Imagine, if you can, Christ's church attempting to live faithfully and surrounded by these circumstances.
There's an intrusive government, and it's taxing people excessively,
and it spends the tax money on unjust and murderous causes.
Marriage comes under attack as promiscuity and sexual immorality become more and more mainstream.
The makeup of the society was diverse in ethnicities, nationalities, and religions,
but there was an anything-goes culture that threatened to cause many to abandon any sort of sense of right and wrong.
Political corruption, bribery, blackmail, and cover-up seemed like everyday news.
Economic and social classes were at war with one another.
The top 1% had the ability to buy influence and justice,
and it seemed like they lorded their power over the other 99%.
And the nation's lawmakers were aware of the injustice,
but they were either incapable or unwilling to do anything about it.
Sound familiar?
Of course, I'm talking about Rome in the first century.
What were you thinking of?
As someone famous once said,
history doesn't always repeat itself, but it often rhymes.
I like that.
History doesn't always repeat itself, but it often rhymes.
And so the words of Romans 13 are as much for this time as they were for the Christians of Rome in the first century.
And God's word here brings us a comfort in the circumstances that we recognize
that are similar to the circumstances of Rome.
And as it often does, it brings a challenge with that comfort as well.
The Lord has a way of doing these things simultaneously,
challenging while he comforts and comforts while he challenges.
He did this very thing in the middle of the greatest persecution in history,
the Roman persecution.
And the simultaneity of this comfort and challenge is summed up well
as Paul closes chapter 12 of the book to the church in Rome.
He says,
As if to say,
evil will not overcome you.
There's a comfort there.
All you have to do is overcome evil with good.
The challenge in the midst of the comfort.
To overcome evil with good.
So Paul goes on from there in Romans 13
to describe the calling of Christians
in the midst of this unjust human rule.
And he says something that's a little bit frustrating.
He says,
Just pay them.
Pay what's owed to them.
Taxes to whom taxes are owed.
Revenue to whom revenue is owed.
Respect to whom respect is owed.
And honor to whom honor is owed.
And we might say honor.
Honor to corrupt officials.
If I was a believer in the church in Rome,
I might be saying,
Paul, give me something practical.
Practical to stand up under injustice.
To do something to reverse it.
And Paul, you're telling me just to submit to it.
Even enable it, we might say.
But I hope we see,
as we examine the passage today,
that Paul's challenge and his comfort
is a much higher calling than we would have imagined.
Would be our duty in the present corruption of the world.
So let's go into the passage for,
the New Testament passage for this morning,
which is Romans chapter 13,
verses 8 and 10.
8 to 10.
This is the word of God.
He says,
O 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,
and 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.
Lord, by your Holy Spirit,
will you shed light on your gospel
through the preaching
and the careful hearing of the word today.
Amen.
So love is the fulfillment of the law.
There's the bedrock.
This is where Paul goes to guide Christians
who are frustrated with evil and injustice.
He doesn't give you practical advice
for redeeming the culture.
He doesn't give the people instructions
on how to organize politically.
He just moves from the first section of Romans 13,
which talks about honoring our civil magistrate,
the government officials,
our elected officials in our case.
He moves from honoring your government leaders
to the broader principle of loving your neighbor.
So let's start from verse 8
and see why Paul would land on this theme
as a response to evil.
He says,
O no one anything except to love each other.
And now the first thing to understand about this
is it's not a command forbidding any sort of debt
when he says,
O no one anything.
Debt's an abiding reality of this world.
Even in Romans 13, 7,
the seventh verse of the passage,
Paul is talking about paying debts
to whom they are owed,
specifically to the government.
And if you are,
we all pay taxes, right?
If you are a business owner,
you live in a perpetual state of debt, right?
You pay your taxes after they are owed quarterly or yearly.
You are continually owing taxes to your government.
If you are an employee,
you have taxes that you pay at the end of the year
and the government owes you, right?
There's this relationship of debt
that just exists perpetually among us,
particularly to our government.
So Paul's words are,
O no one anything.
But we shouldn't understand that
to mean a blanket prohibition of any kind of debt.
Matthew 5, 42 specifically,
where Jesus says,
Give to the one who begs from you
and do not refuse the one who would borrow from you.
