What the World Needs Now - Romans 13:8-14

© September 22nd, 2024 by Rev. Rick Goettsche SERIES: Romans

There is a famous song written by Hal David and Burt Bacharach that declares that “What the world needs now is love, sweet love. It’s the only thing that there’s just too little of.” Today we are going to look at the somewhat uncommon event of the Bible agreeing with the voices of the music industry—at least on the surface.

Like Mr. David and Mr. Bacharach, the Apostle Paul tells us that what our world needs right now, more than anything else, is love. But I believe what Paul envisions is somewhat different than the musicians. While the musicians would declare that love means giving everyone what they want, Paul holds forth a higher standard—one not motivated by mere sentimentality or sappy lyrics, but by the love we have experienced through Jesus Christ.

As we conclude Romans 13 today, we’ll look at what Paul says is needed from Christians with regards to love, and how that will affect the way we live. Our world needs love, but we need genuine, biblical love. Nothing else will suffice.

No Debts Outstanding

Paul begins by talking about why we are to love and what this kind of love looks like.

8 Owe nothing to anyone—except for your obligation to love one another. If you love your neighbor, you will fulfill the requirements of God’s law. 9 For the commandments say, “You must not commit adultery. You must not murder. You must not steal. You must not covet.” These—and other such commandments—are summed up in this one commandment: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” 10 Love does no wrong to others, so love fulfills the requirements of God’s law. (Romans 13:8-10, NLT)

Paul begins this section with a command that might take us a bit off-guard. He says that we are to “owe nothing to anyone…” Some read these words and conclude that Paul is saying Christians should not incur debt. While scripture repeatedly tells us that incurring debt carries with it significant consequences, and we are often better served to go without than to live beyond our means by going into debt, I don’t believe Paul is really intending to talk about financial debt per se in this verse. Rather, this command serves as a connection between v. 7 and Paul’s command to love in v. 8.

Remember what we saw in the instruction to obey the governing authorities last week.

7 Give to everyone what you owe them: Pay your taxes and government fees to those who collect them, and give respect and honor to those who are in authority. (Romans 13:7, NLT)

Paul was really not speaking about the dangers of borrowing money, but about the importance of Christian character. He said that as Christians, we should do what is right, even if it is inconvenient, even if the world says we are justified in doing otherwise, and even if we would rather behave to the contrary. This means we should pay taxes, we should show respect to those in positions of authority, and we should pay any debts we owe. We should not look for loopholes to avoid giving people what they are owed; we should be people who do what is right no matter what.

Paul uses this command to serve as a bridge to the even deeper command which guides all these things. He tells us the only debt that should persist in our lives is the debt to love our neighbors. How do we have a debt to love our neighbors? We are not in debt to our neighbors. It isn’t that we are to love them because they have loved us first, but rather that we have a debt of love to God. Because of His great love for us, we owe Him love for those around us.

Our goal should not be to try to repay God’s love by our actions, or to try to somehow merit the love we have already received (because that’s impossible), but to honor Him by loving those around us the way He has loved us.

Paul tells us that when we love our neighbor, we fulfill the law. He then quotes from the ten commandments, specifically pointing to the prohibitions against murder, adultery, stealing, and covetousness, and says that when we love, we are fulfilling the law.

Paul’s statement echoes what Jesus taught. Listen to Jesus’ response to a religious leader who asked about the greatest commandment.

36 “Teacher, which is the most important commandment in the law of Moses?” 37 Jesus replied, “ ‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments.” (Matthew 22:36-40, NLT)

What did He mean by that? He meant that if we love people the way God loves us, then keeping the commandments will be a natural consequence. If we are concerned with the well-being of another person, then we will not steal from them, we will not behave in ways that harm their marriages, we will not harm them, nor will we lust for the things that belong to them. If we genuinely love the people around us, we will naturally keep the commandments.

Notice how Jesus worded His command though: love your neighbor as yourself. This is a familiar phrase, and it is sometimes known as the golden rule. But we tend to change its meaning. Most today function under the principle that we should treat people the way they treat us. Nowhere does Jesus tell us that the way we treat others is to be dependent upon how they treat us. Instead, Jesus’ command is to consider how we would want to be treated if the tables were turned, and then to treat others that way.

This means we should be kind and gentle to the person who is short and harsh with us. We should extend grace to the person who messes up. We should step in to help a person in need, even when we are under no obligation to do so. We do these things because this is how we would hope people would treat us if we were in their situation. This is the kind of love Paul (and Jesus) holds up to us as our standard.

