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Romans 13:8-10
Bernard Bell wrote, "it is good that a man should think, but it is indispensable that he should love." There are two commands in the Bible that I believe we would all agree with: We are to love one another and we are to obey God. But I also think we would agree that we all have difficulty keeping those two commands. We find loving others difficult and we find obeying God difficult, don't we? There are those times we neither love nor obey. We are like a child who loves his parents, a child who knows his parents have his best interest at heart, but in spite of that we choose to not obey them. That is how it is with our relationship with our Lord. It is not a question of whether we want to love one another nor is it a question of not wanting to obey God. But there are those moments when obeying those commands seems to interrupt some pleasure that our flesh enjoys. Loving isn't easy is it? Obedience is not always easy, is it? So the question is, how can I find the path to obedience? How can I get over that disobedient, unloving spirit that runs against the grain of my new nature?
The answer is found in Romans 13:8-10. Paul tells us that the key to obedience is love. Love compels one to obey. Plato said, "All loves should be simply stepping stones to God". Watch how this text unfolds.
First, Paul talks about: The Debt of love in v.8a. Paul says 'owe nothing to anyone'. That is what we call a bridge. He has been talking about taxes and said to render to all what is due them. He told us that governments were ordained by God and they have a right to tax you. Now he creates a bridge to talk about another debt we owe. Not the debt to our government, not the debt to whom we borrow money from, but a debt we owe to everyone. He says we have a debt that we must pay and it is to love one another and even though you pay it you will always owe it. Love is always overdue. When Paul said owe no man anything he is not saying we should never borrow money. The principle in the Bible concerning borrowing is to never go into debt for luxuries and things you do not need.
Secondly, to overcharge interest is wrong.
And thirdly, Psalm 37:21 says the wicked borrow and do not pay back but the righteous borrows and does pay back. So pay your debts. But a proper use of borrowing is not wrong as long as you realize the borrower becomes a servant to the lender. Now moving away from the concept of borrowing money Paul tells us there is something he wants us to owe. I want you to owe love. I want you to feel you are in debt constantly to love one another. The debt of love is a permanent debt. It is never paid off. It is a debt you pay on all the time but the principle is never paid off. It is an undiminishing debt. So with love you owe the same amount all the time. That is a mark of a Christian.
In Mark 13:34 Jesus said, 'By this the world will know you are my disciples, if you love one another". I John 3 says, how can you say the love of God dwells in you if you do not have love? Matt. 5 even tells us to love our enemies. Gal. 6 says, express your love to all men, especially to those of the household of faith. So we are to love everybody. We are to put on love Col. 3:14; We are to follow after love I Cor. 14:1; We are to abound in love Phil. 1:9; We are to continue in love I Tim. 2:15; We are to have fervent love I Pet.1:22. The scriptures just keep reiterating this idea of us loving one another. But how are we to do this? How are we to show this love? We are to show love by teaching others, ministering to the needs of others, serving one another, bearing one another's burdens, by covering one another's faults, by forgiving one another as God for Christ sake forgave you, by sacrificing for one another - that is the kind of love we are to show to other people. That is our debt. But God never asks us to do something without giving us the capacity to do what he asks. So the assumption is that we the capacity to love this way.
Romans 5:5 says the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts. In Eph. 3, Paul prays that we comprehend the love of Christ. We have the capacity to love. It is as if the whole world is poor in love and we are rich in love. We can pass out the riches of love and never reduce its principle. We have an unlimited immeasurable reservoir of love, an incomprehensible capacity to love, and our responsibility is but to disseminate it to others. You can only do that if you submit to the Holy Spirit whose fruit is love. You can only do that if you sense the urgency and cry of people who desire to be loved. This is your debt! You have to make the choice to put on love. In fact, one of the reasons we gather together in church is to stimulate one another to love and to remind ourselves of God's love. How else can I say it? We owe the world love. We owe the church love. I owe you love and you owe me love.
Now, the interesting thing about love is that the more you exercise it the less it is satisfied. Alfred Adler, a noted psychologist, said, "There is a law that man should love his neighbor as himself. In a few hundred years it should be as natural to mankind as breathing. But if he does not learn to love he must perish." The world we live in has not learned to love has it? Mass shootings are daily. The world has become more unloving. Even divorce rates prove that those who get married for love never really loved because I Cor. 13 says love never ceases. The question then becomes what does love have to do with obedience?
