|
| |
INDEX
PREVIOUS
NEXT
|
SEARCH PRECEPT AUSTIN WEB SITE |
|
|
|
COLLECTIONS
Commentaries, Word
Studies, Devotionals, Sermons, Illustrations
Old and New Testament |
|
| |
|
|
|
|
ROMANS ROAD
to
RIGHTEOUSNESS |
Romans
1:18-3:20
|
Romans
3:21-5:21 |
Romans
6:1-8:39 |
Romans
9:1-11:36 |
Romans
12:1-16:27 |
|
SIN
|
SALVATION
|
SANCTIFICATION |
SOVEREIGNTY |
SERVICE |
NEED
FOR
SALVATION |
WAY
OF
SALVATION |
LIFE
OF
SALVATION |
SCOPE
OF
SALVATION |
SERVICE
OF
SALVATION |
God's Holiness
In
Condemning
Sin |
God's Grace
In
Justifying
Sinners |
God's Power
In
Sanctifying
Believers |
God's Sovereignty
In
Saving
Jew and Gentile |
Gods Glory
The
Object of
Service |
Deadliness
of Sin |
Design
of Grace |
Demonstration
of Salvation |
|
Power Given
|
Promises
Fulfilled |
Paths Pursued |
Righteousness
Needed |
Righteousness
Credited |
Righteousness
Demonstrated |
Righteousness
Restored to Israel |
Righteousness
Applied |
God's
Righteousness
IN LAW |
God's
Righteousness
IMPUTED |
God's
Righteousness
OBEYED |
God's
Righteousness
IN ELECTION |
God's
Righteousness
DISPLAYED |
|
Slaves to Sin |
Slaves to God |
Slaves Serving
God |
|
Doctrine |
Duty |
|
Life by Faith |
Service by
Faith |
|
Modified from Irving L.
Jensen's excellent work "Jensen's
Survey of the NT" |
|
Romans 13:8-9:
Our Responsibilities
Under Grace - Part 11
by Dr. Wayne A.
Barber |
|
How
many times are we tempted to take verses out of their context? The rule of
study is observation, interpretation and application. When you take
something out of context you misuse what God has put before us. Some
people actually do that with Scripture. You grab a verse here and you grab
a verse there and you build a doctrine off of it that has nothing to do
with the context from which that statement came.
We use the statement all the time, "When two or three are gathered
together, I am always in the midst." The context of that is when you are
dealing with an unruly brother, a brother who has sinned, and two of you
have gone to him. When two or three are gathered together, it is in the
context of relationships. It is in the context of those kinds of
situations. But we use it for everything. Staying in context is very, very
important.
I am talking about that because we are coming to a verse that I believe
people have taken out of its context and made to mean one thing when, if
you will follow the flow of what Paul is saying, doesn’t mean that at all.
What is the context? The first 11 chapters of Romans is the greatest
teaching on grace you can find anywhere in the New Testament. It is what
we don’t deserve but what God has done for us through the Lord Jesus
Christ.
You come to 12:1-2 and what does it talk about? It talks about presenting
your body. Why do you present your body? Out of appreciation for what God
has done for us. Eleven chapters of it. You are overwhelmed. Paul says,
"Man, all things are of Him and through Him and to Him, the marvelous
wonder of it all." Then he says, "Therefore, present your bodies a living
sacrifice."
Over in Ephesians he talks about being filled with the Spirit. This is the
same thing. Do you want to know how to be filled with the Spirit? Present
your body a living sacrifice. That is what he is talking about. Why?
Because these bodies are bodies of sin. Romans 6:6, 12 tells us that.
These bodies are deceitful bodies. These bodies will lead us on a path of
destruction. We used to be helpless and could not do anything about the
power of sin in these bodies. Now that we are saved, the power of God is
within us and therefore now we can choose not to follow after our flesh
but we can choose to follow after the Spirit. How do you do that? By
presenting your body. How do you present your body? By renewing your mind.
