The Debt of a Christian

Romans 13:8-10

June 15, 2008

This morning we spoke of “The Civil Duty Of A Christian”

And the call of a Christian to be submissive to those

Whom God has placed in authority over them.

Paul ended that section with this statement:

(7) “Render to all what is due them: tax to whom tax is due; custom to whom custom; fear to whom fear; honor to whom honor.”

The immediate application was how to respond to the authorities.

However, it is also apparent that Paul used that statement

As a transitional statement to catapult him into his next point.

For next Paul says, “Owe nothing to anyone except to love one another;”

Paul uses the concept of stewardship

To launch us into this section on loving your neighbor.

While he is not teaching about stewardship here,

He is using it as a reference point,

And so we need to understand the concept.

“Owe nothing to anyone”

If you have a debt, it is understood that as Christians

We will be good stewards and do everything we can

To quickly and totally repay what is owed.

Understanding that, helps us to understand what Paul says next.

“Owe nothing to anyone except to love one another;”

THAT DOES NOT MEAN that if there is someone you should love,

That you should determine not to love them

And hence always be in debt to them.

The point is that we should look at loving your neighbor

With the same focus and intensity

As though it were a debt that must immediately be paid.

We should treat our command to love others as a top priority.

We should wake up with that passion in the morning,

And immediately begin looking for ways to pay what we owe.

The reality however is that it is a debt we can never fully pay off,

And that is why we seek to pay the debt for the rest of our lives.

This was the core problem of the Rich Young Ruler’s faulty self-appraisal.

Matthew 19:17-20 “And He said to him, "Why are you asking Me about what is good? There is only One who is good; but if you wish to enter into life, keep the commandments." Then he said to Him, "Which ones?" And Jesus said, "YOU SHALL NOT COMMIT MURDER; YOU SHALL NOT COMMIT ADULTERY; YOU SHALL NOT STEAL; YOU SHALL NOT BEAR FALSE WITNESS; HONOR YOUR FATHER AND MOTHER; and YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF." The young man said to Him, "All these things I have kept; what am I still lacking?"

One of the specific commands Jesus gave was “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” To which the young man said, “All these things I have kept;”

He was wrong to assume he had done all the loving he was required to do.

The fact is none of us has done all the loving we are required to do.

There is an enormous amount of love to give,

And we should spend every day for the rest of our lives

Seeking to pay off this debt.

And so you understand the main emphasis to the text tonight.

Tonight, God is going to show you why loving your neighbor

Should be treated as your most urgent debt,

And the one you are determined to pay immediately.

Let’s look at our text and see these three reasons.

#1 LOVE IS THE SINGLE EXPECTATION OF THE LAW

Romans 13:8

This is truly a remarkable verse and one that every Christian

Ought to seek to completely wrap their minds around.

Paul says, “for he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the Law.”

Paul is giving you your motivation for loving your neighbor.

And that motivation is that through this you can fulfill the Law.

Beyond a shadow of a doubt, it is the desire of every true Christian

To be wholly pleasing to God in all things.

I realize that many times a true Christian will fall drastically short

But that doesn’t change the desire of his heart.

Even a stumbling Christian will cry out with Paul

Romans 7:15 “For what I am doing, I do not understand; for I am not practicing what I would like to do, but I am doing the very thing I hate.”

Despite our moments of weakness,

It is still the utmost desire of every Christian to live a life

That is totally pleasing to God in all respects.

2 Corinthians 5:9 “Therefore we also have as our ambition, whether at home or absent, to be pleasing to Him.”

Paul challenged the Thessalonians

1 Thessalonians 4:1 “Finally then, brethren, we request and exhort you in the Lord Jesus, that as you received from us instruction as to how you ought to walk and please God (just as you actually do walk), that you excel still more.”

And so it is also the immense desire of a Christian

To study God’s word to find out how to be more pleasing.

Paul told Timothy:

2 Timothy 2:15 “Be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, accurately handling the word of truth.”

KJV reads, “Study to show thyself approved…”

It pictures a person who reads the Bible with a fine tooth comb

Looking for areas where they fall short and seeking to correct them.

The life of a Christian sings with the Psalmist:

Psalms 119:11 “Your word I have treasured in my heart, That I may not sin against You.”

But none the less we as Christians fully understand

That there is a perfection out there that God desires

And we have made it life’s ambition to reach the mark.

This is what Paul said:

Philippians 3:12-14 “Not that I have already obtained it or have already become perfect, but I press on so that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus. Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.”

We understand that there is a divine level of righteousness

That God desires from us.

THE QUESTION IS, How can we know if we have achieved it?

How can we know if we are where God wants us to be?

The answer: “he who loves his neighbor HAS FULFILLED the Law.”

Not “will fulfill”, but “has fulfilled”.

Think about the magnitude of that statement.

“fulfilled” translates PLEROO

It means “to complete”

It is the same word John used about Mary’s perfume:

John 12:3 “Mary then took a pound of very costly perfume of pure nard, and anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped His feet with her hair; and the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume.”

When a bottle of perfume is spilled in a room, there is not a single square inch in the room that is not filled with the smell. It penetrates every crack.

