For those of you who have been in the devotions when I was preaching this semester, you will notice that I am in the book of Romans. And as I said previously, that I take snippets from different sections of the book and then I deal with that accordingly. We find our reading this morning in the book of Romans chapter 13. And it's found in verses 8 to verses 14. So if you have your text, let's just look at those verses. Romans chapter 13 verse 8 to 14. It says, Oh no one anything except to love each other. For the one who loves has fulfilled the law. For the commandments, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not murder, you shall not steal, you shall not covet. In any other commandment that's summed up in this word, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. Love does no wrong to any neighbor. Therefore, love is the fulfillment of the law. Besides this, you know the time that the hours come for you to wake up 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 the works of darkness and put on the armor of light. Let us walk properly as in the daytime, not in orgies and 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. May the Lord add his richest blessing to the reading of his inspired word. I just want to give you an outline for those of you who normally think about an outline. The title of my message this morning is Living in Love and light. Living in love and light. And this embraces Christian ethics in the book of Romans chapter 13. The two parts of this passage is divided up into verses 8 to 10. That is the death of love or we call the law of love. And the second part is living in the light or living in the light of Christ. So we have the death of love and living in the light of Christ. And as we look at these two parts, I managed to get six C's. Now normally we have three C's or we have three points. The first part has got its own three C's and the second part has got its own three C's. The first part which speaks of the law of love, we have the command in verse 8. We have the claim in verse 9 and we have the context in verses 9 and 10 and the context is in Leviticus chapter 19. So when I get to the context I will highlight Leviticus chapter 19. The second part which is verses 11 to 14 we have the eschatological challenge because it speaks about the future. and he uses the two words that the time and it also says wake up and then we have the charge to discharge the works of darkness and then it has a climatic restatement which I call the character of Christ. So as we work through these verses bear with me as we go through them and I want to deal with them individually. So the six verses we will expound or try to analyze in these two parts, the law of love and the light of Christ. And the first part is the command that we find in verse 8, and I want to read the command again. It says, for if we live, I'm sorry, I've got the chapter 14, verse 8, chapter 13. Oh no, and for the one who doth love the Lord, The context of this particular verse is found in the previous verses up to verse 17 and Christ comes and he has this interrogation by the disciples and he takes out a coin and he says, give me a coin. And says, may you see the things that I see. and render to God the things that are God. And so Christ has made it clear that we have to owe no one anything. We are obliged and we are obligated to pay our debts. Does this then mean that we must not make debt? It's not Paul. He's not saying that in essence. He's simply saying they command something to owe no one anything. But the command in this text is the command to love. Paul had moved from the considering the expression of love among his believers, in this context, to the love of the unbelieving world. And you can find that in Romans chapter 12, verses 14 up to chapter 13, verse 17. And he uses the verb, the one who loves the other. And our command this morning is to love. unconditionally, because when we love, the Bible says, we have fulfilled the law. And what is this fulfillment of the law, what was said in the Mosaic law, is accomplished in the is to love the other. So the purpose and the aim of the law, the Mosaic law for the nation of Israel, is accomplished in this. And you can find that in Matthew 5, 9, 19-20, and Galatians 5, 13-15. We also find that in this fulfillment of the law where we are asked to love, it's the present continuous tense. when we fulfill the law of Christ by loving the other. We are called and we are commanded this morning to love. And when you look at the context I'm going to explain that a little bit more fully. And how do we love? We love with the love of Christ and we And this is only made possible by the Spirit living within us. And so when Paul comes and he says, we are commanded to love to fulfill the law, that is encompassed in the Mosaic law and now it's referenced to us to love that way. And the claim in verse 9, look at verse 9, it says, and I like this, for the commandments, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not murder, you shall not steal, you shall not covet. And any other commandment, absolutely this word, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. The commandments is a stretch in the Mosaic law. It's fulfilled in our love for our neighbor. When he says, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not murder, you shall not steal, you shall not cover up, are examples of what a neighbor should not do when you love your neighbor. And the situation in the Jewish text, the argument is very clear. that everything that we should not do is summed up in this one command, you shall not know neither of yourself. And you can find that in chapter 9, verse 6 and 8. You can find that in Exodus 34, verse 28. You can find that in Deuteronomy 10, verse 4. What is Jesus actually saying? He combined this to love our neighbor, Deuteronomy chapter six, verse five, and he says, and he declared that, combined it to Deuteronomy chapter six, verse