The Law of Love

Introduction

As we continue today in our September sermon series “The Timeless love of God”

A quick reminder what we’ve disucssed thus far:

God is Love; in eternal relationship within God’s self; this self-offering of God (Father, Son, Holy Spirit) is freely offered to creation…when God elects…to love what He created…this is made manifest in electing Israel…and in Jesus Christ…all who believe in him…to be his people…to show who God is to others...

So…God is love…and that love is authentic; We as Christians are called to respond to God’s genuine love by freely choosing to love God back and…live our lives by God’s rules…not our own. Not becuase we have to be good in order to be saved…but that we are saved so that we can choose the good…out of our love of God.

Today we are going to look at two verses in Romans 13, that describe for Christians that our lives are lived as a grateful response to God’s freely given…by God electing to love us…we choose to live our lives in love.

Owing a Debt

Romans 13:8–10 ESV

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 summed up in this word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.

Owe no one anything…except to love each other...

None likes to be in debt.

The Bible says in Proverbs 22:7

“The rich rules over the poor, and the borrower is the slave of the lender.”

Being in debt is bad…it is burdomsome…it’s also inevitable without being disciplined in one’s finances…and even then it’s a struggle....because we live in a society that is based on debt…a debt based economy...

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But when Paul writes “owe no one anything…except to love each other” he is not talking about financial transactions or finanical debt. This stament is tied to v.7 Romans 13:7

Romans 13:7 ESV

Pay to all what is owed to them: taxes to whom taxes are owed, revenue to whom revenue is owed, respect to whom respect is owed, honor to whom honor is owed.

Here in chapter 13…he’s been encouraging the Christians in Rome to live well in a civil society…pay taxes…give honor to leaders that God has put in place...

Paul is talking about pay what is owed to earthly authorities...

So when he say owe no one anything…except to love each other…he’s turned his attention now to the Christian…the church. As Christians...we don’t owe…a debt in a burdosome way…we owe a debt to God…for brining us to new life in Christ…through God’s uncondtional love toward us...

Therefore we owe…love.

Love here is an action…a grateful response to God’s love for us...

Fulfill the Law

When we read the new testament…we see how in the early church…there was a struggle with living by the law of Moses…

the covenenat of the Ten Commandments

live by OT dieatry laws

Observe and celebrate Jewish feast days

In fact there is a growing number of Christians today…who choose to live by and observe OT Jewish traditions…and there’s nothing wrong with that…as long as one is aware that salvation is not due to our observance…but of Christ’s perfect obedience in fulfilling the law on our behalf...

But Paul…who wrote 13-14 of the 27 books of the New Testament (including book of Romans)…brings up again and again that the gospel of Jesus Christ is for Jews and Gentiles (non-Jews). And for gentiles to become Christians…they didn’t need to follow the law of Moses…but they need to live in ways that fulfilled that law.

What am I talking about here?

This short passage today sums up how you and I fulfill the law of God as Christians. First and foremost as Jesus himself said He did not come to abolish the law of Moses but to fulfill it. And he did. He satisfied all the requirements of the law…so that through faith in Him…you and I might be made righteous…and we are!

Words of Love

A few months ago or last year…Megan and Joe led a great Sunday morning small group about the Ten Commandments. They used a book titled Words of Love…by Eugena Gamble. The author spoke of the ten commandments at the ten words…she described her approach this way:

“Divine Love holds the Ten Words together as one great vision of human and divine life intersecting. Nothing about the Ten Words will be ultimately transformative until we understand that it begins with love, ends with love, and is framed with love. Everything else distorts” (p. 13).

Everything else distorts. When Paul says owe no other Christian anything but love…he is saying that love is the binding essense of the law of God…that love is owed from Christian to Christian…becasue God loves us all.

Rome had a good population of Jewish Christian who had been kicked out of Rome under Claudius…and allowed to return by Nero. When the Jewish Christian returned…they found the church was majority gentile…not Jewish Christian.

So Paul was writing like he does about how... for love that Christ came. It is for love Christ died…it is love that sets us free…and it is love that is the summation of th entire law!

Owing Love

If you open up your scrolls you will read the summation of the entire law of God…Love God with all your heart mind soul and strength…and love your neighbor as yourself.

Romans 13:10 ESV

Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.

Are you and I in debt? No financially…but spiritually?

Yes…we owe love. But this is not a burdomsome debt that hangs over us…and weighs us down. This a debt that God himself paid in full...

When we love God back…when we treat our neighbors with concern and love…we are fulfilling God’s law in our lives…and that is a debt worth passing along!

Thanks be to God for leading us with the law of love! AMEN