And so there Jesus actually commands us
to be involved in debt,
if you think about it.
And he commands specifically
that we would lend to others compassionately.
I like the way Jesus puts it in Luke,
Luke chapter 6.
He says,
Love your enemies,
do good and lend,
expecting nothing in return,
and your reward will be great.
And you will be sons of the Most High,
for he is kind to the ungrateful and the evil.
So there are kinds of debt,
debts that are monetary and otherwise,
that bring God glory.
And how do we understand
what kind of debt brings God glory?
The principle that we extract
from these scriptures is twofold.
Good debt occurs,
God-glorifying debt occurs,
when the lender lends compassionately.
That's the first principle.
And not for gain.
Think about how many relationships,
how many friends and families
have been broken by money.
Why do you suppose that is?
Because when most people lend,
they tie up their relationship
with their return on their investment.
When you lend money to another,
the temptation is to expect that back,
and when it doesn't come back,
your relationship is severed.
You've tied up your relationship
with the money that was owed.
And relationships are ruined.
So when we lend,
we ought to do it compassionately.
And we don't expect our reward,
Jesus says,
to be payment in kind.
We expect nothing in return.
We lend out of a heart of compassion.
The second principle of godly debt
is when the debtor shows honor
by discharging the debt promptly and joyfully.
When the lender lends compassionately
and expects nothing in return,
and then the debt is returned,
the debtor is now freely honoring
the one who gave by giving it back.
So the debtor's obligation
was not the money in the first place,
but the honor due
to a friend who showed compassion.
And likewise,
the lender's reward
is not a return on an investment,
but honor.
Honor for the compassion they showed.
The Lord offers his reward
to those who lend compassionately
and to debtors who show honor
by discharging their debts promptly.
This is the meaning of Paul's words,
owe nothing to anybody.
The Christians in Rome, like we do,
have ever-present debts to pay
to the evil and to the ungrateful.
And when they paid those debts honorably,
they reflected God's own love.
Because he is kind
to the ungrateful and to the evil.
So the commandment is,
demonstrate your love,
demonstrate your love to God
by discharging your debts quickly.
Taxes to whom taxes are owed.
Revenue to whom revenue is owed.
Honor to whom honor.
Respect to whom respect.
And we are to discharge all these debts,
except the one that can never be fully paid up.
And that debt is to love one another.
To love each other,
in the words of Romans 8, 14,
or 13, 8.
I'm reading from the ESV.
What is it to love each other,
in verse 8?
Is it the Christians we're in fellowship with,
here today,
or is it all mankind?
And it would be nice if we could just say
this applies only to the household of faith,
to love each other,
which would be a difficult enough command
to obey well.
But it's not.
The context is God's law.
And as we know,
God's law is not just for God's people.
God's law is the standard of living,
righteous living for all men.
So in the context of God's law,
this loving each other
must also be as broad as the law itself,
applying to all mankind.
It's neighbor love,
in the way that Jesus showed us
what neighbor love is,
in the parable of the Good Samaritan.
But does Paul mean to tell us
that this neighbor love is a kind of debt?
Think about that for a second.
If love is a debt,
doesn't that take away some of the freeness
of our expressions to love,
to each other?
Doesn't that reduce acts of love
to just mere transactions?
I'd like you to think about it this way.
There's a knock on your door
in the middle of the night,
and it's your close neighbor,
the neighbor you love,
asking to borrow your car
because her mother's having a seizure
and she needs to take her to the hospital.
What is it that you do?
You love your neighbor,
so what are you going to do?
You won't have to think about
what you're going to do.
You're going to help your neighbor
in her time of need.
In fact, even though it's the middle of the night
and all you want to do
is go back to bed,
you won't even ask
the basic practical questions.
What's wrong with your car?
Why don't you just call an ambulance?
Practical questions, right?
I'm not unreasonable
for wondering that in my mind,
but what am I doing in that moment?
If I love my neighbor,
I don't even ask them.
My neighbor has a need,
and that need
has created a debt.
It's created a debt
because I love them.
So I don't ask those questions
in that moment
because I absolutely know
the debt that I have
towards my neighbor
is to fulfill her request
out of neighbor love.
