WEBVTT 00:00:00.160 --> 00:00:04.639 And so let's open it this morning to Romans chapter 13. 00:00:05.519 --> 00:00:08.080 That's where we'll be this morning, Romans 13. 00:00:09.039 --> 00:00:13.119 The governor has said we can go back to Ephesians in phase three. 00:00:15.919 --> 00:00:17.359 Romans 13. 00:00:18.399 --> 00:00:23.600 I want to spend the next two weeks looking at this passage. 00:00:24.239 --> 00:00:26.160 You know, and we have missed you. 00:00:26.239 --> 00:00:26.960 Steve mentioned this. 00:00:27.039 --> 00:00:28.160 We have missed the congregation. 00:00:28.320 --> 00:00:40.000 I'm thankful for uh so many people in our church staff that um worked exceptionally uh with diligence in preparing for not just this Sunday, but in keeping you in touch. 00:00:40.159 --> 00:00:46.240 You think of all the everything that came out from our children's ministry and our men's and women's ministry. 00:00:46.320 --> 00:00:57.759 Tom told me that more people have been involved with the men's ministry now than before the uh before the quarantine, even that um just the amount of people watching and participating in online Bible studies and videos has been incredible. 00:00:57.840 --> 00:01:03.359 So I'm thankful for Tom and his leadership there and and our children's ministry or high school ministry. 00:01:03.439 --> 00:01:05.040 It's just been an incredible time. 00:01:05.200 --> 00:01:08.079 Um but it's glad to good to be back this morning. 00:01:08.239 --> 00:01:18.480 Romans 13, I want to read for us eight through ten, and we'll spend the next two weeks looking at um at this little section here. 00:01:21.359 --> 00:01:25.680 Owe no one anything except to love each other. 00:01:26.239 --> 00:01:31.359 For the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. 00:01:32.079 --> 00:01:42.159 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. 00:01:42.640 --> 00:01:45.359 You shall love your neighbor as yourself. 00:01:46.319 --> 00:01:48.959 Love does no wrong to a neighbor. 00:01:49.760 --> 00:01:55.120 Therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law. 00:01:56.799 --> 00:02:06.400 As we prayed earlier in Steve's pastoral prayer, we're very aware that this week, in many ways, our whole country has fallen into chaos. 00:02:06.959 --> 00:02:10.000 Sixteen people so far have died in the riots. 00:02:10.719 --> 00:02:13.520 Untold number of buildings have been burned. 00:02:14.000 --> 00:02:16.240 You've seen footage of Minneapolis. 00:02:16.400 --> 00:02:20.240 There's whole stretches of Minneapolis that look more like Syria than a U.S. 00:02:20.319 --> 00:02:22.639 city as block after block has been torched. 00:02:22.719 --> 00:02:25.360 Some buildings are just left as empty shells. 00:02:26.240 --> 00:02:39.520 Los Angeles, where much of my family is, fared better, but just looters there trashed more stores than in Minneapolis, but burned fewer buildings, confining their arson mostly to police cars. 00:02:40.159 --> 00:02:46.479 They did loot some fancy small art studios and boutique high-end fashion stores. 00:02:48.400 --> 00:03:02.400 This, of course, is all the fallout and of the death in Minneapolis of George Floyd, who was killed when a police officer put his knee on his head for nine minutes when he was handcuffed, lying face down on the concrete. 00:03:02.639 --> 00:03:14.159 That was a spark that lit the flame that burned our nation's 16th largest metro city and led to protests that accumulated less yesterday as hundreds of thousands gathered around the world. 00:03:14.479 --> 00:03:16.000 But you know all that. 00:03:17.280 --> 00:03:23.360 What you perhaps might not know is the cause behind all of that unrest. 00:03:24.319 --> 00:03:31.280 Some of you, I'm sure, would blame our president, but as he might say, that's wrong. 00:03:32.639 --> 00:03:37.199 Some of you, I'm sure, would blame police brutality. 00:03:38.319 --> 00:03:44.400 And that, as they say, in the counseling world, is a surface issue, but not the heart issue. 00:03:45.120 --> 00:04:02.240 Some of you could blame systemic racism in our nation's housing, schooling, and wealth, and certainly that's at play, policies in our country's past that have segregated suburbs and the inner city and wealth and colleges, and that's all an issue as well. 00:04:04.000 --> 00:04:05.840 But that's not the hard issue. 00:04:06.080 --> 00:04:17.519 The hard issue behind any kind of looting or violence or unrest or police brutality or murder is really singular. 00:04:17.920 --> 00:04:20.079 The hard issue is a lack of love. 00:04:21.199 --> 00:04:30.000 People riot not because they've lost their jobs and have been under house arrest for two months, although that's certainly a contributing factor. 