We Must Live By God's Love Series

We Must Live by God's Love

The Book of Romans

Romans 13:1-10; Romans 5:5-10; Romans 8:28-39

Sermon by Rick Crandall

(Prepared October 14, 2021)

MESSAGE:

*Today we will take a good look at the kind of love God wants us to have for other people. Turns out that it is the same kind of agape love that God has for us. The original words for agape love are found over 250 times in the New Testament. And Paul gave us a wonderful description of this love in 1 Corinthians 13:4-7.

*There the NKJ says:

4. Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up;

5. does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil;

6. does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth;

7. bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

*We find this kind of agape love in Scriptures like Matthew 5:44 where Jesus said, "LOVE your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you." It's also in Luke 10:27 where Jesus said, "'You shall LOVE the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind,' and 'your neighbor as yourself.'''

*Christianity is a faith of life and love. That's because the God of the Bible is the only true and living God. He alone can give us eternal life, and it all flows out of His agape love. Now God wants us to live by His kind of love, and tonight's Scripture helps show us why.

1. FIRST: WE MUST LIVE BY GOD'S LOVE BECAUSE WE ARE DEBTORS.

*Paul talked about our debts in vs. 6-8, and here the Apostle said:

6. For because of this you also pay taxes, for they are God's ministers attending continually to this very thing.

7. Render therefore to all their due: taxes to whom taxes are due, customs to whom customs, fear to whom fear, honor to whom honor.

8. Owe no one anything except to love one another, for he who loves another has fulfilled the law.

[1] THIS SCRIPTURE FOCUSES FIRST ON OUR LEGAL DEBTS.

*And paying our taxes was at the top of Paul's list. That's because this chapter started by declaring God's will for Christians to generally submit ourselves to earthly government. In vs. 1-5, Paul wrote:

1. Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God.

2. Therefore whoever resists the authority resists the ordinance of God, and those who resist will bring judgment on themselves.

3. For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to evil. Do you want to be unafraid of the authority? Do what is good, and you will have praise from the same.

4. For he is God's minister to you for good. But if you do evil, be afraid; for he does not bear the sword in vain; for he is God's minister, an avenger to execute wrath on him who practices evil.

5. Therefore you must be subject, not only because of wrath but also for conscience' sake.

*Now, at its best, a government does good things for its people. It protects us from the bad guys and defends our freedom. That's what God designed government to do. But tragically, most governments throughout most of history have been horribly corrupt. And we must never put government above God! When government tells us to disobey God, we should disobey government.

*Last time, we saw two Old Testament examples from the story of Moses' birth in Exodus 1-2. We also saw a great New Testament example in Acts chapter 4. There Peter and John were on trial at the high court for preaching about Jesus. And Acts 4:18-20 says:

18. . . They called them and commanded them not to speak at all nor teach in the name of Jesus.

19. But Peter and John answered and said to them, "Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you more than to God, you judge.

20. For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard.''

*God wants us to resist government whenever necessary, but respect government whenever possible. And part of our God-given duty is to pay our taxes, so again in vs. 6-7, Paul said:

6. For because of this you also pay taxes, for they are God's ministers attending continually to this very thing.

7. Render therefore to all their due: taxes to whom taxes are due, customs to whom customs, fear to whom fear, honor to whom honor.