Grow With Pastor Joe

It is fairly safe to assume that most people like cake. There are a million different kinds of cake, but I do think we can agree that not all cakes are the same; nor do all cakes taste wonderful. Cake is basic, but it is made extraordinary through the additions of flavors, fruits, and frostings. For the most part, across the board, cake has common ingredients that make it a cake. You need flour to provide structure. Eggs are needed as a binding agent that also helps make cake turn out moist. Butter, fat, or oil of some kind either adds richness or flakiness. Milk or water is needed to add liquid to the mixture to turn the cake into a bakeable batter. Combine those ingredients and voilà…cake. Well, sort of. It would be cake but there is no flavor or sugar in the basic recipe I just provided. Without sugar and flavoring what is the point? Ingredients matter. Sadly, there is a missing ingredient in the lives of most people, both Christian and not. The world misidentifies what real love is and constantly seeks to find it through emotions or experiences to fill a void that only divine love can fill. If sugar makes a cake, then it is love that makes a Christian. There is no such thing as a loveless Christian. A loveless Christian is just an imposter. 1 John 4:7-12 says, “ ⁷ Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. ⁸ He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love. ⁹ In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him. ¹⁰ Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. ¹¹ Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another. ¹² No man hath seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us.”

            Without living according to the law of love, the Christian life is a cake without sugar. It becomes lifeless and flavorless. There are moments where our love for the Lord and others waxes or wanes. The truth that we rest in is that we are kept by His love which is unchanging and unwavering. Love is what our union with Jesus and communion with Him, His Church, and our community is built upon. Without love there is no salvation or Biblical Christianity. Andrew Murray once wrote, “Our love to God is measured by our everyday fellowship with others and the love that it displays.” Matthew Henry commented, “Brotherly love is the badge of Christ’s disciples.” Love is the basis, binding, and badge of our faith. It shows who we belong to and live for. It is our motivation and means of ministry in this loveless world.

There is an issue though. If we don’t get love and the law right, then we are going to have a hard time living in light of the love of Christ. Love has been dealt with by Paul as he has been writing the book of Romans. He has discussed both vertical and horizontal love. Love is from above. It is not earthly. True love is of God because God is love. God is not just loving, He is love. If He were just loving, then it could come and go. It would be unbalanced and unpredictable. Romans has declared and displayed God’s love for us in the gospel of Christ. We experience and express that same love by grace through faith. His love is promised to us throughout all time and eternity without fear of separation from His love. The Grecko-Roman world misunderstood love and were misguided by their notions. The Roman world viewed love as erotic and erratic. It was irresistible and often irrational. It was emotional and erotically based for the sole purpose of personal gain. This is where the awful idea of Cupid comes from. Cupid, the Roman god of love, originates from the Greek god Eros, both depicted with a bow and arrows that inspire love or desire. Eros is the Greek word that is used of erotic, sensual, pleasurable love that deals with the senses of man. You have never been struck by his arrow. He doesn’t exist. You have a brain, emotions, and a will to decide whether to love or not. If we only understand love as the world does, which is in this manner, then when we come to today’s passage we are going to especially struggle with the understanding and application of it.

Rom. 13:8-10 says, “⁸ Owe no man any thing, but to love one another: for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law. 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; and if there be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this saying, namely, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. ¹⁰ Love worketh no ill to his neighbour: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.” This passage will be our focus of today’s study on the law of love. You may think on the surface that this is a sharp departure from the previous section dealing with authority and submission, but it is actually the continuation of it. We see in this passage that we are under the authority of the law of love that Christ has given and must submit to its authority in our life so that it would be applied in our life. The word “love” is used once in each of these verses. Each time it is the word “agape” or the verbal form “agapao.” This is a divine love that God has for sinners and that He has for His Son. It is supreme, self-giving, sacrificial, and sincere. It seeks only the good of another. There are no conditions or strings attached. It is undeserved and unconditional in its essence and expression. That is how God defines love. It is what should define our Christian life. Today, we will see that love is a debt, a demonstration, and a decision for each believer.

