Romans 13:8-14

Introduction

S.I.A.S: When Christ shapes your heart, peace shapes your life

Hello guys, my name is Tristan, and I am a college student here at Ridgecrest. If I haven’t got to meet you, like I said, I am a college student here who is aspiring to be a pastor. I am online at Midwestern Seminary and interning here at the church. I finally get to be up here and I am excited. I have preached in a class full of 70 year olds and at the youth group but not here yet so I am excited. I am continuing the series in Romans tonight and I have a lot to cover. I am a little fired up because I was at Midwestern today and this passage that I am about to preach on is so rich.

Love: The Foundation (13:8-14)

A. The Call to Love

We are all obligated to love. There is a reason why Paul talks about it so much in Romans. We as Christians are to make love our foundation in all that we do. Verse 8 here says that we are to owe no one anything except to love each other. What Paul says is that love is a debt that is always due and we are always paying. We are in this debt because Christ did something that washed away what would’ve spiritually killed us if He didn’t do that.

This love we see, fulfills the law. It is the commandment that alongside Love the Lord your God with all your heart, sums up all other commandments. The love that we give and show sums up all of the other commandments. It does no wrong to a neighbor as verse 10 says. Love is a beautiful thing. The law that Paul is talking about in verse 8 and verse 10 is God’s law that He has given us. A few chapters back in Romans 10:4 Paul talks about how Christ is the end to the old law that held us down and is the new law that we follow.

Love fulfills this new law that we follow. If we keep the two loves dearest to our heart we will persevere. Loving the Lord our God with all of our heart and Loving our neighbor as ourself. The things that you can do when you make love the foundation of your life built on the solid rock of God is endless. The Lord will sustain you keep you up when you love.

The text literally tells us that love does no wrong. It can do no wrong to love your neighbor, a friend, brother. A homeless man on the street. A classmate who seems down. Love does no wrong and it fulfills the law of Christ and helps us repay that debt.

Every time we meet someone, we should say to ourselves, “I need to show them the love of Christ. I have a debt to pay.” We should be sharing the amazing gracious love that we don’t even deserve with the people whom we meet. Wherever we go, whoever we meet, we owe love. What do you do when someone is on your nerves? Love. What do you do when you are happy and on can’t keep it in? Love. What do you do when you feel like the world is coming down on you? Love the Lord your God with all your heart because He loved you first. Share the love of God with the world.

B. The Urgency

The call to love that Paul is telling the Romans here is not a call to just pass off. Not a call to just keep putting off until you feel like you are ready to love. This call is urgent and that is what Paul is trying to say in verses 11-14. We see that Paul transitions from the command of love to some motivation to love. This is what gets me fired up.

In verse 11 we can see that we know the time in which the hour has come that salvation is nearer now than before. I don’t want to get all academic but the greek word for time (Kairos) emphasizes the quality or kind of time which we are talking about. The quality of time is high. We are in what is called the “last days.” These are the days that began with Christ. We are living closer to the end of the world than ever before and we need to wake up.

The night is far gone Paul says. The darkness is gone and the light is here. The day is at hand. The devil is darkness, night time, he is gone because there is light here. Wake up! Are you choosing to stay asleep in the night? The day is here! Wake up and live in the light. Cast off those works of darkness that you are doing! You are going to have to cast off those works of darkness if you are going to succeed at loving.

What do we need to cast off? Well Paul gives us that answer in verse 13. We are to walk properly in the daytime, the light. Not in drunkenness or sexual immorality, not in quarreling or jealousy! What dark works do you need to cast off? Is it jealousy? Maybe comparison? Maybe you have some unspoken that you need to deal with. You need to do business with God and cast off those works.

I am tired of seeing this generation live in the night time. In their sexual immoralities and drunkenness. We need revival! Stop hitting your alarm clocks on snooze and wake up before it is too late! That is why we need that burden to share the love of Jesus with our generation. Just because we have friends or see people walking in drunkenness doesn’t mean that our jealousy and comparison is better than what they are doing. It is all dark and wicked! I am not calling anyone out but I am. I am calling myself out and preaching to myself.

Again, to close out chapter 13, we are told to put on the Lord Jesus Christ which is the armor of light that is talked about in verse 12. The Lord is our armor that will help us fight that war against the desires of the flesh. We have to put on that armor and live with an awareness of our identity in Christ because darkness is still a threat. We have declared war against the darkness and we have to go to battle with it every single day. We are still tempted, the desires still attract us, we are still vulnerable.

Woo. I told you guys this passage had me fired up. I think I am good now.

I made this illustration before but what we are seeing here is literally a morning (I know everyone in here has had one) where you just keep hitting snooze on your alarm. Snooze, after snooze, after snooze. And before you realize it, it is too late and you are running late. That may work for school, but I promise you that is not going to work in your spiritual life. We can’t keep telling ourselves ‘Later.’ The time is now, we are closer to salvation than ever before and it is coming. Jesus is coming back.

