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We Must Live by God's Love
The Book of Romans
Romans 13:1-10; Romans 5:5-10; Romans 8:28-39
Sermon by Rick Crandall
(Prepared October 14, 2021)
MESSAGE:
*Today we will take a good look at the kind of love God wants us to have for other people.
Turns out that it is the same kind of agape love that God has for us.
The original words for agape love are found over 250 times in the New Testament.
And Paul gave us a wonderful description of this love in 1 Corinthians 13:4-7.
*There the NKJ says:
4. Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up;
5. does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil;
6. does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth;
7. bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
*We find this kind of agape love in Scriptures like Matthew 5:44 where Jesus said, "LOVE your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you."
It's also in Luke 10:27 where Jesus said, "'You shall LOVE the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind,' and 'your neighbor as yourself.'''
*Christianity is a faith of life and love.
That's because the God of the Bible is the only true and living God.
He alone can give us eternal life, and it all flows out of His agape love.
Now God wants us to live by His kind of love, and tonight's Scripture helps show us why.
1. FIRST: WE MUST LIVE BY GOD'S LOVE BECAUSE WE ARE DEBTORS.
*Paul talked about our debts in vs. 6-8, and here the Apostle said:
6.
For because of this you also pay taxes, for they are God's ministers attending continually to this very thing.
7. Render therefore to all their due: taxes to whom taxes are due, customs to whom customs, fear to whom fear, honor to whom honor.
8. Owe no one anything except to love one another, for he who loves another has fulfilled the law.
[1] THIS SCRIPTURE FOCUSES FIRST ON OUR LEGAL DEBTS.
*And paying our taxes was at the top of Paul's list.
That's because this chapter started by declaring God's will for Christians to generally submit ourselves to earthly government.
In vs. 1-5, Paul wrote:
1.
Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities.
For there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God.
2. Therefore whoever resists the authority resists the ordinance of God, and those who resist will bring judgment on themselves.
3.
For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to evil.
Do you want to be unafraid of the authority?
Do what is good, and you will have praise from the same.
4. For he is God's minister to you for good.
But if you do evil, be afraid; for he does not bear the sword in vain; for he is God's minister, an avenger to execute wrath on him who practices evil.
5. Therefore you must be subject, not only because of wrath but also for conscience' sake.
*Now, at its best, a government does good things for its people.
It protects us from the bad guys and defends our freedom.
That's what God designed government to do.
But tragically, most governments throughout most of history have been horribly corrupt.
And we must never put government above God!
When government tells us to disobey God, we should disobey government.
*Last time, we saw two Old Testament examples from the story of Moses' birth in Exodus 1-2.
We also saw a great New Testament example in Acts chapter 4.
There Peter and John were on trial at the high court for preaching about Jesus.
And Acts 4:18-20 says:
18. . .
They called them and commanded them not to speak at all nor teach in the name of Jesus.
19.
But Peter and John answered and said to them, "Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you more than to God, you judge.
20.
For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard.''
*God wants us to resist government whenever necessary, but respect government whenever possible.
And part of our God-given duty is to pay our taxes, so again in vs. 6-7, Paul said:
6.
For because of this you also pay taxes, for they are God's ministers attending continually to this very thing.
7. Render therefore to all their due: taxes to whom taxes are due, customs to whom customs, fear to whom fear, honor to whom honor.
*Verse 7 in the KJV says, "Render therefore to all their dues: tribute to whom tribute is due; custom to whom custom; fear to whom fear; honor to whom honor."
*That word "dues" simply means debts in general, and in vs. 6-7, Paul is telling us to pay our public debts.
He mentioned two of these public debts: "tribute" and "customs" or "taxes."
John Phillips explained that "'tribute' was especially the yearly tax levied on persons or real estate.
It would correspond to our income and property taxes.
'Custom' was an indirect tax on goods.
It would correspond to our sales tax.
There were also bridge tolls, road taxes, harbor dues, and property taxes, as many taxes as greedy officials could invent."
*William Barclay explained that these taxes were collected in Paul’s day by the publicans.
They were the most hated men in the country because they served their nation's Roman conquerors.
Tax collectors were also notoriously dishonest.
Not only did they cheat their own countrymen.
They tried their best to swindle the government.
They also made a thriving income by taking bribes from rich people who wanted to avoid paying the taxes they owed."
*Phillips said, "The publicans also had great power to take out their spite on people, play favorites, and inflict hardship.
They could force merchants to stop their journeys, unload their animals, and open every package.
They could ransack through it all, read private letters, and generally make life miserable for people.
*But here in Romans 13, Paul did not go into the rights and wrongs of the taxation system.
He simply tells Christians that a nation’s leaders have a right to monetary support."
Therefore, Christians should pay their taxes.
(1)
*After discussing these public debts, Paul turned to private debts, and in vs. 8 Paul tells us to "owe no one anything except to love one another. .
."
On the surface, you might think Paul is telling us to never borrow money from anyone.
And there are some good, godly people who hold this view.
*I once went on a mission trip with a man from Georgia.
He had refused to buy a house because of his interpretation of vs. 8.
Instead, that man had rented a house for ten years, and he actually seemed a little proud of that.
Well, I knew I wasn't supposed to argue with this stranger, and I didn't have the heart to tell him that he was probably paying his landlord's mortgage.
But I wondered if he ever thought about that.
*Paul is not telling Christians to never borrow money.
He is telling us to always pay our debts.
William Barclay helped us understand when he wrote: "It seems a thing almost unnecessary to say.
But there were some who even twisted the Lord's Prayer.
They taught that praying, 'Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors,' cancelled out our obligation to pay back any money we owed!
Paul had to remind people that Christianity is not an excuse for refusing to pay obligations to our fellow men.
Quite the contrary: Our Christian faith is the reason to fulfil them to the utmost."
(2)
*John Phillips explained that "godly love will always have the interests of other people in view, including the people we owe money to.
This verse is not a law to forbid Christians from properly borrowing money.
But this Scripture does forbid Christians from borrowing money beyond our ability to repay.
Today, it is very easy to pile up debt that strains people's finances to the breaking point.
Christians are to avoid this kind of thing.
It is just as dishonest to borrow more than we can repay, as it is to steal.
And nothing will ruin a Christian testimony faster than chronic indebtedness."
(3)
*This doesn't mean Christians won't face financial hard times, and sometimes get behind in our bills.
But the biblical principal is that we should be hard working and humble living enough to keep our debt to a minimum.
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