Romans 13, 7, 8, 11, 13, 7 in the Hebrew Bible. Romans 13, 7. So we're going to get in verse 7 and go as far as verse 14, finish off the chapter. So our focus today is going to be on verses 8, 9, Romans 13, verse 7. This is the word of God. Render to all what is due them, tax to whom taxes due, custom to whom custom, fear to whom fear, honor to whom honor is. O nothing to anyone except to love one another. For he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law. 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 thing, it is summed up in this saying, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. Love is no wrong to a neighbor. Therefore, love is the fulfillment of the law. You 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. The night is almost gone, and the day is near. Therefore, let us lay aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light. Let us behave properly, as in the day, not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual promiscuity and sensuality, God's strife and jealousy put on the Lord Jesus Christ to make no provision for the flesh in regard to his life. So far from God's whole hand down to earth. But we take a step back and remember where we are in Paul's letter to the Romans. Romans chapter 12 makes a major transition by Paul. It moves from the doctrines that are being taught in chapters 1-11 to the lifestyle that these doctrines are to promote in chapters 12-16. Faith to lifestyle. From the mercies of God to the mission from God to His Church. And Paul is, in Romans chapter 12 and 13-14, Paul is doing just as Jesus had commanded in the Great Commission, where he told his apostles to teach the Church to observe, to perform all that Jesus had commanded. You may remember in Romans chapter 12, right there in verse 9, we move from the call to to the tone, to the lifestyle, and more specifically, this overarching universal theme of a Christian platform without hypocrisy. We're equal, let's do it. And then what appears after that, and we spend a lot of time in each of those commands, we really have a list of commands in relationship to doing what is good, doing that which is love. This is what the loving life looks like. I'm pointing that out because I want you to notice that we have this command about loving without hypocrisy. And then in chapter 13, which again there were no chapters when Paul wrote the letter, in chapter 13 verses 1-7 Paul addresses the Christian's relations in the magistrate and the civil authority And then, what does Paul say in verse 8? Oh no, owe nothing to anyone except to love him. And then you hear that he moves back. He moves back to love. Maintenance. And it's clear that he does move and transition from the obligation from rulers, there in verse 7, to the obligation that we have to all men, in verse 8 and above, we are to love. But I want you to consider a few things before we get into this text. First of all, consider Paul placing the duty that we have to the magistrate within this whole section on Paul. What that means, then, is that even in our relation to the civil authorities, this is to be understood the context of love for all men. Paul is even saying, let me talk a lot about the duty to love, and I'll only tell you about the magistrates now, but let's make sure we get back to this love thing. This is all love. All of it. Second, in case you tend to distinguish or pull apart love from the civil magistrates, Paul wants you to not lose the emphasis of love. And so he explicitly repeats himself in this call to love here in verse 8. And this time he uses an interesting, very interesting metaphor of reject. We'll get into that today. Thirdly, how amazing is it that Paul writes about the life of love Romans chapter 12 and 13. Some would consider, many would consider 1 Corinthians 13, the passage from love is patient, love is kind, as really being Paul's fullest description of love. And it is very beautiful, it is a wonderful description. But here in Romans 12 and 13, we must understand that this is a rival description of love. It's clear that it's called. It's plenteous in its examples and demands. It's strong in its motivation. By the mercies of God laid out for you, Romans chapters 1-11, therefore 1. By God's grace and help, we will spend some time today coming to these particular words, to this particular concept of loving our neighbor as ourself. Really, the second greatest commandment. And so, you can't exhaust it. We won't say everything that there is to say today about loving our neighbor. Because it's that high. It only falls underneath the call of a loved one. But this text is for you today. This text is for you today because often we need to be reoriented. We often need to be reoriented to the big things. To the big themes. It's easy to, especially as we've been doing, get into the details. focus on this command and that command, and how we carry out this, and how we carry out that. But we need to be reoriented as well, at times, to the big call. All of this is moving us into a direction. All of this is enveloped within the context of loving our neighbor. Loving our neighbor as ourselves. So, with that, Three points today in our sermon. The first is the obligation to love. The obligation to love. The second, the fulfillment of love. The fulfillment of love. Thirdly, a picture of love. So first, the obligation to love. Again, consider verse 8. Owe nothing to anyone except to love one another. So as I said in the introduction, Paul moves from this obligation to pay taxes to an obligation to love. And he's using this metaphor of obligation, or more specifically, to be translated at the time, to debt. Paul uses this idea of debt to say something to the effect of, just as you are in some sense indebted and obligated to the magistrate, so you are the dead and obligated to your neighbor." That's the first time that the Apostle Paul uses this metaphor in the Book of