Jan. 28, 2018 AM Our Unending Debt by Pastor Josh Sheldon

Romans 13 and the Flow of Paul’s Argument

Turn if you would in your Bibles to Romans chapter 13. Romans 13 our text this morning will be verses 8 through 10. To remind us of the flow of the Apostles thought though I'll begin reading at verse 1 of this chapter and as we go through the message direction a circle back a bit further and go back into chapter 12 one of the reasons for doing this is.

So we understand that this is not an excursus that the Apostle has taken the verses 13 1 through 7. Which we covered last week is Part of this entire flow of thought that the Apostle has and Lord willing will be able to continue to demonstrate that they didn't.

Go Off here into another place and in verse 8 come back to his line of reasoning that he had in chapter 12. This is all one flow of thought so I want to start at verse 1 and Please play pay particular attention when I get to verse 8 because 8 through 10 will be our text for the preaching Romans 13 beginning at verse 1 let every person be subject to the governing authorities.

For there is no authority except from God and those that exist have been instituted by God. Therefore whoever resists the authorities who resists what God has appointed and those who resist will incur judgment.

For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Would you have no fear of the one who is in authority. Then do what is good and you will receive his approval. For he is God's servants Servant for your good.

But if you do wrong be afraid for he does not bear the sword in vain. For he is the servant of God an avenger who carries out God's wrath on the wrongdoer. Therefore one must be in subjection not only to avoid God's wrath, but also for the sake of conscience.

For because of this you also pay taxes for the authorities are ministers of God. Attending to this very thing 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. Now for this morning. Oh nothing to anyone except to love one another for the one who loves has fulfilled the law. The commandments you shall not commit adultery.

You shall not murder. You shall not steal you shall not covet and any other commandment are summed up in this word. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. Love does no wrong to a neighbor. Therefore.

Love is the fulfilling of the law. Did the Apostle Paul come up with something new? Was Jesus emphasis on love? Something unique was that an innovation. I Would argue not. That the Lord God Almighty has always been a God that is love as John says in his epistle God is love and that's the same God who is love Demands love from his people and among his people at the earliest age.

Young Jewish boys as I was are taught the great banner of Judaism. Which is Deuteronomy 6 4. Here Oh Israel here meaning obey hero Israel. Shema Israel the Lord your God. Adonai Eloheinu. He is one Lord.

I don't know a hard and you shall love the Lord your God. We learn that right away for half to it. I don't know. I had a hiccup a call of avocado. We'll call Nashville of calm Odessa. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart with all your soul and with all your strength.

All your might and then Jesus adds all your mind. Everything we have is given over to loving the Lord our God. And then in Leviticus chapter 19 Where does this love go? You shall love your neighbor as yourself.

And what does the Lord Jesus Christ say? But this. There the great command is the one I just cited to you. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and etc. And the other is like it and we often call that the second great command.

But it's not really the second is that Jesus didn't say this one is under it. This one's number two in the hierarchy. Jesus says the other is like it. Let's take it that way. These verses that I just read.

Love as an Unending Debt

Oh nothing to anyone except to love each other and From these verses. We all verses we often hear this application. That we are to keep out of debt and then Paul goes on to say but you have a debt and it's a debt that cannot be repaid.

It's a debt that you can never completely Extinguish the technical term for making payments on a debt on a mortgage on a loan. It's called servicing the debt. Here's a debt that we have that's laid upon us by the Lord Jesus Christ from the hand of the Apostle Paul which requires lifelong servicing.

And I hope this doesn't discourage you or depress you but If you make payments every day against this if you service it as much as you can if you pay Extra upon it as we do with mortgages to pay down the principal quicker and pay less interest and get it over with you could Do that every moment of your life.

You'll never get this one done with. I Hope that doesn't discourage you. I hope that doesn't make you say well I don't know where this message is going. But I'm walking out now because it sounds like he's could tell me do something that is impossible to do and in a sense I am in another sense.

No, it is something we can do. We will do. We have a debt that can never be repaid and this comes from verse 8 that I just read. Verse 8 Paul insists on the one hand that we keep out of literal debt literal debt pay.

