Romans 13:8-10 ESV
“Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. For the commandments, ‘You shall not commit adultery, You shall not murder, You shall not steal, You shall not covet,’ and any other commandment, are summed up in this word: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.”
We have many misconceptions today about what real love is. Romantic
songs and movies and books and stories abound which give us a fake notion of
what love is, especially if they include extra-marital affairs, sensuality, and
pre-marital sex or adultery, and even if all they do is just allude to such
situations. And then there is the institutional church which teaches love as
though it is just a feeling or as though it is just being “nice” to people.
But true love, the kind that comes from God, who is love, is
not about what we feel. We love others regardless of what we feel. Feelings
come and feelings go, and feelings are so uncertain. They fluctuate. And they
are not trustworthy guides as to what is love. For true love is based in God
and who he is, not in our feelings. So true love does for others what is right
and godly and morally pure and honest, and not just what feels good at the
moment.
And so this means we are not going to just do for others
what makes them feel good, for that is not how God loves us. Jesus died on that
cross and rose from the dead to deliver us out of our lives of addiction to sin
and to empower us to live godly and holy lives, pleasing to him. So when we
love others with that kind of love we are going to do for them what is for
their best, as God determines what is for our best.
So, this means that we are not going to do what we know is
going to harm others. Now this is not saying that we will refuse to offend them
with the truth, for the gospel, the message of the cross, does offend people.
So, if we are teaching the truth of the gospel, it is loving people with the
love of God in its highest form, providing we are living what we preach and
that we are not doing so hypocritically. For we are giving them a message of
true hope.
But we are not going to do deliberately and habitually what
will cause others harm by sinning against them via committing adultery, murdering,
stealing, lying, cheating, slandering, abusing, manipulating, and/or tricking
them, etc. For love does no wrong to a neighbor. Therefore pure (righteous, morally
upright, honest, trustworthy, unselfish) love is the fulfilling of the law.
And this includes not lying to them with what people call “white
lies,” which are intended to make people feel good about themselves and/or
about the person lying to them. Loving others as we ought also does not include
withholding from them the truth they need to hear in order to not offend them.
If all we do is be “nice” (charming, appealing) to people, which often includes
lying and deceiving (fakery), then that is not true love.
True love will tell people the truth about their sins and
the truth about what it means to be saved, just like Jesus did, because true
love is concerned about the other people living lives which are free from
slavery (addiction) to sin and which are empowered of God to live holy and
godly lives, and which then bear much fruit for the kingdom of God. For true
love also wants to see people in heaven one day and not spending eternity in
hell.
Romans 13:11-14 ESV
“Besides this you know the time, that the hour has come for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed. The night is far gone; the day is at hand. So then let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light. Let us walk properly as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and sensuality, not in quarreling and jealousy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.”
People who are spiritually asleep are mostly those who are
not of genuine faith in Jesus Christ whether or not they make a profession of
faith in Jesus. But they can also be those who have walked with the Lord for a
period of time but who have since become spiritually lazy and so have slacked
off from their pure devotion to the Lord. They may also include those who have
fallen back into sin and who need a spiritual revival to rejuvenate them.
The point is that they are not spiritually awake (alert),
either through unbelief or via falling back into sin, and so they are not actively
following the Lord Jesus in obedience to his ways. And so the encouragement
here is to wake up from your spiritual slumber and to be actively involved in
your salvation from sin in walks of obedience to the Lord and in the daily
practice of putting sin to death and of walking in holiness and in
righteousness.
And then we need to get what this says next. It says, “For
salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed.” Now many people are
preaching that once you profess faith in Jesus Christ that you now just “got
saved” (one-time, done deal), and that heaven is now guaranteed you when you
die, regardless of how you live your life on this earth.
But that is not biblical salvation. That is man-created
salvation. For the Scriptures do not teach salvation as something that happens
once in our lives and is done with and now we just live our lives and one day
we get to go to heaven. The Scriptures teach progressive salvation/sanctification
which involves us walking daily in obedience to our Lord and in the putting to
death the deeds of the flesh, by the Spirit, which won’t be complete until
Jesus returns for his bride, and providing we continue steadfast in faith.
For, if we continue living in deliberate sin against the
Lord, and against other humans, in practice, and if obedience to the Lord and righteousness
are not what we practice, then the Scriptures teach that we will die in our sins.
We will not inherit eternal life with God. We will not enter God’s heavenly
kingdom because we refused to submit to him as Lord and to walk in his ways and
in his truth, and to forsake our sins and to obey his commands.
[Matt
7:21-23; Jn 8:31-32,51; Jn 14:15-24; Jn 15:1-12;
Rom 2:6-8; Gal 6:7-8; Rom 6:1-23; Rom
8:1-14,24; Rom 13:11; 1 Co 1:18; 1 Co 6:9-10,19-20; 1 Co 15:1-2; 2 Co
5:10,15,21; Col 1:21-23; 2 Tim 2:10-13; Heb
3:6,14-15; Heb
5:9; Heb 9:28; 1 Pet 1:1-5; 1 Pet 2:24; 2 Pet 1:5-11;
2 Pet 2:20-22; 2
Tim 1:8-9; 1 Jn 1:5-9; 1 Jn 2:3-6,15-17,24-25; 1 Jn 3:4-10,24; 1 Jn 5:2-3; 2 Jn
1:6; Jas 1:21-25; Eph 4:17-24; Jude 1:1-25; Lu 9:23-26]
So, please know the truth, believe the truth, and obey the
truth from here to eternity so that you can have the hope of salvation from sin
and eternal life with God when Jesus returns. And the way you learn the truth
is through studying the Scriptures in their context. I suggest reading from
Matthew to Revelation word for word, prayerfully, seeking God’s face for truth,
and then walk in obedience to that truth.
For
Our Nation
An
Original Work / September 11, 2012
Bombs are bursting. Night is falling.
Jesus Christ is gently calling
You to follow Him in all ways.
Trust Him with your life today.
Make Him your Lord and your Savior.
Turn from your sin. Follow Jesus.
He will forgive you of your sin;
Cleanse your heart, made new within.
Men betraying: Our trust fraying.
On our knees to God we’re praying,
Seeking God to give us answers
That are only found in Him.
God is sovereign over all things.
Nothing from His mind escaping.
He has all things under His command,
And will work all for good.
Jesus Christ is gently calling
You to follow Him in all ways.
Men deceiving: we’re believing
In our Lord, and interceding
For our nation and its people
To obey their God today.
He is our hope for our future.
For our wounds He offers suture.
He is all we need for this life.
Trust Him with your life today.
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