Lord, I swear there's no pain I know there's no danger In that bright world to which I go Welcome to this podcast from Faith Bible Church in Reno, Nevada. Faith Bible Church is a Christ-centered, Bible-teaching ministry dedicated to bringing the Good News of the Gospel to the whole world. Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God. And now, for this week's message from Pastor Alan Battle. Romans 13, 8 through 10, owe 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 all summed up in the word, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. Love does no wrong to a neighbor, therefore love is the fulfilling of the law. This is the word of God. So we're continuing with our look at the letter of Paul to the Christians at Rome this morning. A few weeks ago, we made the transition from the doctrinal first part of the book that defines the gospel, and now we're looking into the practical Christian living section of the book that began in Romans chapter 12. It began with this admonition. I appeal to you, therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. So how do we live every moment as a sacrifice to God? How do we worship God with our whole life and prove what is good through our actions in this world? Our last two sermons dealt with how we do this in the realm of our relationship to the state. We saw that every human ruler that has ever existed was actually placed there by God for his own purposes and that we are obligated to submit to those authorities as long as they don't prohibit us from doing things that God commands or command us to do things that God prohibits. We saw that we owe taxes to the government and that we also owe honor and respect to the governors. Now in verse 8, the focus is shifting to how we live out our relationships between one another, other people. So today we're going to see that although we're no longer under the Old Testament law, we are under a new law, the law of love. We've already seen in Romans 6.14 that we are not under the law, but we're under grace. And Romans 10.4 says that Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes. And the Old Testament was made up of hundreds of commandments or laws. So, are Christians no longer obligated to obey those laws? Well, it's complicated. We're no longer under the penalty of law, but God's law is still there to guide us in our daily lives. In John 13, 31, Jesus says to his disciples, a new command I give to you, love one another. As I have loved you, you must love one another. This is the law of love. So let's go to our text for today. Paul just ended his discussion of government in verse seven and makes his transition to this new topic in a clever way. He just said, pay what is owed in taxes and respect. And then he says in verse eight of Romans chapter 13, owe no one anything. So, pay everyone the debts you owe, and as a matter of fact, don't get into any debt at all. Is that what he's teaching here? Some Christians do believe that. They believe that we should never have any debt. They say that we should never have a credit card, that we shouldn't buy our cars on payments, and some go to the extreme of advocating buying houses with cash. Who can do that? Well, is that what this verse is teaching? I mean, that's what it clearly implies, right? Oh, no, one, anything. Well, no, that's not what this verse is teaching. And we're going to continue with the next phrase in this verse in a minute, and you'll see that. But before we go on, I want to talk a little bit about debt. Whenever we're trying to figure out what scripture is saying, we have to take it in its context. And we can't just pull a phrase or a sentence out and make a doctrine out of it. And not only do we have to put it in its immediate context, we have to put it in the context of the whole Bible and see what the Bible says about the whole topic. So scriptural statements like God is love or judge not have been cherry picked and used to justify some very unbiblical ideas. And that's what some have done with this verse. So does the Bible prohibit us from incurring debt? Actually, no. What's it say in the law? Exodus 22, 25. If you lend money to any of my people with you who is poor, you shall not be like a money lender to him, and you shall not exact interest from him. So it says, if you do lend to the poor, don't charge them interest. You know, we have a whole industry in the United States that violates this law every day. The payday loan shops. Who are they loaning to? Mostly to people with little income. People we would call the poor. And they charge outrageously high interest. But this verse doesn't say that you can't charge interest at all. It just says, don't charge it to the poor. And if it's okay to lend, then it has to be okay to borrow. And there's rules for that, too. Look at Psalm 37, 21. The wicked borrows, but does not pay back. But the righteous is generous and gives. So if you do borrow, you have to pay it back. And in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus tells us not to turn away someone if they want to borrow from you. So borrowing is okay at times. But none of this gives us a license to borrow foolishly. A wise person stores up wealth, if he can, for his old age, for his children, for giving it away. The misuse of credit has ruined many a life. In his financial peace course, Dave Ramsey advocates completely getting rid of all credit cards. While that seems drastic, a lot of people need to take that drastic action to free themselves from the destructive addiction to credit that they have. So if the first part of the verse is not a command to stay out of debt, then what does it mean? As I mentioned, Paul is making a clever transition here. Romans 13. Owe no one anything except to love one another. He's playing with the word owe here. He's saying that there is another kind of debt that we all owe, the debt of love. And this is a debt that can never be fully discharged. There will never be a time when we don't owe love to our brothers and sisters. And the Greek grammar here makes that very clear. It could be translated, owe no one anything except to be loving one another. It's an ongoing action. And the new international version captures this meaning well. It says, let no debt remain outstanding except the continuing debt to love one another. And then look at the last part of this verse. For the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. How does love fulfill the law if Christ is the end of the law? Well, in one sense, the law is still in effect. Look at Matthew chapter 22 where Jesus is confronted. They say, teacher, which is the great command in the law? And he said to them, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the law and the prophets. So I ask you, are these laws still in effect? Are we no longer obligated to love God and our neighbor? Of course we are. Being a living sacrifice is synonymous with loving God with all of our heart, soul, and mind. And Paul begins this very passage by commanding believers to love one another. And this is a constant concern in the New Testament, beginning with Jesus. He said that the world would know that we're his disciples if we have love for one another. So love is at the core of our mission to reach the world. And by loving our brothers, we're loving Jesus. He said that if we do a loving act for the least of these his brethren, then we're doing it for him. And the book of 1 John is full of this theme of loving our brothers. 