Unpaid Debt

you would take your Bible and
turn to the Book of Romans once again and brother I had exactly
the same sentiment and I had seen the Lord work in this way
so many times but it was absolutely astounding to me and John is
good at kind of forecasting where I might be and sometimes building
into the theme but there was no predicting that verse that
was just the Lord weaving that verse into our service as he
has with everything else. Romans chapter 13 is where we
find ourselves. And we are in the midst of a
greater series life with others, and essentially Paul is detailing
for us what our conduct should be with regards to other people
groups. We looked first at life with
Christians and Paul spent no little time. He started there
first and spent no little time detailing exactly how the Christians
are to treat each other. And he essentially starts with
what will be the theme of this passage this morning. He starts
with love. Let love be without hypocrisy,
pointing to the fact that a lot of times we pretend to be something
that we are not. Paul also dealt with those who
are contrary to us. Paul went on from there to deal
with those who are downtrodden. He touches upon dealing with
those who are utterly hateful and have a mind of persecution
towards us. And we just wrapped up five weeks,
I think, in that section in the first seven verses of Romans
chapter 13 on how we are to relate to civil government. You might
even say that this section deals with everybody. What I would
refer to as a responsibility to all and that responsibility
to all is a debt. That Paul calls love, if you
would pick up the greater section there beginning in verse eight,
we go all the way through verse 14, where Paul will deal with
everybody in a number of different facets, verse eight. owe nothing
to anyone except to love one another. For he who loves his
neighbor has fulfilled the law. For this, you shall not commit
adultery. You shall not murder. You shall
not steal. You shall not covet. And if there
is any other commandment, it is summed up in this saying. You shall love your neighbor
as yourself. Love does no wrong to a neighbor. Love, therefore, is the fulfillment
of the law. And this do knowing the time
that it is already the hour for you to awaken from sleep. For
now, salvation is nearer to us than when we believed the night
is almost gone and the day is at hand. Let us, therefore, lay
aside the deeds of darkness. and put on the armor of light.
Let us behave properly as in the day, not carousing in drunkenness,
not in sexual promiscuity and sensuality, not in strife and
jealousy, but put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision
for the flesh in regard to its lusts. Paul had been dealing
with duties towards civil government and we spent no little time looking
at that. You might think that the transition
here is a little bit abrupt. I think it’s actually a rather
smooth transition. Back in Romans chapter 12 when
Paul began this section as I’ve already mentioned he began with
the principle of love and he urged that it not be hypocritical
that it be genuine. That it operates out of a heart
that is sincere. Let love be without hypocrisy. And we we took time to consider
how ugly hypocritical love really is. Hypocritical love goes through
all the motions and no further. Hypocritical love leaves our
responsibilities to others completely undone. It has good intentions
and really nothing more, and so it’s not surprising that Paul
circles back as he begins to deal with everyone that a Christian
might interact with, and he returns to this great subject. Of love. Paul repeats basically. And he
uses this as a springboard. He repeats. The negative negative
Here the positive injunction that he had just cited in verse
7 in verse 7 he said render to all what is due them and he could
have stopped there. You could certainly extrapolate
from those words all that Paul says in here in verses 8 through
10. But Paul says it not only in
the positive render to all what is due them. And then he says
in verse 8 Oh nothing. to anyone. And so it forms a
very simple and straightforward transition that we will consider
this morning. A responsibility to everyone. A debt of love. Look at verse
8. Where Paul says, owe nothing to anyone except to love one
another. And essentially what you could
say is looking back on everything from chapter 12 verse 3 to chapter
13 verse 7 Paul is essentially summing up how do we treat Christians. How do we treat the downtrodden.