00:04:30.959 --> 00:04:34.000 People riot because they lack love. 00:04:35.680 --> 00:04:44.639 Police brutality exists not because of poor training and a culture of mistrust and animosity within a community, although I'm sure those are contributing factors. 00:04:45.120 --> 00:04:51.120 But police brutality, as does all sin, exists because of a lack of love. 00:04:52.160 --> 00:04:57.839 That's why I wanted to draw your attention this morning specifically to verse 10 of Romans 13. 00:04:58.399 --> 00:05:02.800 Love, the scripture says, does no wrong to a neighbor. 00:05:04.240 --> 00:05:07.120 And here's where understanding of love is critical. 00:05:07.279 --> 00:05:25.600 We've looked at this over the last three weeks without knowing what was going to happen in our world or our society, but we looked at this over the last three weeks because it has been a burden on my heart if I got to spend a few weeks outside of one book of the Bible to talk about the nature of God's love. 00:05:25.680 --> 00:05:33.759 And so a few weeks ago we looked at Psalm 36, which describes God as a fountain of love, and we understand that all love comes from him. 00:05:35.279 --> 00:05:41.680 We looked at Jesus as the great shepherd who lays down his sheep, his life out of love for his sheep. 00:05:41.920 --> 00:05:53.279 We looked at last week, 1 Corinthians 13, or a few weeks ago, at the nature of God's love, how God's love never ends, how God's love seeks its own. 00:05:53.519 --> 00:05:56.720 God's love seeks what is best for the object love. 00:05:57.040 --> 00:06:01.040 Loved, and in the case of God, what is always best is Himself. 00:06:01.199 --> 00:06:03.199 This is why God's love is different than our love. 00:06:03.360 --> 00:06:08.560 Our love does not seek our own, our love seeks God and His glory. 00:06:08.800 --> 00:06:11.759 God's love always pursues Himself. 00:06:12.720 --> 00:06:14.800 And last week you looked at John 3.16. 00:06:14.879 --> 00:06:23.920 For God so loved the world that you see the love of God revealed ultimately in the death of Jesus Christ on the cross for sinners. 00:06:25.439 --> 00:06:27.439 Now that's all past tense. 00:06:27.839 --> 00:06:35.040 Romans 13 is what really puts a grappling hook into God's love and pulls it down into this world. 00:06:35.199 --> 00:06:43.920 It takes our hearts and connects our hearts to the eternal love of God and shows us how that love should be manifest in this world here and now. 00:06:56.639 --> 00:07:03.519 But love is first and foremost an affection in the heart that wants what is best for the person loved. 00:07:03.680 --> 00:07:04.720 That is what love is. 00:07:04.879 --> 00:07:12.079 You have a strong passion, a strong affection for someone, and that affection desires what is best for them. 00:07:13.279 --> 00:07:20.240 Again, this is why God's love is always centered on God, because God understands that what is best for you is Him. 00:07:20.399 --> 00:07:23.040 And this is why your love is always centered on God. 00:07:23.199 --> 00:07:34.319 If you truly love your husband, if you truly love your wife, if you truly love your children, your desire is for your love towards them to drive them towards the Lord, because the Lord is what is best for them. 00:07:38.000 --> 00:07:48.560 Love has behind it the desire that you want the person you love to know the Lord and not just know the Lord, but to know and love the Lord. 00:07:49.839 --> 00:07:54.319 So love in that sense ought to always be reciprocal. 00:07:54.560 --> 00:07:56.399 Always reciprocal. 00:07:56.879 --> 00:08:03.759 If you love someone, you want them in turn to love the Lord, who is the source of your own love. 00:08:03.920 --> 00:08:05.839 Your heart is not the fountain of your love. 00:08:06.000 --> 00:08:08.480 You're drinking from the love that God has for you. 00:08:08.720 --> 00:08:10.800 God pours his love on you. 00:08:11.040 --> 00:08:16.160 You then love someone else, your spouse, your children, your neighbors, your enemy. 00:08:16.319 --> 00:08:20.720 And behind your love is the desire that they in turn would love the Lord. 00:08:21.759 --> 00:08:25.120 This is the great return of the fountain of God's love. 00:08:25.199 --> 00:08:30.959 It flows from him to you, from you to others, others back to God. 00:08:31.600 --> 00:08:34.399 It's the water cycle, except it's the love cycle. 00:08:36.799 --> 00:08:39.279 That's how love ought to be. 00:08:40.639 --> 00:08:42.320 Always focused on God. 00:08:42.559 --> 00:08:46.879 Always focused on the love of God seen in Jesus Christ as God so loved the world. 00:08:47.039 --> 00:08:47.840 He gave his son. 00:08:48.159 --> 00:08:52.080 Always focused on the eternal nature of love that in the future. 