Love & Intentionality
Sermon Notes
Good morning, I’m so glad that you came to be part of worship this morning and that I get to open up God’s Word for us today.
I have been solo dadding it this weekend as Kacy is out of town and that has been an interesting adjustment for me. It’s been a lot of up and down off the floor and scrambling around to wrangle up our very fast and wiggly little boy. Thankfully I have been able to utilize a few helpful tools during the weekend. The first is the fact that Kacy set me up with all the food that I would need for him for the weekend. She gave me clear lists and guidelines for which things to feed him for each meal. Not that I can’t put food together for him myself, but it helps to not have to start from scratch each meal while trying to keep him in check. I can grab a few things and put them together in less than a minute and he’s eating away. The second crucial aid this weekend were Grandparents. Oh yeah some extra sets of hands that don’t get to be around him all the time and would love to play with and watch him are a great help. We spent the night over there last night and they were the ones that got him out of bed and dressed this morning while I was getting things setup.
Just like these two helpful resources for me this weekend, we are always on the lookout for things or principles that will help us live our lives better. We’ve been studying the book of Romans all year digging deeply into the Gospel in order to renew our minds for transformed lives. In chapters 1-11 we really tasked our minds with a lot of deep theological discussions about the nature of sin, salvation, Grace and the Law, and the character and power of God. Starting in chapter 12, though, Paul started making the shift toward our transformed lives. So, we are now focusing on how our deeper knowledge of God is supposed to impact our everyday lives. Just like my key helpers of prepared food and loving grandparents helped Reid and me get through the weekend, today we will look in Romans 13 at 2 resources that we as Christians should rely on to follow God. This is the Big Idea for today.
Big Idea: The Christian life should be defined by love and intentionality.
Last week we learned about how we are supposed to deal with government authorities as Christians. Paul ended that section even talking about the idea of paying taxes or whatever else is owed to authority figures. He uses that idea to take us into our topic for today. Take a look at verse 8.
8 Do not owe anyone anything, except to love one another,
This verse is Paul showing off some of his good writer chops. This is what we call a smooth transition or segue. He goes from verse 7 talking about paying what is owed to various authorities or arrangements that we have in life to now using the Word to talk about the obligations we have to one another and to God. Because of this context, this is not a good proof text for Christians never having debt. (Sorry Dave Ramsey fans out there) It’s just not the focus of this passage.
We see that love is the focus of this passage, though. Paul tells that we are to pay what we owe to earthly authorities, but a debt that we as Christians are never supposed to see as paid off is our debt to love one another and God.
8 Do not owe anyone anything, except to love one another, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law.
Now Paul brings back our old friend the Law. Remember the many weeks we spent in Romans 1-11 discussing in detail the interplay of law and grace in salvation? You might have thought we were done with law discussions as Paul moved into the application of the Gospel in chapters 12-16. But this is such a great teaching, because if we are not careful, even a concept as great as love can end up being misleading and misused. It is vitally important that we define what true, biblical love is. Our culture desperately tries to hijack love to mean whatever it needs to mean. I’m sure you’ve seen the phrase “Love is Love,” which is vague enough to meet whatever purpose you want it to mean.
But even putting aside the romantic/sexual idea of love, we still try to define love in different ways. For many it is simply an emotional feeling, something that you fall into and can fall out of. Or for many love is simply about affirmation, validation, and making each other feel good. Anything that challenges or disagrees must be unloving under this definition. You can see why we need a good definition or understanding of Love. Paul points to the Law. We will see again here that love and law are not at odds but work together beautifully. We’re going to see that biblical love by is defined and determined by 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.
We get 7, 6, 8, and 10 there from the Ten Commandments listed out here. So, Paul is pointing out that God’s moral law is both loving for us and is accomplished by love. There are at least three things worth pointing out here.
