In Everything You Do, Let There Be Love

I - Quick Example of Love being played out in all areas of my life

Last Friday afternoon, I was sitting preparing this very sermon, I was in the zone and ideas were flowing. And then came the small, quiet voice in my ears, “Love, do you want to help me print out these Winter Bash tickets.” Hannah was sitting in my room and she wanted my help. And I thought, “Not particularly, but alas I shall.” So down we go to the printer room in the Library, and we start printing these tickets, and she asks me if I wouldn’t mind cutting them out for her as well. One by one. And turns out there at 72 of these tickets. Very nicely designed may I add, but 72 of them. And I was sitting there with my sheets of card and a pair of scissors, a bit tired and exhausted (I know, its a hard life!) and I was just doing it with the wrong attitude. I felt as though I was doing this purely out of obligation to my girlfriend, rather than doing it out of love. This wasn’t an act of love, and I recognised that in myself.

Admittedly it did help that just minutes before I had been preparing a sermon on this very topic, but I was able to identify that in myself and make an effort to change my mindset. We are not simply called to love one another when in church or in a worship setting. The life of love is exactly that; a love that permeates all areas of life and transforms us in light of the Gospel message that we have received.

You - Challenge for an area of the congregation’s life where they are not doing something out of love, but instead out of obligation

I’m sure there are things in your life that you do fairly regularly and you just think, ‘Urgh, do I really have to do this?’ ‘Urgh, if I have to, I suppose I will.’ ‘If I have to be kind to this person and treat them with respect and honour them, I will. Urgh.’

But the main point of the passage we’re looking at today is that everything that you do in your life ought to be done as an expression of love.

In everything you do, let there be love.

God - ...Except to Love Each Other

So we arrive at the passage in Romans today, verses 7-10, having come through Romans 13:1-7, (I know I’m really bringing you ground breaking stuff this morning) and you’ll notice that we read that this morning alongside the passage that I’m actually focusing on, because I believe that there is a vital link between the theme that we see in verses 1-7 of submitting to the authorities and paying debts to those that we owe debts to, and the core idea of verse 8.

You’ve most likely heard it said, if you’ve ever listened to a sermon or teaching series on Romans before, that in general Romans 1-11 displays the love of God for us through the work of Christ, and Romans 12-16 displays the effect of that love in us as we go about loving others.

So LOVE is a big theme in Romans, arguably in the Bible as well, but many people often see 13:1-7 as a brief detour from that theme of love before Paul returns to his pervasive theme in verse 8, “Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law.” But I want to argue today that that simply doesn’t seem to be the case.

I think Paul’s message here, and the message for all of us here today, is, “In everything you do, let there be love.” And I don’t think thats a message that we can restrict to verse 8 onwards either.

So how are we reading verses 7 and 8 then with this in mind, if Paul isn’t returning from a complete detour at the beginning of the chapter?

“Owe”

Well verse 7 holds the key in our understanding here of verse 8.

It says, “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, honour to whom honour is owed.” That is the context for verse 8. You do owe taxes. You do owe revenue. Many people use verse 8 to say that Christians should never be in debt or should never borrow anything from anyone, but that simply can’t be the case in light of verse 7. So when he says in verse 8, “Owe no one anything” it DOESN’T mean you should never incur debts. It means, WHEN you do, pay them. Do you owe taxes? Pay them. Do you owe, revenue? Pay it.

So if we hold to this, then what do we do with verse 8, where Paul tells us, “Owe no one anything, except to love each other.” So we are to pay back everything that we owe in verse 7, and then in verse 8 we are not to owe anything in the first place.

Now the vast majority of commentators on Romans will agree with me that the main point here of verse 8 is about paying what you owe, rather than not paying anything. But they then proceed to explain this by saying that the point Paul is trying to make here is that love is the only thing that we will never finish paying back. All the other things, you can pay back and be done with, but you’ll never be done with paying back love. So they would perhaps argue that a better understanding of verse 8 would be, and follow along in your own Bibles with me in verse 8, “Leave no debt outstanding to anyone, except the debt of love to one another.”