Another common way of twisting the notion of love today comes in the declaration that loving me means affirming all the things I affirm and rejecting all the things I reject. In short, loving me means agreeing with me. That notion is also not part of biblical love. Remember what Paul said about love just a chapter before,

9 Don’t just pretend to love others. Really love them. Hate what is wrong. Hold tightly to what is good. (Romans 12:9, NLT)

Paul tells us to both love and hate in the same breath. Loving someone means hating that which hurts them, even if it’s something they enjoy.

If someone you loved was an addict, you would hate the object of their addiction, even though they might desire it intensely. Even though it might be the thing they view as central to their identity, even though they might not even be able to conceive of a life without it, the most loving thing is to hate the thing we know is enslaving them. A loving person does not indulge a person’s addiction because they know it is harmful.

The same is true when it comes to our addiction to sin. We often convince ourselves that we love all sorts of things that are actually harmful to us. We see this in myriad ways in our world today. We see it in people’s insistence that we affirm whatever sexual choices they make, even though they may violate God’s design. We see it in the claim that if we do not affirm a person’s declared identity (when it doesn’t correspond to reality), then we do not love them. We see it in the tendency to immediately claim offended status by anything that we do not like. And we see it in the way we insist on our “rights” being respected, even when they harm other people. Love does not demand that we support these harmful ideas, but it does demand that we care for the people ensnared by them. It demands that we do not simply write them off. It demands that we do not give up on them because they are hard to love. Rather, we are to ask ourselves, “If I were in the same situation, how would I hope people would treat me?” And then act accordingly.

Paul says this is the way Christians are supposed to act toward the world around them. This is not just how we are to treat other Christians, but every person with whom we interact.

Our world today does not love people because we have become so self-centered that we no longer even see one another. Paul’s prescription is for us to remember the love Christ has shown us. When we see how greatly we have been loved, we will be moved to love those around us. We will not simply look the other way or pretend they do not exist. We will love them as Christ loved us. This kind of love genuinely is what our world needs now.

Living In the Light

But Paul does not end simply by pointing us to the way we are supposed to treat others, he also points us to look inward, at the way we live and our motivation for the things we do.

11 This is all the more urgent, for you know how late it is; time is running out. Wake up, for our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed. 12 The night is almost gone; the day of salvation will soon be here. So remove your dark deeds like dirty clothes, and put on the shining armor of right living. 13 Because we belong to the day, we must live decent lives for all to see. Don’t participate in the darkness of wild parties and drunkenness, or in sexual promiscuity and immoral living, or in quarreling and jealousy. 14 Instead, clothe yourself with the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ. And don’t let yourself think about ways to indulge your evil desires. (Romans 13:11-14, NLT)

Paul tells us the reason we need to love others in this way is because time is running out. He says the time of our salvation is near. The Bible tells us that there will come a day when we will stand before Christ, either when we die, or when He returns to the earth.

Any time we talk about the second coming of Christ, some people immediately think about the various competing views of what exactly will take place when He returns. They start thinking of the various signs to look for, the things that may happen, and some even begin gearing up for a fight so they can show others the right way to think about such things. That misses Paul’s point. Paul’s is not telling us we should be looking for signs. He is not telling us to search the newspapers for correlations with end times prophecies. His point is simple: Christ is coming soon, so be ready!

Christians refer to the second coming of Christ as imminent. This does not mean that we have a date in mind, or even that we see signs that make us believe the end times prophecies are being fulfilled before our eyes. What it does mean is that the consistent teaching of Scripture is that we will not know when Christ’s return will be, but that it could be at any time. That means Christ could return later today, or that He may tarry for another 10,000 years. But, we should recognize that today could be the day of His return.

Throughout The Chosen TV series, there is a running joke any time the disciples ask Jesus when something is going to happen. His response, almost universally, is that it will happen “soon.” Of course, that doesn’t give anyone a specific timeline. But I believe that’s the point. We should be fruitfully engaged, knowing that the time of Christ’s return is soon, so we should be prepared.

Jonathan Edwards, the famous American preacher was known for having resolutions by which he would conduct his life. One of those resolutions was this,

Resolved, never to do anything, which I should be afraid to do, if it were the last hour of my life.

Edwards lived with the end in mind. He knew that one day he would stand before the throne of Christ. His thought process was beautifully simple. If I knew I would be standing face to face with the Lord within the hour, how would I behave? He recognized that at any time that could be the case, either through death or through Christ’s return. And so, he endeavored to live with this in mind.