How do we respond to civil government. We respond out of a heart of
Christian love. Oh nothing to anyone. And in saying so Paul absolutely
points to what would be socially uncouth is to skip out on your
debts. And what he points to here in
those few little words is that we are called to pay every creditor
in full. Paul here and there were a lot
of commentators that took a real hard left turn here and took
these words to mean that Paul is absolutely forbidding any
kind of debt at any time any way shape and form never owe
anything to anyone. Well I think that is really stretching
these words. In fact I think it’s misusing
these words. Paul isn’t here forbidding the the occasion of
debt. There are circumstances that
come into people’s lives. I don’t know how anyone would
buy a home in this day and age if not for the ability to take
on a mortgage. Certainly in our day we have
seen people just abuse that to their own detriment. They take
on debt that essentially ends up pressuring and even sinking
them. And I think wisdom here should
take over and should inform the Christian as to what is right
and proper. And I don’t know that there’s
a dollar amount or a percentage that could be applied. There
is no formula. We have to go before the Lord and we don’t
want to be saddled with debt. I remember personally one of
the privileges that we had. We prayed Barbara and I prayed
entirely through seminary. We wanted to graduate absolutely
debt free so that we could go anywhere and do anything for
the Lord. We didn’t know what that meant.
God did. God knew that the first church
that we were going to land in for the first three years we
were going to be paid fifteen thousand dollars. a year. So without the ability to do
that we there’s no way that we could have taken that job if
we had had a massive amount of debt to pay. And I think that
waterline of how much debt just like faith and responsibility.
I think that waterline is different for every man for every couple.
I think they have to negotiate that between them and their God,
how much insurance, how much debt, what kind of decisions
stands really between the leadership of a man in his home and his
God given wife. But what is clear here. Is that
he forbids us to stand in debt to anyone to refuse to pay our
debt to stand in a position of owing someone. As one said to
withhold from any man what is his due. Now it’s one thing that
if you have set up some kind of a payment plan with someone
and are diligent in that it’s a it’s quite another to have
the means to pay the debt and refuse to pay. And that is rampant
in our day it’s called Chapter 11 right. When we set up a payment
plan we gave our word that we would pay. Perhaps we even offered
up some kind of collateral and then we withhold payment or circumstances
dictate and we have found ourselves presuming upon the future in
taking on this debt. We are wholly unable to pay and
as such we have no choice. What he points to here is that
we should pay what we owe. Another said that Christians
ought to attend most scrupulously to this injunction. It is a great
injury to others and a reproach to Christianity when the servants
of God neglect this duty. What Paul says is pay what you
owe. If you borrow it, pay it back. Now. Even though he uses this
analogy here of monetary debts, that isn’t even really what is
in focus. It is the concept of borrowing
and paying back that Paul really wants to focus on here. What
he points to here with regards to monetary debt is really the immediate payment.
The as soon as you can get about paying that off, it’s no great
secret. They used to call it the banker’s
secret that if you double down on your payments, if you even
add a little bit more to your payment on a monthly basis, what
you’re really doing is paying that debt down much more quickly. And that’s essentially what Paul
is saying here. Get about paying off your debts,
whatever they are. Christian. is called to be watchful,
is called to be careful to avoid such debt that he cannot pay.
That any expenses within his means, he is to take care of.
