My wife and I bought our first house when we were 27 years old. Since that time, I have been in debt, and by God’s grace, I have been paying what I owe each month on that house and now the house that I currently have.
Can you imagine if you were paying a debt that you have and that debt never got smaller? That would be crazy, wouldn’t it?
In today’s passage, Paul is going to start us off by pointing out that there is one debt that we will never pay off.
Today we’re going to look at Romans 13:8-14. Before we do, let’s go to the Lord in prayer and ask Him to speak to us.
(prayer)
Look at the first part of Romans 13:8. It says, “Do not owe anyone anything, except to love one another . . .”
The Bible clearly teaches that we are to pay off what we owe to other people (we saw that just last week with taxes and tolls and such). As Christians, we should be the most dependable when it comes to our bills being paid.
However, the debt that Paul says we will continue to pay off is the calling to love other people.
In this passage, Paul is going to talk about loving and living in the daytime. Today’s sermon is entitled, “The Daytime is the Time to Love.”
There are two main actions that we must take that jump off the page at us when we study this passage. So, let’s pay attention and let’s be obedient.
First, . . .
I. We must love abundantly.
Again, look at the passage. Let’s look at Romans 13:8-10.
It says, “8 Do not owe anyone anything, except to love one another, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. 9 The commandments, Do not commit adultery; do not murder; do not steal; do not covet; and any other commandment, are summed up by this commandment: Love your neighbor as yourself. 10 Love does no wrong to a neighbor. Love, therefore, is the fulfillment of the law.”
Ok, let’s first acknowledge that this command to love is not a new command.
God commands His people in the Old Testament, in Leviticus 19:18, “. . . love your neighbor as yourself; I am the Lord.”
Also, Jesus said in Matthew 19:19,“ . . . love your neighbor as yourself.”
Jesus also said in Matthew 22:37-40, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and most important command. The second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself. All the Law and the Prophets depend on these two commands.”
So, this message from Paul that we are to love others is nothing new. However, Paul does provide this idea of us being in debt to loving others. In other words, we owe love to others.
We must ask ourselves why we owe love to other people.
Well, the reason we are to love other people is because God has loved us so abundantly that it wells up inside us and just comes out of us. If we’ve experienced love from God, others should experience love from us.
So, we should love abundantly because we have been loved abundantly.
Still, that’s not the only reason that we should love abundantly.
How many of you understand that if we have been loved by God that we should seek to obey the law of God?
Well, wouldn’t it be simple if there was a way that we can understand how to fulfill the law of God simply and fully?
Well, look no further than Romans 13:8-10.
Paul says, “ . . . the one who loves another has fulfilled the law.”
Then, Paul says in verse 9, “The commandments, Do not commit adultery; do not murder; do not steal; do not covet; and any other commandment, are summed up by this commandment: Love your neighbor as yourself.”
Finally, Paul says in verse 10, “Love does no wrong to a neighbor. Love, therefore, is the fulfillment of the law.”
What Paul is essentially telling us is that you can’t go wrong with loving others!
It’s like buying a gift for your wife for no reason: you can’t go wrong! It’s like ordering a side of bacon with your meal: you can’t go wrong! It’s like the grandparents offering to watch the kids: you can’t go wrong! It’s like receiving a note of encouragement in the mail: you can’t go wrong!
It is always a good thing to love others because love does no wrong to a neighbor.
We have been loved abundantly by God and we can abundantly fulfill the law of God when we love abundantly.
That’s the first truth that we must catch: we must love abundantly.
Second, . . .
II. We must live intentionally.
Let us look at verses 11-14, “11 Besides this, since you know the time, it is already the hour for you to wake up from sleep, because now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed. 12 The night is nearly over, and the day is near; so let us discard the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light. 13 Let us walk with decency, as in the daytime: not in carousing and drunkenness; not in sexual impurity and promiscuity; not in quarreling and jealousy. 14 But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and don’t make plans to gratify the desires of the flesh.”
Notice that Paul says, “Besides this . . .”
The King James Version says, “And that . . .” The New Living Translation says, “This is all the more urgent . . .”
Love is so important. But besides love, there’s something else Paul wants us to focus on.
Paul wants us to pay attention to something.
He says in verse 11 to “ . . . wake up from sleep.”
He says this as if his readers should already realize that they need to wake up. Paul says, “ . . . since you know the time . . .” and “ . . . it is already the hour . . .”
Then Paul, gives the reason that we should wake up and pay attention. He says in verse 11, “because now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed.”
Paul continues in verse 12, “The night is nearly over, and the day is near . . .”
Paul is talking about the night in reference to the time of the reign of sin on the earth. He is talking about the day in reference to the return of Jesus when Jesus will reign as King in the new heaven and new earth.
So, now we are living in the nighttime. Sin is affecting all of our world. However, soon (we don’t know exactly when) but sooner today than yesterday, Jesus will return and the daytime will begin.
