Romans 13:8-10
~21 min read
💭 Consider this: What fears, excuses, or distractions have prevented you from sharing the gospel more faithfully? Who in your life might God be prompting you to show greater love toward this week?
TRANSCRIPT
In 1981, there was a news report in the Chicago papers. The article was titled, "Nobody Stopped."
A woman named Mary was assaulted on the expressway when a man purposely rammed into her car and then attacked her with a knife when she stopped to check the damage. As she struggled for her life, no one stopped to help. She even tried to move her car forward to block the passageway, but no car bothered to stop. Fortunately, the attacker fell and she managed to escape.
In the hospital, the plastic surgeon had to work six hours on her face, leaving her with about 100 stitches. What is most captivating is that her husband said, "I just cannot believe it. And I simply cannot believe it. It is as if the people went out of their ways not to help."
I find this very interesting. Instead of going out of their ways to help, they went out of their ways not to help. This is the kind of world we are living in. It is a world not characterised by love. People are living in their own world of selfishness, violence, and indifference.
We Christians ought to be different. We have experienced the love of God. And this divine agape love ought to be shed abroad from our hearts onto others.
D. L. Moody made this interesting observation. A man may be a good doctor without loving his patients. He may be a good lawyer without loving his clients. He may be a good scientist without loving science. But he can never be a good Christian without love. How true.
The title of our message is: “Owe no man anything”. Our text is taken from Romans 13:8–10. Allow me to read for you.
"Owe no man any thing, but to love one another: for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law. For this, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness, Thou shalt not covet; and if there be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this saying, namely, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. Love worketh no ill to his neighbour: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law." (Romans 13:8–10)
The Lord bless the reading of His holy and sacred Word.
The phrase “Owe no man anything” is sometimes misinterpreted to mean that Christians are not allowed to go into any kinds of debts. Can Christian borrow money? What about material things? What about our housing loans? What about our children's educational loans? What about our business loans?
Both the Old and New Testaments did not forbid borrowing from people or lending to people in times of need. The Mosaic law in Exodus 22:25 said, "If thou lend money to any of my people that is poor by thee, thou shalt not be to him an usurer [or creditor], neither shalt thou lay upon him usury [or interest]." It is obvious from this verse that if lending was permitted, so was borrowing.
Proverbs 19:17 said, "He that hath pity upon the poor lendeth unto the Lord; and that which he hath given will he pay him again." God will repay him.
In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said, "Give to him that asketh thee, and from him that would borrow of thee turn not thou away." (Matthew 5:42)
In other words, do not reject the one who comes to you for help if you are able to help. From these passages and many others, it is clear that lending and borrowing were common and legitimate practices in ancient Israel, as well as in the time of Christ.
Many businesses could not operate without borrowing money to invest in things like buildings, machineries, and materials. Many farmers could not plant new crops without borrowing money to buy seeds and fertilisers. Most families could never afford to buy a house without taking up a mortgage.
But every Christian must learn to live within his means and always to remember that a borrower will be like a servant onto the lender. Every businessman must learn to be wise to first count the cost before doing anything.
Remember Jesus said in Luke 14:28, "For which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first, and counteth the cost, whether he have sufficient to finish it?"
The fool is the one who will start a work and not finish it, especially in our time where credit cards, financial institutions, and banks are most willing to lend money at a very high interest. We need to be very careful with our finances.
When borrowing is truly necessary, the need is there, the money should be repaid as agreed upon with the lender promptly and fully. But Scripture nowhere justifies borrowing for the purpose of buying unnecessary things that cannot be afforded. This is the wisdom of God's Word.
So the point is not that Christians should never borrow, but they should never leave their debts unpaid. Owe no man anything. It's not so much about physical debts, although physical debts can teach us valuable lessons about spiritual debts. Here the lessons we are going to learn is about spiritual debts.
I. The Gospel Debt
Firstly, we want to learn about the gospel debt. Verse 8 says, "Owe no man any thing, but to love one another: for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law."