And he is to have really a compassionate regard for anyone who is a creditor
to him. Proverbs 3 says it this way,
do not withhold good from those to whom it is due. If you owe
somebody something and you have the means to pay, you should
be about it. You shouldn’t take on any additional debt or responsibility
until you do. When it is in your power to do
it, do not say to your neighbor, go and come back and tomorrow
I will give it. When you have it with you, that’s
the concept I believe that Paul is talking about here. And when
he uses this double negative, owe nothing to no one. That’s
literally how it’s written. He points very strongly to this
injunction. He basically tells you to take
out your ledger, take out your bank book, take out those files
and look through them and don’t end up in debt to anyone. Don’t refuse to pay anyone to
whom it is rightly due. except one. And on this one he
essentially he calls us to a standard and at the same time tells us
that no matter how hard we work this particular debt will never
be paid off will never be paid off. Oh nothing to anyone except
to love one another. We’re not to stand in debt to
any man financially speaking. But it is impossible to consider
that we could ever pay off this debt of love. What he points
to here, what he uses as an illustration, is that love beautifully here
represented as a debt that ultimately will never be fully paid. An
account that though we render over and over again, we send
in our payments faithfully, we roll up our sleeves and we serve
our brothers and sisters in Christ. It’s a debt. It’s a debt that
every morning we wake up is due all over again in full. One pastor characterized it in
these terms, he translated it as leave no debt unpaid. Except the undying debt of love,
which you must always owe, because this alone holds the debtor even
after it has been paid. There’s kind of a conundrum at
work here where Paul says, I want you to get up every morning and
I want you to get about paying off this debt. And at the end
of the day, even if you’ve had a great day, close your eyes,
prepare yourself, because the next morning the whole sum is
due again. Leave no debt unpaid. You could
pay your taxes. There’s even an end point apparently
where your taxes will be finished. You can even pay off as some
have joyfully done their home perhaps their car perhaps some
other debt that you’ve accrued your financial aid in going through
school. But you can never say in the
history of your entire life you have reached the end that you
have done everything that you need to do with regards to your
brothers and sisters in Christ with regards to those around
you that you have paid in full your debt of love which you owe.
Essentially love is a permanent and a perpetuating obligation. Now when Paul says this he says
that we are to owe nothing to anyone except to love one another
that little one another. One of the beautiful studies
in Scripture in the New Testament. If you ever have an opportunity
and you have a good concordance you can do some of this online.
A study of the one and others is one of the most enriching
things where we really see how we are supposed to be relating
to our brothers and sisters in Christ. But here it I think we
unnecessarily limit when we say that this one another here points
only to Christians, I think we we go too far in limiting it.
It literally says the other. It doesn’t say believers, it
doesn’t say our brethren, as it could have. It doesn’t say
one another in Christ, and it could have. It just says literally
the other. Your neighbor. Now, it doesn’t
translate it that way, and here I’m happy that it doesn’t, because
I think there’s a there’s a point to be made here. Paul will get
to the word neighbor here briefly. But it’s the person with which
we have to deal, it’s whoever God brings across our path. And
specifically in the point of transition in which we find ourselves
he’s just taken us out of dealing with civil government. And he
says not only rulers but everybody anybody that we come across we
should respond out of a debt of love. Paul had insisted as
we know upon loyalty to our governing officials Paul It goes on to
point to this principle of love, and he says that it really should
control all the relations of life. That even even with regards
to our civil government, we respond out of a love debt. Certainly with regards to our
family, absolutely with regards to the church, but Paul takes
it very broadly here, and he says it’s everybody, not just
the Christian community. This debt of love that we can
never be finished paying is a debt that is owed to every person
without any exception. Christian is to pay every obligation,
every obligation to the government, every obligation to his creditors,
and he’s to pay a debt of love to any and everybody that he
comes across. This is a tall order, people. The debt of love. As one said,
this does not mean that love is to be an unpaid debt in the
sense in which a repudiated or a debt neglected bill is unpaid. It is to be a perpetual payment
on which can never be fully paid, ever recurring to a new demand
to the same happy expenditure. I’ll try to explain this in a
moment, but basically love is this ballooning debt The regardless
of what you pay on it, the next morning it starts fresh and you
have the same great debt staring you in the face. It’s always
due. It’s always paid. It’s always
in a process of being reduced. And yet it’s always growing. When I was a kid, the only thing
that really lodged in my head as far as an illustration. The
only real illustration of this perpetual depth, for me, the
best illustration. We had gone to a place when I
was a kid that had a series of optical illusions. It was called
Ripley’s, believe it or not. And we were touring this little
facility, and I came across one of the most fascinating things
I’d ever seen as a kid. It was a spigot that had no piping
attached to it. And this spigot was pouring forth
water and the water was pouring forth into a large tub. There
was no plumbing attached to the spigot. The spigot was just freestanding. Now, it probably took an adult
mind to really understand what was happening. There was clear
tubing which fed the spigot from within and the water just literally
spilled out over the tubing and into the tub. But the tub was
perpetually full and the water was perpetually pouring. The
tub never overflowed and the spigot never stopped. Such is
our debt of love. It is always being renewed every
morning we find new cause to reach out to others and pay this
debt that God has obligated us to pay. Every day we go about
and some days are better than others. Right. Some days we have
a pretty good day where we would bow before God and we would thank
God for granting us the grace to be faithful in what he’s called
us to do. And then there are always those
things that God brings to our mind. Those missed opportunities
those misspent words those harsh retorts. Even our best day, right? Even
our best day doesn’t fully pay this debt, but it’s it’s better
than some days. Some days we get up. We’re irritated
to begin with. We don’t set about our day with
any kind of intentionality. Whatever opportunities come to
us, we haven’t pleaded for God’s grace to help us to begin with.