Verse 2 talks about that. Make sure you rip out the way you used to think
and put in the way God wants you to think. What happens? You are
transformed in your character. You get to test for yourself what is that
good and acceptable and perfect will of God. That is the context.
Now, I know we are in chapter 13. But if you lose sight of 12:1-2, then it
is no wonder you are struggling in your Christian walk. You have got to
stay right here, surrendered, broken and yielded. Everything flows out of
that well. Everything happens differently. All your relationships take on
a brand new perspective. In Romans 12:3-8, you begin to realize that the
church is not an organization, it is an organism and it is the body of
Christ. We are all gifted members of the body of Christ. You begin to
realize that we have gifts to serve one another. And the way we serve is
out of these gifts which God has given. I have certain gifts, and you have
certain gifts. Those gifts are utilized, when we are surrendered, to serve
the body of Christ. You are not in the body of Christ to be served. You
are in the body of Christ to serve.
Romans 12:9-21 show us that if the love produced by the Holy Spirit of
God, which is a love without hypocrisy, is not there, then all of our
serving makes absolute nonsense to the world. It means nothing to God. It
means nothing to people. It is nothing more than just pure flesh.
You see, he talks about the gifts first. But remember something: you can
fake any gift, but you can’t fake the fruit. That is what the Holy Spirit
of God produces within us. It produces a love without hypocrisy and from
verse 9 all the way to verse 21 he explains how that love operates.
In verses 17 through 21 he even moves it outside the church walls to
people who treat you terribly, to when you are persecuted by the
government or enemies or whatever. They were in Rome, which was the
capital city of the Roman Empire.
But then you come into chapter 13. For seven verses Paul doesn’t do
anything but insert something that is incorporated into love, this love
that God’s Spirit produces within us. It gives us a respect for authority.
It gives us an appreciation for authority. We begin to understand God
appointed authority. And out of the love that we have for Him, now we are
enabled and empowered to be submissive to that authority.
Then he adds something none of us like. He adds the proof of it all in
verses 6 and 7, which is the fact that we are willing to pay taxes. We
think we are overtaxed. I tried to show you when we touched those verses
that they were more taxed than we have ever thought about being taxed. Yet
in the context of Nero, the Emperor of Rome at that time, the Apostle Paul
says, "Pay your taxes."
It is out of that context we come to verses 8-9, as he brings us full
circle. Paul inserted seven verses to show you how to deal with those
authorities in your life and then he comes right back to his topic of this
love without hypocrisy. Romans 13:8 says, "Owe nothing to anyone except to
love one another; for he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law."
Now there are several things I want to share with you. First of all, I
want you to see that you and I owe a debt that we must pay. There is a
song we used to sing years ago. It depicted a person without Christ: "We
owed a debt we could not pay. He paid a debt He did not owe. I needed
someone to take my sins away." That is exactly the way it was.
But folks, that is before we were saved. Now that we are saved, the Holy
Spirit of God has come to live within us and now we have a debt we must
pay. We are going to be obligated to God to pay it. That verb is in the
present imperative. Present tense means this should be going on every day
in our life, every moment of our life, in every relationship that God puts
in our life. The imperative mood means it is a command. This is not an
option, not a suggestion. The Apostle Paul says we have a debt and we are
commanded by a Holy God to pay it. It is present tense. It is not going to
be paid until Christ comes back again. It is being paid every day in every
relationship that we have.
So what is that debt? That we love one another. "Owe nothing to anyone
except to love one another; for he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled
the law." Relationships started back in 12:3. We are still in
relationships in 13:8.
Now, this is not saying that I cannot go out and borrow money. That is not
what Paul is talking about. If you will look in verse 7, there is your
context. Verse 7 says, "Render to all [government authority] what is due
them: tax to whom tax is due; custom to whom custom; fear to whom fear;
honor to whom honor."
