But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.  Romans 13:14 

Romans 13:8–14 – Romans: The Righteousness of God
Nineteenth Sunday after Pentecost – October 8, 2023 (am)

We hear several things as we read this text.

We hear the heart of NT Christianity—what Jesus called a second great commandment (Mat.22:37-40)— 8 … love each other, repeated below just as Jesus stated it: 9 … You shall love your neighbor as yourself. Then in the negative: 10 Love does no wrong to a neighbor…. That’s the heart of this first paragraph (8-10).

We hear that familiar call to wake up (11)—language used often to capture the Christian’s readiness for Jesus’ return (e.g., Mat.24:42; Mar.13:33-37; Luk.21:36; 1Th.5:6; Rev.16:15), a readiness that shows itself in a morally upright, biblically virtuous lifestyle (11-14).

More broadly, we hear a clear return to the teaching in the second half of c.12 which began with: 12:9 Let love be genuine. … and ended with: 12:21 … hold fast to what is good.

Finally, we hear a clever linkage between this material and that in the first half of this chapter, showing us, I believe, that Paul intends us to hear 13:1-7 as folded into and of one piece with 12:9-21 and 13:8-14. As we said last week, vv.1-7 leave a number of potential questions unaddressed. But they do set the general standard for us regarding how believers in Jesus should relate to government. Despite their fallenness, we nevertheless owe our governing authorities both direct and indirect taxes. And we also owe them respect and honor as these would be uniquely expressed by believers in Jesus who are being transformed by the renewal of [their] minds (12:2).

Now, before the Sanctuary emptied last Sunday, I was reminded of biblical examples where government was disobeyed to the glory of God. And such conversations continued through the week. I appreciate that a lot; it says this body is listening carefully to God’s Word! For instance, when Peter and John were were told by the elders and scribes with the high priest and others (Act.4:5-6) not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus (Act.4:18), Act.4:19 … [they] answered them, “Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you rather than to God, you must judge, 20 for we cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard.” Now, granted, these were the religious authorities in Israel, not the governing authorities in Rome. But I believe this encounter is still a good example of God’s people doing something other than Rom.13:1-7 seems to command.

Another is when Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego defied the order to fall down and worship the golden image that King Nebuchadnezzar had set up (Dan.3:5), at the risk of being cast into a burning fiery furnace (Dan.3:6). Even so, they Dan.3:16 … answered and said to the king, “O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter. 17 If this be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of your hand, O king. 18 But if not, be it known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up.”

Paul himself had a number of encounters with the governing authorities in the various cities he visited on his missionary journeys that we could also include here. But you know what’s interesting, and why we didn’t mention any of these last Sunday? Because surely Paul knew about all of them and more, yet he chose not to mention them, or even vaguely allude to them, in here vv.1-7, even though he was writing to the church that met in the Capital of the Empire.

We need to hear that, and receive it, and process it, and grasp it, before we’re in any place to evaluate departures from it. As one of our Elders put it this week: [We need] to hit the note of submission to government from Rom.13:1-7… and to let it ring out loud and clear…. A day will come when we must talk about civil disobedience and the exceptions to the rule—but I think it will serve us well to have a clear view of “the rule” before that day comes, so that any civil disobedience we enter into may be done prayerfully, and with an appropriate amount of fear and trembling. I respond to that assessment with a hearty, Amen.

But we were talking about Paul’s clever linkage of vv.1-7 into vv.8-10 (which in turn link back to 12:9-21). He does it using this word owe. And as much as it sounds like his statement in v.8, owe no one anything, is the opposite of v.7, which is describing what’s owed to the governing authorities, it’s actually saying the same thing, namely, [leave no debt unpaid].

The transition from financial to relational obligations has already happened before v.7 finishes, but there’s a sense in which we might believe our respect and honor for our governing authorities is as current, as paid-up, as our tax bill. But, by contrast, we can never believe that our obligation to love one another is fully paid. It is a debt that never comes to an end (Sunday and Headlam, Cranfield in Schreiner 672). It’s not burdensome. In fact, it’s as joyful as it is unending. But it is unending!

Now, with all this in mind, look what Paul introduces here in v.8: an exception. As he broadens from subjection to governing authorities to include all relationships in the lives of transformed believers, he introduces this exception himself. Therefore, I’d propose to us that any exceptions we believe are needful to qualify Paul’s instruction in vv.1-7 should be understood according to the exception he provides in v.8.

In other words, and most simply put, for us believers who live under the reign of Christ even while we’re still in our sinful bodies inhabiting the realm of Adam, any apparent departure from our submission to governing authorities—or in any other authority structure where we’re charged in God’s Word to submit—should be pursued not as an expression of disobedience but as an expression of love, the debt we will always owe to one another and all others. Anything done unlovingly is empty and worthless (1Co.13:1-3).