And so when we meet these obligations and opportunities, we Repeatedly
drop the ball. We come to the end of the day.
We’re grouchy even with God himself or even our confession. It leaves
much to be desired. We don’t really throw ourselves
at God’s mercy and plead with him that he might renew us the
next day. It’s a perpetual pool of opportunity. It’s a perpetual pool of obligation. Some days are better than others
and even on our best day. It remains unpaid, and I know
that this sounds hopeless, it’s not hopeless. It’s not hopeless
at all. God basically tells us to get
about. To make a payment, to get up
and do everything that we can to render what is due to those
to whom it is due. This isn’t a new feature of God’s
economy. Paul isn’t inventing this concept,
Jesus. Jesus himself said that while
he issues that as a new commandment Jesus didn’t mean that it was
brand new and and had never been considered before. He just entered
into it with new emphasis John 1334 a new commandment I give
you that you love one another even as I have loved you. that
you love one another. We now have the grace. We now
have the means to carry it forth. We have an earthly example in
our Lord Jesus Christ. We have the resident spirit dwelling
within us. Jesus repeats it in John 1512
and 1517. This is my commandment that you
love one another just as I have loved you selflessly. Paul, in writing to the Thessalonians,
Paul commended them and that was it’s one of the amazing features
of Paul’s writings. You look at how many times and
we don’t do this enough. How many times Paul looks out
and he commends those to whom he’s writing not for some great
accomplishment but for what God is doing through them for what
grace they possess and is being exercised in their life. He writes
to the Thessalonians and he says now as to the love of the brethren,
you have no need for anyone to write to you. Why? Because they
were so intellectually astute that they understood the inner
workings of love and God’s love and how it should work itself
out. Not at all, because they were already practically living
it out. And he goes on to say, you yourselves
are taught by God to love one another. You don’t need me to
teach you. God is in the process of teaching
you as you observe daily his gracious treatment of you, his
practical love of you. That is our call to love one
another. First Peter fervently love one
another from the heart. First Peter 217 love the brotherhood. John 1 John 314 We know that
we have passed out of death into life. Because we love the brethren
and we love. The brethren in practical terms,
there is what he’s pointing to. As one pastor said in Christianity. Love is taken as the lever which
is to move the world. Nor is it possible to find for
human life amid all the intricate mazes of conduct any other principle
that should be at once as simple as powerful and as profound. Paul says oh nothing. To anyone
except to love one another for he who loves his neighbor has
fulfilled the law. Well now that is a massive statement.
Remember, the law is what stands in between us and God. The law is what has locked us
up in sin and judgment. And so to say that just merely
loving one another, we have fulfilled the law. This. Is all contingent on how we take
that little word for. Is it stating a reason for loving
one another? Is this just piling on more reason
that we should be about loving our brothers and sisters in Christ?
Oh, nothing to anyone except to love one another, because
for he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law. If you
really want to fulfill the law, you better get about it. Get
busy. Is that what the four is there for? Or is it pointing to and pointing
to the fact that it is a debt that can never fully be paid.