I could expand that illustration
from this morning.
My tire pressure is fatally low.
I give a call to John Alpeter.
What does John Alpeter do?
There's probably taxis in the area, right?
Just get here.
But I don't
because the neighbor love in John says,
I see a need.
I've been asked to supply it.
That's my duty.
I do it not out of a sense of duty,
but because the love
has created that duty in me.
So does the debt,
the fact that love is a debt,
take away from the freedom
involved in works of compassion?
No.
The fact that we sense
that this reality is a debt
is evidence of our compassion
for one another
because love produced in us
that sense of debt.
Jesus explained to us this
when he was teaching
his disciples to pray.
This is from Luke 11.
He said to them,
Which one of you who has a friend
will go to him at midnight
and say to him,
Friend, lend me three loaves,
for a friend of mine
has arrived on a journey
and I have nothing to set before him.
And he will answer from within,
Don't bother me.
The door is now shut
and my children are with me in bed.
I cannot get up
and give you anything.
I tell you,
though he will not get up
and give him anything
because he is his friend,
yet because of his impudence
he will rise and give him
whatever he needs.
And Jesus' point is to say
that even a mediocre friend
will answer the request
of a neighbor
based on an earnest plea.
You might call this
the parable of the terrible lazy friend.
A mediocre friend
you can count on to do this
if you are earnest
and plea earnestly.
They will sense that debt to you,
though their love is weak.
So the passage that you heard
in Proverbs
tells you the same thing.
I'll read it again,
Proverbs 3, 27 to 28.
Do not withhold good
from those to whom it is due
when it is in your power
to do it.
Do not say to your neighbor,
Go and come again.
Tomorrow I will give it
when you have it with you.
Because the love
that fulfills the law
is our response
to the debt
that love creates
towards those in need.
So what's this law
of neighbor love
teaching us?
If your neighbor
asks for help
and you have the ability,
you have the power,
you incurred a debt
because you love them.
Because, as Proverbs says,
you have it with you.
When you have it with you
to supply your neighbor's need
and your neighbor asks,
there's nothing else love does
but supplies the need.
not from unwillingness
but from love
that proceeds
from our relationships.
So there are three simple things
that create this debt
of love for us.
Three things that love creates
in us
that equate to a debt.
Number one,
it's the need.
If there's a need present
in another.
And number two,
there's the opportunity.
The opportunity
or our occasion
to supply that need.
And maybe the occasion
is just the occasion
of being asked.
We have the opportunity
because there are a need
and we're asked to supply it.
And the ability.
Do we have the ability
to supply the need?
The need,
the opportunity,
and the ability.
These create
the debt of love
between us
as believers,
between us and unbelievers.
It's a mark
of the Christian life
that the Lord
will frequently bring
the needs of others
in contact
with our ability
and our opportunity.
That's how the Lord works.
It's a debt
that we will never
fully discharge
and therefore
we can owe no one anything
but our debt of love
will always remain with us.
The love that fulfills
the law
is a love
that seeks to apply
our abilities
to others' needs
and it is never
fully completed.
Anytime we look
at God's law now,
we should not only look
at how we should obey
the spirit of it
but also what it teaches us
about the God we serve.
We know that every one
of God's laws
was given to us
because it expresses
something about
his many perfections,
about his nature
in other words.
And love for the other
is integral
to God's very being.
How do we know this?
Well, let's ask ourselves
the reason
why we ought to obey
this command
to love each other.
We need to obey
because God commanded it.
That's true.
But that's not
the most true.
The most true reason
I will assert
that we obey
this command
is because
God is doing it.
not because God
said it merely.
We obey the command
because God
does it.
God
was loving each other
before the world
was created.
Think about that.
Before we were all here,
before there was anything,
God existed
in a relationship
of love
to each other.
The Father
loves the Son,
loves the Holy Spirit,
and back and forth.
God was an eternal community,
is an eternal community,
of love
toward the other.
God loves
his neighbor.
And he did it
before there was creation.
So we love
our neighbor
not out of
a respect
for a command,
though that is part of it,
but out of a love
for God
and who he is,
that we would seek
to emulate his nature.