Taxes pay the revenue keep out of literal debt. He says then in verse 8. Oh nothing to anyone. And That's in order that we have all the more to give to the spiritual obligation we have. That we love one another we have an ongoing debt.

It's an obligation to the Lord. That is serviced by our mutual love to another and it's a duty that we have so long as the Lord tarries. Or calls one of us home to him. The debt of love is owed to Christ The Lord Jesus Christ who saved us and the terms of this debt are that we love one another.

That's the way we pay it. And this is what the Apostle Paul is speaking of here or writing of in these verses in Romans. Well, the debt can be paid matter of fact, it must be paid this obligation must be serviced.

Even knowing that it can never be completely extinguished. It can't be retired the way we did our mortgage here at the church a few years back. But yes, it can be paid. It must be paid. As I said here Oh Israel.

Here obey. Oh Church. To love to love the Lord your God and to love your neighbor as yourself. Love is a debt and we pay it back to him. The check that we pay back with if we want to make a metaphor of that.

It's drawn on an account though, that's a little different from how we pay our mortgages. Because when I write a check for paying the small loan that we have on our house. They deduct it from my checking account.

The checking account goes down. When I get my paycheck the check goes back up and then I write a check and it goes down you understand all this. But the check that we present to the heavenly cashier though.

When we service this obligation here to love one another. Owing nothing to anyone except to love one another and Paul goes on and quotes from Deuteronomy. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. Well, there's one where we don't have an account that goes down.

We have an account that's filled over and over that we're doing something here. We need to understand as we love one another in the way that Christ would have us love one another which is the way that Christ loved us a Direct line from his love to ours or should be.

We're doing something that's foreign to ourselves. Do you have in yourself a perfect love for your neighbor? Well, of course not. Do I? No. Where does this come from? What comes from Christ? Romans 5 5 speaking of the love of God that was poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.

Notice please that this is the account from which we draw this resource that we write the check as it were to. It's against that and that Love was not metered out to us. That love was not broken into easy to handle parcels to save the delivery man's back.

It was poured out and in this God passes the test that he sets for himself in Malachi. When he says to the people of Israel put me to the test says the Lord of hosts. If I will not open the windows of heaven For you and pour down for you a blessing until there's no more room for it.

And this Dear ones is our resource for servicing this ongoing this constant obligation. There's debt that we have to Jesus Christ to love one another. And you know when we take on debt. Any kind of debt any financial obligation with his mortgage rent car loans college loans.

Whatever it is. We we take on this obligation or I hope we do in accordance what we with what we can pay back. The monthly payments of servicing of the debt need to be within the resources that we can we can use this debt as I said.

It demands that we pay it with something we don't have in and of ourselves. Love which is pure brotherly affection. Not sensual not selfish not greedy. The kind of love God showed when he sent his son the kind of love Jesus showed When he died for us while we were still enemies of both him and his father.

The verses before us 13 8 through 10 in Romans. It can really cover a very vast scope. You think of all that's in there. We have a lesson there about not being in debt. We have their love Agape repeated five times in three verses and in every verse there's this reference back to the law to the commandments to the Mosaic law.

There's a lot there. And mixed all through it is this constant Obligation we have to love the first part of verse 8 it seems to command that we never be in actual literal debt and Some even think that that makes it a sin to borrow anything at all for any purpose whatsoever.

In my estimation that's far too reductionist. Against what the Apostle Paul is Presenting to us here to simply turn it into well don't be in debt. You can't take a loan for a car. You must save your money and pay cash for that and for your house and for anything else.

Those things might be true, and they might be practical. But I don't think that's what the Apostle is getting at here. You know some make it a sin to borrow anything and That turns this crucial in this profound instruction and a little more than a primer on good personal financial management.

So let me ask up front. Let's let's cover this practical side first. Can you have debt? You say pastor at the end of this message I'm gonna come to you am I in sin because I have a mortgage or a car loan or a college loan and Am I going to sin because I want to take this loan for this other thing I need.

Can I have debt. And the answer is sure You can have debt. But then ask the next question can I have debt that extends beyond my means. Well Psalm 3721 says the wicked borrows and does not repay so the answer there is no if you are putting the lender not yourself.

