The Debt of Love
Romans 13:8-14
Message by Kurt Jones
June 26, 2005
Introduction
Statistics released by the Federal Reserve in February 2004 showed that U.S. household debt, excluding home mortgages but including most short and intermediate credit extended to individuals, reached $2 trillion in November 2003.1 Of this total, credit card debt represented $744 billion.2 One year later, in November 2004, U.S. household debt had grown another 4.8 percent, reaching $2.1 trillion.3
People in the U.S. carry an average of 2.7 bank credit cards, 3.8 retail credit cards, and 1.1 debit cards, which averages to 7.6 cards per cardholder.
Review
Paul is pausing here to summarize everything he has covered so far before launching into another major application of “Community”.
Widening circles of sincere love - Relationships with;
I. We must have a higher standard of obedience.
II. We must have a higher motive for disobedience.
III. Society will not be changed by political reformation, but only by spiritual transformation. The sword can deter evil, but it cannot transform a heart. Change comes from a radically different heart… Romans 12:2 transformed inside out.
Paul transitions from obedience to government and paying taxes to the “debt” of love… duties of individual Christians especially our responsibility to LOVE.
(Glen’s email from Zimbabwe “Toughen Up!”)
1. PAY UP! Love fulfills the law - v. 8-10
8 Owe nothing to anyone except to love one another; for he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law. 9 For this, "YOU SHALL NOT COMMIT ADULTERY, YOU SHALL NOT MURDER, YOU SHALL NOT STEAL, YOU SHALL NOT COVET," and if there is any other commandment, it is summed up in this saying, "YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF." 10 Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.
DEBT: something owed : OBLIGATION ; a state of owing
A. Owe nothing except love. V. 8a
OWE NOTHING! Is Paul saying you can never be in debt?
Lending and borrowing were permitted both in OT and NT times.
Ex. 22:25; Deut. 15:7-9
Matt. 25:14-30; Matt 5:42
Luke 6:33
VALLEY CHURCH POLICY – Don’t go into debt.
Delay gratification. Here is novel thought… if you don’t have it – don’t spend it!
Paul is saying Pay what you owe! Make your payments on time. Student loans, mortgages, etc… GET out of debt – key to financial freedom. Crown Min SS class.
Paul’s Debt –
13:6 – obligation to the state – “render what is due…”
8:12 – under obligation to the Spirit to live according to the Spirit
1:14 – obligated to preach the Gospel
“…for he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law.”
B. Love fulfills the Law. V. 8b-10
Paul lists four of the 10 commandments –
No other gods before me, No idol or graven image, Name in vain, sabath, Adultery , Murder, Steal, Covet – He leaves out two others that have to do with other people – Lying, and honoring of parents. The other four deal with our relationship with God. He covers these with “any other commandment”
A Sunday school teacher was discussing the Ten Commandments with her five and six year olds. After explaining the commandment to "honor thy father and thy mother," she asked, "Is there a commandment that teaches us how to treat our brothers and sisters?" Without missing a beat one little boy answered, "Thou shall not kill."
Does this mean that “all you need is love” – Let’s just all love each other… No! This does not forget the love of God which is the first and foremost commandment.
Matt 22:34-40 - But when the Pharisees heard that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered themselves together. 35 One of them, a lawyer, asked Him a question, testing Him, 36 "Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?" 37 And He said to him, " 'YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND.' (Deut 6:5) 38 "This is the great and foremost commandment. 39 "The second is like it, 'YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.' (Lev. 19:18) 40 " On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets."
The whole point of the law was to point us to Christ. The supreme example of love.
See also Rom 6:14, 15; 7:4-6
Free from the LAW! Get out of jail free! Paid in full! YAHOOO! BUT he demands of love do not absolve me from obeying the other commands God has given me… (Remember the context – COMMUNITY)
Paul is contrasting a list of rules vs. a mindset of love! Look it up in a book or ask myself “what seems like the loving thing to do?” Motivation by the Spirit!
Outer requirement vs. inner guide! We are free! (Next week we’ll look at how love for others allows us to voluntarily limit our freedoms for the sake of others!)