Romans. He uses this metaphor in chapter 1, in verse 14, where he says, I am under obligation, I am the dead, both to the Greeks and to barbarians, go to the wise and to the foolish. So for my part, I'm eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome." And there, Paul understands that as part of his mission to preach the gospel, he carries it out in terms of his debt, something he owes, an obligation. And then, again, in chapter 8 verse 12, he taught that the Christians are obligated or indebted to live by the Spirit and not to gratify the flesh. This is a theme that Paul likes. He likes it so much, he uses it three times even in this great letter. Now we come to chapter 13. We are obligated to love one another. We owe it to one another to love one another. What does Paul mean when he says that we are obligated to love one another? There are three different interpretations of this passage. And I want to give those to you because you really couldn't hear any of these three if you listened to any certain of the replete of quotes while listening to the passage. The first one, and I'm going to give you the third one as well. So the first one is this. that what Paul is saying here is that we are commanded to meet all of our obligations so that we possess no debt as Christians. But what this sounds like is that somehow borrowing and lending is wrong as a principle. Paul is just saying that owe nothing to anyone. You are not to carry any debt. That's actually This is not a demand against borrowing when we are needed, for there are plenty of scriptures that highlight principles about borrowing and lending. Though we also need to be very sensitive to this fact, that the rest of scripture confronts and rebukes the large debt that many Americans carelessly amass and hoard. especially debts for comfort, debts for luxury, debts for amusement, debts for water. Not for me, but for water. How much of our credit card debt, how much of the birthright of our debt, is related to an instant gratification mindset? And then further, we need to be really careful. Do we have a true intention to pay it back, and pay it back immediately, as immediately as we possibly can? A few years ago, the idea from the credit card companies was something like this. If we can just get people to owe us $1,000, we'll have our hooks into them for decades. The average credit card debt is something like, per card, $5,600. And do we intend to take back? Psalm 37 verse 21 is one example of confrontation in this mindset of debt. The wicked borrower does not pay back, but the righteous is gracious in his. But we can say a lot more about this, but you know what? It's not a certain development. This is a good principle. It's timely for our own content, but that's not really the point of this passage here. So if you see people using this as kind of a launching pad to talk about tech, there's probably a lot of good stuff there, but that's not what this is about. A second interpretation. We are obligated to owe nothing to anyone except for one another. What is Paul saying here? Well, the idea is that it's not a command, oh, nothing, but rather it is we're being told to believe something. You, oh, don't manage anything but to love. That's how some translate it. There is something in the Greek, which I'm not going to get into, that does lend itself to either a command or a statement. But just appreciate this. Verse 7, in verse 7 we're told that we do owe the civil authorities supporting populations and honoring populations. And so Paul would not say, pay tax to who taxes you, and then say, and by the way, you don't owe anyone anything except to love them. That would be wrong legal practice. Okay, so the right interpretation. We'll move forward with this. We are a commander. This is a command. And this is the concept here. Let no debt remain outstanding except the continuing obligation to love it. Or you could say it this way. If you want to connect, because the words, the percept, and they are actually connected. the same word, the language of the O, that says, pay to all whatever you owe, and then verse eight, do not keep on owing anyone anything except the love of one another. Discontentment. And you may hear one another and think that this is a duty that's only dealing with the church. We have to love one another within the church. That's often the one another language. But verse 8 also clarifies, for he who loves, and our translation says, his neighbor has to fill the lot. Literally, it says this, for he who loves the other has to fill the lot. But they're bringing the idea, the concept of neighbor into this passage in the first time. So the point is that none are excluded from this universal, we're all embracing the other. Love all. We know that's the case. We looked at Acts 3 from chapter 12 and talked about the love that we're to have even to enemies. But this statement does send a question. This statement, owe nothing to anyone except to love one another. It begs the question, how is it that we are indebted to one another to love one another? how I've become his entity. I am an entity. I owe you my love. And you owe me your love. But how did we come to this place? There's two ways that we can be intelligent. The first one is that I borrowed something from you and I owe it to you. But there's a second way. Now my children are only three dollars. You can also be indebted to someone. Let's say that someone bought you a gift. Someone has a gift for you. But they gave it to me, not to give to you. That means that I become indebted to you. Because I'm dedicated to that person, they give me a responsibility, and because I owe them a responsibility, I owe it to you. I actually appreciate where I'm going with this. As creatures who belong to God, who were designed by God to walk within His intention, within His will, we are obligated to God. Really, we are obligated to God in all things, and that