00:08:52.240 --> 00:08:55.519 Faith and hope will no longer remain, but love will remain. 00:08:55.679 --> 00:08:58.720 When you see God face to face, faith has run its course. 00:08:58.879 --> 00:09:03.919 You're no longer living in hopeful expectation, but you still abide in love. 00:09:04.879 --> 00:09:07.039 Because love is eternal. 00:09:09.759 --> 00:09:16.720 So of course, all love is rooted in the Father's love, the Father's love specifically for his son. 00:09:18.159 --> 00:09:25.120 And this is where you have to understand the Trinity a little bit to have a little bit of an understanding of love. 00:09:25.279 --> 00:09:29.600 If love is eternal, you have to ask, how can love be eternal? 00:09:29.919 --> 00:09:31.200 Eternal without beginning? 00:09:31.360 --> 00:09:33.600 How can love have no beginning? 00:09:34.399 --> 00:09:38.559 If love is focused on people, how can there be love before there's people? 00:09:39.360 --> 00:09:42.720 And so a Christian understands that love doesn't begin with people. 00:09:42.960 --> 00:09:47.919 People are not the primary object of love, because if love is eternal, it has to predate people. 00:09:48.080 --> 00:09:52.159 And so you go back into the essence, the being of God. 00:09:53.039 --> 00:09:57.039 The God, of course, is eternity and has eternal love, one for another. 00:09:57.200 --> 00:10:03.840 The father is the fountain of love and pours his love out on his son without beginning. 00:10:04.320 --> 00:10:09.120 In eternity past, the father sheds his love on his son. 00:10:09.360 --> 00:10:13.279 The father is the source of love, and the object of his love is his son. 00:10:13.679 --> 00:10:14.559 And this is the thing. 00:10:14.720 --> 00:10:19.279 The father doesn't merely love the son, but the father gives himself to the son. 00:10:19.519 --> 00:10:25.600 The father communicates all of his attributes, all of the divine perfections go from the father to the son. 00:10:25.840 --> 00:10:29.039 The father is literally giving himself to the son. 00:10:29.279 --> 00:10:33.440 And so as the father looks at the son, he sees himself, of course. 00:10:33.600 --> 00:10:35.120 The son is the image of the father. 00:10:35.440 --> 00:10:37.039 The son is identical to the father. 00:10:37.200 --> 00:10:44.240 And so remember, if love is God-centered, there is no one more worthy of love than the son because he is identical to the father. 00:10:44.320 --> 00:10:54.879 So the father sees the son and pours his affection and his love out on his son, loves his son more than anyone else, because the son represents him more than anyone else. 00:10:55.120 --> 00:11:01.039 And in so doing, he gives the son the ability to also be a fountain of love. 00:11:02.080 --> 00:11:03.759 This is why love is reciprocal. 00:11:03.919 --> 00:11:07.600 The father gives love to the son, and what does the son do with that love? 00:11:07.679 --> 00:11:10.159 And I'm talking in eternity past, before creation. 00:11:10.320 --> 00:11:14.080 The father gives love to the son, and what does the son do with that love? 00:11:14.799 --> 00:11:16.639 He loves the father right back. 00:11:18.399 --> 00:11:32.159 And so, in the most basic sense, and I know that doesn't sound basic, but once your mind gets around it, it is the most basic concept of love: that love is eternal, it is focused on God, and it is always reciprocal. 00:11:32.799 --> 00:11:35.840 The Son is loved and he loves the Father back. 00:11:36.240 --> 00:11:44.879 The Father is the fountain, and the Father communicates his love to the Son in such a way that the Son himself becomes a fountain, a source of love. 00:11:47.039 --> 00:11:51.440 This is why the Bible says that God is love. 00:11:51.600 --> 00:11:53.440 1 John 4, 16. 00:11:53.919 --> 00:11:57.440 Because he is love, he reflects his own image. 00:11:57.600 --> 00:12:00.320 The Father gives himself to the Son. 00:12:00.480 --> 00:12:04.960 The Son becomes the image of the Father, reflecting the Father back to him. 00:12:06.080 --> 00:12:11.039 This is why the Bible describes the Holy Spirit as the spirit of love. 00:12:13.360 --> 00:12:19.039 Because it's the bond of fellowship and joy and eternal love between the Father and the Son. 00:12:19.200 --> 00:12:25.840 And so a Christian and only a Christian can truly say that love is eternal. 00:12:26.559 --> 00:12:31.360 A Christian and only a Christian can truly say that love is reciprocal. 00:12:32.639 --> 00:12:40.960 A Christian and only a Christian can have a concept of divine love that comes to us. 00:12:41.519 --> 00:12:44.320 If you don't have a Trinity, you don't have eternal love. 00:12:44.799 --> 00:12:50.960 If you don't have a Son who is the image of the Father in eternity past, then you cannot have eternal love. 00:12:52.639 --> 00:12:57.759 If you reject eternity, you have a God who loves the world, I suppose. 