Whenever we drive to the city, we will pass by the Crown Casino. We tend to see a line of cars waiting to enter the casino's car park. We see the attractive neon lights of the casino as if calling out to the gamblers, ‘Come in. Come in.’ Millions and millions of dollars are spent every night. Thousands of people have been enslaved by huge debts.
Indeed, the sin of gambling has destroyed many individual lives and the family, which is the very fabric of society. But sometimes we hear moving stories of people who repented. They struggled to repay what they owed, and finally they were freed from the burdensome debts.
By the grace of God, most of us have never been caught by this kind of debt. Nonetheless, we understand the kind of feelings they would have to be freed from a burdensome debt that never seems to end. Perhaps a glimpse of that will be like us struggling to pay off our housing loans or business loans, whatever, and finally we paid it off. We are free from this debt. What a feeling.
However, there is one debt we can never be freed from, and that is the debt of love. All Christians have this never-ending obligation to love one another. It is a debt that we have to constantly pay for and can never pay it off. But by God's gracious provision, we will always have the resources to pay. And the more we pay, the more willing and joyous the payment will be. It is not a burden. It is true joy to be able to love.
In the apostles’ writings, the phrase one another often refers to Christians. But in this case, surely he was referring to all people, believers and unbelievers. Because immediately after this, Paul went on to discuss about the Moral Law or the Ten Commandments, which was binding upon all.
The command to love all people is best illustrated by our Lord Jesus Christ. On one occasion, a certain lawyer tried to tempt Him and asked what was necessary to inherit eternal life. Jesus replied by referring to the Moral Law, the Ten Commandments: "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and thy neighbour as thyself." (Luke 10:27)
Of which the lawyer asks, "Who is my neighbour?" Jesus answered by sharing the Parable of the Good Samaritan, and he concluded that the neighbour was the Samaritan. Although he was of a different racial background than the one who was desperately in need of help, he was able simply because he responded with love to help the weak victim.
So Jesus said that anyone who wanted to follow Him and be His disciple would have to show that love to everyone.
How can this debt of love to our neighbour be something that we can never pay off? How can this debt always remain outstanding? Well, it is the gospel debt, which the Apostle Paul rightly said in Romans 1:14, "I am debtor both to the Greeks, and to the Barbarians; both to the wise, and to the unwise."
Dear friend, let's say there was a man who has spent all his money and resources to seek for a cure for his fatal sickness. Then one day he met a stranger who directed him to a place where a person could freely cure him. After he was wonderfully cured, this same man walked down the street willingly ignored those whom he passed by who was suffering the same sickness that almost took his life. A person with such an attitude is unthinkable, right?
And that is precisely what we would do. We were once outside the kingdom of heaven. We were enslaved in the bondage of sin. We were living a life that ultimately will lead to eternal hell forever and ever, burning in the lake of fire. Then one day someone shared with us the gospel of Jesus Christ, that Jesus came into this world. He lived a perfect life. He suffered. He was crucified and died and rose again from the dead. For He is the way, the life, and the resurrection. And He died and shed his precious blood to save us from our sins.
By the grace of God, we embrace him as our Lord and Saviour. What a relief when we realise that we are now saved from eternal hell. Yet we do not share the very gospel that has saved us. We do not even whisper the gospel to the people around us. How can it be? May the Lord forgive us.
We will always be spiritually indebted to the gospel of Christ. If you ever had a personal debt, however small it may be, you know that whenever you meet the person you owe the money, the moment you look at him, you know, I owe him something.
That is how we ought to see ourselves spiritually. We are spiritually indebted. Whenever we see an unbeliever, we tell ourselves, ‘That was who I was before the gospel. I want him or her to know the love of Jesus Christ. I have a great debt to pay.’
That should be our attitude, dear friend. When we go to work, when we go to school, when we visit our relatives and loved ones overseas, wherever we go, whoever we meet, we owe them the gospel of Jesus Christ.
When we look at our unbelieving children, parents, and grandparents in the eyes, when we look at our unbelieving friends and colleagues in the eyes, what do we see? Do we only see the our fac of what they have and what they have accomplished, or do we see that they are potentially heading to the eternal lake of fire? Do we love them enough to share with them the message of salvation?