First, we get a good look at Biblical ethics in general. I’ve talked about this before, so I’ll go quick (feel free to ask afterward if this is too fast to catch). Ten Commandments boil down the morality and ethics of God. 1-4 are all about our vertical relationship with God, that he alone is to be worshipped and he desires to be worshipped in some specific ways. 6-10 are all about horizontal relationship with people, in light of who God is, this is how we treat people. 5 (Honor Father and Mother) serves as a bridge between the two setting the agenda of how we respond to authority, our highest being God (like we talked about last week). What Paul is showing us is that you can sum up all of the 6-10/horizontal commandments with the single implication to Love your neighbor as yourself. If you can do that then you don’t need to itemize your obedience out to see if you’re aren’t violating the individual commandments.
This isn’t an original Pauline doctrine. “Love your neighbor as yourself” was first written in Leviticus 19:18. Jesus then used it as his commandment 1b when the Pharisees tried to trap him by asking what the Greatest Commandment was. Jesus wisely answered by summing up 1-5 with “Love the Lord your God with all your Heart, Soul, and Strength” and 6-10 with “Love your neighbor as yourself.” It was Jesus’ way of dropping the mic by saying that all of the commandments are the greatest and that all of them are fulfilled in Love. Loving God truly leads us to follow Him and love the others that he created.
Second, it’s interesting that Paul puts the adultery commandment first. It’s the only one that is out of order. I think it’s to emphasize the fact love is much more than the romantic love that we usually focus on. It also shows we so often misunderstand or fail at just that aspect of love. If love is simply an emotion or a state that we can enter or leave for various reasons, then adultery becomes the obvious temptation and result. “I fell in love with someone else, it just happened and how do I deny this love?” or “Of course I love my spouse and kids, this other person was
just a fling or gave me something else that I was needing.” It points out that so often our view of love is inherently selfish, it’s all about how I feel and receive love or that I can define how I should love a person that allows me to still do what I want.
Thirdly, notice that this list of “Do not” fits with the idea of love. Culturally, we are taught that love is simply affirmation, there shouldn’t be no’s or do nots involved. To limit someone or tell them that something they are doing is wrong is seen as unloving. We are tempted to think that love is a force that overcomes the limitations of law, but the Bible shows us that we cannot truly love without placing it in the context of the Law. It’s a symbiotic relationship not an adversarial one. The law is commands us to love both God and others, love is what motivates and drives us to joyfully obey that law. If you want to truly love people, do it under the unchanging standard of our Creator and not on the shifting sands of our culture.
Theologian John Murray has a great definition of Christian love that sums it up in three words, it’s pretty deep, so we’ll break it down as we read it.
“Love is emotive, motive, and expulsive. It is emotive and therefore creates affinity with an affection for the object of love. It is motive in that it impels us to action. It is expulsive because it expels that which is alien to the interest in which love seeks to promote.”
You can see from this how growing in love for God and others would fundamentally change how we live the Christian life.
10 Love does no wrong to a neighbor. Love, therefore, is the fulfillment of the law.
This is the second time in this passage that Paul uses the word “fulfill” when talking about love and the law. He does this to show how vital love is in the process of following God. The Greek word for fulfill speaks to something being done completely or satisfactorily. It’s the difference between someone hitting just what is stipulated in their contract or job description at work versus someone who comes in with a great attitude, does their work excellently, and is willing to help others out with their issues. Love is what pushes toward growing closer to God and fully achieves what the Law calls for. If you want to grow in your obedience to God (even if parts of God’s law feel contrary to you) start by growing in your reverence and love for God. You’ll then start to see your grip loosen on those things or sins that you may still be holding on to.
So, we’ve looked at the idea of love as a defining and essential feature of Christian living, now let’s look at what I’ll be referring to as Intentionality.
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.
You can sense the tone shift in these verses, they become much more urgent. He calls for us to wake up from sleep. Sleep is often used in the Bible as a metaphor for carelessness and lack of activity which makes sense. None of us are checking multiple things off the to do list while we are sleeping. It makes me think of the disciples falling asleep in Garden of Gethsemane while Jesus was praying before the Crucifixion. They were not vigilant and intentional with the time they had with Jesus in that moment. Salvation is nearer can be seen to a reference to the end times or simply a recognition that none of us know how much time we have before we meet God. I’m not trying to be morbid just honest. (Honey do list, indefinite time vs. known time)
Too often we treat our lives like we have endless time to live as God commands us or as our love should motivate us. I’ll address that issue with my friend later, now isn’t a good time. I’ll
have that tough conversation and give or ask for forgiveness at some point. I’ll share the Gospel when the right opportunity pops up. I’ll integrate living by the Gospel into our family life and rhythm when things aren’t so crazy. Most of the time we are far too content to be napping as these very opportunities pass us by. We need to grow in intentionality.