00:12:58.559 --> 00:13:00.320 Why, we don't know. 00:13:01.360 --> 00:13:03.679 He started loving the world when he made the world. 00:13:03.840 --> 00:13:04.159 Why? 00:13:04.240 --> 00:13:05.200 Again, we don't know. 00:13:05.360 --> 00:13:07.600 Who's the ultimate object of love in that sense? 00:13:07.840 --> 00:13:09.440 The world, I guess. 00:13:11.279 --> 00:13:16.000 This is why religions that don't have a trinity are remarkably unloving. 00:13:16.159 --> 00:13:17.759 Have you noticed that? 00:13:19.039 --> 00:13:28.000 Go around the world, look at religions that don't have a trinity, you are going to find an unloving world, an unloving country, an unloving culture, an unloving climate. 00:13:32.960 --> 00:13:40.799 Not to say that every religion on the surface, or every culture that on the surface has Christianity, is loving. 00:13:41.679 --> 00:13:45.919 But it at least has a grid in which to understand love. 00:13:47.039 --> 00:13:52.960 That love is eternal, it is focused on God, and it ought always be reciprocal. 00:13:56.080 --> 00:14:02.000 What a crime it is for a person not to return love. 00:14:02.559 --> 00:14:05.120 That kind of love, divine eternal love. 00:14:06.720 --> 00:14:25.919 For you to understand that the Father has eternally loved the Son, the Son has eternally loved the Father, that that love is seen in the cross of Jesus Christ, the cross of Jesus Christ then captures your heart, and you give your heart to Christ, and the love of God is shed abroad in your heart as the Father has loved the Son, the Son loves the church. 00:14:26.080 --> 00:14:29.919 And the way that story goes is the church then should love each other. 00:14:30.159 --> 00:14:35.200 The world will know how the father loved the son and the son loves the church by how they see the church loving each other. 00:14:35.360 --> 00:14:36.879 It ought always flow down. 00:14:37.039 --> 00:14:44.000 The fountain has water that flows down into the world, love flows into the world, and it ought to always be returned back to God. 00:14:44.799 --> 00:14:51.600 This is why the Bible also says, 1 John 4, verse 8, the one who does not love does not know God. 00:14:52.960 --> 00:15:04.320 How can someone who refuses to love his neighbor say that they have any concept of the Trinity, any concept of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, if they don't in turn love each other? 00:15:05.200 --> 00:15:07.919 The one who does not love does not know God. 00:15:09.039 --> 00:15:10.559 Or 1 John 4, 20. 00:15:10.720 --> 00:15:15.279 The one who says, I love God and yet hates his brother, he is a liar. 00:15:16.559 --> 00:15:20.720 Not just because his life doesn't match his profession, although that's also true. 00:15:20.799 --> 00:15:22.240 That's the point of church discipline. 00:15:22.399 --> 00:15:25.440 Someone confesses Christ, it walks in sin, they get put out of the church. 00:15:25.600 --> 00:15:27.120 But there's a deeper issue than that. 00:15:27.279 --> 00:15:32.480 When John's writing this, 1 John 4, he's not talking about church discipline, he's talking about the basic level here. 00:15:32.639 --> 00:15:38.480 Someone who says they love God but doesn't love their brother is an actual liar. 00:15:39.120 --> 00:15:43.840 They don't have the love of God in them if that love doesn't flow out. 00:15:46.159 --> 00:15:48.480 If that love doesn't flow out. 00:15:50.399 --> 00:15:57.279 The one who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, how can he say, John asks that he loves God whom he has not seen? 00:15:57.440 --> 00:15:59.039 It's 1 John 4.20. 00:16:01.679 --> 00:16:04.799 That's why I love that song we just sang when we all get to heaven. 00:16:05.120 --> 00:16:10.559 What a day of rejoicing that will be, because in there, in heaven, love will be reciprocal. 00:16:11.360 --> 00:16:15.519 Faith is run out, hope is run out, love remains, and love is always returned. 00:16:15.600 --> 00:16:18.159 It is received and returned and magnified. 00:16:18.320 --> 00:16:22.240 You will love each other perfectly. 00:16:22.399 --> 00:16:24.399 You will be loved perfectly. 00:16:24.639 --> 00:16:29.919 You will magnify God's love perfectly, and you will increase in that forever and ever and ever and ever. 00:16:31.200 --> 00:16:34.320 But now in this world, love is not always magnified. 00:16:34.480 --> 00:16:36.480 In this world, love is not always reciprocal. 00:16:36.639 --> 00:16:41.200 In this world, a parent can love his child and raise a child with love and the child still rebel. 