Romans 13:8-14
8Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for he who loves his fellowman has fulfilled the law. 9The commandments, "Do not commit adultery," "Do not murder," "Do not steal," "Do not covet," and whatever other commandment there may be, are summed up in this one rule: "Love your neighbor as yourself." 10Love does no harm to its neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.
11And do this, understanding the present time. The hour has come for you to wake up from your slumber, because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed. 12The night is nearly over; the day is almost here. So let us put aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light. 13Let us behave decently, as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and debauchery, not in dissension and jealousy. 14Rather, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the sinful nature.
Paul starts off here in verse eight with not only a word of wisdom but also a requirement for us Christians. “Let no debt remain outstanding.”
God expects and demands that we as Christians be responsible with His money that He gives us. Why is this so important? Because God knows that if we are foolish with His money, and we spend beyond our means, that what usually happens is the first one that we neglect because of our financial mistakes is Him.
Now I believe that in this day and age we are going to have some debt, but how deep we get in to debt and in some cases making sure that we completely repay the debt is where the problem lye’s.
Houses are expensive, cars are expensive and we need both in order to provide for our families. But the point is to make these purchases within our means and not beyond our means.
God provides for all of us in different ways and in different amounts. Within this we must live according to His provision, remembering to always give back to Him who has provided for us.
If we live beyond what He has provided what we are saying is God I am not happy with what provisions you have given me and I deserve more. The me, me, me concept, a concept that by the way is not in any way a Christian concept.
We must be responsible with what God has given us. In doing so He may even decide to trust us with more.
8Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for he who loves his fellowman has fulfilled the law.
We see here the general call to Christians to love his fellow man and woman. These are both Christians and non-Christians.
We are called to love in order to repay a debt, a debt that is never ending, a debt that we owe to God and to Christ for their love for us, and not only for our salvation, but literally for everything that we have.
John 3:16 "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life”.
This is the debt of love that we must repay for the rest of our lives with everything that we have. This love is powerful stuff.
The love that we are called to have is so powerful that we are told that by loving we are fulfilling the requirements of the Old Testament law. That by loving we should naturally fulfill the law because of this love.
9The commandments, "Do not commit adultery," "Do not murder," "Do not steal," "Do not covet," and whatever other commandment there may be, are summed up in this one rule: "Love your neighbor as yourself."
You notice Paul only states four of the Ten Commandments here and then says “and whatever other commandment there may be” It is not that Paul had forgotten the others, but that the commandments where not the focus, but that through our love for others we could not sin against them if our love was pure.
Matthew 22:36-40 "Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?" 37Jesus replied:" ’Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ 38This is the first and greatest commandment. 39And the second is like it: ’Love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments."
The four commandments Paul mentions here you will notice all start with “Do not” we will not do sinful things to others. He picked four so let’s take a quick look at them.
1)Do not commit adultery – Genesis 39:6-9 gives us a great story about Joseph and how he understood and applied this in his situation with the wife of Potiphar. 6Now Joseph was well-built and handsome, 7and after a while his master’s wife took notice of Joseph and said, "Come to bed with me!"
8 But he refused. "With me in charge," he told her, "my master does not concern himself with anything in the house; everything he owns he has entrusted to my care. 9 No one is greater in this house than I am. My master has withheld nothing from me except you, because you are his wife. How then could I do such a wicked thing and sin against God?"
2)Do not murder – The destruction of another person, we are called not to murder, not to harm, not to put others down with words, anything that would cause a negative effect on another. We are called instead to love and build others up, to motivate, show concern, care for, to edify others in every way we can.
3)Do not steal – There are many ways to steal. We can steal from an employer by not giving our best at work; we steal if we own a business and over charge for our services or give a poor quality product, there are many ways to steal, how about not giving back to God from all that He has given us.
4)Do not covet – This is a hard one for Americans. We are always coveting; we just got to have everything don’t we. We are bombarded with commercials and advertisements where ever we go because companies know we are suckers for just about anything. I bet there aren’t too many other countries out there that would by a clapper, the rest of the world knows how we are, Americans will buy anything.
It is also important to keep in mind that through our love for others we will not only not do sinful things to others but we will do good things for them, our love for others is something we must put into action. It is not a love that just sits still but a love of action.
1 Thessalonians 3:12 May the Lord make your love increase and overflow for each other and for everyone else, just as ours does for you.
Galatians 5:22 The fruit of the Spirit is love – A sign of a Christian, you will show love once the Holy Spirit is within you.
11And do this, understanding the present time. The hour has come for you to wake up from your slumber, because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed.
It is sad to say that many if not most who would call themselves Christians today are just sitting around day after day not really concerned about when they might decide to get off the butts and start doing the work God commands them to do.
We need to understand that we never know when God may decide to take us or that maybe even Christ may return. We may find if we are not careful that we may be at the end of our lives one day, breathing our last breathes, and as we are looking back at our lives on this earth, taking all in to account, we may find that we forgot something – we may find that we forgot to wake up from our selfish life to do what it was that God has called us to do, to be good and faithful servants in the building of His kingdom.
How long have you called yourself a Christian? Has it been two years, five years, ten years, maybe twenty years, how long has it been? How long has it been and what have you sown and reaped for God in that amount of time, what fruit have you produced?
11The hour has come for you to wake up from your slumber, because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed.
We will all one day be face to face with our Savior, and He will take account of our lives for us to see how faithful we have been in our lives. If we have been faithful He will smile and say “well done good and faithful servant.”
But if you just let your life pass, never to waken from your sleep as a Christian, then as He said in Mathew 25:26 He will say “You wicked, lazy servant.”
I would imagine at that point the overwhelming sadness and disappointment of this, it would completely consume you as you realize your lack of zeal for the one who saved you from all eternity in hell.
Today is the day brothers and sisters to wake up, to be enriched by the daily servant hood of being what it is God has called you to be and that is, being the good and faithful servant.
You have very good reason to wake from the slumber that you are in, if you have never been a part of bringing a person to faith, to see their love for Christ consume them, once you have you will have a passion for serving that will last a lifetime, but more so if we gain nothing but to only know we are doing what we are called to do, that in itself should be all we need.
12The night is nearly over; the day is almost here. So let us put aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light. 13Let us behave decently, as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and debauchery, not in dissension and jealousy. 14Rather, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the sinful nature.