That if you were to perfectly love your neighbor just as the
parable of the Good Samaritan went on to point out if you were
let’s just entertain the thought for a moment he says. Imagine. You get out of bed. You immediately plead for the
grace of God and immediately set about doing every magnanimous
possibility in loving your family and out the door you go. You’ve
made it. And every interaction with every person you meet all
day long whether it’s phone or in person or on the road every
interaction that you have is absolutely loving. and you get home and it’s just
more of the same. You can’t wait to get home and
you are loving and servant minded and gracious and gentle and you’re
all of those things and quickly and you’re in a hurry to do this,
you go to bed, right? Because you don’t want to blow
it. You’ve had a perfect day. Let’s just entertain the thought
for one minute. Let’s pretend that you’ve had
a perfect day of loving anyone and everyone around. Mind you,
there are a lot of people on Facebook that you didn’t respond
to their posts, right? You didn’t email every one of
your friends. You certainly didn’t pray for
everyone that you know. But let’s just pretend that even
if you could say that you had one perfect day, There’s still
a thousand yesterdays that that can’t be said of. Right. And
what’s even more frightening, there’s still tomorrow and the
next day. There’s still uncertainties that
lie ahead that do not bespeak of the fact that we will ever
fulfill this debt. What Paul is doing here is pointing
to that tub, it’s ever filling. Never overflowing. And so love ends up here as certainly. A feature of the goal of fulfilling
the law is in view that is the direction of our lives, but it’s
not the actuality of it. It is a calling here that Paul
issues. We are to get up that we are
to set about to have a perfect day, but even at the end of the
day, we know that we haven’t fulfilled the law in completeness. What he points to is in the law
here and he’s going to expound upon it is he points to the Ten
Commandments. Goes on and talks about that
in verse nine as we’ll see in a moment but literally here now
he says that he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law
now in the N.A.S. Unfortunately they jumped the
gun because the word there isn’t neighbor it’s other it’s it’s
The other, just as we’ve already seen, Paul will point to the
neighbor and he’ll point to the parable that ultimately Jesus
dealt with in pointing to the fact that neighbor does include
everybody. Consider verse nine. And Paul
begins to give the reason here. What do you mean, Paul, that
this begins the process of fulfilling the law? Well, For this you shall
not commit adultery you shall not murder you shall not steal
you should not covet. And if there’s any other commandment
it is summed up in this saying you shall love your neighbor
as yourself. Now the word order differs. Paul takes his list
likely from the Septuagint and you have here the 6th pardon
me the 7th commandment and then the 6th commandment and then
the 8th and the 9th and the 10th that you’re following the Hebrew
Bible. Exodus 20 verses 13 through 17, Deuteronomy 15, the second
giving of the law. Paul cites these laws, these
10 commandments. And he basically says that if
you boil them all down. If you distill them all down,
they really there’s there nothing but different ways of doing one
simple thing. loving each other. And so, when
we abstain, control ourselves from the evil act of adultery,
we’re doing nothing more than loving our God-given spouses
and our neighbor in his possession of the same. When we refrain
from murderous acts and murderous thoughts, we’re really doing
nothing more than practically gaining hold of our temper and
loving this person. Who may be the cause of frustration
in our lives and may be the cause of angry thoughts that certainly
does not warrant. Murderous thoughts and intentions
and so when we refrain from that we are doing nothing more than.