00:16:42.399 --> 00:16:51.360 In this world, a husband can love his wife or a wife her husband as well as they're able, and yet the love not be reciprocal, and divorce follow. 00:16:53.919 --> 00:16:58.639 In this world, you can love your enemy, and your enemy doesn't love you back. 00:17:01.919 --> 00:17:09.599 Sin, at its very root, lacks the belief that God is good. 00:17:09.920 --> 00:17:16.480 Sin has corrupted the root of a person's life, and so the tree of God's love can't grow out of a heart of sin. 00:17:16.640 --> 00:17:23.200 And so the fruit of a person's life who is rooted in sin will not be the fruit of the spirit, which of course is love. 00:17:23.440 --> 00:17:31.119 What does a person's life look like that doesn't have a root in God's love, that doesn't have a tree of God's love, doesn't have the fruit of his spirit? 00:17:31.680 --> 00:17:38.319 The fruit of that person's life looks like jealousy, looks like envy, looks like bitterness, looks like covetousness. 00:17:41.119 --> 00:17:46.160 Sin is a fountain of bitterness and distrust. 00:17:48.079 --> 00:17:51.519 But love is a fountain of joy and delight. 00:17:53.440 --> 00:17:58.240 And this is why Jesus says, you can tell the root by the fruit. 00:17:58.960 --> 00:18:01.359 You can tell if a person is rooted in God's love. 00:18:01.519 --> 00:18:03.200 Because look at their life. 00:18:03.519 --> 00:18:07.519 Are they loving other people in a real God-centered way? 00:18:07.599 --> 00:18:09.440 Then they are rooted in God's love. 00:18:11.759 --> 00:18:14.559 And this is where Paul picks up in Romans 13. 00:18:14.880 --> 00:18:21.519 Romans 13 verses 1 through 7 is about owing honor to government, being subject to God's authority. 00:18:21.680 --> 00:18:24.079 Because, listen, Paul understands we live in a fallen world. 00:18:24.240 --> 00:18:25.200 People rebel against God. 00:18:25.359 --> 00:18:28.640 God gives government to suppress evil and to suppress wickedness. 00:18:28.799 --> 00:18:31.359 They bear the sword and they don't do it in vain. 00:18:33.119 --> 00:18:37.200 No authority, Romans 13, verse 1 says exists unless God instituted it. 00:18:37.359 --> 00:18:42.799 He did this all in Romans chapter 9, I mean in Genesis chapter 9 to check the evil in the world. 00:18:42.960 --> 00:18:46.559 The pre-fall world did not have government and it was just bloodshed. 00:18:46.640 --> 00:18:48.880 The post-fall world will have government. 00:18:49.039 --> 00:18:50.240 They will have the sword. 00:18:50.480 --> 00:18:53.680 They will be the avenger of the wronged. 00:18:53.759 --> 00:18:56.160 Even wicked governments are established by God. 00:18:56.400 --> 00:19:05.279 But this is why it is such a crime when a government agent abuses his authority because he was put there by God to check evil, not to propagate it. 00:19:07.599 --> 00:19:17.599 But we understand we live in a world where there is wickedness from law enforcement, and we live in a world where people resist law enforcement, even though they ought not to do that. 00:19:17.680 --> 00:19:19.039 They do that to their own harm. 00:19:19.200 --> 00:19:21.359 And specifically, they do that to society's harm. 00:19:21.440 --> 00:19:29.279 When someone resists law enforcement and law enforcement has to bear the sword, it ends up adversely affecting society. 00:19:30.160 --> 00:19:33.119 You don't have to think hard to see examples of that. 00:19:35.039 --> 00:19:41.519 But Paul shifts from there in verse 8 to put you back on the focus of God's love. 00:19:42.960 --> 00:19:48.799 And he tells you, verse 8, owe no one anything except to love each other. 00:19:51.200 --> 00:19:52.960 Very interesting phrase, isn't it? 00:19:53.839 --> 00:19:56.880 Don't owe anyone anything except love. 00:19:57.519 --> 00:20:02.400 Now there are some that say, what this verse means is that Christians shouldn't go in debt. 00:20:02.720 --> 00:20:05.279 Don't mortgage your house. 00:20:05.839 --> 00:20:07.359 Don't take a car payment. 00:20:07.519 --> 00:20:11.920 I mean, how easy would this verse be if that's what it said? 00:20:12.400 --> 00:20:14.000 I mean, that would be great, right? 00:20:14.240 --> 00:20:16.880 Here's one of the most deep, profound verses in the New Testament. 00:20:17.519 --> 00:20:20.000 But I've paid my car off, so I'm good, right? 00:20:20.240 --> 00:20:23.279 I mean, that's like the rich young ruler story right there. 00:20:23.440 --> 00:20:24.640 Tell me what's required, Lord. 00:20:24.799 --> 00:20:25.359 Oh, do that? 00:20:25.519 --> 00:20:25.839 Done. 00:20:25.920 --> 00:20:27.119 What's next? 00:20:27.359 --> 00:20:29.920 This is not a prohibition against borrowing. 00:20:30.079 --> 00:20:33.519 There's no prohibition against borrowing in the Bible. 