Our Commitment And Our Constraint

In America, that means that we are to obey the laws of the land no matter if the Republican party or the Democratic party is in power, as long as those laws are not contrary to the Word of God.

Illus: One case in point is the legalization of abortion. According to the laws in most of our states, a woman can have an abortion and neither she, nor the doctor, will be convicted of a felony. However, in the sight of God, she and the doctor have committed a gross sin, and will have to give account for this horrendous act. The thing that is heart-breaking about abortion is that when the Supreme Court legalized it, many women began killing children who would never have thought of doing this before.

People get themselves into trouble by obeying bad laws. We should never listen to the advice of anyone, not even the Supreme Court, when it has to do with legalizing the breaking of God's laws laid down for us in the Word of God.

We should follow the example of the apostles, who said in Acts 5:29b, "…We ought to obey God rather than men." Those who do follow bad advice need to realize they have done a terrible thing! Then, they also need to realize that God is ready to forgive them if they will reach out to Him.

Now we have learned in verses 1-7 that we must submit to the "higher powers," and that these powers "...are ordained of God." One of the sins that we, as Christians, tend to be apathetic about is the disobeying of the teachings concerning being submissive to AUTHORITIES, and to the LAWS of this land.

Illus: It was reported in the news that in the 1992 L. A. riot, people smashed windows, raped women, looted stores, and burned cars and buildings. Why? Because, when a certain trial took place they did not like the verdict. The law says that our justice system, using a jury of our peers, lets the jury decide guilt or innocence after they have heard both sides of the story. The decision is made without regard to anyone's personal opinion or feeling, and this is our government's way of settling differences. We cannot maintain peace in our nation unless people abide by the law. If we reject this system, and burn and destroy EVERY TIME we do not AGREE with a verdict, we will become a nation of anarchists.

A nation has to be governed by leaders and laws. The leaders over us are there because God allows them to be there. We may not understand why God places certain ones there, but He, Who knows more than we do, has a will that He is accomplishing. In the remaining part of this chapter, Paul deals with a different kind of governing law. There are two things that should motivate Christians to obey the Lord.

I. THE COMMANDMENT OF THE LORD - Verses 8 - 11

"Owe no man any thing, but to love one another: for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law."

Paul is not establishing the fiscal policy of paying only cash for everything, although that is a very good policy. People who are setting up housekeeping are wise indeed to get out of debt as soon as they can after marriage, but in this verse of scripture, Paul is not giving a lesson in financial matters. However, when Paul says, "Owe no man anything...", we immediately relate his statement to fiscal matters. What he has in mind here is something that you and I will always owe. Paul says, "Owe no man any thing, BUT TO LOVE ONE ANOTHER..." The homes, communities, and churches of our nation are in a mess because people are not paying this legitimate spiritual debt they owe. Perhaps they used to faithfully pay this debt of love, but are no longer paying it. We are commanded to let this love govern our lives.

Let us look at...

A. THE COMMITMENT OF LOVE

Look at verse 9, "For this, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness, Thou shalt not covet; and if there be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this saying, namely, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself."

Notice that as Paul talked about our Christian commitment, he spoke to us about the ten commandments. The ten commandments are divided into two parts.

• The FIRST part deals with our relationship with God. That is, they are God-ward. Each of those commandments emphasize, "The Lord thy God."

All of the commandments that are related to God are later reduced to this, "Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord: and thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength..." If a person does this he can keep all the commandments that relate to God.