If you're putting the lender at risk to miss even a single payment. To even be late and wonder and worry for a moment whether the payments actually coming if you're gonna put him at risk for that. Well the answer is no, I think Psalm 3721 would call that wickedness so You can borrow.

To take Romans 13 8 as a lesson in not borrowing at all. I think makes too little of what the Paul the Apostle is saying. For yourself for me whether you've borrowed for things worthy of debt or things that are frivolous.

I leave that to you. One man's jalopy jalopy is another man's dream car. One man's mansion is another man's shack to borrow from Paul let each man be convinced in his own conscience. Now Paul's point here.

And we're going to get to the love that we need to show each other. But Paul's point here flows very smoothly very neatly from verses 1 through 7 which I started with. There were told to be subject to the governing authorities because they with all their ability to coerce our obedience.

The sword placed in their hand by God whether they know it or not. We know it. But that's where it came from from God. They are there by God's decree and by his will and for our good. That section ends with the command that we pay what we owe taxes to whom taxes revenue to whom revenue and so forth.

I Notice when I read that that there's in those four that he mentions taxes revenue honor respect. It breaks evenly 50 -50 between abstract and literal debt. The literal debt being the taxes the revenue the abstract being the respect and honor.

And I noticed then that verse 8 In our text this morning does the same thing he says owe nothing to anyone. There's your literal debt. But the debt of love and that's kind of an abstract thing to have love be a debt.

And again, this isn't a precept against all borrowing. It means you pay what you've committed yourself to. Now some might object that they didn't commit themselves to income taxes that they were foisted upon them.

True or not their authority to lever levy and collect the taxes is from God as we just read so we pay them. It's a debt like it or not. Well, I think this makes the best sense of these verses here. I Personally we have a small loan on our house.

It's something I owe but at no point can the bank come to me and demand that I make a payment. They can't come to me and demand a Penalty for a late payment because we consistently service the debt we pay it each month.

So I can say with all honesty with all compliance to verse 8 that I know that I owe no one anything. I'm not woken up in the middle of the night in terror wondering if I could be able to make a payment.

I know that it's been taken care of so that energy that would otherwise go to that is Given over to the church and to my spiritual Responsibilities, so what do we owe? What do we owe it flows from verse 7 we pay what we owe and.

Then the rest of verse 8 through 10 explains why and it's simply this. Love fulfills the law. You owe love. That's why you pay it. And what happens when we pay this love when we service this obligation that we have to the Lord Jesus Christ that we service with each other.

Was the Apostle say? We are fulfilling the law. Love fulfills the Commandments. The law has been mentioned in this book since chapter 10. That's where we read that Christ is the end of the law for everyone who believes.

And also the law comes back up and here it is in the exact context of love. Love and law. We need to deal with these this morning. Start with love. Love has really fallen on bad times. Has it not I? Mean if we think of what society at-large Thinks of love and how they define it and how they do it if you will it really has fallen on some hard times.

It didn't happen all at once. It didn't happen just in our generation. And if we read the bible and talk about how things are going to get worse and worse. The next generation might look back wistfully upon ours and say boy I wish we could define love as well and as purely as they did.

And of course we look and we look back at the generation before us to say, you know. They had it more right than we do. It's gotten worse and worse and the preacher in ecclesiastes says. Do not ask why the former times are better than these because you do not inquire wisely about this.

But let's understand that love has indeed fallen on bad times. Today, it's so confused with sex. Which in god's design is a product of true love biblical love. Love I mean, what is it? I mean too often.

It's an ooey gooey squishy feel-good emotion. That's based on the moment is an attraction that has about as much foundation as a castle of sand. How many of you remember the righteous brothers? I'm always dating myself.

Okay a few hands. They had that great hit. You've lost that loving feeling. Do you remember that you've lost that loving feeling? Oh, oh, oh that loving feeling you've lost that loving feeling now. It's gone gone gone.

Oh, oh, oh, it's Gone, and you'll all thank me for not having sung that. But that's how love is viewed. It's something that comes and goes it comes you say. Oh, this is great. I've caught love. It feels so good and then it goes and you go.

Oh, I hate it when that happens. And we can ask ourselves. Well. Where did it go? Did it fall out of a hole in your pocket? Did some hacker get into your computer and take away your love? Did thieves break in and steal it?