00:20:35.039 --> 00:20:42.640 If this is a prohibition against borrowing, it would go beyond what the Old Testament requires, because the Old Testament allowed you to borrow and gave you regulations. 00:20:42.720 --> 00:20:45.039 In fact, put the regulations on the lender. 00:20:48.079 --> 00:20:50.720 That would be the trajectory of the Bible in the opposite direction. 00:20:50.960 --> 00:20:54.960 The New Testament had a more strict law on people than the Old Testament provided. 00:20:55.039 --> 00:20:58.400 That's not the trajectory of the Bible. 00:20:59.599 --> 00:21:13.279 But what is the trajectory of the Bible is seeing the Old Covenant law fulfilled in Christ and the law of Christ come to Christians to a heart of love, eager to obey God. 00:21:13.440 --> 00:21:15.200 That is the trajectory of the Bible. 00:21:15.279 --> 00:21:19.359 And so when you look at verse 8 through that lens, you notice something fascinating. 00:21:19.680 --> 00:21:25.440 Owe no one anything except this implies that Christians will constantly be in debt. 00:21:26.559 --> 00:21:36.720 You will always be in debt, not financially, but you will always be in debt because you owe everybody around you something that you cannot pay. 00:21:36.799 --> 00:21:38.480 That's what debt means. 00:21:39.359 --> 00:21:43.440 If I owed you a dollar, I would pay you the dollar and be done with it. 00:21:43.519 --> 00:21:44.880 But that's not what this is about. 00:21:45.039 --> 00:21:50.079 This is saying you will always owe everyone around you this. 00:21:51.359 --> 00:21:52.880 And what is it that you will owe? 00:21:53.200 --> 00:21:53.759 Love. 00:21:55.119 --> 00:21:56.480 Can you pay it? 00:21:56.720 --> 00:21:58.240 Well, you can try. 00:21:58.400 --> 00:21:59.680 You ought to always try. 00:22:01.359 --> 00:22:07.599 And you can picture it this way in as much as your soul is a reservoir of love, love must come to your soul and disperse. 00:22:07.759 --> 00:22:08.720 It must flow out. 00:22:08.799 --> 00:22:09.920 You can't hoard it. 00:22:10.079 --> 00:22:13.599 You receive it, you magnify it, and you distribute it. 00:22:13.839 --> 00:22:18.799 So as long as you are a recipient of God's love, you ought to be giving God's love out. 00:22:18.880 --> 00:22:20.720 You ought to be reflecting it. 00:22:22.000 --> 00:22:27.119 You could say it this way let a mirror owe nothing except the reflection. 00:22:28.319 --> 00:22:30.960 Well, can the mirror ever pay that debt? 00:22:31.200 --> 00:22:32.000 Well, no. 00:22:32.240 --> 00:22:36.880 As long as there's something that passes in front of it, the mirror will owe its reflection. 00:22:37.279 --> 00:22:40.799 The Christian soul owes everyone love. 00:22:44.880 --> 00:22:47.440 And this is an extensive command. 00:22:47.599 --> 00:22:51.279 The New Testament commands you to love other Christians, of course, and that's probably what's in mind here. 00:22:51.440 --> 00:22:52.319 Love one another. 00:22:52.480 --> 00:23:02.720 There's 40 plus one another verses that all speak of the way Christians are to relate to one another, but we have a big enough view of the New Testament to understand you're not called just to love other Christians. 00:23:04.240 --> 00:23:05.759 You're also called to love your enemies. 00:23:05.920 --> 00:23:07.279 Matthew 5, verse 44. 00:23:07.440 --> 00:23:09.119 You're called to love those who abuse you. 00:23:09.279 --> 00:23:10.559 Luke 6, verse 28. 00:23:10.720 --> 00:23:14.000 You're called to love those who persecute you, Romans 12, verse 14. 00:23:14.160 --> 00:23:16.319 You're called to love simply everyone. 00:23:16.559 --> 00:23:18.799 1 Thessalonians 5, verse 15. 00:23:19.119 --> 00:23:21.119 That's pretty exhaustive right there. 00:23:21.599 --> 00:23:23.599 What about the person you don't like? 00:23:25.119 --> 00:23:28.240 There's no verse that says you have to love the person you don't want to. 00:23:30.319 --> 00:23:31.920 1 Thessalonians 5 15. 00:23:32.000 --> 00:23:32.559 Love everyone. 00:23:32.799 --> 00:23:33.119 Okay. 00:23:34.160 --> 00:23:35.920 I thought I found a loophole. 00:23:37.759 --> 00:23:42.319 The reason is that love fulfills the law. 00:23:43.680 --> 00:23:47.920 Now what this means, you have to have a kind of a biblical ethic here. 00:23:48.720 --> 00:23:50.720 The world is under law. 00:23:51.039 --> 00:23:55.680 The world is under the command of God to worship him. 00:23:56.240 --> 00:24:03.599 All people know the truth about God in their conscience, but they suppress the truth about God and exchange the truth about God for unrighteousness. 00:24:03.759 --> 00:24:06.960 And so they stand condemned before God as a sinner. 