The Discharge of love is in v. 8b-10. Love and law are not incompatible. Here, Paul lists a small sampling of the Ten Commandments and then adds, and if there is any other commandment. In other words, here is a sample but what I am about to say applies to all of them and they can all be summed up with one commandment: You shall love your neighbor as yourself'. This is the key. This is the secret to obeying the entire law. What is the key? Love makes obedience to the law possible. Now, when we read the 10 commandments in Exodus we think of them as 'thou shall not's'. But here, Paul portrays them as love.
What is the first commandment? Thou shall have no other Gods before me. Love will fulfill that commandment because love is loyal and true to the object it loves. Love is not fickle; you don't have to tell a person to be faithful to the one they love because love is loyal. Don't have to tell a Christian to not have any other gods because he loves the true God.
Commandment Two is, "Thou shall not make for yourself any idols." If you love God you won't make any idols because love is devoted to an object, love is faithful to a covenant.
Commandment Three is Thou shall not take the name of the Lord in vain. Love doesn't curse the name of the one they love.
Commandment Four is keep the Sabbath Day: Sunday we celebrate the Lord's Day. Just as a man wants to spend time with the woman he loves so a Christian will want to spend time in an assembly that gathers together to worship the one they love.
Commandment Five is to honor your father and mother. Love is respectful of the one they love. There is this inherent impulse in me to love my parents.
Commandment Six is thou shalt not murder. Why would I want to kill the one I love?
Commandment Seven is thou shalt not commit adultery. Love would never seek to defile or stain the one they love.
Commandment Eight is thou shalt not steal. I don't want what you have. I love you and I want you to have what you have, in fact I would even like you to have what I have.
Commandment Nine is thou shalt not bear false witness against your neighbor. Love doesn't tell lies against people because love doesn't seek to destroy people.
Commandment Ten is thou shalt not covet your neighbor's house. Why would I do that for love says, I am glad you got what you got? Get it? Love is protective, pure, unselfish, truthful, content, loyal and devoted. The impulse of the new life in God is love God and others and when you do that you will have kept the entire law.
Augustine said, "Love God and love others and then do what you want". Because if you love God and others you will never do anything that violates God or others. I love this quote, "To live with saints in heaven that will be glory, to live with them on earth is another story'. Why is it so hard to love others? We even have trouble loving the one we made a covenant of love with called marriage. Is there a key to loving others? Yes, there is.
V.9 says love them as you love yourself. We are very good at taking care of ourselves, aren't we? We make sure that everything we need gets a priority. So as much as you pay attention to your own needs that is the same level of attention you are to give to others' So love God and love others and you will fulfill the entire law. That is so important that Paul repeats it twice, once in v.8 and once in v.10.
Paul said it another way in I Cor. 13. He said: Love is patient, love is kind, love does not brag, love is not arrogant, love does not seek its own, love is not easily provoked, love does not take into account a wrong suffered, love does not rejoice in unrighteousness, love rejoices with the truth, love bears all things, believes all things, hops all things, endures all things, love never fails. The Bible commands us to be patient with all men - love will do that. The Bible commands us to do good and be kind to all men - love will do that. The Bible says we are not to be jealous and covet - love will do that. The Bible says we are not to be proud and arrogant and brag - love will eliminate that. The Bible says do not act in a way that is unbecoming - love can do that. Love doesn't get angry. It doesn't remember an offense. It never rejoices when someone else fails or falters. Love will endure anything. Beloved, we are called to love people. May I offer you in closing a few practical ways I thought of that help me show love. Maybe they will help you also: Mend a quarrel you are in. Take the blame for it and show love that way. Search out a forgotten friend and rekindle that relationship. Dismiss a suspicion in your mind that you hold for someone and ask the Spirit of God to give you love and trust. Let an old bitterness die. Write a letter to someone who loves you. Encourage someone you know is discouraged. Keep a promise. Forget a wrong that was done to you. Reduce the demands on others from that unrealistic level at which you aren't willing to live. Say thanks all the time. Tell someone you love them, someone you would be surprised to hear it from you. Pray for an enemy. Send a check to someone who has a need with a little note. Ask God to help you love the way Jesus loved. Beloved, let's all of us learn to walk in love.
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The Rev. Dr. James Barnes is currently the pastor of White Memorial Church in Milroy.