Romans Lesson 38: Love Each Other Openly; Jesus is Coming Soon

Chapter 13:8-14

 “⁸ Owe no one anything except to love one another, for he who loves another has fulfilled the law. ⁹ For the commandments, ‘You shall not commit adultery,’ ‘You shall not murder,’ ‘You shall not steal,’ ‘You shall not bear false witness,’ ‘You shall not covet,’ and if there is any other commandment, are all summed up in this saying, namely, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ ¹⁰ Love does no harm to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of the law. ¹¹ And do this, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep; for now, our salvation is nearer than when we first believed. ¹² The night is far spent; the day is at hand. Therefore, let us cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light. ¹³ Let us walk properly, as in the day, not in revelry and drunkenness, not in lewdness and lust, not in strife and envy. ¹⁴ But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill its lusts.”

The responses have been very interesting, and thanks for the questions that come. I enjoy being able to try to back up the conclusions that I have come to. I enjoy the loving discussions. All too often, these kinds of discussions have become a thing of the past. A lot of people, even Christians, have fallen into name-calling and character assassination. More and more sadly, a lot of churches are being swept into the Social Justice issues and many are forgetting the Gospel. I saw a survey just a day ago that showed that 77% of dying churches, no matter what size, did not see the need to share the Gospel to the point of imploring people to seek Jesus. Just recently, I had a discussion with a customer who is a Sikh, and she was astonished that I was so sure about what the Bible says about Jesus. She was of the opinion that one could not be that sure.

Folks, what is the point of solving all the social issues if people die and go to Hell? It is tantamount to the idea that Jesus put forward, “what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and lose his soul” (Mark 8:36). We can solve all the world’s social issues and miss the point of solving their eternal issues.

1. Love is the proof, verses 8-10

Jesus told his disciples in John 13:34-35 that if they, the apostles and disciples, would love each other, this would be the true testimony that they were His disciples. The kind of love that Jesus is talking about is a sacrificial love. The kind of love God the Father has for us. This the kind of love that puts another’s needs first, even at our own expense. Love that does not cost you something is not true love. Ultimately, true love will cost you yourself. You will humble yourself and drain yourself of all ego through the Holy Spirit and get to the point where you don’t even get offended, and all of your anger will disappear. I will tell you that this is a lifelong journey and one that you cannot undertake in your own power and of your own ability. This is a work of the Holy Spirit as He forms the image of Christ in us (Galatians 4:19).

Notice that Paul uses the image of childbearing; this is a painful experience for the mom, probably the most pain that she will endure in her life. Yet, in all that, she sacrificially loves this little child and works to help him or her to grow into a useful and productive adult. An adult who, in turn, will have kids as well. This is the image we find; Jesus through the Holy Spirit will form Himself in us, and our goal should then be to help others desire to have Him formed in them as well, constantly repeating until we are all made in the image of Jesus.

The love, called agape love, is the love that drives us to be servants. It drives us to consider another’s needs ahead of our own. It curtails our sinfulness; we become obedient in the way we interact with each other. We don’t bear false witness, we don’t covert our brother’s or sister’s stuff, we are not envious of their success, and they in turn don’t look down on us as if we are failures. We don’t commit adultery and we don’t kill each other, whether physically, emotionally or spiritually.

In James 3:1-12 we are told that we should not use our tongue, our words to destroy each other. In 1 Peter 4:8 we are reminded that if we are to love like Jesus, we must forgive each other a MULTITUDE of sins. That means we have to forgive without counting and keeping score. This is the kind of love that draws people in; the kind of love that is not ashamed of sinners and the outcasts but makes a place for them. The kind of love that forgives even when the wrong is still being committed. The kind of love that serves the people hurting us and treats them as friends. The kind of love that invests more than it withdraws, and the kind of love that makes people wonder how you got this way? Then you point them to Jesus.

What if we could begin to love this way? What if we were able to get ourselves out of the way so others could see Jesus? What if we longed to find ways to serve rather than lord over others? What if we no longer had ‘self-esteem’ but we esteemed each other and built each other up? Paul tells us here in Romans 13 that it can be done. This is a possibility, and it should frame the way that we live.

1. Jesus is coming, soon! Verses 11-14

This earth, the current earth is not our home. We, at least I, often forget this. My wife and I had the privilege of buying a home about 4 years ago, and I love working on it. I have these plans; we are going to do this and this, fix that, and on. I also work as a car salesman, and I hate being the second-best salesman. I work to be the first all the time. There is no sin in being ambitious; there is no sin in being competitive even, but we should temper our lives with the weight of eternal things. Do not sacrifice time with God, with our spouses, our kids, our churches and people for things. What good is it to me to be the number one salesman, but being an absentee dad? What good is fixing my whole house up and allowing my marriage to fall into disrepair?

Since we know that Jesus is coming soon to judge us and hold us accountable, how should we prioritize our lives? What things or persons, what activities and endeavors should bear the pre-eminence in our lives? Paul tells us that the reason we are to love each other the way Jesus loves us is that Jesus is coming soon. We should live so that He finds us loving like Him when He comes for us. Love, God’s love in us and through us helps us to form the right priorities.