00:24:07.279 --> 00:24:16.799 The Jews have the old covenant law that they suppressed, they rejected, they figured out a way to replace the old covenant law with this legalistic mindset. 00:24:16.880 --> 00:24:19.599 They actually believe that if they kept the law, they could go to heaven. 00:24:19.680 --> 00:24:23.279 They didn't realize the law was supposed to drive them to grace for the most part. 00:24:24.000 --> 00:24:25.599 Gentiles do the same thing. 00:24:25.759 --> 00:24:29.359 They have the law of God written on their conscience, written on their mind. 00:24:29.519 --> 00:24:30.319 They reject it. 00:24:30.480 --> 00:24:31.920 Do not commit adultery. 00:24:32.000 --> 00:24:33.440 They have that law written in their conscience. 00:24:33.599 --> 00:24:34.960 Do not murder, do not lie. 00:24:35.039 --> 00:24:36.240 They know those things. 00:24:36.480 --> 00:24:37.359 Worship God. 00:24:37.519 --> 00:24:38.960 They know they ought to do that. 00:24:39.200 --> 00:24:42.319 The heavens declare the glories of God, Psalm 19 says. 00:24:42.480 --> 00:24:44.400 The sky speaks forth its handiwork. 00:24:44.559 --> 00:24:46.079 Day after day pours forth speech. 00:24:46.240 --> 00:24:47.759 Night after night declares knowledge. 00:24:47.920 --> 00:24:51.359 There is no place where their voice is not heard. 00:24:52.480 --> 00:24:57.200 The world receives the command to worship God and the world rejects God. 00:24:57.359 --> 00:24:58.640 So the law, worship God. 00:24:58.799 --> 00:25:00.160 The law don't commit adultery. 00:25:00.240 --> 00:25:01.920 The law don't murder. 00:25:02.079 --> 00:25:03.200 The law don't lie. 00:25:03.359 --> 00:25:04.559 The law don't steal. 00:25:04.720 --> 00:25:06.960 The mind knows that and the mind rejects that. 00:25:07.039 --> 00:25:09.359 So the world is under law and rejects it. 00:25:10.720 --> 00:25:19.200 When you come to faith in Jesus Christ, you are no longer under law, but under grace because you receive Christ as your Savior. 00:25:19.359 --> 00:25:23.119 Christ has paid the atonement for your sin, the penalty for your sin. 00:25:23.599 --> 00:25:28.480 So you're not judged by the law anymore because your sins are forgiven. 00:25:30.079 --> 00:25:35.359 But that doesn't lead to lawless living for this precise reason. 00:25:35.599 --> 00:25:39.920 By being under Christ, he has fulfilled the law for you. 00:25:40.880 --> 00:25:50.400 So you're now operating with a conscience that is cleansed, a law that is fulfilled by Christ, and you're living in freedom in light of the fulfilled law. 00:25:50.559 --> 00:25:56.079 And so a person who's living in that kind of freedom won't go back and violate that law that was fulfilled. 00:25:56.240 --> 00:25:58.079 That wouldn't make any sense. 00:25:59.599 --> 00:26:08.079 Rather, a person who is living in light of the freedom they have in Christ would lead a life of love and holiness. 00:26:08.319 --> 00:26:13.440 Particularly, Paul says, because that's what, look at verse 8, has fulfilled the law. 00:26:14.319 --> 00:26:17.440 Now the word fulfill, it's kind of a cool word. 00:26:17.599 --> 00:26:19.680 We don't really have this word in English so much. 00:26:19.920 --> 00:26:25.839 Fulfill is kind of the closest, but the word fulfill in Greek, it's to fill up and then overflow. 00:26:27.200 --> 00:26:28.880 It's to shade in. 00:26:30.160 --> 00:26:33.119 You have the outline of something, the law is the outline. 00:26:34.000 --> 00:26:40.000 Then love fills up the inside of that outline and then overflows everywhere else. 00:26:40.640 --> 00:26:44.079 Your cup is filled with coffee, filled at the top. 00:26:44.160 --> 00:26:47.599 It's not quite fulfilled yet, but when it overflows, it's fulfilled. 00:26:48.400 --> 00:26:50.559 You have a fountain of coffee. 00:26:52.799 --> 00:26:57.519 A drawing that is just an outline, the connect-the-dot drawings that your kids might do. 00:26:57.599 --> 00:26:58.960 They can, you know, follow the numbers. 00:26:59.039 --> 00:27:03.599 And when they're left with that, when it's done, they have the outline of the elephant. 00:27:04.400 --> 00:27:06.400 They then go color that in. 00:27:06.559 --> 00:27:07.759 That's this idea here. 00:27:08.079 --> 00:27:10.880 That love is what colors in the law. 00:27:11.039 --> 00:27:13.039 Love is what fulfills the law. 00:27:13.200 --> 00:27:15.440 The outline of the law is just that. 00:27:15.519 --> 00:27:16.640 It's an outline. 00:27:17.359 --> 00:27:20.799 But what is inside of it is love. 00:27:21.200 --> 00:27:24.559 Love animates the law, it powers the law. 00:27:24.799 --> 00:27:28.400 You could say that love is the force behind the principle of law. 00:27:28.640 --> 00:27:33.759 So, for example, the easiest way to go to understand this principle that love is the force behind the law. 00:27:33.839 --> 00:27:36.960 The easiest way to understand that is to look at the Ten Commandments. 