Romans 13.8b-Paul Commands Roman Believers To Fulfill Their Moral, Spiritual Obligation To Love One Another Because It Fulfills The Law
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Sunday January 24, 2010
Romans: Romans 13:8b-Paul Commands Roman Believers To Fulfill Their Moral, Spiritual Obligation To Divinely Love Their Fellow Human Being Because It Fulfills The Law
Lesson # 446
Please turn in your Bibles to Romans 13:8.
Thursday evening we began a study of Romans 13:8 by noting that Paul commands the Roman Christians to owe nothing to anyone meaning that they are to fulfill their financial obligations to everyone.
This morning we will complete the verse by noting that on the heels of this prohibition he commands them to fulfill their moral and spiritual obligation to love one another since this is the fulfillment of the Law.
Romans 13:8, “Owe nothing to anyone except to love one another; for he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law.”
“Owe” is the second person plural present active imperative form of the verb opheilo (o)feivlw) (o-fay-lo).
This word is used in a prohibition with regards to the fulfillment of a financial obligation and in a command with regards to the fulfillment of a spiritual or moral obligation to love one’s fellow human being regardless if they are a believer or not (Matthew 22:34-40; Mark 12:28-34; Luke 10:25-28; John 13:34-35).
The present imperative form of the verb opheilo is a “customary present imperative” whose force is for Paul’s Christian readers in Rome to simply continue fulfilling their financial obligations to everyone and their moral and spiritual obligation to love one another.
The customary present imperative and Paul’s statement in Romans 15:15 indicate that he is simply reminding them here to continue doing so.
“Except” is composed of the conditional particle ei (ei)) (aye) and the negative particle me (mhv) (may), which coalesce into one particle and take the same verb in the preceding negation which is opheilo.
Together, these two words present an exception to the preceding prohibition medeni meden opheilete, “All of you continue making it your habit to owe absolutely nothing to anyone.”
They indicate that the Roman believers are to owe absolutely nothing to anyone “with the exception” of fulfilling their obligation to love one another.
Barrett commenting on this expression writes, “Paul means that the only debt Christians ought to incur is that which they are bound to incur and can never completely discharge-the debt of mutual love.” (Barrett C.K., Black’s New Testament Commentary, The Epistle to the Romans, Revised Edition, page 229; Hendrickson Publishers, 1991, 1962, 1971)
Mounce writes, “The Christian is to allow no debt to remain outstanding except the one that can never be paid off-‘the debt to love one another.’ The obligation to love has no limit.” (Mounce, Robert, The New American Commentary, volume 27, Romans, page 225; Broadman and Holman Publishers, 1995)
“To love” is composed of the accusative neuter singular form of the definite article ho (o() (ho) and the present active infinitive form of the verb agapao (a)gapavw) (ag-a-pah-o), “to love.”
The verb agapao is used with the Roman believers as its subject and the entire human race as its object.
The word means “to divinely love” since Paul is commanding the Roman believers to reflect the love of God towards the human race.
This can only take place in the life of the believer when they exercise faith in the Spirit’s revelation in the Word of God that they are the object and beneficiary of God’s love before and after they were justified through faith in Christ.
This faith demonstrates itself in obedience to the command to love one another.
The verb agapao does not refer to the function of human love but the exercise of divine-love since Paul wants his readers to reflect God’s love for them in their relationships with each other and in their relationships with the unsaved.
He wants his readers to respond to God’s love for them as manifested in the merciful acts of God on their behalf.
Divine love exercised by Christians is distinguished from the exercise of human love in that the former is a response to God’s love for the Christian and expression of faith in God, which manifests itself in obedience to God whereas the latter is based upon the attractiveness of the object.
Therefore, the emphasis with this word is upon the function of the Roman believers’ divine-love as it functions towards each other and the entire human race.
“One another” is the accusative masculine plural form of the reciprocal pronoun allelon (a)llhvlwn) (a-lay-loan), which is used with reference to the Roman believers’ relationship to not only with each other but also with the unsaved.
Although this word in Paul’s writings always denotes fellow Christians when preceded by a command, here in Romans 13:8 the word refers to not only the Roman believers but the non-believers in their periphery.
This indicated by the fact that in the preceding prohibition Paul uses the dative masculine singular form of the cardinal number medeis, “to anyone,” which refers to the entire human race.
Also, in the following causal clause he uses the articular form of the adjective heteros, “neighbor,” which refers to a member of the human race without reference to whether the person is a believer or not.
Therefore, allelon denotes that there is to be a mutual exchange between the Roman believers and the entire human race in that they are to divinely love not only their fellow believer but also the unbeliever.
Reciprocation is an essential aspect of divine-love since it encompasses both the vertical aspect (directed towards God) and horizontal aspect (directed towards other believers and unbelievers) of divine-love.
Vertical: Mark 12:30, “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.”
Horizontal: Mark 12:31, “The second is this, ‘YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”
Romans 13:8, “Owe nothing to anyone except to love one another; for he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law.”
“For he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law” presents the reason why Paul wants the Roman believers to continue to make it their habit of divinely loving both their fellow believer and the unbeliever in their lives.
They are to continue making it their habit of doing this because the exercise of God’s love towards one’s fellow human being is the fulfillment of the law.
“He who loves” is the articular nominative masculine singular present active participle form of the verb agapao (a)gapavw) (ag-a-pah-o), which is used with the believer as its subject and the entire human race as its object.
The word once again means “to divinely love” since Paul is commanding the Roman believers to reflect the love of God in their lives towards the human race.
The present tense is a “gnomic present,” which is used to describe something that is true “any” time and “does” take place indicating that the believer who “any time does” divinely love his fellow human being has fulfilled the righteous requirement of the law.
“His neighbor” is the articular accusative masculine singular form of the adjective heteros (e^tero$) (het-er-os), which is used as a substantive as indicated by the articular construction and refers to a member of the human race without reference to whether they are a believer or not.
It refers to anyone the believer comes into contact with regardless of their race, social status, gender or whether they are a believer or not.
“Has fulfilled” is the third person singular perfect active indicative form of the verb pleroo (plhrovw) (play-ro-o).
This verb means, “to fulfill” the Mosaic Law by obeying the command to love one’s fellow human being with the love of God and which command sums up the believer’s responsibility towards his fellow human being as prescribed in the Mosaic Law.
The perfect tense of the verb is an intensive perfect used to emphasize the results of present state produced by a past action.
The present state is the believer fulfilling the Mosaic Law and the past action is the believer obeying the command to divinely love his fellow human being and which command sums up the believer’s responsibility towards his fellow human being as prescribed in the Mosaic Law.
“The law” is the accusative masculine singular form of the noun nomos (novmo$) (no-moce), which refers to the Mosaic Law as indicated by the fact that in Romans 13:9 Paul quotes from the Mosaic Law, specifically from Exodus 20:13-15, 17, Deuteronomy 5:17-19, 21 and Leviticus 19:18.
So to summarize, in Romans 13:8, Paul issues a prohibition and a command.
The former is related to the believer’s financial obligations and the latter is related to his moral or spiritual obligation to his fellow human being, both believer and unbeliever.
The former should always be met whereas the latter is a debt that can never be fulfilled since it is the royal family of God’s honor code and is the Christian way of life.