In verse 12, we are told to put off the works of darkness and put on the works of light; this means that loving like Jesus is a deliberate act. One has to determine to do it; one has to make a choice. Well truthfully, one has to make millions of choices. We learn to make the right choice based on our love, not our anger, how offended we are, how hurt we are or any other emotions.

When we think about love first, this will change our actions and reactions. Take the position that today could be the day that Jesus comes to get us or we go to see Him; either way, live like Jesus is coming now.

I read this a week or so ago – someone had it posted to their FB page – that procrastination is the arrogant assumption that God will give you another day to get it right. Too many of us Christians assume we have tomorrow to get it right; I am looking at me as well. But we know that today is the day. I have attended enough funerals and overheard enough regrets as to the last words someone said to their deceased relative or friend. They assumed they had another day to get it right. We have no guarantee of tomorrow, or later today for all that matters. Love like Jesus now; He is coming soon. There are many verses that warn us about procrastination (Ecclesiastes 9:10, 11:4; Galatians 6:9; Hosea 10:12; James 4:17 and Luke 12:40). There are hundreds of others, but these will give you the idea.

God bless you,

Dr. Sean Gooding

Pastor of Mississauga Missionary Baptist Church

How to Connect with Us

On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MississaugaMissionaryBaptistChurch

Online: https://www.mississaugamissionarybaptistchurch.com/ (under construction)

Email: missionarybaptistchurch76@yahoo.ca

 

Chapter 13:1-7

“¹ Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God. ² Therefore whoever resists the authority resists the ordinance of God, and those who resist will bring judgment on themselves. ³ For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to evil. Do you want to be unafraid of the authority? Do what is good, and you will have praise from the same. ⁴ For he is God’s minister to you for good. But if you do evil, be afraid; for he does not bear the sword in vain; for he is God’s minister, an avenger to execute wrath on him who practices evil. ⁵ Therefore you must be subject, not only because of wrath but also for conscience’ sake. ⁶ For because of this you also pay taxes, for they are God’s ministers attending continually to this very thing. ⁷ Render therefore to all their due: taxes to whom taxes are due, customs to whom customs, fear to whom fear, honor to whom honor.”

We live in a time when law and order seem subjective. We used to know right and wrong; everyone did. No matter what country or culture you went to, the basic rules of right and wrong were the same. But we have changed a lot. Today I was watching the news and our Prime Minister here in Canada is trying to get the opposition parties to vote to make conversion therapy illegal. This means that if Johnny comes home and declares that he is now a girl, the parents will not be legally allowed to put him in any kind of therapy to help him see the error of his ways. There is nothing that a man can do to become a woman and vice-versa. These choices are made by God, and they cannot be changed.

We see Romans 1:25 being played out right before our eyes. In times past there were no questions; God made you a man or a woman and the people lived out their roles as prescribed by God. But today, we worship the creation, man, more than we worship the Creator, God, so we now want to be godlike and determine what gender we are. People try to defy God, but that cannot be done. When you die and they bury you and dig you up as a skeleton, the coroner will determine from your bone structure that you were a man or a woman, the way God made you.

With this lack of honor for the Creator comes the lawlessness that we see around us. Paul was a Roman citizen and a Jew at the same time. When in Rome he observed the laws there, and in Jerusalem, he observed the laws there. Paul knew firsthand what it was like to live under a tyrannical government; Rome was the epitome of tyrannical. They controlled their empire by force; they used the military to subdue opposition and keep the peace. The upside of that was that people understood the rule of law and they obeyed. The Roman government did not tolerate dissension and disobedience to the Law.

As a Jew and a former Pharisee, Paul understood the law as it pertained to order and living with your fellow man. The OT law was not just about the perfection that God required. God understood that life needed boundaries, and these boundaries kept the peace. Don’t steal, lie about your neighbor, covet his stuff, steal his wife, and as a businessman doesn’t use two sets of weights, be fair and use integrity. Obey the rulers and follow the rules, and all will be well. According to Deuteronomy 1:17, there was to be no partiality in the observance of the law.

The rich and the poor lived by the same rules, and they were judged by the same rules. In Job 32:21, he asks that God will help him not to be partial. In Malachi 2:9, God humiliated the nation of Israel before all people because they showed partiality in matters of the law. Sadly, we see a lot of this in the world system around us; the rich have one standard of law and the poor another one. The rich are able to afford lawyers who are better educated and much better paid than poor people. The kinds of prison that one goes to as well can be determined by the amount of money one has.

In the passage above it is clear that the government of a nation is established by God. Sometimes the government one gets is one’s just deserts for defying God. Many nations have fallen under the thumb of socialism and communism because they defy God and they begin to put men in power who have no regard for God and do not fear Him. These men lead a nation to communism, and it takes years and maybe even decades to recover from this type of government. In the process of the recovery, millions of the citizens die; you see, a government that does not recognize God as the Sovereign has no regard for human life.