When we think about the return of Christ, our minds typically go to trying to figure out what God is going to do. Paul tells us to take a different approach. Instead of telling us to figure out what God is going to do, he tells us to focus on what God wants us to do. God wants us to live holy lives as we await His return.

Paul says we should put aside the dirty clothes of sin and instead clothe ourselves with Christ. He uses another metaphor as well, telling us that we should behave as people of light, rather than becoming mired in the deeds of darkness.

He reminds us that we do not belong to the kingdom of darkness, but the kingdom of light. Even though we live in a dark world, our lives should be a shining example of what it means to live for Christ. As such, our lives should look markedly different from the world around us.

Paul lists several things that should not be part of the life of the Christian: wild parties and drunkenness, sexual promiscuity and immoral living, quarreling and jealousy. Each of these things are prevalent in our society today. Unfortunately, they are also often prevalent even among those who claim to be part of the body of Christ. The church often looks no different from the world in regards to alcohol use, sex outside of marriage, or the way we talk to and treat the people around us. Instead of being a source of light, we are embracing the darkness of the world around us.

Paul tells us that we should be taking a different approach. Rather than indulging our sinful natures, we should be seeking to starve them. Rather than coming up with ways to justify our sinful desires and actions, we should recognize them for what they are and weed them out. We should live in ways that make Christ visible to the world around us. While we should not be trying to draw attention to ourselves, we should stand out from the world around us. The Church should look markedly different from our society. We should be known as people who live according to a higher standard, people who avoid the deeds of darkness, and instead live as children of the light. That’s not where we are now, and Paul tells us that should be our focus, because the time is short.

Conclusion

In some ways, these verses don’t seem to tell us anything too exciting. It seems like Paul is saying we should love others and live rightly. I believe that is an accurate summation. But even though the commands Paul gives us are not complex, novel, or difficult to understand, they are still things we must work to put into practice. They require us to change the way we look at the world and at ourselves. That is not something that happens overnight. So let me give you some practical ways you can work at putting these commands into practice.

First, practice seeing people differently. If you’re like me, you can easily get frustrated with people. It is tempting, when we encounter people who are unpleasant or even downright mean, to simply write them off. It is easy to conclude that they aren’t worth our time, so we should simply ignore them. It is tempting to think that the person who is quiet is just unfriendly, when they may be yearning for someone to notice them. Remember what Jesus told us—we are to love our neighbors the way we would like to be loved. So when you find someone difficult, ask how you would like to be treated if the tables were turned. Try to envision what might be behind that person’s actions. Could their behavior be a result of insecurity? Hurt? Frustration? Past pain? Then ask how you would want someone to treat you in each of those situations. I suspect the answer is not to simply write you off. Christ loves us the way we need to be loved rather than how we deserve to be loved. If we will take the time to look at others through the lens of Christ’s love for us, it will change our interactions with those people—and just might change the world.

Second, remember the end is imminent. We don’t know when our lives will end. Any one of us could have a medical emergency and drop dead on the spot at any time. We could have an accident that will end our lives instantly. And Christ has promised that He could return at any time, and that we will not be able to anticipate it. It is one thing to know these things conceptually, it is another to recognize that today might be the day that we stand before the Lord. When we grasp that, it ought to change how we live. That sin you so often struggle with—ask if that is what you would like to be doing when you are called home. The people who you know are currently lost and destined for an eternity separated from God—remind yourself of the urgency of making sure they know the gospel message. Many people, when they think of the imminent end of life as we know it, respond by wringing their hands. Paul tells us to instead respond with a changed life. Be intentional about reminding yourself that the end is near—and then live with the end in mind.

Finally, recognize that the battle for holy living starts in the mind. Paul’s final instruction in these verses is that we shouldn’t let ourselves think of ways to indulge our sinful desires. We often start down a path toward sin in our mind long before we ever act on it. We begin contemplating things we know are wrong, but that we want to run after. Paul tells us we should cut off this tendency at the source. Don’t allow yourself to indulge in sinful thoughts. Stop them there and they will not turn into sinful actions. The first battlefield against sin is in our mind, so be aware of the things you allow yourself to think about. Be intentional about your thoughts. Learn to think differently from the world, and you’ll find you act differently as well.

Our world needs love today, but true love comes only from Christ. That’s what you and I need, more of Christ. It’s what our world needs as well. The more of Christ that’s in us, the more we’ll love like Him. And the better prepared we’ll be for that day soon when we’ll see Him face to face.

© September 22nd, 2024 by Rev. Rick Goettsche SERIES: Romans