Should we ever be commanded by governing authorities to do something contrary to God’s Word, then, we should see it as an expression of love (honor, respect [7]) that we choose to follow God and accept the consequences for doing so. What we’ve done at that point isn’t political in nature. It’s not civil disobedience. Rather it’s gospel in nature, loving our neighbor, showing genuine (12:9), self-sacrificing concern for the well-being of our governing authorities by living a reminder before them that they both represent and answer to a higher authority, and they’ll be judged for what they’re doing.

The same, then, is true for the Church Member who expresses concern for wayward Elders, which has happened in several denominational traditions these days as Church leaders embrace the teachings of this age in rejection of the authority of God’s Word.

The same is also true of the wife whose husband is straying to the point where he’s introducing illegal or otherwise dangerous activities into the marriage or the family. A biblically submissive wife shows gospel love for her husband by appealing to higher authorities in such circumstances, never setting aside submission.

This line of reasoning goes all the way to the international activities of our governing authorities. Among of the best books I’ve ever read is one titled Just War as Christian Discipleship, by Daniel Bell. The author argues persuasively that gospel-defined love stands alone as the foundational principle on which any war can be identified as just. 10 Love does no wrong to a neighbor…. Therefore, a war is counted just when it’s pursed to alleviate harm or wrong being done to image-bearing creatures, regardless of whether they’re brothers and sisters in Christ. The harm introduced by the war itself is justified as it removes the greater harm of the injustice it’s waged to address.

Now, let’s move into our passage for this morning. Let’s unpack it briefly in two parts.

Living Out the Heart of the Law – 8-10

8 Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. In one sentence here Paul has tied together old covenant and new, OT and NT, law and gospel. Just as Jesus taught, 9 … 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,” the great commandment (Lev.19:18) by which the yet greater commandment (Deu.6:5) shows itself (Mat.22:37-39). Paul just took a sampling from the second tablet of the law to put in his reader’s minds different sins that mistreat people—the seventh, sixth, eighth, tenth, and any other commandment from God’s Word that are unloving toward our neighbors.

In sum: 10 Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law. And this is important not because we’re still under the law (8:2), but because 8:3 … God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, 4 in order that the righteous requirement of the law—the law of Christ (Gal.6:2; 1Co.9:21)—might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. Just think of Jesus words to His disciples: Joh.13:34 A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. John wrote a brief commentary on this law in his first letter, using much of the same imagery Paul uses. 1Jo.2:7 Beloved, I am writing you no new commandment, but an old commandment that you had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word that you have heard. 8 At the same time, it is a new commandment that I am writing to you, which is true in [Christ] and in you, because the darkness is passing away and the true light is already shining. 9 Whoever says he is in the light and hates his brother is still in darkness. 10 Whoever loves his brother abides in the light, and in him there is no cause for stumbling. 11 But whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in the darkness, and does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes. This is what happens when the gospel takes root in our hearts and begins to transform [us] by the renewal of [our] minds (12:2), we love like Jesus loves (1Jo.4:19).

Living in the Light of Christ’s Return – 11-14

And that just continues to increase our love for God, such that we turn away from the allurements of this world and are more and more captivated by Jesus’ promised return. It’s as though we wake from sleep (11) and finally see the light of day! 11 … For salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed. 12 The night of our struggle with sin is far gone because we’ve trusted in Christ and now live under His reign; the day of His return is, in effect, at hand. Nothing else needs to be done by God before that happens! As Jesus taught (Mat.24:4-34), the cycle of familiar birth pains will just continue to intensify in severity and frequency, and the gospel will continue to spread, until Christ’s return, which is the next thing on God’s revealed agenda! So [we] cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light. We wake up, [take] off our night clothes, and put on our day clothes, the armor needed for the day, meaning, for the battle we fight to keep darkness at bay!

And even though Paul moves on to more particular, less metaphorical, instruction, we could see v.13 as listing out what the armor of light might include, especially since he gets back to the put on language in v.14. 13 Let us walk properly as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and sensuality, not in quarreling and jealousy—not [doing] wrong to a neighbor (10) or wearing in the works of darkness (12). 14 But put on the Lord Jesus Christ—there’s the armor of light, the very Person of the Lord Jesus Christ—and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires. Don’t give the flesh a chance! Think once again of Gal.2:20 I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I’m so looking forward to Jesus’ return that I don’t even want those things that’ll have no part in His coming new world! I so love my neighbor that I just don’t have time to gratify myself! Or, more accurately, I’m just losing my desire to gratify self.

Conclusion

This is what it looks like to worship God as a living sacrifice, to be transformed by the renewal of your mind such that we approve by our very lifestyle the good and acceptable and perfect will of God, exhibiting no conformity of any sort to this world (12:1-2). Most simply put, Christlike love increasingly displaces selfish desire as the motivating force behind all our actions, all our relationships, from interpersonal ones within the body of Christ all the way up to our relationships with our governing authorities (1-7). And perhaps, by our faithful living of God’s will in this world, we might even have an impact on the relationship between our government and other nations!

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Resources

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NEXT SUNDAY: Who Are You to Pass Judgment? Romans 14:1–4