By
1.
INTRO:
1.1.
In our last study, we looked
at verses 1-7 of chapter 13.
1.1.1. We saw that
Paul told us what the responsibility is for every Christian of being in
subjection or obedience to the governing authorities who have been placed over
his/her life.
1.1.2. Paul told us
first of all that it is the Lord who establishes all authority.
1.1.3. Paul
revealed how that God uses the governing authorities of the land to reward the
righteous and punish the wicked.
1.1.4. Paul told us
how that by being obedient to the governing authorities over our lives we will
be able to live a peaceful life and not be unnecessarily hindered from
accomplishing the things that the Lord wants us to do on a daily basis.
1.2.
In our study today, we are going to look at verses
8-14 of chapter 13.
1.2.1. Here in this
section today, we will see that Paul makes several exhortations to us as
Christians as to how we are to live our lives as Christians in this world,
saying.
1.2.1.1. Owe no man
nothing.
1.2.1.2. Love your neighbor.
1.2.1.3. Awake from
your sleep.
1.2.1.4. Lay aside
the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light.
1.2.1.5. Behave
properly as in the day.
1.2.1.6. Put on the
Lord Jesus and make no provision for the flesh.
2. VS 13:8 - “8 Owe nothing to anyone except
to love one another; for he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law.” - Paul tells us that we are to owe no one
anyone anything but to love one another
2.1.
Paul writes in this verse that a Christian is to be a
person who pays his debts. He must never
be one who refuses to pay, or who does not make the necessary effort to get all
of his debts paid off.
2.2.
Some people have taken this verse to mean that a
person is not to borrow money, but rather to live on a cash only basis for
anything which he is to buy. However, I
do not think that this is what is intended.
The Bible does not teach that it is wrong to borrow money, and I can
think of one instance in the gospels that might reveal that point. Jesus taught in Matt. 25 that the person who
had been given 1 talent and not increased it should at least have invested it
in a bank so that it could generate interest, If He was opposed to the banking
system which is based upon lending and interest on money loaned I don’t think
He would have encouraged this type of investing.
2.3.
The Bible does teach that it is wrong not to pay off
the debts that we incur.
2.3.1. Psalm 37:21,
“21 The wicked borrows and does not pay back, But the righteous
is gracious and gives.”
2.4.
The Bible also teaches that it is wrong to charge
someone excessive or compound interest on money borrowed.
2.5.
As Christians we have a charge from God to act
responsibly as doing this is a direct reflection of our relationship to God and
it is a way that we show love and respect for others. Unfortunately, our economies and financial institutions
in our day encourage entering into indebtedness that is irresponsible. Credit cards are routinely sent to people who
should never have them. As a for
instance, this past week my 15 year old daughter was sent a credit card. The whole concept of the credit card is to
allow people to purchase things that they cannot afford, but in using credit
cards many people end up in situations where they find it difficult if not
impossible to get out of debt. The interest
made by the lending institutions on credit cards however is high enough that it
pays for those who default on their debts.
2.6.
Getting into debt causes a Christian to again become
enslaved and it is not the Lord’s will for us to again become enslaved since
Jesus Christ delivered us from slavery to sin when we received Him as our Lord
and Savior: Proverbs 22:7, “7 The
rich rules over the poor, And the borrower becomes the lender’s slave.”
2.7.
I found a web site that lists the following types of
debt as being “bad debt” that a person should always avoid :
·
You've run a significant risk in taking on the debt.
·
You have no saleable asset covering the amount owed.
·
If the debt were called in you would be broke or
bankrupt.
·
What you spent the money on is gone, but the debt
remains.
·
The interest is more than the repayment.
·
You owe more on the debt now than when you entered
into it.
·
The debt costs you more than you gain from it.
·
Repayments rob you of money you need for other things.
·
You keep on running the debt back up to its limit.
·
You find yourself having to borrow money to pay off
the debt.
·
The debt is illegal --you have no reasonable
expectation of servicing it.
2.8.
In our day here in
2.9.
Paul then writes in this verse that the one debt that
a person should owe to everyone is a debt to love them. Each of us as Christians have a huge debt to
love others because of the love that we have received from the Lord. God in His grace and mercy has forgiven us a
huge debt of sin because of His love for us shown when He sent His only
begotten Son to go to Calvary’s cross and pay the debt of sin we owed to
God: Colossians 2:13-14, “13 When
you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision
of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our
transgressions, 14 having canceled out the certificate of debt
consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us; and He has taken it
out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.”