Then verse 8 carries the thought on by saying, "Owe nothing to anyone
except to love one another." If it even implies personal debt, then it
would mean don’t ever be late on your payment, don’t overextend yourself,
don’t borrow to the point you can’t pay and mar your testimony. But to me
that is not what he is talking about here. He is saying, when it comes to
our submission to civil government, when it comes to the organization of
government that God has put around us, never be found lacking in money
paying your taxes or in respect that is due to all these people. As a
matter of fact, owe nothing except to love them. Let that be the supreme
debt that you are constantly paying, not only to one another in the
church, not only to governmental officials around you, but to everybody,
every relationship that you have. This is what you owe that you will
always be paying. That is what I believe he is talking about here.
It is amazing to me how you can take one little verse out and put it over
here and build a doctrine off of it. That is not what he is talking about
at all. He is saying, "Don’t ever be found lacking when it comes to the
proper respect and the proper taxes that are due to those that are around
you."
"Owe nothing to anyone except to love one another." The "anyone" there
would be those that he just mentioned in verse 7. Then he says, "for he
who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law." He is going to quote that
phrase again in verse 10. We are commanded. God has always demanded a
character out of His creation, the character of love. The first five
commandments deals with loving Him first, and the second five commandments
focus on loving others. That is what the law is. That is what we couldn’t
do back when we were lost. That is what we are enabled to do now that we
are saved. This character is this love. It’s the love that the Holy Spirit
produces, back in Romans 12:9, without hypocrisy. That is what fulfills
the law.
How do you know somebody is spiritual? Listen, it is not how high you
jump. It is not how many tongues you think you can speak in. It is not how
exciting your ministry is supposed to be. It is not all of that shouting
and stuff. It is how straight you walk in the matter of your
relationships.
Now you think about it. In every relationship that God has given to you,
is there a love without hypocrisy being produced in your life that
measures to the qualifications of chapter 12, that measures to the fact
that daily you sense the need and the debt that you owe to somebody to
show Christ’s love to them? I wish we could see this. If I have received
His love in me and the person of the Holy Spirit is the one who manifests
it, then as I am presented, Romans 12:1-2, then that love can be released
through me and touch every single relationship that is in my life whether
it is a one time thing or whether it is a long term situation. That love
is supposed to be constantly being released in our lives.
Not only do we owe a debt that we must pay, but we owe a debt that we
cannot pay unless the Spirit of God is in control of our lives. I want to
show you what Paul does here in verse 9. I know you can go to a commentary
and find all kinds of things, but what I see he is doing in this text is
very valid to the context that we have been looking at. He is going to
show them again the frustration of flesh trying to live up to the law. You
have got to keep it in context. If I am not surrendered, then I am not
paying a debt. Not only am I not paying a debt, I couldn’t pay that debt
if I wanted to. I have to be surrendered in order to be able to pay that
debt of loving one another.
Watch what he does in verse 9. He quotes out of the Mosaic Law. This is
what was there before you got saved. This is what condemns you. The flesh
responded to it. The flesh couldn’t do it and was condemned because of it.
Verse 9 reads, "For this, ‘You shall not commit adultery, you shall not
murder, you shall not steal, you shall not covet,’ and if there is any
other commandment, it is summed up in this saying, ‘You shall love your
neighbor as yourself.’"
The New American Standard lists four commandments. The King James adds one
to make it five commandments. We will look at that. Paul takes five
commandments right out of the Mosaic law. Why would Paul do that? I think
it is to show us that if we are not surrendered, if we are not back in
Romans 12:1-2, all this becomes is some legalistic way we measure
ourselves and judge others because they are not doing what we are doing.
Alright, watch. "You shall not commit adultery." The word for "adultery"
there is moicheuo. You are probably sitting there saying, "I am not
committing adultery. Why is he getting on my case?" Paul taunted the
Jewish people in Romans 2:22. Look over there and let me show you what he
did. These were the religious crowd and they were just as lost as the
rebellious crowd. Sometimes we forget this. It is not so much what you do
or don’t do on the outside. It has more to do with what is on the inside.