First, we must see that love is a debt. Notice with me what Rom. 13:8 says. “ ⁸ Owe no man any thing, but to love one another: for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law.” Love is not optional, it is obligatory. There are a few things that we’ll cover in this verse. One, there is a debt of life. Life is filled with debt. You are born with debt to your parents or guardians as they raise you. Now, the average young person is under tens of thousands of dollars of debt before they are even old enough to purchase alcohol. The phrase, “owe no man anything” is in the present imperative which means that it has a continual force. Regardless of what Dave Ramsey says, the Bible never forbids us being in debt, but rather what we are prohibited to do is to skip out on paying our bills, borrowing more than we could repay, or avoiding the repayment of debts altogether. Unpaid bills and debts are a poor testimony in a Christian’s life. If you are so busy having to pay back creditors then you’ll be too busy and burdened to give yourself fully to Christ. Two, there is a debt of love. We are told to owe nothing to others but love itself. Man is not owed God’s love. That’s what makes His love “so amazing, so divine” as the hymn goes. However, we owe God and our fellow man our love. This is a bill in our life that is constantly due no matter how often it is paid. Love is a debt that is never discharged or dismissed. It is always outstanding. This debt of love is not just for the loveable or likeable. It is for the least, lowly, and last. It is owed to the one who has wronged you. It is owed to your enemies and persecutors. It is owed to your fellow Christians. It is owed to your neighbor, your family, and strangers that you encounter. The phrase “one another” is bigger than just the local church or greater Body of Christ. Paul dealt with that already in Rom. 12:3-13. Now, he has turned our attention to our relationship with the world. We have an obligation to show love at every opportunity with everyone around us. Gal. 6:10 says, “As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men, especially unto them who are of the household of faith.” Three, there is a debt of law. Here is where some folks get into trouble. If you don’t understand God’s law, then you’ll never understand His grace and love. If you keep the two so separated, then you’ll begin to believe as many have throughout the ages that either there were different gods in the old and new testament or that somehow God changed how He operates completely. When we think of the ten commandments (the law) we don’t usually think of love. We think of rules and responsibility. Now, praise God for us in Christ we are under grace, but that does not dissolve the law or the debt we ow to obey God’s commands (we’ll cover this later). In this verse we see that the law is summed up by love. It is by loving one another that we fulfill the law. Lev. 19:18 says, “Thou shalt not avenge, nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people, but thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself: I am the Lord.” Then, Deut. 6:4-5 says, “⁴ Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord: ⁵ And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.” If that isn’t good enough for you then look at what Jesus says. Matt. 22:34-40 says, “³⁴ But when the Pharisees had heard that he had put the Sadducees to silence, they were gathered together. ³⁵ Then one of them, which was a lawyer, asked him a question, tempting him, and saying, ³⁶ Master, which is the great commandment in the law? ³⁷ Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. ³⁸ This is the first and great commandment. ³⁹ And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. ⁴⁰ On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.” God’s love and law are not foes, but friends that are eternally bound together. We see that God loves us by giving us His law and He reveals His existence, essence, and nature in His law. No man is justified by keeping the law, however, because we have been justified freely by His grace we now are indebted to obey God’s commands out of love for Him. Please understand, although you and I could never keep the law Jesus did so for us. Those of us who are in Christ now have His active obedience in that He kept and fulfilled the law in its entirety in His perfect life applied to our account through His passive obedience where He lovingly and perfectly sacrifices Himself for our sins. The essence of the law is the expression of God’s love and as we express love to others it is the essence of the law. We know God’s love and law in the gospel, grace, and glory of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Second, we must see that love is a demonstration. Rom. 13:9 says, “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.” This verse continues the theme of the relationship between the law and love of God which now commands us to live in submission under the authority of the law of love. Divine love is not just declarative, for example, saying, “I love you.” Divine love is demonstrative. Rom. 5:8-10 says, “⁸ But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. ⁹ Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. ¹⁰ For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.” You talk about love all day without ever really loving someone. You can fake it and say it a thousand times, but it must be demonstrated to be real. Real love is sacrifice in action. Love is demonstrated by our lips and our life. As J.C. Ryle said, “Love should be the silver thread that runs through all your conduct.” Talk it and walk it. As we have already dealt with, no man has ever kept the law of God but Jesus Himself. There is no salvation in law keeping because we can’t keep it. We are saved by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. While law keeping doesn’t produce salvation, it is salvation that produces law keeping through a love for the Lord of the law and love. As the inspirational missionary Amy Carmichael wrote, “You can always give without loving, but you can never love without giving.” In this quote, Carmichael actually expresses the very purpose of Rom. 13:9. When we see these commandments quoted by Paul, our temptation is to be like the rich young ruler who came to Jesus and could say that he avoided the negative side of the law. For example, I can not sleep with my neighbor’s wife and still not love him. I can not actually shoot someone to death while still hating them. I can not steal from my neighbor while still harboring jealous anger that I don’t have what he does. I can not lie to my neighbor while still not loving him enough to tell him the whole truth. Then, to covet itself in many respects sums up the above sins. Why? Because coveting or a strong desire for something that is not mine leads to committing adultery (desiring another’s wife), murder (desiring another’s life), and stealing (desiring another’s goods)! It is not enough to NOT do these things. We must live with love as the motivation of our life. Love is the reason why we don’t do these sins. Love is the reason that we obey God and love our neighbor. Love is the demonstration that God’s law means something to us. Look at what Jesus said in John 13:34-35, “³⁴ A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. ³⁵ By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.” Then Jesus says in John 14:15, 21, “¹⁵ If ye love me, keep my commandments. ²¹ He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him.” Then Jesus continues in John 15:9-14, “⁹ As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you: continue ye in my love. ¹⁰ If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father’s commandments, and abide in his love. ¹¹ These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full. ¹² This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you. ¹³ Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. ¹⁴ Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you.” How can we do this? Not by your own strength, but only by the Holy Spirit. Rom. 5:5 says that God’s love is poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit and then Rom. 8:4 that we fulfill the law as we walk in the Spirit not the flesh. We will only demonstrate the love of Christ as we surrender to the work of the indwelling Holy Spirit as we saw in Rom. 12. The love of Christ is demonstrated as we are gospel fueled grace filled and glory focused in our daily life. If you love yourself, which you do, then you must not only love your neighbor but to demonstrate the love of Christ by loving them as much as you love yourself. The demonstration of love in the life of a believer is perhaps best seen in Luke 10:25-37 as Jesus gives the parable of the “Good Samaritan” who demonstrated a love for his neighbor, a stranger at that. Remember though that the greatest demonstration of love throughout all eternity is the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. He shows us what love is and how it should be demonstrated.

