Romans 13.9-Paul Cites Four Of The Ten Commandments To Support His Teaching That Loving One's Fellow Human Being Fulfills The Law
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Tuesday January 26, 2010
Romans: Romans 13:9-Paul Cites Four Of The Ten Commandments To Support His Teaching That Loving One’s Fellow Human Being Fulfills The Law
Lesson # 447
Please turn in your Bibles to Romans 13:8.
This evening we will study Romans 13:9 in which Paul cites four of the Ten Commandments to support his teaching in verse 8 that loving one’s fellow human being fulfills the requirement of the Mosaic Law.
Romans 13:8, “Owe nothing to anyone except to love one another; for he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law.”
Romans 13:9, “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.’”
Paul’s statement in Romans 13:9 contains four quotations that are from the Ten Commandments that serve to advance upon and intensify his statement at the end of verse 8 that loving one’s neighbor fulfills the Mosaic Law.
These four commandments are prohibitions that advance and intensify Paul’s argument from verse 8 that loving one’s neighbor fulfills the Law in that obedience to these prohibitions is a manifestation of loving one’s neighbor.
“This” is the nominative neuter singular form of the definite article ho (o() (hoe), which serves as quotation marks for the series of quotations from the Ten Commandments and should be translated “this group of prohibitions” since the article is in fact pointing out these four prohibitions.
The first four of the Ten Commandments are related to one’s relationship with God and are not in view here in Romans 13:9 since Paul is addressing the believer’s conduct in relation to their fellow human beings, whether saved or unsaved (1st Exodus 20:3; 2nd Exodus 20:4-6; 3rd Exodus 20:7; 4th Exodus 20:8-11).
Neither is the fifth commandment since it speaks of one’s conduct in relation to one’s parents (Exodus 20:12).
The last five commandments address one’s conduct in relation to one’s fellow human being (6th Exodus 20:13; 7th Exodus 20:14; 8th Exodus 20:15; 9th Exodus 20:16; 10th Exodus 20:17).
In Romans 13:9, Paul follows the Septuagint citing the seventh, sixth, eighth and tenth commandments in this order to support his teaching in Romans 13:8 that loving one’s fellow human being fulfills the requirement of the Mosaic Law since loving one’s neighbor sums up the teaching of the Law.
He is citing some typical requirements of the law to demonstrate that loving one’s fellow human being fulfills the requirements of the Law.
“YOU SHALL NOT COMMIT ADULTERY” is a quotation from Exodus 20:14 and Deuteronomy 5:18 and literally means “you must never commit adultery.”
“YOU SHALL NOT MURDER” is is a quotation from Exodus 20:13 and Deuteronomy 5:17 and literally means “you must never commit murder.”
“YOU SHALL NOT STEAL” is” is a quotation from Exodus 20:15 and literally means “you must never steal.”
“YOU SHALL NOT COVET” is a quotation from Exodus 20:17 and Deuteronomy 5:21 and literally means “you must never covet.”
Romans 13:9, “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.’”
“And if there is any other commandment” is connected to the previous four commandments and refers to the command “you shall not give false testimony against your neighbor” (Exodus 20:16).
This statement is the protasis of a first class condition that indicates the assumption of truth for the sake of argument.
As we noted many times in our study of the book of Romans, the idea behind the first class condition is not “since” but rather, “if-and let us assume that it is true for the sake of argument that, then...”
This would encourage Paul’s audience to respond and come to the conclusion of the apodosis since they already agreed with him on the protasis.
Therefore, Paul is employing the first class condition as a tool of persuasion with his audience.
Here the protasis is “if and let assume that it is true for the sake argument that there is any other commandment” and the response to Paul’s protasis by his Christian readership would be obvious that of course we know there is another commandment he omitted.
The apodasis is omitted since it is not needed because the first class condition was simply used to make mention of an additional commandment that was not included in the previous list of commandments.
Romans 13:9, “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.’”
“It is summed up” is the third person singular present passive indicative form of the verb anakephalaioo (a)nakefalaiovw) (ana-kaf-eye-lo), which means “to summarize” and is used of the individual prohibitions in the Ten Commandments that appear in Exodus 20 of the Mosaic Law.
Paul is saying with this verb anakephalaioo that the last five commandments in Exodus 20:13-17, which address one’s conduct in relation to one’s fellow human being, can be “summarized” by the command to love one’s neighbor.
Loving one’s neighbor “summarizes” these five commandments in the sense that obeying these five commandments is a manifestation of loving one’s neighbor.
“In this saying” indicates that these four commandments mentioned in Romans 13:9 and the one he didn’t mentioned that are related to the believer’s conduct in relation to their fellow human being are summarized by the command found in Leviticus 19:18 to love your neighbor as yourself.
The command “YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF” is a quotation from Leviticus 19:18.
“YOU SHALL LOVE” is the second person singular future active indicative mood of the verb agapao (a)gapavw) (ag-a-pah-o), which is used with the Roman believers as its subject and the entire human race as its object and 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 your neighbor as yourself.
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.
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.
The verb agapao refers to the act of honoring and respecting your fellow human being to the point of self-sacrifice.
This act is the proper, appropriate, obedient and obligatory response by the believer to his fellow human being since both he and his fellow human being were created by God, according to His image and Christ died for the entire human race on the Cross.
We cannot love our neighbor as we do ourselves until we first learn to love ourselves.
We cannot love ourselves until we first love God because it is only when we love God that we learn how much He loves us.
When we comprehend how much He loves us and accept it by faith this will give us the capacity to fulfill the command to love our neighbor as ourselves.
The believer who comprehends and acknowledges and accepts by faith that he is the object of God’s love will receive the capacity to love others, even the obnoxious.
“YOUR NEIGHBOR” refers to any person that the Roman Christians might come into contact with during the course of their lives.
“AS YOURSELF” indicates that Paul’s Christian readers in Rome are to love their neighbor as they would their own selves.
To love your neighbor as yourself is not a call for selfishness or self love but rather it means to treat people in the same way that you would want them to treat you, which the Lord Jesus Christ taught in Matthew 7:12 and Luke 6:31.
Luke 6:31, “Treat others in the same way that you would want them to treat you.” (NET 1)