2.10.
Finally, Paul writes in the latter clause of this
verse that walking in God’s agape love is actually the fulfilling of God’s
Law. The Christian is freed from the Law
of Moses, and in the New Testament we do not see it taught that a Christian is
to be obeying the Mosaic Law, rather the Christian is commanded to walk in
agape love, since walking in agape love is to fulfill His commandments.
2.11.
Since the Lord has demonstrated His love in such an
unbelievable and tangible way to each of us, we owe a debt to Him which should
be paid by loving everyone around us with the same depth and type of love with
which He loved us.
2.12.
We Christians must commit ourselves to loving others
with the same love that the Father has loved us. If we would just try to do that, how we would
live holy lives, and how we would be used mightily by the Lord.
3. VS
13:9-10 - “9 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.” 10 Love does no wrong to a neighbor;
love therefore is the fulfillment of the law.” -
Paul tells us that fulfilling the Mosaic commandments occurs when we
love our neighbor as we love ourselves
3.1.
Matt. 22:35-40 records, “35 And one of them, a
lawyer, asked Him a question, testing Him, 36 “Teacher, which is the great
commandment in the Law?” 37 And He said to him, ”‘You shall love the Lord your
God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ 38
“This is the great and foremost commandment. 39 “The second is like it, ‘You
shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 “On these two commandments depend the
whole Law and the Prophets.”” In
these verses, Jesus summarized the whole Old Testament Law in the first two of
the 10 Commandments. The Jewish rabbis
claim that the Law consists of 613 Laws.
I read the other day that there are over 2 million laws on the books of
the
3.2.
Paul writes in this verse that ‘loves does no wrong’
to anyone, and therefore love ‘is the fulfillment of the law.’ All of the commandments have been given to
man because if one violates one of them he is either doing harm to someone
else, or he is not showing to the Lord the proper reverence and honor that is
due to Him.
3.3.
How our lives as Christians would be different if we
would take it to heart to always be people who walk in God’s agape love. How this is needed in the church, as well as
in the world...
3.4.
We Christians ought to always treat others as we
ourselves would like to be treated, for in doing this we will be loving our
neighbor as we love ourselves. We must
think about how if we were in the other person’s shoes that we would like to be
treated, then we must treat the other person in that same way. That is what Jesus taught in what has been
called His “Golden Rule” which is found in Matt. 7:12/Luke 6:31 : “In everything,
therefore, treat people the same way you want them to treat you.” In Matt. 7:12, Jesus went on to say that
doing this was the summation of the law and the prophets.
4. VS 13:11 - “11 And this do, knowing the
time, that it is already the hour for you to awaken from sleep; for now
salvation is nearer to us than when we believed.” -
Paul tells us that it is already the hour for us to awaken from our
sleep for our salvation is nearer to us than when we believed
4.1.
Paul writes in this verse that Christians ought to
have the appropriate relationship to the authorities that the Lord has placed
in their life since it is ‘already the hour for you to awaken from sleep;
for now salvation is nearer to us than when we believed.’ There has been discussion as to what exactly
that Paul meant in writing this.
4.1.1. It could be
that he felt that the Lord was going to return any day, and that as a result it
was always time for people to wake up and get right and stay right with
Him.
4.1.2. Or, it could
be that what Paul is writing is that every day the Lord’s return is nearer, and
therefore since we never know when He might return, it is always an even better
time to get right and stay right with Him.
4.2.
In our day we have seen in the past 50 years an
exponential increase in natural catastrophes.
Just this past week we witnessed the second major tsunami in
4.3.
Unfortunately, in our day it is so much the case that
the church is sleeping when she should be active. She is not doing what she has been commanded
and commissioned to do, and many of the major denominations have fallen into
apostasy.
5. VS 13:12 - “12 The night is almost gone, and
the day is at hand. Let us therefore lay aside the deeds of darkness and put on
the armor of light.” - Paul tells
us that the night is almost gone and the day at hand therefore we ought to lay
aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light
5.1.
In this verse, Paul writes that ‘the night’ of
rebellion against God by men is almost over, the time that will cease when
Christ returns again to the earth. Yet,
for the Christian the day of active and effective service for God is ‘at
hand,’ or soon to be accomplished.
As a result, the Christian is to cease living in the sins that people of
this world commit, the evil deeds which are done in darkness or secret where
others will not see. The Christian is
now to ‘put on’ as a garment the ‘armor of light’ by which he
will be able to do battle against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the
high places of darkness.