He says in verse 22, "You who say that one should not commit adultery, do
you commit adultery?" Boy, you can just see what is going on in their
minds. "What? Are you accusing me of committing adultery? What do you
mean? We are living up to the law. We are measuring up to the law."
Paul is going somewhere with this. You may be sitting there thinking all
these commandments are how you treat relationships, how you treat one
another. You do not commit adultery because the love of God within you
will not allow you to do something like that. But are we guilty sometimes
of doing it without actually committing the act?
Look over in Matthew 5 and see what Jesus had to say. As a matter of fact,
the Apostle Paul is doing exactly the same thing Jesus did over here in
the Beatitudes. He is going deeper than what you do or don’t do. He is
going deeper inside. You see, we owe a debt we must pay. But we owe a debt
we can’t pay unless the Holy Spirit of God is in control of our lives. Our
flesh will automatically disqualify itself. Watch.
Matthew 5:27 says, "You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit
adultery’; but I say to you, that everyone who looks on a woman to lust
for her has committed adultery with her already in his heart." What he is
saying is, it is not just the action, it is the attitude of sin and the
flesh part of us. The flesh part of every person is that which will lust
after someone. It is wicked. That is where it all comes from. That is
where the lust of the flesh resides. What he is saying is, "You may not
have committed the act, but there have been times when lust has been in
your heart; and when that lust was there, you just qualified yourself in
that commandment." Is there any man who wants to stand up and say they can
absolutely, totally obey that commandment without the Holy Spirit of God
living in them? No man would be foolish enough to stand up and say they
could.
You see, he is reminding them of something here. Paul said, "According to
the law I was found blameless." Yes, but he was lost. God had to stop him
on the Damascus Road and save him. But he did all the things or didn’t do
the things he was told not to do. But it was deeper than that. There was
something on the inside and no man according to his own flesh can obey
this law.
So this kind of love that we are talking about, this kind of debt that we
owe has got to be something that God has to enable us to do. It is the
Holy Spirit of God producing this. Man in his flesh cannot do that.
Well, look at the next one. I know you are going to say, "I am clear on
this one." "You shall not murder." The word for "murder" there means
murder. You say, "Well, I have never killed anybody." Now be real careful.
You see, some people will be proud enough to say, "I have obeyed every one
of those. What else is there?" It is kind of like the rich young man one
time who said, "What must I do to be saved?" And Jesus said, "Obey the
commandments" and then he began to list them. He said, "Oh, I have done
all of those." He couldn’t recognize the fact that he hadn’t done any of
them because his flesh is not capable of doing any of them. It must be by
God’s Spirit working within your heart.
You say, "I have never murdered anybody. Why, I wouldn’t hurt a flea." Oh,
is that right? Look at what Jesus said about that in Matthew 5:21. He
said, "You have heard that the ancients were told, ‘You shall not commit
murder’ and ‘Whoever commits murder shall be liable to the court.’" Now
watch what Jesus says. "But I say to you that everyone who is angry with
his brother shall be guilty before the court; and whoever shall say to his
brother, ‘Raca,’ shall be guilty before the supreme court; and whoever
shall say, ‘You fool,’ shall be guilty enough to go into the fiery hell."
You mean to tell me that anger with my brother is actually the same
heartbeat as murder? Folks, when are we going to wake up? You can murder
somebody’s character by what you say about them. Listen, the whole idea of
misrepresentation of somebody is the idea here of murdering that
individual.
The Apostle Paul said in 2 Timothy, writing from his last imprisonment,
"Timothy, watch out for this man. Watch out for this man." Then he names
Alexander the coppersmith. If you want to find out who Alexander the
coppersmith was, you go back in scripture to the book of Acts. You will
find Paul in Ephesus when the riot happened. Alexander was the one who got
up to give a proclamation of the gospel. He was a Jewish man but evidently
was a believer. Then in another epistle he says that Alexander rejected
his teaching. What teaching? The Apostle Paul taught the pure message of
grace and here was a man who couldn’t handle the message of grace. He
wanted that legalism. He wanted the law added to it. Therefore, he said he
blasphemed me. That word "blasphemed" means to tear a person’s reputation
down behind his back with what you say.