If we truly believe that only the gospel is able to save the soul of a man, then we ought to share this very gospel that has saved us.
The last part of verse 8 says, "For he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law." There are some people who believe that the new covenant believer or the New Testament believer is no longer under the law. They believe that the Law has been done away with the coming of Christ, and therefore there's no need for us to fulfil the law.
That is surely not the case. The Moral Law as summarised in the Ten Commandments is not abrogated, which means it is not set aside. It has not been destroyed. Who said so?
Jesus said, "Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled." (Matthew 5:17–18)
There will never be a time and there will never be a place where God will not rule through His moral laws, the Ten Commandments. The Ten Commandments are God's Law forever. The civil laws especially given to the nation of Israel, or the ceremonial laws, eating pig or not eating pig, eating clean or unclean things, those things have passed away. But there will never come a time when God will say adultery is now all right with me, or it is now all right to worship idols, or it is now all right to kill, or it is now all right to dishonour your parents.
The Ten Commandments are still abiding today. Knowing the debt of love is one thing, but this knowledge has to be applied into our lives.
II. The Exercise Of Love
This brings us to our second point, the exercise of love. Paul went on to say in verse 9, "For this, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness, Thou shalt not covet." These are five of the Ten Commandments that deal with our relationship with men.
Although they may not be in exact order as found in Exodus chapter 20, nonetheless they are still the same five commandments. The last phrase in verse 9, "Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself," is a summary of these five commandments. It is a quotation from Leviticus 19:18, also quoted by our Lord Jesus Christ.
We do not simply tell our children to behave themselves and to be good and then expect them to do so. Rather, we tell them in details how they ought to be good. Likewise, we are told to love one another. But how do we exercise this love? So here comes the commandments.
Firstly, “thou shalt not commit adultery” (Exodus 20:14). Love will not commit adultery because this is a sin against both God and men. Some sins will only trouble the person himself, but some sins will involve others, and this is one of the worst kind.
Remember Joseph and how he was tempted to commit adultery by Potipher's wife. This was his attitude when he was tempted. He said, “Behold, my master wotteth not what is with me in the house, and he hath committed all that he hath to my hand. There is none greater in this house than I; neither hath he kept back any thing from me but thee, because thou art his wife.” — You belong to him, you belong to my master, so how can I do this great wickedness against my master? So he knew that by committing adultery, he would harm his master. And ultimately he said this — “How then can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?” (Genesis 39:8–9)
If you truly love others, you will not harm them by committing adultery.
“Thou shalt not kill” (Exodus 20:13). If love will not harm others, then surely it will not cause the person to kill others as well, or even more so. Some people think that I'm pretty all right with this commandment. After all, if I have committed murder, I would not be sitting here. I'll be languishing in prison or be sentenced to death.
Well, Jesus said in Matthew 5:21, "Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not kill; and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment." So they knew this law, but they only saw this law in the physical sense, the physical killing of another human being.
But Jesus said this, “But I say unto you, That whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment: and whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca” — or empty one — “shall be in danger of the council: but whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire.” (Matthew 5:22)
Here our Lord Jesus revealed the holy and perfect standards of God. God's standard goes beyond just the physical committal of sins. Even what is in the hearts, the motivations, the intentions, He would judge. And who can ever stand before Him? Which one of us can say that I have never said such things to anyone?
That is why no man can keep the commandments of God perfectly which we are expected to. And Jesus Christ came and He kept the laws of God perfectly on our behalfs. He is a perfect Saviour.
Sadly, even in the church, Christians often fall into this sin. We ought not to tear one another down with our words, to love one another, to encourage and build one another up. This is the command given to us.
“Thou shalt not steal” (Exodus 20:15). There are many things we can steal. We steal from an employer when we do not give Him the best work which we are capable of. We steal when we overextend our coffee breaks or leave work early without legitimate reasons. We steal if as businessmen we charge more than we ought to. We steal when we borrow and not repay.
If we have love, we will do none of these things. On the contrary, we will work hard so we will not be dependent on others for support, but there we will have something to share with those in need. That is love.