We are just animals; they, the higher animals on the farm, and we, the inconsequential peons. We are expendable, and they, necessary. If you ever get the chance to read Animal Farm, do so. I read that as a boy in High School in Barbados. You see, we were surrounded by communism in the West Indies; well, at least when I was a boy we were. Islands like Cuba, Grenada, Trinidad and even Guyana were beds of communism; Jamaica was more socialist than communist, and so we were taught about the dangers of communism; Animal Farm was one of the books we had to read.

God allows us to have governments. The pattern that most countries follow was set up by Moses in Exodus 18:25; he set up levels of rulers based on the competence of the men. Some ruled over 50 persons, some over 100 persons, and some over 1,000 persons or more. These then brought difficult issues to Moses to handle at the highest levels. Thus, if one could not find a solution to an issue with the help of these lower-ranked governors, one could see Moses. We see the same situation thousands of years later in the life of the Apostle Paul when he appealed to Caesar as a Roman citizen; he had that right to appeal to the highest ruler in the land. We have similar ranks still today; we have municipal leaders like a mayor, the regional leaders like a Governor in the US or a Premier here, and then the Federal Government.

Paul tells us that God wants us, His children, to be subject to the laws of the land. One can be subject and still object. A great example of that is Jesus paying the Temple tax; in Matthew 17:24-27, Jesus pays the Temple Tax for himself and Peter, but He should not have to since He is the Son of God. The entire Temple was about Him, but he paid the tax. In our current system with the COVID mess, I wear a mask. It is, in my understanding of reading a lot of material from various doctors in Europe and other places, not helping to slow the spread at all. But it is the law, so I wear the mask. Wearing a mask does not break a law of God, and as such, I should be subject to the government. If asked, I have the right to peacefully and lawfully protest and state my perspective, but I wear a mask.

Lately, there has been a loud cry to defund the police. Yes, there are bad police officers; these should be removed from their positions and prosecuted if necessary. However, by and large, the vast majority of officers are good and seek to serve and protect. God tells us in verses 3-4 of the passage above that one should do what is good, and you will not find yourself being arrested or killed by the police. By the way, God authorized the use of force to maintain law and order. He tells us that the government agency does not carry the sword in vain, in our day a gun, in vain. It is there to punish wrongdoing; if you break the law, you might die.

In verse 5, God encourages us to not be subject to the authority out of fear, but for a clear conscience. Obey the law. Now, when are we allowed not to obey the laws of man? When it conflicts with the laws of God. We find an example in Acts 5:29; some of the apostles had been commanded not to preach about Jesus, but they did, and when asked about their conduct, they replied “we must obey God rather than man.” Thus, if a law of the human government commands us to break a law of God, then we are not bound by God to be subject to that law.

Lastly, Paul covers taxation. From the time the people left Egypt, they paid a Temple Tax, or in the wilderness, a Tabernacle Tax (see Exodus 30:13). This tax helped in the upkeep of the Tabernacle and later the Temple. Taxation is not an evil plan of the government. Taxes allow the government to provide and upkeep the road and highway system here in Canada and in the US. In many countries, the taxes pay teachers, doctors, the police, firemen, ambulance drivers and their helpers, and on we can go. There is nothing intrinsically wrong with taxation. But there is also a point where a government overtaxes us and refuses to be financially responsible because they know that most people can’t just pick up and leave; so they tax us to death.

Here in Canada, we pay income tax, sales taxes, death taxes, land taxes and so many government fees to do the simplest things like fish. There seems to be a guy in the backroom of every government office inventing ways to tax us more. As we have moved through this COVID mess, our Federal Government here has borrowed over $340 Billion dollars to fund people not working. They are not getting taxes from jobs, from sales, from commerce, from gasoline consumption and all of the other ways they get money. Because of the reduced driving, they are not even getting money from speeding tickets and parking tickets, yet there is a ton of money being spent. They will have to tax us more.

Like I said earlier, all governments are set up by God. He allows people to have a government, and sometimes you get the government you really don’t want; but the decisions we make to defy God, to put Him aside and to forget His ways, lead us to make bad governmental choices. The Government is not to be your friend; it is to be an agent of God to quell and squash evil. Sadly, our government has become hotbeds of evil; there is corruption, lies, misuse of our taxes, abuse of power and a lot of nepotism. For the most part in the Western world and most of Europe, none of the governments make us do anything that defies God’s laws; at least not that I can think of. If they ever do, I pray that God will give me, give us, the strength to obey Him only.

In Proverbs 13:34, we see these words of wisdom. Sadly, I fear that the opposite is happening; many of our leaders and our citizens hate righteousness and love evil.

“Righteousness exalteth a nation: but sin is a reproach to any people.”

God bless you,

Dr. Sean Gooding

Pastor of Mississauga Missionary Baptist Church

How to Connect with Us

On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MississaugaMissionaryBaptistChurch

Online: https://www.mississaugamissionarybaptistchurch.com/ (under construction)

Email: missionarybaptistchurch76@yahoo.ca