It is this word that Jesus used of Himself.

Matthew 5:17-18 "Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish but to fulfill. "For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass from the Law until all is accomplished.”

Jesus came to perfectly obey the Law,

Every single dotted “I” and every single crossed “T”.

It is the word Jesus used against Sardis

Revelation 3:2 “Wake up, and strengthen the things that remain, which were about to die; for I have not found your deeds completed in the sight of My God.”

Sardis had done a lot, but they had not done enough.

There was still more to do.

A person who has fulfilled the Law

Is a person who, like Jesus, has obeyed every single command

Exactly how God desired it to be obeyed.

That is no small feat to say the least,

And yet look at what Paul says.

“for he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the Law.”

If we truly love our neighbor then we can honestly answer

That we have attained to that level of righteousness that God wants

Galatians 5:14 “For the whole Law is fulfilled in one word, in the statement, "YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF."

If you love your neighbor as yourself:

You have reached the point God was hoping you would reach.

You are at the place He was trying to get you to.

That is what Jesus heavily implied to this man:

Mark 12:29-34 “Jesus answered, "The foremost is, 'HEAR, O ISRAEL! THE LORD OUR GOD IS ONE LORD; AND YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND, AND WITH ALL YOUR STRENGTH.' "The second is this, 'YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.' There is no other commandment greater than these." The scribe said to Him, "Right, Teacher; You have truly stated that HE IS ONE, AND THERE IS NO ONE ELSE BESIDES HIM; AND TO LOVE HIM WITH ALL THE HEART AND WITH ALL THE UNDERSTANDING AND WITH ALL THE STRENGTH, AND TO LOVE ONE'S NEIGHBOR AS HIMSELF, is much more than all burnt offerings and sacrifices." When Jesus saw that he had answered intelligently, He said to him, "You are not far from the kingdom of God." After that, no one would venture to ask Him any more questions.”

Notice that Jesus said this man was really close to getting it right.

He understood the truth, now all he needed to do was apply it.

THE OBVIOUS INSINUATION THEN IS THIS:

That we ought to elevate love to the forefront of our daily routine.

We ought to look at love like it is the most important debt we have.

Do all you can do to love your neighbor

And you are inching ever closer to being what God wants you to be.

For love is the SINGLE EXPECTATION OF THE LAW.

But wait a second.

HOW CAN THAT BE?

I’ve read the Old Testament,

There are umptine gillion commands listed there.

How can you say that if I just obey that one command, then I am doing what God wants me to do?

#2 LOVE IS THE SIMPLE EXPLANATION OF THE LAW

Romans 13:9

Paul is not saying that if you just obey that one command

Then you can forget about all the others.

Paul is saying that if you will truly obey that one command

Then there is no possible way you could disobey the others.

Because all the commands in the Old Testament,

Each have a common explanation,

And that is for you to love your neighbor.

The Law is not some wide-spread pattern of unrelated commands.

Every command in the Old Testament has a common explanation.

Notice what Paul says,

“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.”

“summed up” comes from a word that means “to present as a whole”.

Paul was saying that every command in the Old Testament

Can be WHOLLY PRESENTED in this one command.

This one command is THE POINT of the Law.

That is why when they asked Jesus about the greatest commandment,

He always went further and added this one.

Matthew 22:36-40 "Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?" 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.' "This is the great and foremost commandment. "The second is like it, 'YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.' "On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets."

You see the greatest commandment inspires the Law,

And the second greatest command summarizes it.

Jesus went further, because it was not enough for people

To only focus on the first.

“Love your neighbor as yourself” is the summary of the Law.

IF YOU WILL OBEY THAT ONE COMMAND,

YOU WILL ALSO OBEY EVERY OTHER ONE.

Look at the sample list that Paul gave.

“You shall not commit adultery” – certainly you wouldn’t cheat on yourself.

“You shall not murder” – you wouldn’t murder yourself.

“You shall not steal” – you wouldn’t steal from yourself.

“You shall not covet” – you wouldn’t begrudge yourself from something.

The point is that if you will just obey that one command really really well,

Then all the others will automatically fall in line.

And really the list could go on and on.

We read laws that deal with uncleanness.

Lepers are commanded to go outside the camp.

But if a leper is walking with love for others,

You don’t have to tell him to quarantine himself,

For he would not want to infect anyone else.

The law speaks of political or social laws,

Like not intermarrying with another nation.

But if a person truly loves his neighbor,

He isn’t going to want to bring an immoral influence

Into the congregation and risk causing a brother to stumble.

You see Love is the single expectation of the Law,

Because Love is the simple explanation of the Law.

Love is HOW you obey the Law.

Matthew 7:12 "In everything, therefore, treat people the same way you want them to treat you, for this is the Law and the Prophets.”

Read a command in the law, and you will see,

That if you truly love your neighbor,

Then you are already obeying it.

Thus, loving your neighbor is all God is looking for from you.

Which leads us to our third point.

The single expectation…the simple explanation

#3 LOVE IS THE SUPREME EXPRESSION OF THE LAW

Romans 13:10

I hope you recognized that Paul uses a little different wording here.

