute you, when they offend you, don't get even. Actually, why don't you make them dinner?"
What verse 18? "Repay no one evil for evil. Have regard for good in the sight of all men. If your enemy's hungry, feed him. Do good. Vengeance is mine."
See, love is the engine here driving all these applications. You'll remember in Matthew 5: "You have heard that it was said, you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy, but I say to you, love your enemies. Bless those who curse you. Do good to those who hate you. Pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. For he makes the sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. Do good to them. Don't hate them. Pray for them.
Why? Motivation. God is really good, even to the wicked. God is good to the wicked. He gives them rain and sunshine, Paul said, and food and gladness to the wicked. This is a remarkable section challenging us what love is.
And then he launched into, you know, the most difficult way that we are called to love. Why would he put submission to governing authorities within these commandments to love? Because that is the most difficult arena for us to show any kind of honor or love is to pagan authorities, which that's what they were. We rail against them. What he's telling us? Show respect, show honor, fulfill that.
Now, here's what I was wrestling with. We could do many things in this life that our heart is not in, right? We could do many things in this life that our heart is not in. And what good is that? I might have some outward benefit. But Paul's not just after that. By the inspiration of the Spirit, he's after motivation. Why do we behave certain ways? Why do we do the things that we do? Why do we act the way that we do? Why would I give myself to this ongoing obligation of love?
You really do have to have a reason for that, don't you? And here's where Paul says, "The only debt I want you to have in this life, the only debt I really want you to have in this life, is love." It's really beautiful. There's a constant debt I have as a Christian that never goes away. This is what you owe: owe no one anything except the ongoing debt of love.
Now, he's not saying, "Well, okay, I'm going to hold out one thing against you that you need to pay back God with because of all this grace to you." It's not what he's saying here. I want to capture it for you tonight. There's a fundamental difference for the justified Christian. When he begins to understand the gospel and he understands the love of God, there is a kind of principle there is a principle that begins to drive his life that becomes natural to him because of what he's received.
Now, I'm not a big movie guy from pulpit, but we were over Thanksgiving and my family sat down and we thought, "What movie do we want to watch?" and we watch *Les Miserables. I didn't say "S" at the end, because Dr. Clark will jump on me if I mispronounce it tonight. My French isn't very good, but it's a really remarkable movie. the Liam Neeson one, you know the story. He was a thief, and when he was taken into the home of this priest who showed him hospitality one night, he stole all the silver, and he books out of the house. and the authorities capture him and they bring him back, and they brought him for the man brought him, before this man whom he had stolen,
And the man says, no, I gave that to him, and here's more. There's more. And he covered all his sin. And what happened with him was that so affected him, that so moved him. If you watch this movie, it really kind of captures, not perfect, but it captures, I think, the exact intent of what the apostles after here, that the rest of his life became not what it once was. He no longer was a thief. What it became was a motivation to love others. The spirit in that man was totally different after the deliverance.
Now, that was in sharp contrast to the officer. The officer had a legal spirit. The officer was a hard man. Contrasted with this gospel spirit in Jean Valjean. The detailed rule follower, the officer, whole existence was to take him down at all costs, with the law, to arrest him and condemn him and throw the books at him. The man was hard. He was driven by the law. You'd never find a smile on him. Mercy was completely absent from his action.
But Jean Valjean was driven by love. Now, if you ask both of them, "Are you loving your neighbor?" they both might say, "Of course." The one would say, "He needs to be in jail." The other might say, "These people need help." Who loved? You can see two kind of spirits there. One lives to fulfill the law by subduing, because that's how he relates to God. The other, by mercy and love, which Paul says fulfills the law.
Let me give you a better example. Scripture is always better. Remember the woman in Luke 7? She comes wiping Jesus' feet with her tears, kissing his feet. She's said in stark contrast to the Pharisee, who said the Shema daily. The Pharisee said the Shema daily: "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, astray, and your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the law and the prophets. Hear, O Israel, the Lord is one."
And Jesus said, "Simon, you didn't do any of this. He who is forgiven much loves much. He who is forgiven little, loves little."
The Pharisee would say, "Of course I am to love my neighbor. God commands it." He does it because he rigorously is following the law. So as for the great purpose that the commandment is kept, but what was absent in it? What was absent in it? Love. A lack of a sense in his own life of failure, and that comes out in how he treats others. Even our Lord. Even our Lord.
But she loved. Why? Because she realized how much God had loved her. And her love flows out of a heart that after receiving the love of God can do no other. That's the point of this. I believe this. The return of that love to God's people is the greatest way that shows love to God. Out of overwhelming gratitude, because he's changed my life. He saved me. God has announced freedom to me. Even before we asked, he decided to give his son to die for me. You mean he did that while I was still an enemy and never even asked for it? And he loved me when I was an enemy?
And when we came to him, he announced the forgiveness of sins to us. A lot of people in Christianity think that God is simply pleased with a rigorous following of the commandments. But there is in them a lack, and you see it in them, of a sense of their own failure. And the pursuit of the commandment is not properly motivated by the love of God for them as a sinner. So what do we get? What kind of Christianity does this produce? It easily happens in our institutions, in our Christian schools. It happens. I lived it in a Christian school. I know this: rules. Just rules. That's how we'll get them. Emptiness. Scowls. Hardness. Control. "I will bring you under control. Follow the law."
Now, this is not what this is. You see, I'm trying to offset this for you tonight. What he's after is, when you're forgiven, love is the most freeing obligation. It's the most natural obligation. Because love never does wrong to a neighbor.
Verse 10. And you see what the Lord is saying. There's a greater motivation that begins, yes, we can talk about beginning. We will in a second. But begins to fulfill the very intention of the law, which is love.