5.2.
Several years ago pastor Chuck Smith was talking about
spiritual warfare and how we ought to battle in that warfare and he made a
statement that made great sense to me.
He said that, “the best way to battle the powers of darkness is to
turn on the light switch.” If we
ourselves will walk in the light as best as we can then the Devil will not be
able to get a foot hold in our life. If
we make the commitment to be in the light of God’s word every day, put on the
Lord Jesus Christ every day, be in the light of Christian fellowship a couple
of times a week, obey in the light the teachings from God’s word, be
accountable to our brothers and sisters in the light, flee temptations when we
see that they will occur, etc., Satan will not be able to cause us to fall into
temptation. The armor of light is a
natural protection from the powers of darkness, you see.
5.3.
We Christians need to realize that we do not have much
more time before the Lord returns for His church, and there is so much more
work for the Lord that needs to be done.
So many do not know the Lord and need to hear the gospel message. In our day we see Israel having become a
nation in 1948, and the fulfillment of so many indicators which must occur
before the return of our Lord, that it is so much more the case than even in
Paul’s day that we must get busy with the church’s commission to go forth and
preach the gospel to all creation. We
need to win, disciple, and send out for ministry. The church must realize today, more so than
at any time in history, that we only have so much time left before the Lord returns. We should pray like we have never prayed
before for the lost, and we must get the gospel out to the highways and byways
and compel people to come in and be saved.
5.4.
We in the church need to also prepare our heart to be
with the Lord. We must let Him cleanse
us from all sin, and repent of all of the sins which we commit. We must continually seek Him so that we are
walking in the power of the Spirit and having victory over every area of our
life since we do not want to meet the Lord with dirty hands stained with sin.
6. VS
13:13 - “13 Let us behave
properly as in the day, not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual
promiscuity and sensuality, not in strife and jealousy.” - Paul tells us that we should behave properly
as in the day, not in carousing and drunkenness, nor sexual promiscuity and
sensuality, nor strife and jealousy
6.1.
In his writings, Paul contrasts walking in the day
with walking in the night, which is the difference between walking under the
power and leading of the Holy Spirit, verses walking under the influence and
control of the sinful nature, the flesh.
Paul warns Christians in this verse to walk ‘properly,’ or as the
Lord would have us to walk.
6.2.
Paul includes in this verse some sins of the flesh to
avoid as a Christian: carousing,
drunkenness, sexual promiscuity, sensuality, strife, and jealousy.
6.3.
Strong’s Greek Dictionary has the following definition
for this Greek word translated as ‘carousing’ in this verse :
1)
a revel, carousal
1a)
a nocturnal and riotous procession of half drunken and frolicsome
fellows who after supper parade through the streets with torches and music in honour of Bacchus or some other deity, and sing and play
before houses of male and female friends; hence used generally of feasts and
drinking parties that are protracted till late at night and indulge in revelry
6.4.
‘Drunkenness’ is condemned as sin in many
places in scripture, and is therefore to be avoided by the Christian. In 1 Cor. 6, Paul even writes that drunkards
will not inherit the
6.5.
‘Sexual promiscuity’ means to have sexual
relations outside of the bond of marriage, which is called “fornication”
in scripture, and strictly forbidden as sin.
In 1 Cor. 6, Paul writes that fornicators will not inherit the
6.6.
Strong’s Greek Dictionary has the following definition
for this Greek word translated as ‘sensuality’ in this verse :
1) Unbridled
lust, excess, licentiousness, lasciviousness, wantonness, outrageousness,
shamelessness, insolence.
6.7.
‘Strife’ is to be avoided by Christians as this
is placing oneself in an improper relationship with others, and seeking to
promote one’s self at the expense of others.
It is much better to try live at peace and to prefer and honor your
brother or sister in love.
6.8.
‘Jealousy’ is to be avoided by Christians. One is not to envy what his brother or sister
has, or his or her office or position.
7. VS
13:14 - “14 But put on the
Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh in regard to its lusts.” - Paul tells us to put on the Lord Jesus Christ
and to make no provision for the fulfilling of the lusts of the flesh
7.1.
As a garment, the Christian is commanded to ‘put on
the Lord Jesus Christ.’ This means that
is he is to make and enthrone Jesus as Lord and master over his life. Jesus said that no man can serve two masters,
so the Christian must dethrone himself, and his pride and ego, and die to self,
and then he will be able to submit himself to the Lord.
7.2.