five, he says, you shall love your neighbor, and this is fulfilled in the law of the prophets. In other words, in the whole of the Old Testament, we are commanded to love. That's a commandment. that we need to fully understand that's a claim that when we love we have this claim that we have fulfilled the law. But I want to focus on the context when you speak of the law of love. The context is found in the Viticus chapter 19. You don't have to tell me, I'm just going to read snippets of that. And I want you to understand when he says the law of love, we are commanded to love the law, then we can claim that this is fulfillment of the law. Look what the context of the biggest chapter 9 says. He says, when you leave, do not leave up to the edge. Loving your neighbor means that you leave the remains for another. He says, strip not your vine and make it bare, or your banyan and make it bare. Otherwise, when they are leaving the harvest, leave something for your neighbor. In verse 12 of Leviticus 19 it says, And when you get, you gather the grape, come forward and break deep the side for your neighbor. In verse 11, Do not steal or pay falsely against your neighbor, or do not swear by my name. Verse 13 says in Leviticus 19, Do not oppress your neighbor. Verse 14 says, do not curse your neighbor, or do any injustice to your neighbor. Verse 16 says, do not slander your neighbor. Verse 17 says, do not hate your brother. Verse 18 says, do not take vengeance on anyone. Verse 33 and 34 says, When you have a stranger's shoulder in your hand, you shall feel no harm. And so what is Leviticus saying when he's saying you should love your neighbor as yourself? He's simply saying that when a stranger is in our community, when there are xenophobic intentions, we are not fulfilling the role. We should love our neighbor as ourselves. our neighbor to fulfill the role, we are asking not to slander our neighbor. We are asking not to bear false witness against our neighbor. We are asking to live with our neighbor. We are asking to share with our neighbor. That is loving our neighbor. And this morning, as you think on that command, you can only claim that you fulfill the law when you do the directives of the context of the religious 19, that you are sharing with your neighbor. You are not stealing from your neighbor. You are not doing false witnesses. This morning, Paul gives his directive, and then he concludes, which I find very fascinating, in Domiticus chapter 19. He says, I am the Lord your God. If you love me, you will love your neighbor. This is the directive from God himself. I am the Lord your God. This positive command this morning teaches us that we come alongside our neighbor, the Lord God, and we embrace him. I like what Jesus does to illustrate this. He does this in two passages. We find it in Luke chapter 10, verse 29 to 37, and we're going to go through the glottal sound. and have to. But Jesus gives a very another example and it's found in Matthew chapter 5 verse 43 to 48. He says, love your enemies. Do good to them that they should and persecute you. so that you may know that your Father who is in heaven is perfect and you are to be perfect. So my perfect life in exercising this love, this law of love is encapsulated in Jesus' words, to love our neighbor. What is the application this morning in this Treat others as you would rather them treat you. Do to others as you would rather them do to you. In this first part, when we love our neighbor, we become a non-Southern neighbor. We don't be a foster parent. We don't steal from our neighbor. We treat him as our own, as a soldier in my country. that the Heavenly Father is perfect, wants us to be perfect, and the only way we can be perfect is to perform the law of Christ. The Saint says, love does no wrong, we will do that. Love is to perform the law of Christ. And how do we do that? By way of application as well. Not only do I do good to the neighbour and treat him as I would treat myself, but it simply means, in verse 7, I am refraining from loving or behaving in a way that seeks the harm of my neighbour, but I positively seek the welfare of my neighbour. I'll repeat that. Verse 10 says, I go out of my way when I fulfil this role of Christ, that I refrain from a behavior that is harmful to me, but rather I endeavor to positively seek the welfare of my neighbor. So when we look at the system today, we are called upon by way of application to treat everyone as I would treat myself. 11 to 14 is more eschatological in its context, and here I want to give some of the images that it portrays. The first thing that we can deal with is the challenge that we have in verse 11. Look what he says in verse 11. you know the time that the hour has come to wake from your sleep, for salvation is nearer to us now than it will be at first indeed. This eschatological challenge is simply He uses this in chapter 12 verse 2, he says, He not conformed with his will, but being tried forth by the renewal of the mind. The same thought is gathered over in chapter 13. And now that the challenge to us is that we need to understand that the time is near. So we go to Nehemiah. He's in reflection of the thought of the time that is near. The year in which we learn that the crash has come to save us, But there's an end of his return. Chapter 3, verse 26. Chapter 8, verse 18. Chapter 11, verse 5. 