As a matter of fact,
God's love
for one another
is one of the things
that Jesus longed for
when he was on earth,
to ascend again
and share the glory
that he had
with the Father
before the world was.
That's from John 17, 5,
where Jesus says,
And now, Father,
glorify me
in your own presence
with the glory
that I had with you
before the world existed.
Christ,
in his dwelling
here on earth
in flesh,
longed for
the fellowship
that he had
with God
from eternity,
the love that he shared
with his Father.
So God loves the other
perfectly within himself,
and then
he brought forth
a creation
to share in that love.
And ultimately,
God met our need
with his ability.
The first time
the Lord told his people,
love your neighbor
as yourself,
that wasn't in Matthew
that we just read.
It was way back
in Leviticus,
Leviticus 19, 18.
God said,
here's the command
I give you,
you shall love your neighbor
as yourself.
And he gave them
this reason.
He said,
you shall love your neighbor
as yourself.
I am the Lord.
What's the reason given?
That God asked us
to love our neighbors
as ourselves?
Because I'm the Lord.
I'm the one who does it.
Do what I do.
That's the heart
of all of his commandments.
And once God said this
to his people,
the wheels were set in motion.
Once the people of God
knew that God's nature
was to love his neighbor,
we could be certain,
we could take it
to the bank
that God will supply
his people's need.
And what was the need
that God's people
were going to have?
The need of God's people
was that their guilt
kept them distant
and its penalty
was too much to bear.
We had a death sentence
and we needed escape.
That was our need.
And that's what God
decreed from eternity
that he would supply.
And that decree
is expressed
in Leviticus 19.
You shall love
your neighbor as yourself.
I am the Lord.
I am the one
who does it.
So it was clear
once God said this,
if we were paying attention,
that he will certainly
save his people
who were in need.
So the need was expressed.
We had guilt.
We had a death sentence
upon us.
God had an ability.
What's the ability of God?
Well, the scripture says
to do far more abundantly
than we ask or think.
And there was an opportunity.
The opportunity
that God alone created.
A decree for eternity
that we are given
in Ephesians 1.
I'll read this
starting from the first
of the chapter.
Blessed be the God
and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ
who has blessed us
in Christ
with every spiritual blessing
in the heavenly places
even as he chose us in him
before the foundation
of the world
that we should be holy
and blameless before him.
That decree resulted
in a debt
or if you'd rather
an oath
to meet his people's need
through a sacrifice
of infinite worth.
Think about that.
The debt that God
creates for himself.
Paul goes on
in Ephesians 2
verse 15.
He says,
What did he do?
He broke down
the dividing wall
of hostility
by abolishing
the law of commandments
expressed in ordinances
that he might create
in himself
one new man
in place of the two
and so making peace
and he might reconcile
us both to God
in one body
through the cross
thereby killing
the hostility.
How can God
in Christ
abolish those commandments?
By living them out.
By living them out
in neighbor love
and giving us
the example
and creating us
the spirit
to live by it.
Jesus taught us
that our father
binds himself
to this sort of debt
but that debt
isn't to us.
That debt's
to his own nature.
He made a decree
and he must
by his own nature
complete it.
So we will assuredly
receive our help
in our time of need
because of the debt
incurred by his love
for us.
Specifically
what he did
is he took
the righteous law
that separated him
from an unrighteous people
and he created
in himself
the one new man
in the place of the two.
The one new man
in the likeness of Adam
and in the likeness of God
right?
Which is our likeness now.
We have the likeness
of Adam remaining
but what unifies us
to Christ
it is the likeness
of God in us
the Holy Spirit
indwelling us.
He created in us
first in Christ
and then in us
the one new man
the one new woman
in place of the two
and thereby
he made peace
between man and God
through Christ
on the cross.
In John 3.16
the familiar verse
God loved
each other.
God loved the world
in John 3.16
but what is he speaking of?
He's speaking of God
who loves
his neighbor
within the Godhead
and his neighbor
his creation.
That loving each other
is God simply telling us
what he does
so that those who love him
can be like him.
So we see the mystery
of this truth
now coming full circle.
One, the law exists
to explain to us
how we can love
our neighbor
and then
if we have loved
our neighbor
we have fulfilled
the law.