And for a long time as I prepared this sermon, I was convinced that this was exactly the point that Paul was trying to make. And in a sense its certainly not wrong as an idea; we owe love no matter how many payments of love we make. But here’s where we trip up, and where I tripped up with this passage:

The same is said of ‘honour’ in verse 7. We are to show honour to those who we owe honour. So is this to say that we can pay up honour fully and finally be done with it?

In 1 Peter 2:17, Peter says ‘Honour everyone.” So it simply doesn’t work to say that what Paul means here is that love is the only thing we will never finish paying. Because just like love, when you show honour to someone, you still owe them honour. You can’t pay it down.

(leave an intentional pause for 5 seconds or so for people to consider this point)

Consider this with me, you’re in the Roman church and you’re having this letter from Paul read out to you, surrounded by your fellow citizens and believers. And two minutes earlier you’ve heard the words of Romans 12:10 read out to you that we looked at with Reuben last Friday (turn with me): “Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honour.” So you’ve heard that loving and showing honour are linked, and that Paul likely means that honouring people is a way of loving them.

And then you hear Romans 13:7-8 and you hear something like this, “Owe no one anything, that is, owe no one any honour, except to love each other.” How would you hear that? What would that mean to you?

It would probably mean: any time you have a debt of honour, you should pay it in love. Don’t pay debts of honour except as love payments.

And if thats what verse 8 means in relation to honour, then it probably also applies to taxes and revenue and respect - every payment of those debts ought to be done as an expression of love.

In everything you do, let there be love.

Are you paying off an invoice for your residence fees at LST? Don’t do it with resentment or because the Bible says to pay your debts, do it in love. Have you borrowed a book from someone and kept it so long that you’re embarrassed to give it back? Well humble yourself and act in love, not in fear and pride.

In everything you do, let there be love.

But what does ‘love’ even mean? How can I pay a check with love? How can I pay my borrowing fees on the library machines with love?

Well consider what Paul means by love in 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 and see if you can apply those criteria to everything that you do.

1 Corinthians 13:4–7 ESV

4 Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant 5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; 6 it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. 7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Some people may object here and say that it only tells us to love each other, ‘Owe no one anything, except to love each other.’ If each other here refers to fellow Christians, then the approach I’ve just taken will have to be changed, but I don’t think thats the case.

The ‘no one’ in verse 8 refers to those that we owe money to in verse 7, so it includes unbelievers.

And it doesn’t make any sense for Paul to be saying, ‘Owe no unbelievers anything, except to love fellow Christians.’ So it seems that each other is referring here to loving anyone, not just Christians. Besides, following on in verse 8, we don’t fulfil the law by loving Christians and hating our enemies. This is the whole emphasis that follows through from Romans 12, and is still found here.

In everything you do, with everyone you meet, with everything you say, let there be love. Let it be done out of a place of love.

In everything you do, let there be love.

You - Application of this to life at LST

So how might this play out in your life as a student at LST?

What could it look like for everything you do to be done out of love?

Are you writing your dissertation out of love if you’re in third year?

Are your conversations about people behind their back being done out of love? Are you respecting them with your words and actions? Gossip is a big problem at LST and its not loving in any way. Its also not loving to sit around and do nothing about it when you hear gossip happening. And I’m not finger pointing here at all because the finger falls just as equally on me, but we have to address that this happens and it isn’t loving each other.

Are you grumbling when asked to do a favour for a fellow student or a member of staff, or doing that thing reluctantly whilst hoping for credit and recognition for the thing that you are doing?

In everything you do, let there be love.

We - What we all ought to learn from this all-encompassing love

In everything you do, let there be love.

In everything we all do, let there be love.

Therefore, friends, let us pursue love. It is an enormous, all-encompassing reality. It is not merely a part of our lives, but all of our lives. “Let ALL that you do be done in love.” Let the mindset of patience and kindness and contentment and humility and meekness and forgiveness and joy and truthfulness and hope and endurance - let your heart and mind overflow with these traits of love.

In everything you do, let there be love.

What other reality could there be for a people living with the piercing and all-consuming knowledge of Romans 5:8, “God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

(Pause for 5 seconds)

Let us pray.