So we are called to love, love our God and love one another. It is what we are commanded to. It is us fulfilling that law of Christ that made us new. Love looks like light in a dark world. When you are making love your foundation, you are living contrast to the world. The most powerful witness on campus is not perfection but a love that is different from the darkness. We are to cast off all of the evil works that are in us and walk in the light, the day time. Not in any of the passions of the flesh. Not letting the devil play any tricks on our mind. Remember the man that died on that cross for you, the love that He had and still has for you.

Keep it to yourself (14:1-12)

From Romans 12 until the start of 14, Paul is explaining and describing the life of love. The love that transforms how we live with ourselves and those around us. But, starting in chapter 14, Paul applies what he has been talking about to the Romans and their lives.

Now when Paul is talking about the “weak” in verse 1, he is not literally meaning someone who is not strong physically, like big muscles. Paul is not even talking about someone who is weak spiritually What Paul is referring to is a person who has restrictions on what they will eat according to the Jewish food laws. You had two groups which were the Jews and the Gentiles.

The Jews were the Christians who still held and practiced Old Testament customs. We see here that the dispute is over the dietary custom which is them abstaining from some foods. The gentiles were another group of Christians who understood Christ and those old ceremonial laws that the Jews hold to, the gentiles realized that those laws no longer defiled their holiness.

I explain all of that just to give some context into these first twelve verses of chapter 14. The Romans were so focused on the secondary issues, the issues that should not have been issues in the first place, that they were losing sight of the Gospel. We have the Jews who were so concerned over their dietary laws that they were causing disputes with the Gentiles who believed that they could eat anything.

It is like a vegan who is getting on to you about eating a steak. Like come on, you shouldn’t be causing an argument over this. Like Austin said last week, keep the main thing the main. Man, vegans are so weird. When start to lose sight of the main thing which is Jesus Christ taking away all of our sins and suffering for us, we will lose our faith.

In verse 4, Paul says that both sides are at fault and calls them out for that. The Jews are passing judgment at the Gentiles for not keeping the Old Testament customs and the Gentiles are judging the jews for not seeing what Christ did and living in the new law. Paul says in verse 4 though, that neither side should be passing judgement on the other because it is ones master that decides if the servant should stand or fall.

The master of both the Jews and the Gentiles is God. So ultimately, it is not the Jews that have the authority to decide what is right, and it is not the Gentiles either, but it is God. I think we can often forget in our own lives that God is the judge. He is the only judge. Just because you eat meat or you don’t does not give you the right to pass judgement on the other. We are all servants and children of God. May we never forget that.

As I was preparing this sermon, I was trying to think of what problem we have right now that we are treating like the problem that the Jews and the Gentiles had with each other. My mind went to obvious answers like politics and other major issues. I think that there are just so many different secondary issues that we let be a primary issue in our lives. Things like worship style in church or how people dress. We need to focus on what quite literally saved us and not on the things that do not matter. So simply, keep it to yourselves.

Paul also grabs back at this idea that we are not our own that he had previously mentioned in verse 4. In verse 7 Paul says, “For none of us lives to himself, and none of us dies to himself.” We do not live or die to ourselves. If we did, then we would not be wehre we are. Going on in verse 8, Paul says that whether we live or we die, we are the Lord’s. What is dividing the Jews and Gentiles, what is dividing us believers, what unites them and us now is stronger than any division or dispute that any one could try and argue.

Being united by being one of God’s children is a stronghold that can not be broken. When we live to the Lord like verse 8 says, we live for His sake. We live for His sake and we die for His sake. Not for our own or anybody elses but His. Why do we live and die to the Lord? Well we get that answer and a challenge that Paul gives to the Jews and Gentiles in verses 9-12.

The answer is the old Gospel truth that Jesus lived, died, and rose again. I want to ask you guys a question. Did Jesus die so that we could pas judgement on one another? I’ll give you the answer. No. So why do you think that you can judge another brother or sister in Christ? Why do you despise them? Jesus didn’t die for that. He died for unity in Him and what He did for all those that believe in Him.

You are not the judge. There is only one judge and He says that we will bow before Him. Every knee. He will judge you according to your actions and what you have done. Do you want to hear “Well done good and faithful servant?” If you don’t you will hear “depart from me, I never knew you.” If we keep judging one another over things like what we are eating, who did this or that, or despising each other over political views we will lose sight of the main thing which is Jesus Christ.

An application that you should take away from this point is If God hasn’t called something sin, don’t try to do His job for Him. I don’t know how many times I have said this but you are not the judge. Remember the Gospel truth that Jesus died for all. So if a Christian brother or sister is doing something that you are not fond of, just keep it to yourself. Our job as Christians is to love instead of judge. Let God do His job which is to judge while you focus on yours which is making love the foundation of everything that you do. Study the scriptures and find what God allows and doesn’t.