Maybe mauls or rust destroyed it more likely. They never really had it because they didn't understand it. They didn't have it because they didn't understand it. It's much like that testimony from the girl that I read this morning.

We don't know what right is except that God defines it for us. And by knowing God and his holiness and his purity and his love Showered upon us by his son Jesus Christ. We can define what is wrong and by knowing what is wrong.

We come back to knowing what is right. It's not an ooey-gooey squishy feeling. Now it may make you feel that way but ultimately that's not what it is. What is love? What is this agape love in these three verses?

We have love five times in these three verses love agape. And we need to limit ourselves just to what we have here in these three verses because love is such a huge subject. That we could never really finish it.

Could we? But what do we have here? I said it several times already. We need to get this into our head. Love is a debt. It follows in the scripture here right on the heels of the literal debts we owe.

So it almost has a commercial flavor to it. But that's okay. We can live with that because it is an obligation. It is a duty. It is a debt. And it's one that requires constant servicing. Love is a debt.

A debt is something that is owed or that one is bound to pay or perform for another. A liability or obligation to pay or render something the condition of being. Such excuse me the condition of being under such an obligation.

Does that sound strange to your ears. It should I mean if we admit it it really does sound funny. Here in this 21st century and we're surrounded by this other view of love and how. You know, it's just this thing that kind of passes by and it makes you feel wonderful and warm for a moment.

So it sounds strange to say it's a debt you owe love. Like the bank that could send a collector the repo man with the tow truck. If you don't make the payment on your car bang on the door say you owed money.

And we're taking it back because you didn't pay. Is it like that? You know when we recite wedding vows, we promise to love honor obey words to that effect. We commit ourselves. Even today when many couples write their own vows love is almost never left out.

We're placing ourselves with all the integrity of our word into an obligation we're freely entering into this debt. The debt of keeping our word the obligation to love. So love is a debt may sound odd.

But it's really not all that strange. The fact is. If we think about this. We're born into debt. We're born into a debt that we inherited. In much the same way we're born into sin. Because we inherited that from adam and adam is the one we need to go back to to understand his debt.

God's given his law his law sets forth his demands for the conduct of his people. It's a law he gave to adam though not in the detail. He gave to moses and israel from sinai, but he gave his law to adam.

Subdue the earth go forth and multiply which was actually a blessing. He seems to have done this. There is one law a prohibitive law. Much in the same form as the ten commandments with the you shall not you shall not eat of the tree of life.

Of course when adam disobeyed that he introduced sin into the very being of his descendants. And he bekeith to us also this enormous debt a debt that would make the unforgiving servant of matthew 18 despair even more than he did.

He passed on to this this unsatisfied obligation. Commitment to obey god this unsatisfied commitment and obligation and debt and law. To obey the lord our god. Well later god, of course from sinai gave the law to moses and like the command to adam is a law to be obeyed in every particular.

Which of course of course we cannot and no one can. But even so even knowing this obedience is what? Demanded listen if you're alive you owe god disobedience. We owe it to our maker to obey his law, it's a debt.

And one thing about debts. They don't just go away. Do they? They don't just vaporize. Not like that righteous brothers with the love. Could you ever say i've lost that? Debted feeling whoa that dead feeling.

Now it's gone gone gone and I feel so happy now. No deaths don't just go away. They demand something they demand to be serviced. They demand to be paid. Law or commandments is as prominent in romans 13 8 to 10 as love is you you just can't separate the two.

The greatest command love the lord your god with all your heart with all your soul with all your might. I recited to you in hebrew a moment ago. That's deuteronomy 6 which is the second telling of the law.

It's on the eve of israel's return to the promised land and the whole context of that book is to love god by obeying him. To service this debt of love to our maker. Deuteronomy 1113 says. And if you will indeed obey my commandments that I command you today.

To love the lord your god and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul. First john chapter 5 verse 2 it carries us forward into the church today by this. We know that we love the children of god when we love god and obey his commandments.

Do you see? This connection this welded connection. Between the love that we have for each other and the law. It still might sound funny to some of yours to say your love is a debt. And the law says you must love but that is what it says.