“Thou shalt not bear false witness” (Exodus 20:16). On one hand, nearly everyone condemns lying. But on the other hand, almost everyone does it every day. Well, most people would swear that they have always spoken the truth, but many would agree that they have gossip. Gossip is a form of lying because most gossip contains a fair amount of misinformation.
Sometimes a gossiping report may be true, but it is said to a person for the wrong reason to injure the person. The words may carry some versions of the truth, but the testimony is false because it is malicious.
As wrong as it is to gossip, it is just as wrong to listen to gossip. If we have love, we will not bear false witness, even gossip. Put yourself to this simple test by asking, ‘Is what I'm going about to say the truth or is it false? If it is the truth, does it really need to be said to this person? And in this conversation, would I say the same thing, and in the same way, if the person I'm talking about is here to listen?’ If our words fail this simple test, it is better not to speak at all. Thou shalt not bear false witness.
“Thou shalt not covet” (Exodus 20:17). This is a commandment that strikes at the heart of the consumer oriented culture which teaches us to covet everything. The biggest problem of covetousness is not the trouble it gets us into, however bad it may be, but rather it cause us to be insensitive to the needs of others. Instead of helping us to know who these people are and what their needs are, it caused us to be jealous of them, envious of them. Covetousness has destroyed the testimony and usefulness of many Christians.
Look at the second part of verse 9 and 10. "And if there be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this saying, namely, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. Love worketh no ill to his neighbour: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law."
This is a summary of the five commandments, our relationship with men. If we love our neighbour, we love others, then we will not do these things. Notice all these five commandments are in the negatives beginning with “Thou shalt not… Thou shalt not…” This is very important because you and I can hardly begin to do good to others until we are ready at least not to do harm to them. This is something for us to ponder.
But true love is also positive. Love must cause us to do something, to be proactive in our church, in our family, in our workplace, in our school. How can we exercise this love positively? Allow me to end by giving you some practical examples.
Firstly, we must learn to listen to one another. We live in an age and time where people seldom listen to one another. We tend to rush here and there, and with the advancement of technology the opportunity to listen is fewer and fewer. People would rather send text messages than listen. People would rather surf the internet and watch the media than listen. Husbands and wives do not listen to one another. Parents and children do not listen to one another. Employers and employees, teachers and students. It has crept into almost every human relationships.
And then we form our own opinions. We have our own ideas. It is always me and my own desires. We couldn't care less about what others say. If we have love, we will care to listen to what he has to say because we want to know how he feels and we want to help. So learn to listen.
Secondly, we must learn to share with one another. Sharing is the reverse side of listening. We listen to the person as he or she shares. Then we share ourselves. This is the only way to show true love and to build real relationships.
You know, in many broken marriages, one of the biggest issues is that couples no longer share with one another. When that happens, communication breaks down and the result is the relationship drifts apart. In all our relationships, we must learn to listen as well as open our hearts to share with one another. That is love.
Thirdly, we must learn to forgive one another. Most of us have no problem with exercising love to someone we like. When a close brother is sick, we will call and visit him. When there's bereavement in the family of our friend, we will go and comfort those who are sorrowful. But when it comes to forgiveness, especially those who have offended us, we find it most difficult to exercise love.
But let us bear in mind that none of us is without sin. We are all guilty of sinning against others. A large portion of our lives will be involved in forgiving others and others forgiving us. That is part and parcel of life.
One of the best ways to exercise forgiveness is to pray for the person week after week. We attend the worship service and we say the Lord's prayer. But do we really understand what we are saying? Do we really mean what we are saying?
Think about this. We say in our hearts, ‘Father, forgive us of our sins as we forgive those who sin against us.’ We are actually asking God to graciously forgive our sins just as we have forgiven others who have sinned against us. We know that God is most willing to forgive us. But it also shows that we are most willing to forgive others.
It does not mean that we are willing to forgive only when the person is sorry. Our forgiveness is not predicated by the person being sorry or apologising. Whether the person apologised or is sorry or not, we have this forgiving spirit and we must have (it). It takes two to create reconciliation, but it only takes one to forgive.