One of the biggest areas that we need growth in intentionality is when it comes to personal sin.
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.
Here we see another classic Pauline teaching technique, the concept of taking off and putting on. Intentional Christian living calls us to full take off the deeds of darkness in favor of God’s light. We aren’t supposed to play with sin or accessorize with it. It’s not a splash of color or piece of flair that give our outfit a little personality. One message that I looked at on this passage says that this illustration is basically Paul saying that we need to change out of our pajamas and into our armor because life is a battle. I don’t want to be in a battle in my PJs, I want some Kevlar. We can’t treat sin like it is just some kind of annoying hindrance during our day like traffic, but like an all out war with deadly consequences.
The notable early church father Augustine, who was actually saved from a life of obsessive pride and sexual promiscuity by reading this very passage, gives us a great look at how sin by its very nature is progressive, always wanting more, and how we have to be intentional about fighting it.
“My will the enemy held, and thence had made a chain for me, and bound me. For of a forward (perverse) will, was a lust made; and a lust served, became custom; and custom not resisted, became necessity. By which links, as it were, joined together (whence I called it a chain) a hard bondage held me enthralled.”
You can see and I know we’ve all experienced that very same sequence in our own lives when it comes to sin. That’s why we are called to be awake to it and not asleep at the wheel. Theologian John Owen stated it even more directly saying, “Be killing sin, or sin will be killing you.”
Verse 13 then gives us a brief list of some sins ranging from sexual sin, to sins of excess and addiction, to interpersonal sins. But notice Paul’s solution, it’s live like you’re in the daytime. We know that generally we are less tempted toward sinning in major ways during the daytime; the sun is out, there are people around, we have responsibilities that we have to take care of. Paul says intentional Christianity means we don’t treat any aspect of our lives like it’s a secluded, dark place. We live in the light of our salvation. This doesn’t mean that we will ever be perfect and sinless, but it will help protect us from sins that are more ensnaring and lead to greater earthly consequence.
All of this urgency, intentionality, and daytime activity might have you feeling overwhelmed or exhausted. How do keep up with this kind of battle ready posture? Fortunately Paul points us to that answer to close out the chapter.
14 But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh to gratify its desires.
The armor that we put on for our battle is our own armor. It’s our Lord and Savior’s. Our belief in the Gospel isn’t just a recognition of something that Jesus did a long time ago that has ripple effects today. It’s a brand new identity that is so profound that Paul says in other letters that it makes us new creations and that our lives are hidden with Christ in God. This putting on of Christ what helps gives us the power to live out today’s Big Idea. The Christian life should be defined by love and intentionality.
The love that we are called to live by is the same love Jesus had when he healed the ear of one of the mob that came to arrest him or caused him to look at the jeering crowd and soldiers at his crucifixion and lead him to say, “Father forgive them for they know not what they do.”
The daytime demeanor and intentionality that we need to fight sin doesn’t have to just come from our strength and will power, but from the one who was the one earnestly praying with sweat drops of blood on his forehead saying “not my will but yours be done,” as the disciples were falling asleep in the Garden.
Everyone in this room needs to grow in these two aspects. We all have times when we lack love either for God or others. Even in the things we do for others, there can be a sense of drudgery or obligation and not love. And we all have things that we’d rather sleep on than deal with or think about diligently. For the believers in the room, make the decision look more and more to Jesus to strengthen you in these areas. Put aside the excuses and live into the identity that we are called to. If you’re listening and aren’t a Christian, you have a God that loves you enough to die for you and patiently call you to him. You can experience and grow in true love for the first time in your life, and you can have a solid foundation and motivation for your life as a child of God by calling out to him today. I pray that you will and we will be available for any questions that you have.