And a lot of the way we hear it could just be in the way we emphasize it. What if I said God because of the redemption that he gave his people in jesus christ. Has made an obligation for you. To love one another the way christ loved you.

Does that sound a little better to you? It says the same thing. To say we owe god this allegiance this obedience. Because what he's done for us. Therefore we gladly take upon ourselves this obligation.

That god has put to his people. A lot of times it's just the emphasis. But whether it sounds funny to tell you your love is a debt and an obligation and that the law says you must love. However, that sounds in our ears.

That is what the scripture tells us over and over. And not something that came up in the first century when jesus came and spoke of love. And says a new commandment. I give you that you love one another.

Read the high priestly prayer. Well, really that's proper in chapter 17 of john, but go back to chapter 13 and read all the way to 17. See how prominent love is how often jesus commands his people to be loving just as the apostle does here in romans 13.

The lord says to love him first and foremost because first of all what he's worthy of love. Without his love. We really have no definition of love or any basis for it. It's a lot like what I said about governing authorities and the laws they minister unless there is a god of order.

There could be no law. Even ungodly nations. Oh their very desire to have laws to the fact that there's a god of order who gave us the desire to have law. And it's the same with love. We with every person who ever has or ever will live we owe to him love.

This debt. So what are the terms of this debt? A debt. It has to have terms we don't just start paying a bank. I mean we went to the bank. We made the terms with him if we don't like those terms. We go to another bank.

There has to be terms though. We don't shop around with god, of course. Second half of verse 8 where he starts with oh nothing the second half but to love one another leviticus 1918 as I said. The second of the great command, but really the other is like it is better way to put it and this love.

That we owe to god. This debt that we need to service to god has this outlet. And what's the outlet? How does it get paid? Well gets paid with an active and persistent love for each other an active persistent love for each other.

And that's the payment literally to god. To christ jesus who died for us to the holy spirit who poured this love out into us and made us able to even do This or even think about this or even want to do this persistent active determined love for one another.

When he writes no one. Oh, no one he seems to include those outside the church. And that makes me think that one another. Oh, no one that's those over here. Oh, no one anybody anything. Except to love one another.

That's a term that is normally used for the church. Who are the one and others? Every time you see them in the scripture, especially in the epistles of the new testament one another is us. One another is fellow believers brothers and sisters in the lord.

This doesn't mean that we have a license to be unloving to non-christians. That would be ridiculous. That doesn't say that many of us have family members sons and daughters who've not come to christ yet.

We love them. But this is much like jesus in john chapter 17 verse 9 he says I do not pray for the world. But I pray for these the disciples. I pray for those who will believe their word, which is us.

But jesus is not saying there. I never pray for the world. I don't care a hoot for the world. That's not what he's saying. He's saying right now at this moment. I'm not praying for the world. I'm praying for them.

Who are going to bring the gospel to the world? So For me taking one another to be loved within the church i'm not saying never love outside the church. I'm saying this immediate context that paul is speaking of here a writing of here is here.

What he says is that by showing love for one another we service this debt that we owe to god and we fulfill the law. Now this is a debt that goes on. This is something that as I said as long as the lord tarrys.

Or as long as he keeps from calling us to himself. This debt goes on. The niv does a really good job here as does phillips paraphrase. Let no debt remain outstanding except the continuing debt to love one another.

For he who loves his fellow man has fulfilled the law. Very consistent with what dale read to you from first john. So we have this ongoing duty to satisfy this debt of love by which you and I do what we fulfill the law.

We follow christ's command. This is obeying him. This is deuteronomy 6 4 and all the other deuteronomy passages. I read obeying god by loving and. The same law that demands our total obedience is thus fulfilled.

That's what jesus said. That's what paul the apostle is saying here romans 13. All the commandments summed up by this imperative of love. Not just the four listed in verse 9 adultery murder stealing and coveting.

Paul writes any other commandment the whole scope of law. Fulfilled here in our mutual love for one another. We don't do this by just having a loving feeling. That'd be back to you've lost that loving feeling.

And with this disappearance any need to actually be loving the law is fulfilled by the doing of it. The four laws that paul cites are prohibitions. And so we service this debt of love to each other by not by not committing adultery.