In verse 8 he said, “he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law.”

Here he says, “love is the fulfillment of the law.”

Here is the difference.

LOVE IS NOT ONLY THE WAY WE OBEY EVERY COMMAND,

LOVE IS ALSO THE POINT OF EVERY COMMAND.

Every command in the law is in essence commanding the same thing.

It is commanding you to love your neighbor.

This is why Jesus was so hard on the Pharisees.

Matthew 23:23-24 "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cummin, and have neglected the weightier provisions of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness; but these are the things you should have done without neglecting the others. "You blind guides, who strain out a gnat and swallow a camel!”

The guys thought they were obeying the Law,

But in reality, were the greatest lawbreakers in Israel.

Remember what Jesus said:

Matthew 23:2-7 "The scribes and the Pharisees have seated themselves in the chair of Moses; therefore all that they tell you, do and observe, but do not do according to their deeds; for they say things and do not do them. "They tie up heavy burdens and lay them on men's shoulders, but they themselves are unwilling to move them with so much as a finger. "But they do all their deeds to be noticed by men; for they broaden their phylacteries and lengthen the tassels of their garments. "They love the place of honor at banquets and the chief seats in the synagogues, and respectful greetings in the market places, and being called Rabbi by men.”

Jesus said “all that they tell you, do and observe, but do not do according to their deeds.”

In other words, their explanation of the Scripture was accurate,

Their motivation was way off.

They didn’t love others, they loved themselves.

They didn’t honor others, they honored themselves.

They completely missed the point of the Law,

Even though they seemed to be the most impressive keepers of it.

AND THIS IS THE POINT.

If you aren’t loving your neighbor,

· I don’t care how many religious ordinances you are keeping, you are not obeying any of them.

· I don’t care how religious a person may appear, their religion is superficial, and desperately unpleasing to God.

· I don’t’ care how pious they appear, they are indeed light years away from achieving the standard of righteousness that God is looking for.

You cannot possibly fulfill the Law if you are not loving your neighbor,

Because “love is the fulfillment of the Law.”

1 Corinthians 13:1-3 “If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I surrender my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing.”

The first listing in the fruit of the spirit is “love”.

John actually uses love for your neighbor

As his number one fruit to determine if you are truly saved

And have been made righteous by the blood of Jesus.

1 John 2:9-11 “The one who says he is in the Light and yet hates his brother is in the darkness until now. The one who loves his brother abides in the Light and there is no cause for stumbling in him. But the one who hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in the darkness, and does not know where he is going because the darkness has blinded his eyes.”

1 John 3:16-19 “We know love by this, that He laid down His life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. But whoever has the world's goods, and sees his brother in need and closes his heart against him, how does the love of God abide in him? Little children, let us not love with word or with tongue, but in deed and truth. We will know by this that we are of the truth, and will assure our heart before Him”

1 John 4:7-8 “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love.”

1 John 4:11-12 “Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has seen God at any time; if we love one another, God abides in us, and His love is perfected in us.”

1 John 4:16 “We have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.”

1 John 4:20-21 “If someone says, "I love God," and hates his brother, he is a liar; for the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from Him, that the one who loves God should love his brother also.”

1 John 5:1 “Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and whoever loves the Father loves the child born of Him.”

WHAT DO YOU THINK JOHN’S POINT WAS?

It was the same as Paul’s here.

We are not only commanded to love,

But if you don’t love, you cannot possible keep any of the other commandments the way that God intends for you to keep them.

Love is the SINGLE EXPECTATION of the Law.

This is the level God is trying to get you to.

Love is the SIMPLE EXPLANATION of the Law.

It is the summary of every command.

Love is the SUPREME EXPRESSION of the Law.

No better way can you prove to be a keeper of the Law, than to love your neighbor.

And now we know why Paul began by saying,

“Owe nothing to anyone except to love one another;”

As believers we are called to have tunnel vision,

And love each other we everything we have.

We are to wake up each day with this one command

On the front of our brains.

This is the debt we owe…

This is the summary of the law…

This is what God is looking for…

Love your neighbor as yourself.

Luke 10:25-37 “And a lawyer stood up and put Him to the test, saying, "Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?" And He said to him, "What is written in the Law? How does it read to you?" And he answered, "YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR STRENGTH, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND; AND YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF." And He said to him, "You have answered correctly; DO THIS AND YOU WILL LIVE." But wishing to justify himself, he said to Jesus, "And who is my neighbor?" Jesus replied and said, "A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among robbers, and they stripped him and beat him, and went away leaving him half dead. "And by chance a priest was going down on that road, and when he saw him, he 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 a Samaritan, who was on a journey, came upon him; and when he saw him, he felt compassion, and came to him and bandaged up his wounds, pouring oil and wine on them; and he put him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn and took care of him. "On the next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper and said, 'Take care of him; and whatever more you spend, when I return I will repay you.' "Which of these three do you think proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell into the robbers' hands?" And he said, "The one who showed mercy toward him." Then Jesus said to him, "Go and do the same."