Third, we must see that love is a decision. Rom. 13:10 says, “¹⁰ Love worketh no ill to his neighbour: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.” As addressed earlier, agape love is a decision of the mind, emotions, and will. Biblical divine love is not emotionless, but it is not driven by our passions. True love is driven by God’s love for us and our love for Him. The reason why you have a hard time paying your love debt by demonstrating the love of Christ is because you are choosing to decide who gets to receive the gift of your love, for how long, and what circumstances or boundaries there are. Divine love is a decision of devotion for the blessing and benefit of another. Agape love is intentional not accidental. It is sincere not suspicious. If it seeks the hurt of another then it is not love that is motivating you, just your own lust. Love should mold your character and conduct. In fact, it is the mold that we should be conformed to. Love is the fulfillment of the law because it is the fruit of the Spirit (Gal. 5:16-26). Love is a decision to love Christ and others more than you love yourself. Love is a decision to love as Christ loves. Love is a decision to surrender to the loving work of the Spirit. Love is a decision to submit to God’s authority and activity in our life. Love is a decision to keep the gospel, grace, and glory of Jesus the preeminent purpose of our life. Love is a decision that demonstrates our faith but also declares the gospel, grace, and glory of God to our neighbors. Love is God’s command, but it is your choice to obey or not.

The law of love is not just an obligation to obey. It is the obedient observation of God’s law from an overflow of His love and grace in our lives. We are expected to love others because we have experienced the love of Christ. Because we have experienced His love we are expected to extend His love to others so that the world may know not just the law of love, but the Lord of love who offers them life. Many of us today have no problem with keeping the negative “don’ts” of the law, but are we faithfully keeping the positive side by living under the authority of the law of love? When you think of love you need to think of Jesus. Don’t let the world continue to mold your character and conduct or you will only ever love yourself. As Christians, we are not at liberty to love God and keep His law. Don’t love God and others out of obligation. Love God and others from an overflowing heart that is yielded to Jesus’ law of love. Don’t leave your debt of love unpaid. If you are harboring ill will, unforgiveness, or fellowship then repent and look at the love of Christ for sinners. If you are going through the outward motions without the inward moving of compassion, grace, and love then repent. May we learn to submit to the authority of the law of love in our life so that we can know Christ and make Him known in our community that so desperately needs to know Lord of light, love, and life.