The Christian is to make full and complete repentance
of all sin in his life, and trust that he has died with Christ and been raised
up with Him, and that therefore Jesus is living through his life. Then, he is to reckon or trust in the fact
that he is dead to sin, and in doing so he is to ‘make no provision for the
flesh in regard to its lusts.’
7.3.
The flesh cannot be dressed up or improved in any way,
it must be crucified, and denied fulfillment of all that it lusts for.
7.4.
We Christians must learn to walk in the Spirit, under
His control and leading. We must let Him
be completely enthroned in our life. The
saying is still true, “if He is not lord of all, He is not lord at all.”
7.5.
It has been pointed out by some that many of our
country’s founding fathers claimed to be Christians and thus much of the
foundation of our nation has a Christian heritage. However, as you study the lives of many of
the founding fathers you see that though they claimed to be Christians and read
and studied God’s word and sought to serve the Lord, that they also
compartmentalized their lives and left compartments for the sins of the flesh
in their life. Many had sex with their
slaves and did other things which compromised their Christians character,
etc. In our lives as Christians we must
never compartmentalize our lives and leave compartments there for the
fulfilling the lusts of our flesh. Doing
this destroys the great things that the Lord is doing through our lives and
ruins our Christian testimony to others in this world.
7.6.
We Christians ought to ask ourselves as to whom we
yield ourselves to? Do you say no to the
lusts of the flesh? Do you say no to
temptation? We must learn to be people
who say no continually to our flesh and the lusts of the flesh. We must also be people who are completely
yielded to the lordship of Christ in our life.
7.7.
The admonitions from scripture for us as Christians to
purity and not making provision for the lusts of the flesh are many, including
:
7.7.1. Jesus taught
His disciples the following in Matthew 5:29-30, “29 “If your right eye makes you stumble, tear it out and
throw it from you; for it is better for you to lose one of the parts of your
body, than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. 30 “If your right hand makes you stumble, cut it off and throw
it from you; for it is better for you to lose one of the parts of your body,
than for your whole body to go into hell.”
7.7.2. Paul wrote
the following in Ephesians 5:3, “3 But
immorality or any impurity or greed must not even be named among you, as is
proper among saints.”
7.7.3. Paul wrote
this in Colossians 3:5, “5 Therefore consider the members of your
earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed,
which amounts to idolatry.”
7.7.4. Peter wrote in
1 Peter 2:11 about how that since we are strangers and aliens to this world
down here that we are to abstain from the lusts of the flesh as they are waging
war against our very soul, “11 Beloved, I urge you as aliens and strangers
to abstain from fleshly lusts, which wage war against the soul.”
7.7.5. The apostle
John wrote in 1 John 2:15-17 about how that we Christians must not allow
ourselves to become enamored by this world that is in rebellion against God,
“15 Do not love the world, nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the
world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16 For all that is in the world,
the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life,
is not from the Father, but is from the world. 17 And the world is passing
away, and also its lusts; but the one who does the will of God abides forever.”
7.7.6. Matt.
16:24-26 records Jesus as saying that anyone who wanted to follow Him must deny
himself, take up his cross, and follow Him, “24 Then Jesus said to His
disciples, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take
up his cross, and follow Me. 25 “For whoever wishes to save his life shall lose
it; but whoever loses his life for My sake shall find it. 26 “For what will a
man be profited, if he gains the whole world, and forfeits his soul? Or what
will a man give in exchange for his soul?”
7.7.6.1. The first
pre-requisite that Jesus gave for those who wished to come after Him was to “deny”
yourself, and then to take up your cross, or die to self as the cross was an instrument
of death. Having denied yourself, and
died to self, then you are to “follow” Him. To follow Jesus means to go where He leads,
to follow His example in all your conduct, and to do the things that He
commands you to do.
7.7.6.2. Finally,
Jesus warned that if a person refuses to deny himself, die to self, and follow
Jesus, he will lose his soul for all eternity.
That is, he will be cast into hell with the devil and his angels, the
7.7.6.3. Have you
denied yourself, taken up your cross, and committed your way to following
Jesus? If not, take the time now to do
so, and you will be eternally grateful that you did.
8. CONCLUSIONS
:
8.1.
As we consider this study and how we should apply it
to our lives, I would encourage you to consider your life. Are you walking in the light every day? Are you daily putting on the armor of light
such that the powers of darkness can have no power over you? Are you putting on the Lord Jesus every day
and making no provision for the flesh?
8.2.
Let us always remember that we have a great debt which
we owe, a debt to love as we have been loved.