Romans 13:8-14

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.