Owe No One Anything, Except...
Notes
Transcript
Notes
Notes
Exegetical point:
Through submission to God, believers ought to submit out of love to one another in all areas of their lives, because love is the fulfilment of the law.
Homiletical point
In everything you do, let there be love.
Some scholars suggest that Romans 13:1-7 was a passage added into the letter at a later date since it seems to be disconnected from Paul’s surrounding thought. To the extent that some scholars actually argue for a Stoic authorship (or at least source) of these verses, rather than Paul.
Others find this passage an integral part of the epistle.
Context:
Writing letter to the Roman church where the role of the state was likely quite a hot topic. Perhaps even more so for them than for us today in the West, it was vital for those Christians to know how they ought to live out their faith in relation to the Roman Empire whose authority they sat under.
It has been argued along different lines by various scholars that the Jews in Rome may have been resistive and fought against Roman authorities. We get hints of this through literature from the time and also in Acts 18:2 where we hear of Claudius who has to command all the Jews to leave Rome.
So this matter of submitting to authorities and owing people taxes/respect/revenue/honour was clearly quite a significant issue here and one that Paul feels that he needs to expand on in order to clarify how the Christians in Rome ought to be living out their faith in ALL aspects of their lives.
What Paul is saying to the Romans is just as applicable to us in the Church today.
Jesus: Give to Caesar’s what is Caesar’s (Mark 12:17)
Other passages in Scripture relating to submitting to authorities:
1 Tim 2:1-3; Tit 3:1; 1 Pet 2:13-17 etc
Thus this passage acts as Paul dealing with what was a fairly prominent issue in the early church.
Paul states that we ought to submit to authorities as they are appointed under divine authority, not simply human.
But this has problems:
Justifies tyrants/dictators - some scholars suggest that no passage in Scripture has caused more unhappiness and misery than this one.
We are to obey God, not man: this was well known in the early church and something that Paul held firmly to.
So how do we understand what Paul is saying here then?
Paul is certainly not unaware that authorities can be unjust - no Christian at time could be: the atoning death of Jesus lay at the very heart of their faith and his death had been brought about on the human level by evil and the unjust actions of people.
The man who had frequently been in Roman prisons and had been frequently flogged was not unaware of unjust authorities.
The man who knew himself to have been one of those unjust leaders that persecuted the church was not unaware of unjust authorities.
And yet here Paul is writing about something at the core of the state’s nature and its identity under the authority of God.
Rulers may misuse the authority that God has given them, but Paul’s point is that it was God who gave it to them, and the authority is a ‘servant’ of God.
Paul is clearly writing about the existing first century state with all its flaws and issues, and yet he still appeals to the Romans to treat the Roman Empire as the ruling authority and as such as the servant of God.
Explore concept of ‘submitting’
Doesn’t merely mean ‘obedience’
This is mutual love that we are called to with our fellow brothers and sisters - ‘be subject to one another’ 1 Cor 16:16; ‘submit to one another’ Eph 5:21
Consistently taking the lowly place and placing another over yourself is at the very heart of what the Christian life is.
This doesn’t mean obedience, and obeying the commands of all around you at all times, but it does mean placing love at the centre of all that we do.
Except in Love
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.
7 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, honor to whom honor is owed.
8 Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law.
The whole point of this section of Romans is love. Now we hear that a lot as we hear the word preached, and part of that is because it is what Jesus preached, and we have that echoed here.
After listing all of these debt payments that we ought to pay to those who we owe it, Paul seems to then DISCREDIT completely and write over what he just said
Application
People groups
First years - gossip, conversations being arrogant or rude?, supporting and allowing gossip to happen.
Second years - grumbling when asked to do something by a member of staff or a fellow student, or doing that thing reluctantly whilst hoping for credit or recognition for the thing that you are so lovingly doing.
Third years - dissertation writing
Paying your bills to LST, respecting members of staff and faculty - showing them honour.