includes love and relationship. We have received His benevolent love, which we are obligated to give to one another. Even there in the garden, God made Adam and Eve, and He brought them together. I don't just mean as husband and wife, but as two human beings. They have a responsibility now, and God giving to Adam this responsibility to show love to his women and other human beings. Because I owe that to God, in the same way that I owe that to the woman. Further, because we don't live in a perfect world anymore, we live in a fallen world as sinners who inherited by the virtues of God a free and full salvation from God. As sinners who have experienced the love of God poured out into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, as sinners who are filled with gratitude for God's generous mercy, Christians then have the greatest obligation and the greatest power to love our neighbor. I hope you understand what I'm saying. We all owe each other love because we are creatures of God. The Christian is special in heaven. Because we have received such divine love. There is something greater than you that puts me in debt to you. There is something greater than me that puts you in debt to me. The Triune God and His love. proven to us in His eternal plan for us, in His promises to us, in His presence with us, in His payment for us, in His power in us, in His provisions to us, in His passion for us. We are obligated to love our neighbor in the love of God. And when we love, know what Paul says in verse 15. He who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law. The ultimate expression of the law of God is love. Therefore, when we love our neighbor according to God's law, then the law is fulfilled. The law is not only performed, it is realized. It is manifested. The law is manifested. The law is fulfilled. That brings us to our second point then. The first point is that, again, we are obligated to love in the love of God. We owe God, and therefore we love in the love of God. But secondly, consider this idea of the fulfillment of love, the manifestation of love, the realization of love. Again, in verse 8, Oh, none of you, anyone, except to love one another, He who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law. The scriptures have much to say about the relationship between law and love. And we tend to misunderstand scripture at times. We tend to pin these two against one another. Law and love. But the Bible declares them to be companions, who are only to cooperate when they together operate in the grace of God. When operating in the grace of God, these two are their friends. I'll say something more about some of the passages about the water in the New Testament in a moment, but just consider this. The law loves to call us to love. The law calls us to love. If we could take all the commands and sum them up, that's exactly what they're asking Jesus to do. If you could take all the commands of Jesus and sum them up into one word, what would you say? He said, the greatest commandment is the love of Him your God. And second, to love your neighbor as yourself. So all of the law is other-oriented. All of the law causes us to be outward-focused. Whether we're focused on God, focused on our neighbor. That's not how it usually works. We tend to take the law and say, look at me. It's a big lie. Look at me. Look what I'm doing. Look at how right I am. Look how right I am. But that's not the law. The law is actually telling us how to turn it outward. How to look at others. How to show care and love to others. How to not mistreat others. How to not harm others. How to not blow up others. How to prefer others over ourselves even. We use the law in a wrong way to try to bring love to us. But the law clares to us how we can bring our love to others. This is why we need God's grace to understand this and work this out. Even as Christians we get this mixed up, don't we? Well again, law and love are partners, yet we make them opponents. I want you to think on this for a moment. What if we only have love without the other? If we only have the law without any love, then there's no power within us to actually keep the law. There's no muscle to work the law. There's no skill to express the law. This is exactly what Paul is explaining in Romans chapter 7. Don't look to the law to make and keep it. It has no power. It is a stone. It is objective. It only judges things. Look at who Romans chapter 8 is. The Holy Spirit. He is your power. He is your enabler. He is your muscle. He is your steel. Listen to what Paul says in Romans 8 verse 2. For what the law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did. Sending His own Son in the likeness of sin through the flesh, and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, so that the requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us. We do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. So if we have love without policy, we have no ability. But what if we had love and it was lawless? If there was no law, we would be blind. We'd have no sight. We'd have no perspective. Our love would be unimportant. Our love would be unintentional. We have no direction, no guidance, no intentionality in terms of how we love another. Our love would lack discipline and discipleship. Jesus, in a clear and profound way, tells us, if you love me, you will keep my commandments. This is what love toward me looks like. You walking in my love. One Puritan, John Bolton, says this, the law, as it declares, he's talking about not the law, but declaring our unrighteousness, he says, the law sends us to the gospel that we may be justified in Christ. And the gospel sends us back to the law again, to inquire what is our duty as those who are justified? Now if that's not, if that doesn't open up your imagination enough, let me give you a Lutheran example, because Luther always had a way. He said it this way, and I've shared this with