Though that fulfillment
resides in us
still
we remain ever bound
to discharge
the debt
of love to others.
And in a more broader
and a broader
and more perfect way
Christ fulfilled the law
once for all
through his life
and through his death.
And intrinsic
to that fulfillment
is the fact
that he sits
at the right hand
of God
ever binding himself
to meet our need
out of the debt
of love
that he created
for us.
Remember Jesus'
illustration
in the parable
of the terrible
lazy friend?
He told us
that story
to explain
how much more
we should be sure
that God
who is better
than a mediocre friend
whose love surpasses
the kind
that we find
in any friend
will assuredly
supply our need.
He finishes
that story
in Luke 11 verse 9
and he says
I start in verse 8
I tell you though
that neighbor
he will not get up
and give him anything
because he is his friend
yet because of his impudence
he will rise
and give him
whatever he needs
and I tell you
ask
and it will be given you
seek
and you will find
knock
and it will be open
to you.
In Christ
God perfectly
and completely
fulfilled
all points
of the law
which means
he has demonstrated
the epitome
of neighbor love
rescuing us
out of our deepest
and most desperate need
namely our own
death sentence.
So we love each other
not merely because
God said it
but because
God does it.
He creates in us
the same love
as well.
The one who loves
another
the end of verse 8
in our passage
has fulfilled the law.
Paul uses the words
has fulfilled
in the perfect sense
and he doesn't merely say
he has obeyed the law
he has fulfilled the law
the one who loves
his neighbor.
That has a fuller
and deeper meaning
than simply obeyed.
If I just obey the law
by loving one another
the rest of the commandments
remain to be obeyed
but if I have fulfilled the law
there is nothing lacking
if I have loved my neighbor.
John Murray
summarizes that
by saying this
the law has received
the full measure
of that which it requires
in loving our neighbor.
That fulfilling
means the law
has received
the full measure
of that which it requires.
It's not saying
love has replaced the law.
It's not that
it's a better thing
to love
rather than
obey the law.
It's that the law
itself
fulfills
in a way that
the law
rightly obeyed
brings the fruits
of love to others.
Again John Murray
has a great summary
and this is worth
writing down.
John Murray says
love fills to the brim
the cup
which the law
puts into our hands.
Love fills to the brim
the cup
which the law
puts into our hands.
It's as if we have a cup
and that cup's giving shape
to what we're about
to put in it
and we are
given the cup
in order to fill it
and what we fill it with
is love
at the first drop
every drop in between
down to the last drop.
There's nothing else
that fulfills the law
but the love
that we put in it
and there's no other
commandment
there's no other
principle of God's law
that fills the cup.
Those are commandments
and ordinances
they teach us
we become
schooled
by the ordinances
so that we might
love well
and love effectively.
Going on to verse 9
for the commandments
you shall not
commit adultery
you shall not murder
you shall not steal
you shall not covet
and any other commandment
are summed up
in this word
you shall love your neighbor
as yourself.
Now those who would say
you talk about God's laws
that's fine
I just want to love
as Jesus loved.
When you hear that
we understand
that that person
doesn't really understand
what the love of God is
to say that
don't tell me about the law
I just want to love
as Jesus loved.
I don't need the law
in order to love
I just love instinctively.
That person doesn't
understand what God
did in us
what he does in us
to produce neighbor love.