"Oh, I have never murdered anybody." Friend, every time you open your
mouth in a negative way about somebody, you have just done the same thing
as if you took his life away from him. You took the reputation away. You
sucked their character away by what you said. You know, James 3 says that
we all offend in many ways. What is the whole theme of James 3? No man can
control the tongue.
I am one who believes adamantly that the devil cannot get inside a
Christian. I believe that and will believe that until I see the Lord Jesus
one day. I believe that the devil cannot get inside a Christian; however,
he can put a saddle right on your tongue of a believer and murder
somebody’s reputation and somebody’s character. You want to try this after
the flesh? I want to tell you something; your flesh will react to
relationships. It will not respond properly to God and His Holy Spirit.
Have I been guilty of it? Absolutely I have been guilty of it. Not a one
of us could point a finger at anybody. I warned you back in chapter 12. If
you are listening to these verses like, "I sure hope somebody hears that,"
then you need to go back to 12:1-2 and get your heart right with God.
Now hear me straight. It’s not my brother, not my sister, it is me
standing in the need of the grace of God. If you see it any other way,
folks, you evidently think you have arrived and that is the height of
pride right there. It is where am I in this situation. Oh, I wouldn’t take
a hammer and hit anybody or I wouldn’t take a gun and shoot anybody, but
what I say about them hurts them a lot worse.
When I was growing up we used to say, "Sticks and stones may break my
bones, but words will never hurt me." That is a lie from the pit of hell.
Words will do a whole lot more damage because what is broken with sticks
and stones will heal; what has been said about a person will go on
forever. I remember a man in our church years ago. Somebody came up with a
rumor about him and it literally almost ruined that man’s life. It hit the
news in town. Somebody picked up a rumor and ruined a man’s character just
because of that.
We must be very, very careful to listen to what Paul is saying here. You
cannot pay this debt unless the Holy Spirit of God is absolutely in
control of your life. You can’t live up to this. Your flesh won’t do it.
It will fall short. "For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of
God." He is talking about men who live after their flesh.
Thirdly he says, "You shall not steal." "Now, I haven’t stolen anything.
Come on, I have integrity. When I get too much change back at the store, I
give the change back. I wouldn’t steal anything." Careful. Careful. The
word for "steal" is klepto. Guess what word we get out of that.
Kleptomaniac. Now that is not a person who steals one time, is it? That is
a person who has an addiction to stealing, all the time taking.
We found that word over in Ephesians 4. Turn over there with me. It is in
the context of putting on and taking off the garment of Christ. He says,
"Take off the old man," as far as the behavior goes and put on the new
man, which is Christ in you. The new person is what you have become in
Him. "Stop living as if you are not saved," is what he is saying in
Ephesians. He is talking about what the old garment looked like and what
the new garment looks like. It is very, very interesting. Verse 22 says to
take off, and verse 24 says to put on. Look at verse 28: "Let him who
steals steal no longer; but rather let him labor, performing with his own
hands what is good, in order that he may have something to share with him
who has need."
In the context of putting on the new garment, we discover that if what you
are taking off used to steal, then the characteristic of the old
lifestyle, the characteristic of the old garment of the flesh is that it
is a thief. It will rob you. Now, it is one thing to walk into a store and
pick up something that is not yours and walk out of it. That is one thing.
But there are others ways of stealing, folks, just like there are other
ways of murdering. There are other ways of committing adultery except in
the actual act. It can be done other ways. How can I steal other ways? I
can rob you of your time, your energy or your emotions.
Do you realize a person who is not living in Romans 12:1-2, surrendered
and obedient to God, is a person who is a taker? He is a depleter. The
person who is living in the newness of life of Romans 12:1-2 is a
replenisher. He is a giver. That is exactly what this verse is talking
about. You go to work with your hands so that you can give. Quit taking
and start learning to work so you will have something so that you can give
to other people. The whole root thought of that is the flesh takes but the
Spirit gives.
