Love and the Law

What will someone give their life for? What an incredibly trite question! So overused. But what if I asked that question of myself? What would I give my life for? An ideal? A person? A way of life? Many have. More personal. My beliefs? My daughter?

In this season of remembering the multitudes who have done just that, it is good for us to begin to process the weight of that sitting on our shoulders.

Romans 13:8–14 ESV

8 Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. 9 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.” 10 Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law. 11 Besides this you know the time, that the hour has come for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed. 12 The night is far gone; the day is at hand. So then let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light. 13 Let us walk properly as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and sensuality, not in quarreling and jealousy. 14 But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.

A better question might be, “For what am I willing to change my way of life?”. An ideal? A person? A way of life? When I become aware of what salvation is calling me out of or in to, am I willing to change? Today, I am asking you to ask yourself the very real question: Am I willing to change?

ALL the law and prophets hang on love God, love each other. So when tells us …are summed up in this word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” we absolutely recognize those words Jesus spoke.

Is love really that powerful? What will love make me do?

Love- the feeling

We often box this into romantic love, but there is much more. What the parent of a newborn feels for their child is love. And it compels them to act. What is that parent willing to do for love, the feeling, for that child? Sacrifice financially? Lose sleep?

Let me tell you this: I feel a debt of love to my children. It is not an ominous feeling, but a good one. When I have the opportunity to pay on that debt, I enjoy it. Sometimes the opportunity to pay on it is spontaneous, sometimes planned and scheduled. But as long as I am their dad, it will never be paid in full. Dont get me wrong, its not a balance. Not a scale to be weighed. I love them, so there is this internal desire to show them I love them. To act on that love! Which brings us to...

Love- the action

It will protect - USS Pueblo North Korea sit around table. Beat soldier at head of table. Soldiers put themselves in that spot til captors gave up. You cant beat that kind of sacrificial love.

It will prepare - Mother of small children diagnosed with cancer. Told to live out her days on a beach somewhere. Penned a letter to her children. I have chosen to try and survive. Great cost. If for only one minute more, the minute you need. I will fight, tooth and nail, so help me God.

Owe no one anything, except to love each other. How we doing? Ok?

Cast off the works of darkness.

Quite the list. Includes the ‘big sins’ we recognize in the church. But is also inclusive of some ‘little sins’. At least we tend to treat them as little. We think quarreling and jealousy are much lesser sins than sexual immorality and drunkeness. But they are at least as devastating to the body of Christ. Like we said last week about gossip, they tear down what God is building up.

They are not works of darkness because they are done in darkness, but they create it! When the watching world sees quarreling and jealousy in the church, it hides the Spirit of God that is supposed to be here. It creates darkness.

Put on the armor of light.

Here, Paul calls it the armor of light. Elsewhere the armor of God. Belt of truth. Breastplate of righteousness. Helmet of Salvation. Shoes of the gospel. Shield of faith. Sword of the Spirit. Stand. Pray.

Either way, the restatement of it in v14 shows us we are putting on Christ Himself.

“For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ” ().

Those in Christ are commanded to put on Christ.

“But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires” ().

Those in Christ have already put on Christ.

“For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ” ().

Those in Christ have already put on the new self/man.

“[You] have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator” ().

Those in Christ are instructed to put on the new self/man.

“[Your were taught] to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness” ().

Those in Christ have already put on the new self/man.

“[You] have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator” ().

In those we are told to be what we already are.

Those in Christ are to put on the whole armor of God.

“The night is far gone; the day is at hand. So then let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light” (). “Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. . . . Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness” (, ). “But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet the hope of salvation” ().