Practically, in a very practical way, loving him. When we refrain
from taking what is not ours, thou shalt not steal. We are
loving our neighbor. That’s his possession that God
gave him that possession and I practically love him by refusing
to take it as my own. Not even looking at his things,
thou shalt not covet. We are practically loving our
neighbor When we rejoice with him for possessing such a fine
vehicle and not desiring that, you know, we have a better one
just because he has his. Consider it this way. All of
these are really developments of one principle, said one. Nothing
but different ways of doing one thing. Love. If you simply love,
you will find it easy to perform them all. You will find it impossible
to refrain from performing any of them. In fact, you can’t even
possibly say that you love anyone to whom you would transgress
in the ways listed. The bottom line is, if we loved
our neighbor more perfectly, we certainly would commit none
of the things But it’s not just about the prohibitions
that Paul is talking about here. It’s not just talking about avoiding
adulterous affairs. He’s not just talking about not
murdering our neighbor or not stealing. He’s talking about
loving them. And those things, those prohibitions
really line out only the beginning. Once you’ve done that, that’s
only the beginning. You’ve yet to really issue forth an act
of love. Kind deed. Matthew. In Matthew’s gospel,
he records essentially the same words from the Lord Jesus said
the Pharisees had heard in Matthew, Chapter 22, that Jesus had silenced
the Sadducees. They gathered themselves together.
One of them, a lawyer, asked him a question, testing him,
teacher, which is the great commandment of the law? And they wanted to
trip him up. And he said to him, you shall love the Lord your
God with all your heart, all your soul, with all your mind.
This is the great and foremost commandment. And the second is
like it. You shall love your neighbor
as yourself. On these two commandments depend
all the law and the property. You see, what Paul does is take
the second part of the Ten Commandments, the second table, if you will.
And he says, if you really sum up these commandments, it’s love. Mind you, some have taken this
as almost an encouragement towards self-love. As if Paul is actually
encouraging something here that Scripture surely seems to forbid,
right? To love yourself, you shall love
your neighbor as yourself. All that he does here, all that
Scripture and God assume here, is that we do. It’s out of self-preservation. We love what we love we and in
a sense we love ourselves and it’s not necessarily a sin. What Paul calls us to and what
Christ echoes here in this passage is that we treat others in the
same great magnanimous fashion that we treat ourselves right.
One pastor said man. loves himself with a love which
instinctively avoids what is repulsive and noxious but does
so because it positively likes and desires the opposite. The
man who loves his neighbor as himself will be as considerate
of his neighbor’s feeling as his own. in respect of abstinence
from injury and annoyance. But he will be more. He will
be actively desirous of his neighbor’s good. He will reckon it much
evil to be indifferent to his true interests as he would if
he was disinterested in his own. Can you imagine not getting up
and feeding yourself and caring for yourself? He says that naturally. It’s only natural. It’s part
of God’s design that we love each other. What’s unnatural
is the way that we treat each other. There’s another place that this
passage is quoted. You can turn to this one. Turn
to James Chapter 2. James Chapter 2. These same words
are quoted. You shall love your neighbor
as yourself. And here in this passage James
calls it he refers to it as the royal law. This man this is this
is the way to please God. Look at verse one my brethren
do not hold your faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ with
an attitude of personal favoritism. That is one of the big challenges
for those who believe in the doctrine of election. How do
you not take that and run too far with it. How do you thank
God and yet not come up arrogant because God in his mercy chose
you. It should have the opposite effect
shouldn’t it. Shouldn’t it bring us to our knees and utter utter
shock and amazement that God would have anything to do with
us. For if a man comes into your
assembly this is how it happens. If your man comes into your assembly
with a gold ring and dressed in fine clothes and there also
comes in a poor man in dirty clothes and you pay special attention
to the one who is wearing the fine clothes and say you sit
here in a good place and you say to the poor man you stand
over there sit down by my footstool. Have you not made distinctions
among yourselves and become judges with evil motives. It’s favoritism
it’s it’s arrogance it’s presumptuousness. Listen my beloved brethren did
not did not God choose the poor of this world to be rich in faith
and the heirs of the kingdom which he promised to those who
love him. But you have dishonored the poor