Which would you rather be around, somebody living after the flesh, a
taker, or somebody living in Romans 12:1-2 who is a giver? I tell you,
when you have been around people who serve after the flesh, they will suck
everything out of your life. They will take your time. They could care
less about you or anything else about you. But when you are walking in the
Spirit, it constantly wants to give, to give, to give. That is where it
all comes from. So when you try to live this just by simply overtly saying
that I have never stolen anything, be real careful. Stealing goes a lot
beyond just taking something that is not yours. You are a thief when you
live after the flesh, a free-loader if you please, riding on other people,
trying to get out of them what is really not yours to take.
There is not a one of us who hasn’t done that. Our flesh manipulates. Our
flesh wants only for itself. You say, "You sound like you know a lot about
the flesh." Yes, I do. I have to deal with it every day of my life. I wish
I could say, "Live like me." No, don’t live like me, but help me live like
we all ought to live. You see, that is where we are accountable to one
another. The scripture says that you cannot do this except as Romans
12:1-2 tells us.
The third thing Paul mentions I think is just as important. The King James
puts it in, but the New American Standard leaves it out: "Thou shalt not
bear false witness." The word is pseudomartureo. Martureo means to witness
something. In a courtroom sense, it would be to bear false witness against
somebody, either to lie about something or to refuse to say what you know
to be true to help that person. In other words, just by your refusal to
say it sometimes you can bear a false witness against someone.
But in a broader sense, in the Christian life it has more to do with being
deceitful by the way you live. It goes right on down to the very fact of
lying itself. It is a person who lives and by what he does bears a false
witness, a deception against another person by what he says or however he
insinuates in his life. Now, over in Matthew 19:18, Jesus said to the man
who asked what commandments he should obey, "You shall not commit murder;
you shall not commit adultery; you shall not steal; you shall not bear
false witness."
The same idea is in Ephesians 4:25. The old garment is deceptive. It will
bear false witness. It will lie in a minute. Now remember, the broader
sense of bearing false witness is simply to be deceitful and to lie. As
you narrow it down, it has even more to do with relationships. In
Ephesians 4:25 look at what Paul says. "Therefore, laying aside falsehood,
speak truth, each one of you, with his neighbor, for we are members of one
another."
Now again, we are talking about laying aside this old garment and putting
on this new one. What was the old? The old garment deceives. The old
garment will lie in a minute. The old garment will bear false witness.
That is the flesh. But when you put on the new, you can only tell the
truth. The truth is something the Holy Spirit of God leads you to do.
It is incredible how quickly we will lie, how quickly we will deceive, how
quickly we will bear false witness when we are walking after the flesh and
not after the Spirit of God. The Apostle Paul, led by the Spirit of God,
is so wise here. He is saying, "Listen, this is not some group of
legalistic rules here. You can’t do this unless you go back to Romans
12:1-2 and surrender yourself fully to Him. And when you let His Word get
into your mind it will transform your character and there will be a new
garment you have on and that garment will not let you lie."
We owe a debt we must pay, but we owe a debt we can’t pay unless the Holy
Spirit of God enables us to do it. If you are not walking in light of
Romans 12:2, it is no wonder your relationships are shattered
relationships. When your relationship to God is what it ought to be, your
relationships towards others is going to be incredibly different. It is
going to be the reflection of what God the Holy Spirit is doing in your
heart.
Well, the last one he mentions there is "You shall not covet." Now the
word "covet" is the word also translated lust, epithumeo. It is the word
that we also discovered in Romans 7:7. Look there, because I want to show
you something. In verse 7 you see the law, this command, these things that
he is quoting out of here. The character that God demands automatically
condemns all flesh because no flesh can live up to it. This is the
character of God. He demonstrated His righteousness by the way He sent
Jesus to die for us. He demands this of all His creation, but we can’t do
it. Verse 7 reads, "What shall we say then? Is the Law sin? May it never
be! On the contrary, I would not have come to know sin except through the
Law; for I would not have known about coveting if the Law had not said,
‘You shall not covet.’"