"A new commandment I give to you. Why would Jesus say that? It's not a new commandment in the sense that it's never been heard before. A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another just as I have loved you. You also are to love one another. By this, all people will know that you're my disciples if you have love for one another.
That is a kind of unique love that is properly motivated, isn't it? It's a kind of unique love that the old covenant was exposing didn't happen in the heart of Israel. There's an operating principle that drives us by faith. And then as we begin to think about our gratitude in honoring the law of God, it is that of love, because we've been taught it. I know it.
See, that's what's driving this. I know it. The truth has set me free. And since now this new commandment I've received is not a new, but an old one but a new one in that I see from Jesus what it is to love my neighbor. That's sacrificial. That's not a burden. I can't imagine thinking a different way now, you see? Now to give myself to the ongoing debt of love when I've been loved like this.
And so he raises the second table, verse 9: "For you know the commandments: you shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not murder, you shall not steal, you should not bear false testimony, you shall not covet. If there's any other commandments, all are summed up in this saying, namely, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. Love does no harm to a neighbor. Love is the fulfillment of the law."
You could outwardly try to keep the commandment and still do harm to a neighbor when it's not properly motivated. This is what love looks like that honors God. He's challenging us to think about the law of God, not in its condemning way that we relate to it before we were Christians, not with its condemning power over us anymore. There's no condemnation for those in Christ. Romans 8. We've traveled that territory. Not in a way that we think earns favor, or not in a way that's merited, but to pursue it as a new way of freedom, as a way of life, as the ongoing obligation of saying, "Thank you for all you've, that it breaks my back thinking of all you did for me. That creates a certain person. It creates a soft spirit. Why are we doing it? Well, we love because when we look at people who are in sin, or we look at people who are in misery, or we look at people who are hurting, or we look at people who are suffering, what fills us? Their need for God. And we care about that.
The antithesis to such love is to say, "Those wretches, I don't care about them."
This is where Heidelberg really helps us to close this. "What is required," let's say, "in the 10th commandment?" Question 113: "That there should never enter our heart even the least inclination or thoughts contrary to any commandment of God, but that we should always hate sin with our whole heart and find satisfaction and joy in all righteousness."
"Can those who are converted to God keep these commandments perfectly? No, for even the holiness, holiest in this life, only make a small beginning in this new obedience."
And question 115 addresses this well: "We all agree that no one in life obeys the commandments perfectly. Why then does God want them preached so pointedly?" And the answer is good: "You need to know your sinfulness. You need to constantly turn to Christ. You need to ask for forgiveness, and it should lead you to prayer and striving against your sin until you reach the goal of perfection. Amen."
Now, that's where we stop. That's where we stop with the law. I think it's a challenge for us. If we only use the law that way, what happens? What I want us to avoid in the Christian life is to see the law only as some horrid terror that we're still under for condemnation. So that our whole approach to the law is, "I can't, I can't, I can't, I'm just a miserable failure, I can't, I can't, I can't." We don't do it. And never think about the normative way we are to think and behave as Christians. That's why question 114 is so good: "Nevertheless, we begin with serious purpose to conform not only to some, but to all of God's commandments. And as the Heidelberg says, the good works that we do are done out of true faith and conform to God's law are true good works for his glory."
And when true love is motivating us, then we're seeing those good works come out of our hearts and lives in a way that honors God. Paul's encouraging us this way: to live in freedom and in gratitude. "You shall love your neighbor as yourselves. We've heard that our whole life, but hear it in freedom." That's what he's doing. Because you've been loved. Now go love your neighbor. That's the right expression to them of the love we've received, and that is to drive life. The honoring even of governing authorities. Sure, it's an obligation that we honor, and that changes every time a new leader comes in. In the Christian life, the law begins to achieve the great intent, which is love love. of God and love of neighbor. It's love. That's the purpose of the commandment said Paul. Listen to the statement from Paul. The purpose of the commandment is love from a pure heart, from a good conscience,
And from sincere faith. And you see, that's why that woman is so important in Luke 7. She teaches us that. She shows us that. The love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit, Romans 5. And that new way of life is markedly different from the one still under the law, the Pharisee. It is.
Let your love, verse 9, be sincere from the heart, without masks. That's the obligation and gratitude. That's the way of obedience to God. That's how you, if you love, begin to fulfill the law. And we'll do that in glory and perfection. And we love because he first loved us. Motivated by love as I show that to my brothers and sisters and my neighbor, I'm doing it as unto the Lord.
Always amazed, right? When that cup of cold water in the last day is given, and you give it to your neighbor, on the last day, the Lord recognizes it as unto him, and he says, "When did we do that to you?" Jesus says, "As much as you did it to the least of these, my brethren, you gave it to me." That was love.
So then, "Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. Love one another fervently with a pure heart. Let your love be without masks. Let your love be sincere from a pure heart. The purpose of the commandment is love from a pure heart, from a good conscience, from sincere faith."
And Paul says that begins in this life to fulfill what the intention of the law was in loving God and loving neighbor.
Let's pray.
Oh, Lord our God, thank you for the love we have received, that we've been taught. Hearing that commandment afresh is not a burden; it's not something now that we see as an aimless obligation to think, "Lord, that we will merit your favor," but we see it as an overwhelming way of gratitude because of the love we've received, to love the way that you call us to love. So let us think about in our lives serving one another with gladness, and you, and remembering the call to love from a pure and sincere heart to demonstrate our great gratitude because, oh Lord, the more we look at Christ, the more we see the cross, the more we see the depths of how much we've been forgiven, then we will indeed love much. May we see that first so that we will indeed love much and fulfill the law. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.