Pursue Peace (14:14-23)

After you have made love your foundation, and you have kept the judgement to yourself and away, you are to pursue peace. Paul gives us the answer to who is right and who is wrong between the Jews and the Gentiles regarding the food laws. Paul says that what was unclean according to the old law is now clean in Christ. But, that still does not give the gentiles the right to judge the Jews for their convictions.

Paul explains that in the next verse. Paul says that even though the Gentiles or the “strong” are right, it doesn’t mean they should be grieving their brother. You know how I was talking about vegans earlier? It is like if I took a Jewish friend out to a pizza place and you order a triple meat pizza and nothing else. That Jewish friend is abstaining from meat because of their personal conviction and I am grieving them by not walking in love and getting a meat free pizza instead.

It says in the second part of 15 to not destroy the one that Christ died for. It grieves me how many people just in the college group here or in Ridgecrest are destroyed by what others are saying or doing. We are all people that Jesus bled and died for and we are so quick to judge one another or judge decisions made. We are united by Christ in community with each other but sometimes it feels like we are trying to break that unity.

Moving on, in verses 16-19, Paul talks about what the kingdom of God is a matter of and what we as believers need to do. Paul tells us a well known fact that we should have already picked up by now that the kingdom of God is not about what you eat or drink. It is not about your secondary issues or opinions that you have. The kingdom of God is about love, it is about righteousness, joy, peace.

We can not have any of those things if we are focused on the food and drink. If we are focused on the things that don’t matter. I think Tim Keller, says it best when talking about verse 17. Keller says “We are not to see our lives as being about enjoying our freedoms.” May we never forget that where our freedoms come from. The freedoms of eating and drinking come from the debt that was paid by the Messiah.

In verse 18, Paul says that whoever serves Christ is acceptable to God. If you are a Jew or a Gentile. If you are wrong or you are right on the secondary things. You are acceptable to God. Jesus’ heart is gentle and lowly for all sinners. If you accept Christ and you really believe that He lived, died, and rose from the dead, you will be acceptable to Him. All He asks is that you come. Whether you are broken, or great, whether you eat meat or you don’t. Jesus says come as you are. He will meet you.

Verse 19 calls us to pursue. Not to pursue judgement on another, not to pursue envy or jealousy, but to pursue peace and mutual upbuilding. Sometimes in life, a Christian friends holiness matters more than your freedom. Being peaceful with them and finding the ways to build them up rather than judging them for doing something that you don’t like is what we need to do. Even if they aren’t doing anything, finding ways to pursue peace and loving on a friend is what we should be doing. It always ends well.

As we come to these last four verses in the chapter, think about all that we have talked about. In verse 20, Paul says to not destroy the work of God. The work of God is probably talking about the building of the Christian community that was being done. There has been a lot of work done in this college ministry and Austin has done an amazing job with everything since he has gotten here. Now imagine if someone came in here and there mission was to destroy what God has done here. That upbuilding that we are told to pursue in verse 19, well this is the opposite of that.

Moving on, Paul tells us in verse 21 that we are not do to anything to make a brother stumble and in verse 22 he tells us that we need to keep our faith to ourselves. If we keep our faith to ourselves and focus on the main thing which is pursuing love, peace, encouraging and building up others, we will have no reason to pass judgement on the one who abstains from other things and will therefore not be a stumbling block to others.

An encouragement for you guys from this last point is to use your influence to build up, not break down. Every believer has influence. Your words, actions, choices, posts. They all have weight. Use all of those to strengthen other fellow believers not break them down. We are all united as God’s children and we should be building each other up. What you model matters more than what you argue.

Conclusion

As I conclude, I know that was a lot. It is not easy to cover a chapter and a half in half an hour but I am so thankful for the opportunity. I highly encourage you guys to read Romans 13:8-14 and Romans 14 for yourself because there is so much great truth in these two chapters.

I want to recap each passage really quick because we went over a lot. In Romans 13, we are called to love our neighbor because that is what fulfills the law. Making love our foundation should be what we are doing. We know that love does no wrong and we should be asking ourselves how we can show the love of God to the people that we meet every day. Remember, love looks like being a light in a dark world. Whether that be on campus or in your workplace. Show this world the love of Jesus Christ.

At the start of Romans 14, Paul says that even though we may not agree on some secondary issues as Christians, that does not give us the right to judge another Christian brother or sister. We are not called to be the judge but to be a servant of the one true judge and love all of God’s children no matter what secondary opinions they may have. If you are trying to do God’s job for Him, you have lost sight. Keep the main thing the main thing which is the good news.

Then, in the second half of Romans 14, Paul points out that even if you are right over a conflict, you should not be grieving a Christian brother or sister over it. You are supposed to resort back to the love and treat the other believers if they are wrong with care and show them kindly why they are wrong. Use your influence to build up and not break down. Let what you say and do reflect a God of love, mercy, and grace.