you many times, but I just love it. He says, the law was a stick. It beat me to Christ. I couldn't keep that law. That stake was only there to judge me and beat me to Christ. And when I came to Christ, the law became my law instead, on the path to Christ. What a beautiful expression. So much for saying that the Lutherans are antinomians or that it's the law, but it's the Lutherans. So Paul, Paul here is not saying that the only debt we owe to man is love. Nor does Paul say that love replaces all other commandments. You'd be surprised I've read that commentary. Rather, what Paul is saying is that love enables us to fulfill the obligations of the law to one another. Now in verse 9, Paul then highlights some of the Ten Commandments, four of them to be exact. I just have to do this. It's like a footnote. Bear with me. For those who try to split the 10th commandment up into two, don't covet your neighbor's possessions, and don't covet your neighbor's wife. Also, Paul seems to see coveting singularly. It simply says that humans don't covet each other. Four out of 10. Paul is not intending to exclude any law here. He says, and if there is any other than the law, But, Paul is providing a sample, one that would be most familiar with, and then he moves to a subordinate form. Paul is summed up in that second great statement, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. And he's quoting Leviticus 19. I have to say something about the statement as yourself, that one phrase. shall love your neighbor as yourself." We need to be careful that we don't understand the language, as yourself, as a commandment for self-love. God is not saying, make sure that you love yourself so that you'll be able to love your neighbor. That's not what He's saying here. Although some people interpret it that way. Rather, what He's saying is, He's speaking to quality that your love is to take. You know how you love yourself. You should love other people like that. You know how you care for yourself. You know how you protect yourself. You know how you amuse and entertain yourself. You know how you make sure that you're not wrong. You should be like that brother. At the same time, I need to make it worth the qualification, because while that's true, this is not a command for self-love, self-love does not have to be understood as selfish or self-absorbed. You're selfish when you don't love yourself in reference to that. You're selfish when you don't love your neighbor as you love yourself. That's not all we need to consider when it comes to self-love. While loving yourself has been twisted by sin, we were made to have a love for ourselves. That's actually part of God's design in us. Think about what Paul says in Ephesians 5 verse 29, no man ever hated his own flesh. That's because that's what God made us. The larger catechism, if you read through the commands, it rightly includes duties to ourselves in the midst of the duties that we have in the command of God. You're to protect and promote your own welfare along with the welfare of the profit of your neighbor. That's just one example. So we do have duties unto ourselves, out of love for ourselves, that are embellished within the commands of God. The thing is, we need to make sure that it's not an immoderate love of self, a hyper love of self, a simple love of self. I would dare say that our struggles are probably with love of ourselves too much, and immoderately. But also, I know what it's like to know yourself, to know yourself. That, too, must be understood in reference to God. He gives us, his son says, value. And I just want us to appreciate both of those things together. Well, we are to love our neighbor as we love ourselves. Why is Paul not including love for God here in this portion of Scripture? Why is he not including this? Well, in the context it means to appreciate that the apostle Paul is dealing with our love to others, love to others in the church and outside of the church, Romans chapter 12. love in terms of, as it relates to the Symbolmatrix, the Symbolchorides, from chapter 13. And now, he brings it all together and says, this is not, all of this is not what we would call to the second great command, love your neighbor. And so, first of all, understand the context. Secondly, understand that love for neighbor is an extension of our love for God. Our love for God is always to be implying if not explicitly seen or shown or said in our loving others. We love others because for God works well with us and enables us to be loving creatures, creatures we love. And then thirdly, if we're honest with ourselves, it's easier to fake loving God than it is to love ourselves. I can say all kinds of things about my love for God. And I can put on a show and get to look at my life and say, man, that guy loves God. But it's harder to convince people, because it's harder to really feel that connection in a way, to love each other. Is this what John talks about in his epistle, 1 John 4, 20? If someone says, I love God and hates his brother, he's a liar. For the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen. In truth, when it comes to loving others, we may be tempted to think in particular ways like this. I've done all the loving that I need to do with this particular person. I don't mean to point out this either, okay? But you know, I've done everything. I don't need to love this person any more than I already have. What else could I possibly do? But love is as permanent as the law is complete. Love is as continual as the eternal, as people are eternal. Love is a continual obligation that we will never lose. We've talked about this before. Those three greatest virtues, faith, hope, and love. Which one remains? It's love. Love will go on forever and ever. What makes us think that we can stop loving people here and now when we are supposed to be loving for eternity? One church father says this, the debt of love. So love of neighbor