1 John 3.23. And this is his commandment that we believe in the name of his son Jesus Christ and love one another just as he has commanded us. He commanded it. It's a law. And those who do not obey this command are not his children. 1 John 4, 7 and 8. Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. So what does this mean practically for us? Well, one way that we can love is to supply one another's needs. 1 John 3, 17. But if anyone has the world's goods and sees a brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God's love abide in him? It doesn't. Forgiveness is another way that we can love one another. In his discussion of love in the letter to the Colossians, Paul says this, bearing with one another, and if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other. And as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. We must forgive, it says. Jesus said that God won't forgive us if we don't forgive our brothers. Now this doesn't have anything to do with our salvation. It has to do with our daily walk with God. 1 John was written to Christians, to people who have already accepted the irrevocable free gift of eternal life. Yet the Apostle begins his letter with, if we confess our sin he is faithful and just to forgive us our sin and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. The sin he's talking about here is the contamination that we get from being in the world. from being in the flesh and from the constant temptation we have from Satan. We deal with that every day and we need to confess and be forgiven every day. And if we hold unforgiveness in our hearts, that prevents that daily cleansing. Unforgiveness keeps us from walking in the light as he is in the light. And it keeps us from having fellowship with him and one another. And our love for one another is not a weak, sappy, comfortable, Hallmark movie kind of love. It's the kind of love that stretches to the limit, even to the point of death. Again in 1 John 3.16, But by this we know, love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. Jesus said that there is no greater love than the one that lays down its life for a friend. And that's what He did for us when He died on the cross, to pay the price for our sins. So any sacrifice that we make for one another can't come close to what He did. Even the sacrifice of our life. He experienced the pain of separation from God and the pain of hell for us. But when we die, we will immediately be transported into the presence of the Lord and our troubles will be over. And then, in the end, loving the brethren is really the best thing we can do for ourselves. When we're loving the brethren, it keeps us on the right path, and it protects us from falling into the ditch of sin. Look at 1 John 2.10. Whoever loves his brother abides in the light, and in him there is no cause for stumbling. But whoever 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." You might say, well, I don't hate anybody. But if you believe that, you don't understand the biblical definition of hate. Hate can simply be indifference, not caring. Love is caring for others. But is this love only for other Christians? Look at verse 8 again. Oh no one anything except to love each other for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. The first part of the verse says to love each other. That's each other Christians. But the last part just says another. This is the neighbor of love your neighbor. It can be anybody, anybody that God brings into your life. By showing the unbeliever kindness, acceptance, mercy, and generosity, we're giving them a peek into God's character. But that love can't stop there. We also have to be ready, always ready to be able to give them an answer for the hope that is in us so that they too can believe the gospel and come into the kingdom with us. Now Paul shifts from the positive aspects of love to the negative. By that I mean things we do not do when we love people. So Romans 13 9 says, 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. So now Paul reaches back into the Old Testament law for his commandments. The Ten Commandments are a summary of the whole law, and they can be divided up into two categories. The first four commandments pertain to our relationship with God. No gods before him, no graven images, don't take his name in vain, and keep the Sabbath. The rest of the ten, the other six, deal with our relationship to our fellow man. And then all the laws of the Torah, the first five books of the Bible, can fit into those two categories. And Jesus boils them down into only two commandments that we just read. Love the Lord your God, and the second, love your neighbor as yourself. Jesus tells us that all the Law and Prophets hang on these two commandments. The Law and the Prophets is just a way the Jews used to say the Old Testament, what we call the Old Testament. To them, the Bible. So the Old Testament is summed up in those two categories. Now Paul is only dealing with the second category here, our responsibility to our fellow man. And he lists four of the six commandments. Don't commit adultery, don't murder, don't steal, don't covet. But that's only a representative list. He completes it with Jesus' second greatest commandment, love your neighbor as yourself. Now go on to the next verse, Romans 13.10, Love does no wrong to a neighbor. Therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law. The word fulfill is used many times in the New Testament when speaking of the fulfillment of prophecy. The overwhelming majority of the 86-some times this word is used, it's used in this sense. When prophecy happens as foretold in the Old Testament, it has been fulfilled, it's been completed. And I believe that when you and I are loving one another, we are literally fulfilling the prophecy of the Old Testament. Jesus told the two disciples on the road to Emmaus that his coming was the fulfillment of all the prophets had written. Now listen to what Jesus said in Matthew 5.17. Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets. I have not come to abolish them, but to fulfill them. The first coming of Jesus literally completed the old covenant. And the church is a part of that fulfillment. The formation of the church is just as much a part of his first coming as was his life and death and resurrection. It was the whole point of his coming, to redeem and purify a people for himself, to be set apart for God. So the Old Testament has been completed, but the law of love will never be completed. As we saw back in verse 8, we are to continually love each other. This is the obligation that Jesus gave to us when he said, a new commandment I give to you, that you love one another. And this commandment isn't just for time, it's also for eternity. Do you remember Paul's discussion of love in 1 Corinthians 13? In there he says, love will never end. It goes on into eternity, into heaven. And the second greatest commandment then will never go away. We are still and always be under that law. James says we're under that law in James 2.8. If you really fulfill the royal law according to the scripture, you shall love your neighbor as yourself, you're doing well. Then he goes on to say that we'll be judged according to that law. So speak and so act as those who are to be judged under the law of liberty. For judgment is without mercy to the one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment. And then he says if we're not obeying the law of love that we're not even saved. He says that faith without works is dead. Is that scary? Does that sound like James has just thrown grace out the window? No, that's not what he's teaching. We know that nothing we can do, no amount of works that we could ever do could save us. It's totally the work of Christ on the cross and our faith in him that gives us eternal life. But when anyone does place their faith in Christ, they become a new creation and have new desires. Their own sinful flesh is no longer in control, no longer rules over them. Jesus is now their Lord. And if the general trend of someone's life who professes Christ doesn't reflect that, then Jesus really isn't their Lord. And tragically, those people will one day hear They'll hear this question from Jesus. Why do you call me Lord, Lord, and do not do what I tell you? Another place he says, not everyone who says to me Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my father who is in heaven. And finally, Jesus says, and then I will declare to them I never knew you. Depart from me, you workers of lawlessness. I pray that no one here or anyone listening on the podcast will ever hear those words. So now the question is, what are the rules of this law of love? Are we still obligated to obey the laws of the Old Testament? It's clear that Jesus is going to hold lawbreakers accountable. And Paul is holding us accountable to four of the 10 commandments in this passage. So what laws are we to follow? Are we like the Jews still prohibited from eating shellfish and pork? Or should we be worshiping on the Sabbath instead of the first day of the week? What laws are we to follow? What's the difference? Well, the difference is in the covenant. You and I are not under the old covenant, we're under the new covenant. That agreement was made with the Jewish people. Gentiles were never a party to the old covenant. All the dietary requirements, the specifics of certain rituals for worship, observance of holidays and Sabbath keeping were for the Jews. It was their contract with God. So think of it this way, if you make a contract with your neighbor on the right side of your house, does that require your neighbor on the left side of the house to adhere to that contract? No. You only made the contract with one person. God didn't make the old covenant with us. Christians have their own contract with God. And it has a lot of the same stipulations as the old covenant, but not all of them. The new covenant is the New Testament. And in it, we find all of the particulars of the law of love. You and I signed that contract when we put our faith in Jesus Christ. So you might be sitting there and thinking, this is impossible. I can never live up to this. And I would agree with you, except for one amazing fact. You, child of God, have the spirit of God in you to help you fulfill the law of love. Paul already revealed the secret back in chapter five of Romans. Romans 5.5 says, God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. And in 1 John, he says the same thing. After all those heavy requirements that he lays on us to love our brothers, he says this, we love because he first loved us. That's our motivation, and that's our power. Look at Philippians 2, verse 12. Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only in my presence, but much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure. God's the one that's doing it in us. He gives us both the want to and the how to. But in order to fulfill this law of love, we have to choose to obey Him and work out our salvation. Even a small step in that direction, even a mustard seed size faith is gonna provide us with all the resources we need to accomplish His will. Is this kind of radical love scary to you? It'll remain that way until you choose to step out in faith and obey the law of love. Let's pray. Lord, we thank you that you are love and that you've brought us into that circle, the circle of your love, into the circle of the Trinity. And Lord, that we can learn love from you and that we can be empowered by the love that you pour out into us through your Spirit. So Father, I pray that you would just prompt us in many small ways to love one another, to love one another here as a church, and to reach out to those around us with your love. Thank you for what you've brought to us in your word, and we ask that you would use it to your glory. In Jesus' name. Thank you for listening to the preaching of God's Word from Faith Bible Church in Reno, Nevada. We hope that it has been an encouragement to you and that the Word of God will fill your hearts and minds as you walk through this world. 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