I thank God
for the Pharisees
they give us such
great examples
of perfect villains
yet they also give
the challenge
that pokes at our heart
in our own hypocrisy
and I'm going to read
this passage
from Matthew 23
where Jesus speaks
to the Pharisees
he says
woe to you
scribes and Pharisees
hypocrites
for you tithe
mint and dill
and cumin
and have neglected
the weightier matters
of the law
justice and mercy
and faithfulness
these you ought to have done
without neglecting the others
you blind guides
straining out a nad
and swallowing a camel
woe to you
scribes and Pharisees
hypocrites
for you clean the outside
of the cup
and the plate
but inside
they're full of greed
and self-indulgence
you blind Pharisee
first clean the inside
of the cup
and the plate
that the outside
may also be clean
woe to you
scribes and Pharisees
hypocrites
for you are like
whitewashed tombs
which outwardly appear beautiful
but within are full
of dead people's bones
and all uncleanness
so also you outwardly
appear righteous
to others
but within
you're full of hypocrisy
and lawlessness
right
now to call a Pharisee
a hypocrite
was one thing
but to call a Pharisee
lawless
that was beyond the pale
the Pharisees
at least by their own lips
loved the law
they loved God's law
they loved it so much
that they expanded on it
and they taught the people
to do things beyond
God's law
but the trouble
with the Pharisees
was not that they practiced
the law too minutely
and knew it too well
the problem with the Pharisees
is they didn't understand
the law at all
they appeared righteous
to others
but they were really full
of unlawlessness
of lawlessness
they would strain out
a gnat
the mint
the dill
the cumin
things that Jesus said
yes do those
but they swallowed a camel
because works without
works of the law
without neighbor love
are empty deeds
this is what the person
is reacting to
when they say
you have the law
talk about the law
that's fine
I don't
I love
right
that's the hypocrisy
they're reacting to
they see that works
of the law
without love
are just empty deeds
like Paul says
in 1 Corinthians
if I give away
all I have
and I deliver up
my body to be burned
but I have not love
I gain nothing
but on the other hand
to love without
the law
is just impotent
sentimentality
John
the apostle John
is a great person
to go to
who by the spirit
answers
what true love is
and he gives us
it's all the way
through 1 John
I'm going to read
1 John chapter 5
this is John
the apostle
telling us
what love is
by this we know
that we love
the children of God
when we love
and obey
when we love God
and obey his commandments
verse 3
for this is
the love of God
that we keep
his commandments
so there's no room
in scripture
for us to say
I just want to love
my neighbor
I don't need
to be taught
by the law
don't give me law
give me love
because the law
is the shape
right
John Murray's
example of the cup
the law is the shape
that love fills
you don't understand
love
if you haven't been
taught
by God's law
because as
Romans 13 says
and the ten commandments
show
love does no wrong
to a neighbor
therefore love
is the fulfilling
or the fulfillment
of the law
the law is the shape
of love
we work toward each other
it's the cup
that we fill
with works of love
without the law
without God's law
our works
are formless
our love is formless
it has no place
to abide
and without love
we just hold on
to an empty cup
we have a law
that's empty
and we're hopeless
to truly obey it
we're Pharisees
we have ordinances
but we don't have
the law
what God
Christ abolished
was the law
of commandments
and ordinances
the law remained
but without love
it is merely ordinances
without love
we hold on
to a law
that's empty
and then when you
look around
your neighborhoods
or you look at CNN
and you can't help
but see evil
and corruption
and ingratitude
we remember
that our Lord's way
is to be kind
to the ungrateful
and to the evil
because we were also
ungrateful
and hostile toward God
and what did Christ do
with our hostility
with our ingratitude
he killed it
Ephesians 2 16
he killed the hostility
between us
it died with Christ
on the cross
he gave us a grace
that loves the other
because he's been loving
the other
from eternity
when we love the other
we're not just
obeying God's law
we're fulfilling it
there's nothing else
that the law requires
because we're not just
doing what God says
we're being who God is
we're being taught
by God's nature
this hymn we sang
struck me this morning
love divine
all love excelling
joy of heaven
to earth come down
fix in us
thy humble dwelling
all thy faithful
mercies crown
Jesus thou art
all compassion
pure unbounded love
thou art
visit us with thy salvation
enter every
trembling heart
let's pray
father our need today
our need today
is to be filled
so that we can fulfill
we have no way
to fulfill your commands
but by what you work
in us
may the Holy Spirit
fill us with compassion
for each other
that we can fill up
the cup you gave us
and pour it out
on the needs around us
Lord we give thanks
for taking such an unlovable
we give you thanks
for taking such an unlovable
people pouring out
love upon us
and all the while
making us instruments
to carry that love
to each other
plant this word deep in us
as we use it
to bring you glory
we pray it in Christ's name
Amen
God bless Ane
Jesus iso
and this word
bring you glory
from his heart
for whoever
are you
and this word
is in your name
again
for whoever
is in your name