In other words, Paul said, "I was just going around trying to do my best
for God as a Jew. I didn’t realize about coveting until the law came and
said, ‘You shall not covet.’" Verse 8 continues, "But sin, taking
opportunity through the commandment, produced in me coveting of every
kind; for apart from the law sin is dead." Let me show you what he is
saying. He is saying, "Listen, when the law came out, my flesh just came
alive. My flesh loves to try to obey. My flesh has always deceived me."
Yours has, too, by the way. If you think you can live any of this in the
energy of your flesh, you are already deceived, folks.
So the Apostle Paul said, "‘Do not covet.’ Okay, I won’t covet today." He
got up that morning and what did he do all day long? Covet, covet, covet.
Everywhere he looked he was coveting. Suddenly it dawned on him, "Oh,
there is something in me that is causing this to happen. I can will it not
to happen, but there is something about me that wants to covet." That is
why it has got to be surrendered at all times to the Lordship of Jesus
Christ. These bodies are bodies of sin and they will not cooperate with
the Holy Spirit. They cannot co-exist. One has to live through the other.
One dominates the other. That is what it is all about. Covet, covet,
covet.
You may say, "Well, I have never coveted. I am just very grateful for what
I have." Is that right? Go back to chapter 12 where it says to rejoice
when others rejoice and weep when they weep. "Oh, I can rejoice when
others rejoice." Can you? I guarantee you that you can’t. Let somebody
have a million dollars dropped on them. Out loud you may say, "I am so
glad for you," but inside your flesh is saying, "God, why didn’t you give
that to me? I deserve it." That is the way we are. You can’t live any of
these, folks. They are relationship words. Do you recognize in this that
if you are not walking in Romans 12:1-2 every relationship that you touch
is poisoned because of the wickedness of your flesh. Do we see this?
I may back off and say, "I don’t do any of those five things." God is
going to say, "You are not looking close enough. Now let’s open the door
and go inside. I guarantee you that you are guilty of all five of them."
The flesh is totally inadequate to do what the Spirit of God commands. The
only thing that can enable us is when we are filled and empowered by the
Holy Spirit of God. For 15 years now I have been trying to preach the
truth of the Christ-life, a vessel through which Christ manifests His
power and His life and His character. I am not sure if it has ever caught
on. Sometimes I wonder if it is caught and not taught. I wonder if the
light has just got to turn on inside of somebody.
The Apostle Paul is bringing us right back into context. He is saying that
this love without hypocrisy that can only be produced by the Holy Spirit
of God is something you owe as a debt to every single relationship God
allows in your life until Jesus comes back. And folks, the longer you live
the more important you are going to see relationships because when we get
to heaven one day, there are not going to be buildings. There are not
going to be programs. There is only going to be people and that is who God
sent His Son to die for. So therefore, if we do what we do at the expense
of relationships, we have denied the very principle of what God has taught
us about what the Christ-life is all about. I must be under the control of
the Spirit of God for any relationship around me to be what God wants it
to be, whether it is my family, my children, you, or people out in the
world. The reflection of a spiritual walk is not how loud you can shout,
it is not how high you can jump. It is how straight you walk when you come
down as it comes to relationships. That is the bottom line.
Jesus said in John 13:35, "By this shall all men know that you are My
disciples by the fact that you love one another." Go over to Galatians 5.
I want you to see this from another angle. Paul wrote both books and they
are commentaries on each other. Paul says the same thing in Galatians 5:14
that he just said in Romans 13:8-9. Galatians 5:14 says, "For the whole
Law is fulfilled in one word, in the statement, ‘You shall love your
neighbor as yourself.’" Now, jump back to Romans 13:9 and look at the last
part of the verse. He quotes the very same thing. He is trying to show us
something. The Holy Spirit of God lives in me to fulfill the law that He
requires out of me. I have got to be surrendered or it won’t happen.