When Jesus returns, we will fully live in the light, spiritual darkness will be eliminated, and sin will be eliminated! Then, we will experience the joys and blessings of God forevermore!
How many of you are looking forward to the daytime?
The daylight is coming but now we are still living in the time of darkness. However, just because we are in the time of darkness doesn’t mean that we need to live lives of darkness.
Paul says in verse 12, “ . . . so let us discard the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light.”
As children of God, as children of the light, each of us must intentionally make a decision to live as people of the light.
This doesn’t happen by accident, this happens by us intentionally doing something; we must intentionally arm ourselves.
Paul says we must, “ . . . put on the armor of light.”
This wording reminds me of the armor of God that Paul mentions in Ephesians 6.
We are to arm ourselves with the ways of God so that we can live lives for God.
We must not only put on something but we also must take something off.
We must “ . . . discard the deeds of darkness.” Some translations say we must “cast off” these sinful things
This is the idea of getting these unwanted things off of our body and out of our lives.”
Paul names the deeds of darkness that we are to cast off. He says we must not walk in, “ . . . carousing and drunkenness; not in sexual impurity and promiscuity; not in quarreling and jealousy.”
Paul loosely identifies three areas where many people in our world struggle: controlling our lives (carousing and drunkenness), controlling our bodies (sexual impurity and promiscuity), and controlling our emotions (quarreling and jealousy).
There are certainly other areas of darkness in this world and there are certainly other areas of temptation for the Christian. However, Paul names a few here, and perhaps these were some areas that were particularly troubling for the Romans.
Here’s the point, church: these sins are the deeds of darkness and we should cast them off of our lives and throw them off. We must throw them away like a shirt that has vomit on it!
We must cast off carousing, drunkenness, sexual impurity, promiscuity, quarreling, jealousy, addiction, lack of forgiveness, envy, gossip, laziness, apathy, hatred, racism, selfishness, lying, stealing, and everything that is of the darkness.
Not only are we to cast these things off, not only are we to put on the armor of light, but Paul continues with more instruction.
Paul adds that we are to walk in decency.
Other translations say to walk “properly” or “honestly.”
The idea here is for us to walk in the way that God has created and called us to live our lives. We are to walk in the life to which Jesus has redeemed us, not in sin.
You might ask, “Pastor Matt, how do I do this? Is there some secret weapon to help me to live this way?” Well, I’m glad that you asked.
Listen to what Paul says in verse 14. Paul says, “But put on the Lord Jesus Christ.”
Again, this act is an active decision. We choose to be more like Jesus. We choose to take on behaviors that make us more like Jesus and we do so because we have been changed by Jesus.
To put on the Lord Jesus Christ means that we choose humility, we choose forgiveness, we choose purity, we choose self-control, we choose kindness, we choose patience, we choose generosity, we choose wisdom, we choose joy, we choose love, and we choose so many other things that make us more like Jesus.
Finally, Paul says, “ . . . don’t make plans to gratify the desires of the flesh.”
When Paul says flesh here, he doesn’t mean merely our physical bodies. Rather, he means the part of our bodies that lead us to sin.
We’re not to give any energy, time, or attention to the things that lead us to sin.
Just as you should not feed the possum in your backyard, you shouldn’t give money to someone with substance addiction, and you shouldn’t wait to start a meeting for the person who is always late; so also you shouldn’t do anything that would help fuel sin in your life.
We should not provide for sin and we should not gratify the desires of sin.
In order for us to be the people whom God has created and called us to be, we must intentionally reject sin and we must intentionally put on Jesus.
We must live intentionally.
That takes us to our bottom line. As Christians, we must . . .
Bottom Line: Be marked by love and light.
Some of the key characteristics of a Christian should be light and love.
Paul says we must reject the darkness and pursue the light.
Further, he says if we love others abundantly, we will fulfill the law of God.
So, pursue love and pursue light.
By the way, if you want to dig deeper into love and light, read 1 John and the Gospel of John. John had a lot to say about love and light.
But after hearing from Paul, here are some ways that you can challenge yourself to live out this passage this week:
Weekly Challenge #1 – Identify a way that you can love someone else.
Think of something that you can do to show love to others this week.
Can you forgive someone? Can you help someone in need? Can you encourage someone? Can you be generous to someone?
Be intentional. Love on purpose.
Weekly Challenge #2 – Identify a way that you can put on Jesus.
We put on certain things, don’t we?
Hopefully, we’re putting on deodorant each day. Some of us put on nice clothes for church. We put on sunglasses on a sunny day. I put on my stretchy pants when I get home for the evening.
We put all these things on purposefully. You don’t accidentally put something on.
So, also, we must purposefully put on the Lord Jesus Christ.
What is one way that you can put on Jesus this week?
Challenge yourself to put on Jesus.
(Gospel presentation)
(closing prayer)
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