You are loving me by not stealing. You are loving the sister next to you by not coveting. You're loving the brother behind you by not by obeying. And it says in malachi, why do we commit treachery against one another by disobeying the lord by breaking the covenant same concept here.

You service this debt to god. When you don't do these things and when we don't do these things it includes me. And all of you when we don't do these things we are what? Loving each other and then there is the doing.

That's refraining. Let us refrain. Because that's obedience to god. And here o israel here is listen here also means obey. So don't do these things that's obedience, but there's a lot of doing. There's a positive demonstration that certifies this love.

They don't prove it. If you do these things and you say it's because you love christ. Well, i'm going to be inclined to believe you. Doing the things jesus demands is not the same as believing in him.

So don't ever substitute that. I did this thing. Therefore. I must be a christian. A christian was one who by faith Has repented of their sins? And gone to jesus christ and trusted in his suffering on your behalf.

Trusting that god poured his wrath for your sins on him and that he paid the price fully. And therefore you've repented of your sin and gone by faith in the lord jesus christ. That's what a christian is so Don't let the doing of anything be a substitute for faith in christ.

It's not. But at some level the doing does certify our faith doesn't it. I will show you my faith by my works says james. So there's doing it's not just the prohibitions. Though I want us to keep in mind.

That when we don't do what we're told not to do we are fulfilling the law. And loving each other fulfills the law so I can say that by not doing the things that we're not supposed to do. We are in fact loving each other.

Positive Ways to Love One Another in Romans 12

Let's look some positive things. Turn back in romans to chapter 12, please. It's been a few weeks since we were there. I don't mind going back to it because as I said I think the apostle paul has been on a steady stream of thought here in 13 1 through 7 about the governing authorities was not an excursus.

There's one line of reasoning. Look up at verse 9. What do we do? If i'm saying. And I hope you believe this that by not doing the things that you're not supposed to do you are in fact Loving your brothers and sisters in the way that paul means it here the way he ties love together with the law.

But there's doing verse 9. Let love be genuine pure. Brotherly affection no ulterior motive. Genuine because it is the love of christ has been poured into our hearts by his holy spirit. Let love be that way positively.

Be like this towards people. We don't use each other we don't go after each other for some agenda. A pure genuine love the verse goes on abhor what is evil. Positively hate what is evil. It's like that testimony.

I read this morning I know it is evil because god has shown me what is good. Which is the second half of that clause. Hold fast to what is good. By doing this you are loving your neighbor. You're one another here in the church and thus servicing.

You're part of that debt to christ. To love verse 10 love one another with brotherly affection. So how do we do that? Read on. Outdo one another in showing honor. Don't get in each other's way to receive honor but shoulder your way to the front of the line.

Which is where you get the first chance to show someone else honor. That's loving. That's satisfying your commitment to christ. That's fulfilling the law. Verse 11 do not be slothful and zeal. There's a prohibition.

Be fervent in spirit. When you come to this place and worship with us with a burning desire to glorify the lord jesus christ to be an example that we could look to and say this day. I want to worship the way that brother or sister did.

I Want to sing with that enthusiasm? I want my hands to just jolt out of my sockets so I bring up so high does I give praise to god. When you have that kind of fervency and spirit. You're loving me. The people next to you and extinguishing this debt that can never be extinguished.

The end of that verse is serve the lord. You serve the lord by being fervent in spirit. Amongst us amongst the one and others. To bring us all to higher levels Of fervency in our worship of the lord. Jesus christ.

That's loving us. Let me just go on and read verses 12 through 18. I'm not going to comment on these as I go through them, but i'll put them before you. Rejoice in hope. Be patient in tribulation. Be constant in prayer.

Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality. Bless those who persecute you bless and do not curse them. Rejoice with those who rejoice. Weep with those who weep. Live in harmony with one another.

Do not be haughty. But associate with the lowly never be conceited. Repay. No one evil for evil but give thought to what is honorable in the sight of all. If possible so far as it depends on you live peaceably with all a steady stream of thought.

All the way through these verses and down to chapter 13 and verse 10 this Debt that we have uninherited debt. We inherited from adam sin. And we know that. And god made provision for that in the lord.