Romans 13:9 says, "and if there is any other commandment, it is summed up
in this saying, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’" That is
exactly what Galatians 5:14 is referring to.
Paul is saying this love is to be shown selflessly to the relationships
around you, first of all within the church and then without the church. Do
you know why I think he concentrates so much on the church? If we don’t
learn to love people inside the church, we will never love people outside
the church. We are the perfect ones to love somebody. We have received
God’s love. We ought to love one another. If we are not doing it in the
church, we are not going to be doing it out there. The love that the
Spirit of God produces is what fulfills the character requirement that God
has had on all of His creation even since the very beginning.
Look at Galatians 5:22: "But the fruit of the Spirit [that which is
produced by the Spirit] is love,..." Then he qualifies it. With this love
comes other things. Are you looking for joy in your life? Look here:
"...joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness,
self-control; against such things there is no law." Now when is the Holy
Spirit of God going to produce that love in me? Romans 12:1-2 tells us. I
sound like a broken record, don’t I? Context, context, context. Stay in
it. You cannot do these things unless you are filled with the Spirit of
God. It is God enabling you.
This is the beautiful truth that I want to show you. Not only am I
commanded to pay a debt, under grace I am enabled to pay that debt. I make
the choice. God takes it from there and produces within me the very
ability to do what under the law I could never do according to my flesh.
Now in the power of His Spirit and under His grace, I am able to do what I
couldn’t do before.
Romans 13:10 says, "Love does no wrong to a neighbor." The Paul quotes it
one more time, "love therefore is the fulfillment of the law."
Folks, you owe a debt. You are riding down the road, breaking the speed
limit and a cop stops you. You owe him a debt. You owe. I owe. I want to
tell you something. When we get off this kick of thinking that everybody
owes us and get back in Romans 12:1-2 where we belong, we are debtors,
folks, we are debtors until the day Jesus comes for His church. And we owe
every single person we come in contact with the debt of loving them. Now
sometimes the love God manifests in our life is not what they are looking
for. That is the kind of love John talked about that says the world hasn’t
got a clue what you are talking about. Sometimes it is tough and it hurts
but it does what we believe to be the best for that individual. But we owe
that debt to everyone.
I want to tell you something, the longer you live the more this truth is
going to start grabbing hold of you and you are going to realize the debt,
the huge debt you have incurred over the years and you haven’t paid.
Relationships, folks, are where it all is.
The Apostle Paul had a situation with John Mark. On his first missionary
journey they got to Pamphylia and John Mark bailed out on him. He would
not go on with him. It so affected the Apostle Paul that later on they
were going on another missionary journey and Barnabas came up to him and
said, "Listen, let’s take John Mark." The Word says there was a sharp
disagreement between the two of them and Paul said, "No way is John Mark
going with me." Barnabas said, "Okay, I will take him." He said, "Okay,
you go your way and I will take Silas and we will go our way." They
departed company over John Mark.
Later in 2 Timothy 4 we find Paul in prison. He writes Timothy and says,
"Timothy, I am cold. I am bored. And I am so lonely." These were the last
days of his life, folks. What do you expect in your Christian walk? Do you
know what he wanted? He wanted relationships. That is what he wanted. He
said, "By the way, will you bring John Mark to me? He is useful to me."
Do you know why I think John Mark bailed out on him? Because he couldn’t
take grace. All of these guys came out of Jerusalem and they couldn’t
stand the message of grace. They had to add something to it. Plus he was
scared to death of the persecution Paul was getting because of preaching
it. John Mark bailed out, but in the last days, Paul said, bring him to
me. He is important to me.
I look down over the years of ministry that God has allowed me to have and
I see the scars of when debts were not paid in loving people in
relationships. Don’t you point a finger at them. God says it is our debt.
We are commanded to pay every one He allows us to be related to while we
are here on this earth. That is the key. Owe no man anything except to
love him. Let that be a constant outstanding debt that you are paying
until Jesus comes back. |
|