man. Is it not the rich who oppress you and personally drag you into
court. Do they not blaspheme the fair
name by which you have been called. If however you are fulfilling
the royal law. According to the scripture you
shall love your neighbor as yourself. You are doing well but if you
show partiality you are committing sin and are convicted by the
law as transgressors forever keeps the whole law yet stumbles
in one point has become guilty of all. For he who said do not
commit adultery also said do not commit murder. Now if you
do not commit adultery but do commit murder you become a transgressor
of the law and essentially what he does is say. To cultivate
a heart of partiality. Where we treat one person better
than another. And another person worse. Is essentially to cultivate hatred
and even murder in our hearts. Verse 12 so speak and so act
as those who are to be judged by the law of liberty for judgment
will be merciless to one who is shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs
over judgment. We live in a day and age where. That isn’t the first way that
people respond. They don’t they don’t concern
themselves with the feelings of others and that’s the problem
with the world in which we live. When a boom car drives by and
they’re irritating to me, man, they bug me. In part, I’m I’m
just as guilty as he is in implying or assuming that peace and solitude
is my divine right. Secondhand smoke, loud parties,
foul language, all of those things. I took an impromptu occasion,
I seized hold of it, as a matter of fact, several weeks ago, our
prayer time. To talk about a book that at
least at this point remains unwritten by me how not to be a pain in
the neck. Now really what I point to there
is that as Christians we don’t use the fact that we are consumers
enough. We don’t use the fact that man
we’re out there in the marketplace every day. We go to the same
coffee shop and we don’t even know the coffee barista’s name. We don’t care. We we go and we
interact and we’ve got these people that do these things for
us and we really don’t practically love them. We don’t we don’t
get up with an intentionality that says, you know what, I’m
going to go about and be others oriented today. I’m going to
look for an opportunity to serve. I’m going to look for an opportunity
to get into somebody’s life. That’s part of another chapter,
we’ll get there someday. One pastor said, one who loves
will not borrow from a neighbor that which he cannot repay. You
commit adultery, you steal. You can never repay those wrongs.
He will not wrong his neighbor by adultery, theft, murder or
covetousness. Love becomes for a Christian
the great principle which takes the place of law and yet which
makes possible the fulfillment of it. We begin to set about
living out what God’s great design for us is. Don’t we? Look at
verse 10. It’s really a summary. Love does
no wrong to a neighbor. Love, therefore, is the fulfillment
of the law. It’s not just that we refrain
from going about doing evil. It’s that we actively go about
doing good, we immediately set about the fulfillment of God’s
law. We immediately set about living
according to God’s grace and doing. Those things for others. That are so often left undone. One said this. If this law of
Christian love should control the hearts and lives of men,
what a blessed change. What a blessed change would it
once be produced in the state of society. A carrying out of
the golden rule into universal practice would be an invaluable
cure for all our troubles and social evils. Isn’t that true?
If we immediately set about and purpose to have a loving response
and do acts of love and kindness. That is the lever that changes
the world. I want you to turn to another
passage as we prepare to close. 1 Corinthians 13. Now, even as soon as I said that,
you know where I’m going. And the interesting thing about
1 Corinthians 13 is this is the wedding verse, right? And we
hear it and it’s read at almost every wedding. And if you had
it at your wedding, I’m not saying anything against it. There’s
nothing wrong with reading it at the weddings. But this is
a church verse. Not just a husband and wife verse.
This is how we’re supposed to treat one another in church. And they’re supposed to bleed
beyond the walls and touch those who don’t know Christ. Not just
about the husband-wife relationship. If I speak with the tongues of
men and of angels, verse 1, but I do not have love, I’ve become
a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. Utterly worthless. If I have
the gift of prophecy and I know all mysteries and all knowledge,
and if I have the gift of, if I have all faith so as to move
mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. And if I give all
my possessions to feed the poor and if I surrender my body to
be burned, but I do not have love, it profits me nothing. Love is patient. A pause there. We probably all speak for myself,
we probably all have blown it in that one department already. Impatience with others, impatience
with our wives, impatience with children, we’ve all blown it.