that fulfills the law The scripture holds up many examples. I Want us to just consider one and keep this himself as it relates to this command a picture of picture of love. Look at verse 10. Love does no wrong to a neighbor, therefore love is the fulfillment of the law. Paul goes on to state the other side of the commandment. You are to love your neighbor, and love does no wrong to a neighbor. Now it doesn't merely say, and I've seen some translations, love does no harm to a neighbor. It actually is more objective than that. It does no wrong. It does not violate the ethic and the principle of God, of right and wrong. And you know where Paul gets this from. He's quoting, again, Leviticus 19. We read that here. Right here in verses 33 and 34. I put up my manuscript so I can pull it out. Leviticus 19. When a stranger resides with you in your land, you shall not do him wrong." He's quoting. This is love. He says, love does no wrong. Paul Luther, again, he says this, love keeps nothing back for itself. Love seeks only those things that are in the interest of others. So when Jesus is asked about this command, love your neighbor, and asked how expansive are we to interpret this word, neighbor, he provided a parable to show us what fulfilling this law is. You may know it has the greatest inheritance. Listen to what Jesus says. He says from Luke 10, verses 30 to 37. Jesus replied and said, a man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among the walkers, and they stripped him and beat him, and went away, leaving him half dead. By chance, a priest was going down on that road, and when he saw him, he had passed by on the other side. Likewise, a Levite also, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But Samaritan, who was on a journey, came upon him, and when he saw him, he felt compassion. And he came to him, and bandaged up his wounds, poured oil and wine on them, and he put him on his own beast, and brought him to a pen, and took care of him. On the next day, he took out two denarii, and gave them to the impoverished, and said, There were more you spend when I return I will repay you Now which of these three do you think proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell into the rock with hands? He said the one who showed mercy for Then Jesus said no So much so much is terrible and But what you must understand is underneath this parable is this whole question of what leads to eternal life? What is the greatest command? How am I to live with obedience to God? And when this law expert said, Jesus put it back to him, well, what do you say? He says, well, it's the love God, love your neighbor. Jesus commends it, that's correct. He wouldn't be satisfied because Jesus didn't leave his conscience unburdened. He was right. He had the right answer. But why? This neighbor. This neighbor. God can't mean everybody. Right? God can't mean every, like, love of everybody. The Lord Jesus comes and He says, a lawyer, you need to have a right opinion about yourself. Because it's a lot of law. Part of your problem is that you see the law as expressing the way to life. And you must understand that the law is a way of life. A way of life, not even a mean thing. And so, here, in this parable, Jesus holds up the most unlikely of neighbors, an enemy, a Samaritan, and he shows what love for a neighbor looks like as this Samaritan fulfills the law of God. The Samaritan compensates for the Levite's neglect, bringing bandages to the wound, pouring oil and wine on them. The Samaritan compensates for the priest's neglect, He puts him on his own beast. He takes him to an inn. And you should appreciate that the inn is probably in Jericho, which would be enemy territory for the Samaritan. The Samaritan further took care of him, despite the perceived threats that he was under in those moments. You can think about those stories of World War II or that one particular The story that goes around in World War II, the half-dead U.S. soldier is laying there and the German comes and takes the wounded into the U.S. enemy camp for his safety. That's what the Samaritan was doing. The Samaritan also compensates for the robber's crime. They beat and stripped him. He stayed all night and made sure that he was taken care of. They robbed him. He's paying for his room and he's leaving money for what he needs. They left him to die. He promised his return to see that he lived and to settle any debts he had. The Samaritan provided a full compensation. A loving compensation. A law-fulfilling compensation. not expecting to be recompensated. In other words, the Samaritan understood he was obligated without demanding the obligation of others to him. This is a costly level. This is a costly level of all too. We're called to give others of our time and our efforts, our resources, our money, our personal danger, This is, this love is love of God given to another. Is this what you think of when you think of love? The love of God is extreme. It seems to know no limits. At its core, It is completely different from the love in the world. God's love calls you to help even your opponents and your enemies. God's love calls you to help even those who brought this on themselves. God's love calls you to help even to the point of taking on and experiencing the burdens of those you help. We are able to love like this because we've been loved like this. We're able to love like this because the Spirit of Christ dwells in us so that we would be able to live and walk like God. So, just one sermon. And yet a lifetime. A lifetime of love. A lifestyle of love. That's what the call to prayer is. I can say may God give us the grace to live and to love this way. But I also want to say God has given us the grace to live and to love this way. And the most beautiful thing about it is that When we live in a loveless way, we are manifesting. We are bringing to realization a raw thought. It is glorious and prolific.