What does love look like? Rom 12:9ff. It’s NOT a checklist!
Have you sat through this whole sermon series on sincere love, extraordinary love, and sort of justified yourself because of the letter of the law you are keeping?
How much love have YOU been shown? Look at the debit column in your account with God and then tell me how, tell HIM, how you can NOT give love to someone who owes YOU!
Origen – “Let your only debt that is unpaid be that of love – a debt which you should always be attempting to pay in full, but will never succeed in paying.”
EX: LIBERTY rules…
<<trans>> “Pay up” is the summary of love Paul now gives the motivation for living a life of love.
2. WAKE UP! The time to live rightly is NOW - v. 11,12a
11 Do this, knowing the time, that it is already the hour for you to awaken from sleep; for now salvation is nearer to us than when we believed. 12 The night is almost gone, and the day is near.
A Sunday school teacher asked the children just before she dismissed them to go to church, "And why is it necessary to be quiet in church?" Annie replied, "Because people are sleeping."
Understanding the “times – Kairos = appointed hour, age, epoch,
NOT “chronos” = chronological time.
Salvation = soteria = the final day of Christ’s return and glorification. The final accomplishment of God plan in history.
Sleep = a normal, easily reversible, recurrent, and spontaneous state of decreased and less efficient responsiveness to external stimulation. A state of inactivity, with a loss of consciousness and a decrease in responsiveness to events taking place. (Encyclopedia Britannica)
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The world is sleeping in the dark Oh, Jesus rose from the dead |
Night = when bad things happen
Day = when good things happen
1 Thess 5:1-7 - Now as to the times and the epochs, brethren, you have no need of anything to be written to you. 2 For you yourselves know full well that the day of the Lord will come just like a thief in the night. 3 While they are saying, " Peace and safety!" then destruction will come upon them suddenly like labor pains upon a woman with child, and they will not escape. 4 But you, brethren, are not in darkness, that the day would overtake you like a thief; 5 for you are all sons of light and sons of day. We are not of night nor of darkness; 6 so then let us not sleep as others do, but let us be alert and sober. 7 For those who sleep do their sleeping at night, and those who get drunk get drunk at night.
From WHAT to WHY to HOW?
3. SUIT UP! Take off darkness and put on light - V.12b-14
Therefore let us lay aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light. 13 Let us behave properly as in the day, not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual promiscuity and sensuality, not in strife and jealousy. 14 But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh in regard to its lusts.
EX: Playing on various sports teams. Glen in Argentina, Volleyball all over Europe, Basketball in the Philippines.
A. Take off evil behavior – deeds of darkness
Paul gives a partial list….
Eph 5:11-12 - Do not participate in the unfruitful deeds of darkness, but instead even expose them; for it is disgraceful even to speak of the things which are done by them in secret. And make no provision for the flesh in regard to its lusts.
B. Put on good behavior
Conversion – Col 3:9,10. Holiness we HAVE because we are IN Christ.
Col 3:8-10 - But now you also, put them all aside: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and abusive speech from your mouth. Do not lie to one another, since you laid aside the old self with its evil practices, and have put on the new self who is being renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of the One who created him--
(See also Ephesians 4:22 and Gal 3:27 for salvation)
Sanctification – Romans 13:
1 Thess. 5:8-11 But since we are of the day, let us be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet, the hope of salvation. 9 For God has not destined us for wrath, but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, 10 who died for us, so that whether we are awake or asleep, we will live together with Him.
I’m covered by his righteousness
Application
Where are the “debts” in your life? Is there an obligation, financial
or otherwise that you need to “Pay off”?
Are you just making “minimum payments” on the debt of love? Are you
checking off all the boxes but not doing any more? Husbands and wives. Parents
and kids. Church members…
Are you snoozing through your relationship with God? Are you asleep at the wheel?
Time for a change of wardrobe? Are you wearing the same habits, mind set, vocabulary,
values that your unsaved friends wear? Same ones you were wearing when you became
a Christian. Even the same ones you were wearing one year ago?
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