So we’ve all already failed to fulfill the gracious law that
God has given. Pray for grace. Pray for grace,
God can equip you. Love is patient, love is kind.
There’s another one and is not jealous. Love does not brag,
is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly, does not seek its
own. It is not provoked. It does not
take into account a wrong suffered. Because that’s this is really
where we fix things right. This is really where we set people
straight, especially at home. How often do we leave them to
God? How often do we gently accept
the mistreatment and pray for God’s grace? I know of one person,
I know of one, I rarely have to say a single word and God
attends it and God repairs it and it’s better than it was before. It does not rejoice in unrighteousness. We don’t laugh at dirty jokes.
We don’t participate in that nonsense, but rejoices with the
truth. It bears all things. It believes
all things. It hopes all things. It endures
all things. Love never fails. It’s not a
wedding verse. Check that. It’s not just a wedding
verse. Nothing wrong with reading this
at your wedding, but this is a church verse. This is the Christians
verse, this is the Christians marching orders and how to be
effective in this fallen. Unloved world in which we live.
It’s the love that Christians owe to all people. Paul and laying down. This principle
of moral conduct for our treatment of everybody. Says that love
is it. Love is the only way that we’re
going to have any effect in this world? Let me question you on
one little thing. Those of you who are members
of this church made a commitment. You made a promise before God. And you could really sift through
that promise and examine your love for one another starting
here It certainly should start in your home. I hope that you’re
loving in your homes. None of us are perfect. That’s
what confession or repentance is for God’s grace is sufficient
to meet us there. But to avoid whatever tends to
destroy us or our neighbors. How have we practically loved
one another in that regard, what kind of What kind of standard do we set
in our personal lives? To engage vigorously in all lawful
endeavors to preserve our own lives and the lives of others,
especially to be ready to reconcile and faithful exhortation. In
the church. We carry grudges. The most unloving
thing that you can do is bear something, bear a criticism or
a frustration with someone else that’s never uttered. to bear one another’s burdens,
to cultivate genuine fellowship, to watch over each other’s lives
and not to allow sin upon one another. I again quote Richard
Baxter. When we go to a brother and we
appeal to them, look, brother, you’re you’re running counter
to God. You’re blowing it here. You’re sinning against God. Richard
Baxter said, pretend not to love them if you hate not their sin
and seek not their salvation. You can call it whatever you
want. But if you’re not willing to confront a brother or sister
in Christ in the midst of their sin, that’s not love. To stir up one another to love
and good works. When was the last time you really
nudged somebody? You know what? You know what
you would be really good at? You know what? I’ve been watching
you. I see God’s grace at work in you. You know how God could
use you? You know, that’s partly your job. That’s not just the
shepherd’s job. That’s your job to stir up one
another to love and good works, to warn, rebuke, admonish one
another with gentleness, to pray for one another. Oh. To bear with one another’s weaknesses,
failings, I would just encourage you. I would go back and I would
revisit that and pray through that and see how it is that you’re
practically loving. The people that you are. Most admonished to love your
brothers and sisters in Christ. One pastor said in closing, as
love delights in the happiness of its object, it effectually
prevents us from injuring those we love and consequently leads
us to fulfill all the law requires because the law requires nothing
which is not conducive to the best interests of our fellow
men. Prayer. Encouragement. Even confrontation. Forgiveness. It’s a pretty simple
equation, isn’t it? Let’s humble ourselves before
God. Our merciful King, we yield in humility before you and we
acknowledge that we have not loved as we ought. We have not loved perfectly.
We certainly have not loved as you loved us. Father God, we are thankful that
our performance of the law that our salvation is not dependent
upon that. We thank you for first loving
us and for calling us to the same, and we pray. We pray for
a greater grace and we pray for a greater application of that
grace. But in the end, we would be found.
In the process. Of fulfilling the law of living
out what you’ve called us to do with regards to one another.
Grant us that grace, Father. It’s in Jesus’ name that we pray.
Amen.