So we must forgive whether or not the person take the first step toward reconciliation. Some relationships may never be reconciled, but in our hearts we are willing to forgive. It does not mean that the person is right. We may still say that he is wrong, but in the midst of saying he's wrong we are willing to forgive. That is what it means.
Finally, we must serve one another. This does not come to us naturally. People would rather sit around and be served than to go around serving others. As Christians, there's no better example than our Lord Jesus Christ.
Before Jesus went to the cross of Calvary to die and shed His precious blood to save us from our sins, in the upper room He taught His disciples a most wonderful example what it means to serve. He stood up from the meal table, took off His coat, wrapped a towel around His waist, and then He knelt and washed the disciples’ feet.
Peter was shocked and he said, "Thou shalt never wash my feet." Jesus explained very graciously that it was necessary if Peter was to be His disciple, and Peter relented. Still none of them could understand what Jesus meant and why He was doing what He was doing until Jesus explained to him in these words.
“Ye call me Master and Lord: and ye say well;” — you have said it rightly — “for so I am. If I then, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet; ye also ought to wash one another's feet. For I have given you an example, that ye should do as I have done to you.” (John 13:13–15)
You ask anyone who is familiar with this passage, what is Jesus teaching us here? They would answer you. He is teaching us to serve one another. But it is one thing to know what Jesus said. It is another thing to apply this into our lives personally.
Think about this. If Jesus were to say to us, ‘You call me your Master and your Lord and truly I am. And if I then is your Master and your Lord have shown you this example of what it means to serve one another, why are you not serving?’ What would we say to him?
I began this message by sharing with you about the news article, nobody stopped. People went out of their ways not to help because this is a world not characterised by love. The question is are we one of them?
If we are, then we are not a true disciple of Christ. Because Jesus said that the world may see that you are one — how? — by loving one another (John 13:35).
If we have no love for one another and for others, it just goes to show who we really are. Jesus gave this most stern warning: ‘Many will call onto me, Lord, Lord. And I will say unto them, Depart from me, ye workers of iniquities. I never knew you.’ (Matthew 7:21-23)
Now these people are people who profess to be believers calling upon Jesus as, “Lord, Lord,” then the question is who then can enter into the kingdom of heaven? Jesus said, “He that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.” (Matthew 7:21) And it is the will of the Father that the believers ought to have love one for another.
If you have forgotten whatever I've said this morning, at least remember these few points. We are indebted to the gospel message. The very gospel that has saved our souls, we are indebted to it to bring it to others. So when we look into the eyes of our loved ones and the people whom God has brought into our lives, we ought to see them through the lens of the gospel. We owe them the gospel of Christ.
How do we show love for one another? In a negative sense, we are not to commit adultery, not to kill, not to steal, not to bear false witness, and not to covet. In the positive sense, we learn to listen to one another. We learn to share with one another. We learn to forgive one another. And we learn to serve one another. Owe no man anything.
Let us pray.
Our Father in heaven, indeed we give Thee thanks for how Thou has reminded us, because as believers often times we forget once we are saved. We forget about those who are still outside that kingdom. And many of them are our loved ones and friends, people whom we meet day after day.
When we look into their eyes, we ought to see them heading toward the eternal lake of fire. A million upon a million years they will be tormenting in eternal fire. Oh Lord, the only way is to share with them Thy gospel. This is our debt to the gospel. This is a debt we have to constantly pay and can never pay off, because forever and ever we will dwell in Thy kingdom with our Lord Jesus Christ in heavenly bliss.
And we are also mindful that we ought to love one another and how we ought to love one another, that we ought not to commit adultery, not to kill, not to steal, not to bear false witness, and not to covet, and thus fulfilling the law, “Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.”
And we pray that as a church, as an individual, we will live our lives knowing this truth so that we will always bear in our minds to owe no man anything, whether it be the gospel debt ought to show one for another. Help us that we will be able to live such a life, that we will listen to one another, share with one another, forgive one another, and serve one another to the glory of Thy precious name. We pray all this in Jesus’ name. Amen.
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