1 Corinthians 9, verse 29. Ephesians 5, verse 16. And 1 Thessalonians 5, verse 1 tells us that the end is near. And so the Bible says that time is yet. What is the implication of this challenge? When the time is near, we need to redeem the time. We need to not procrastinate, but live in anticipation of its soon return. I have applied this this morning to sometimes we live as if Christ is now and never will He come. And He is saying the time is near, the time is at hand. live in accordance with this perfect world because of time's foul protein. And how does he do this in terms of the time? He uses an image of sleep. Now some of you will find sleep as, sleep represents complacency and a lack of readiness for enlightenment. the museum's complacency, and a lack of readiness for approaching day. The day is far approaching. The time is at hand. Nothing from 25 to 5 to 13, mile 13 was 53 to 57. First they said, oh, we'll stop the fires. We are asked to wake up from our sleep, to be ready, to live in anticipation of the soon return. How do we do that? I want to give you three imperatives this morning. We wait expectantly for His soul to come. And how do we do that by waiting expectantly? We live as if Christ is coming tomorrow. Our lives are conformed to the character of Christ. And we love our neighbor to fulfill the Lord, but we wait expectantly. We engage prayerfully. We stay on our knees. And we think of those in our families, and I'm sure as we are seated here there are members in our families who don't know the Lord. We need to introduce them to Christ and bring them to a point where they will receive Christ as their personal saviour. So not only do we wait expectantly, but we encourage prayerfully and fervently. And very importantly, in verse 11, we learn morally, we learn uprightly. to others than I myself ever cast away. Our lives might be in conformity with the scripture. Our lives might be in conformity. So when we think on the time this morning, when we are asked to go away from our sleep, the application this morning is, feel me, because you could come and go. But the second thing that is very important about this waking and being waking, first of all, since the night is far gone, the day is at hand, so let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light. Not only is the challenge a scatological challenge, but it's a charge. It is put off the works of darkness. And I find that this is the charge that I think many of us do not understand in the context of this passage. Engaging in sexual or immorality, engaging in all this, engaging in all kinds of indecent behavior, the charge is to put off the birth of darkness. Will you this morning say, When I think on the charge of putting off the darkness, chapter 6 verse 13 says, but rather put on the weapons of love in the light of the Lord, as it is coming today. Chapter 6 verse 13 says, do not use your merits to serve as instruments for unrighteousness. are those who have been brought from life, from death to life, and remembered to God as instruments of righteousness. What is he saying when he says, the night is nearly over? It's imminent. Christ returns soon. What do we do? Charged with the scars of the works of darkness. And he gives us the things that we should not do in this state, immorality, sexual perversion, and the like. But rather, our instruments are instruments for his purpose and for his service. The states of Romans 5-8, 2 Corinthians 6-7, Ephesians 6-7, sets the standard whereby we must learn. In Vaisakhi, he uses the word walk. Look what Vaisakhi says. We do not walk in sexual immorality and sexuality. We do not walk in family and jealousy, but rather we walk decently and appropriately. But all things should be done decently. And in order, why do we do that by way of application? So that public scrutiny on our lives will be one of righteousness and of God's kindness. Only this morning, say, when I think about this, the charge to me this morning is very clear. That I put away the things of darkness and I walk decently and appropriately. When we look at the astrological challenge that is near, the night has come. We look at the charge that we do not walk indecently but appropriately. But the climatic misstatement which I call the characteristic is put on the Lord Jesus Christ. And here we have a clearing unity. We are putting on, we are walking in the light of His Word and the light of His way. And how do we do that? When we put on the armor of light in chapter 13, verse 13, and the commandment to put away the darkness in verse 12, and when we put on the Lord Jesus Christ's imperative here, I want to give you four things. The first thing is to embrace again and again the character of Christ in our lives. The second thing, in faith and confidence, to be loyal to the things of Christ and put on the Lord Jesus Christ. The third thing, is to be emboldened by the character of Christ. That we love Him. That's what the Bible asks us to know. Hebrews chapter 1 verse 3 says that Jesus is the exact representation of the Father. And the word defaulted means to reflect on that. And so whenever He would move that out, and whenever He would engage with people, He reflected His Father. in our faith and in our confidence in him, we are loyal because we belong to him. We then allow his character to moralize in such a way that he is first and Lord. But by way of implication, it was also said when you put on dress, chapter 4 is 24, chapter 5 is 1, 11, 21, chapter 6 is 23, chapter 7 is 25, chapter 8 is 39, chapter 15 is 16, 13. He must become Lord in our lives. So when we look at this sermon this morning and we look at the law of love, is that we love our neighbor as we love ourselves. Verses 8 to 10. And verses 11 to 14, the eschatological challenge is that time is near, the night is over, and it's coming. We walk so circumspectly as if Eaton reminds us. We have never been put on the character of Christ. and that He becomes an order, first and foremost in our lives. And we put away the words of darkness and we reflect the image of Christ in our lives. Amen. We wish you a good Christmas. We thank you, Lord, for your word that has been spoken to us this morning. And it is our prayer, Lord, that you help us to apply these principles that we've learned this morning, that we love our neighbors, we love you, Lord, and we live in peace with one another. Be with us, Lord. continue to waken us through your word and to freshen us in the ways that we should walk and we should do. In your name, Lord Jesus, we ask it. Amen.