00:27:37.440 --> 00:27:45.039 The first table of the law, as it's said, is about your relationship to God, the first four commandments, about your relationship to God, generally speaking. 00:27:45.279 --> 00:27:49.759 The next set of commandments is about your relationship with each other. 00:27:50.079 --> 00:27:54.319 Now, most of those commandments are negative commandments, except for the fifth one. 00:27:54.400 --> 00:27:55.440 The fifth one is honor. 00:27:55.519 --> 00:27:56.480 It's a positive commandment. 00:27:56.640 --> 00:27:58.559 Actually, honor your father and your mother. 00:27:58.799 --> 00:28:01.200 But six through ten are negative commandments. 00:28:01.279 --> 00:28:04.480 In other words, don't do, don't do, don't do, don't do. 00:28:04.640 --> 00:28:06.240 So it's a very good place to go. 00:28:06.319 --> 00:28:13.680 If you want to see what it means to see that love animates the law, and that that would work with all Ten Commandments, it would work with all of the old covenant law, honestly. 00:28:13.839 --> 00:28:22.880 But it's just easiest to understand with the four of the Ten Commandments that are the negative prohibitions, because they're telling you, don't do something. 00:28:23.440 --> 00:28:26.079 And you think, how is it loving to tell me not to do something? 00:28:26.240 --> 00:28:26.960 Come on. 00:28:27.279 --> 00:28:28.319 Parents understand this. 00:28:28.400 --> 00:28:29.599 You tell your kid, don't do that. 00:28:29.759 --> 00:28:31.839 Well, if you loved me, you would let me do that. 00:28:32.799 --> 00:28:33.680 Well, no. 00:28:34.799 --> 00:28:39.599 I do love you, and no, and just period. 00:28:40.720 --> 00:28:43.200 So let's look at four examples of this. 00:28:43.680 --> 00:28:45.119 And Paul gives them to you. 00:28:45.839 --> 00:28:47.599 You shall not commit adultery. 00:28:48.480 --> 00:28:49.920 The sixth commandment. 00:28:50.480 --> 00:28:53.599 You shall not murder the seventh commandment. 00:28:54.880 --> 00:28:57.680 You shall not steal the eighth commandment. 00:28:58.319 --> 00:29:02.240 You shall not not covet the tenth commandment. 00:29:03.200 --> 00:29:05.680 Now Paul lets you know that this is exhaustive here. 00:29:05.759 --> 00:29:08.480 This is about the whole testament law, because he says, in any other commandment. 00:29:08.559 --> 00:29:10.000 I just love when he says things like that. 00:29:10.160 --> 00:29:15.039 He's rattling off, you know, four commandments, skips one, and he's like, in anything else. 00:29:15.279 --> 00:29:17.119 Don't try that at Iwana. 00:29:19.839 --> 00:29:22.160 And anything else when Paul said it. 00:29:22.559 --> 00:29:25.519 So take those commandments, and any other commandment. 00:29:26.160 --> 00:29:27.680 And what's animating them? 00:29:27.759 --> 00:29:29.119 Where does their power come from? 00:29:29.279 --> 00:29:31.039 Their power comes from love. 00:29:32.240 --> 00:29:35.839 Because what's behind that commandment is the negative prohibition. 00:29:36.000 --> 00:29:39.599 But they don't tell you what you are supposed to do. 00:29:40.240 --> 00:29:41.200 Do you notice that? 00:29:41.440 --> 00:29:44.000 They tell you what not to do, not what you have to do. 00:29:44.160 --> 00:29:46.799 You need positive instruction to fulfill them. 00:29:46.960 --> 00:29:49.599 So the commandment says don't commit adultery. 00:29:49.680 --> 00:29:54.400 So the person who just doesn't actually commit adultery does not fulfill that commandment. 00:29:54.480 --> 00:29:59.680 Although they might literally keep the written word, they certainly don't fulfill it. 00:30:00.880 --> 00:30:04.240 You need positive instruction to fill it up. 00:30:06.160 --> 00:30:08.000 An example from soccer. 00:30:10.720 --> 00:30:16.960 A good defense, I had a coach that always said this, a good defense might win championships, but it wins zero games. 00:30:18.160 --> 00:30:25.440 You need a good defense to win a championship, but if you just have a good defense, you won't win a single game because you won't score any goals. 00:30:25.680 --> 00:30:30.720 A good defense might keep the other team from scoring, but it doesn't actually get you any points. 00:30:31.039 --> 00:30:33.119 It won't be very successful. 00:30:33.759 --> 00:30:47.440 A person who fancies himself at good at fulfilling the law because he doesn't do things is not a good person because he does not, in fact, fulfill the law. 00:30:48.640 --> 00:30:53.680 The law can tell you what not to do, but it can't make you do what you ought to do. 00:30:53.920 --> 00:31:00.079 An old Scottish preacher equipped, a rigid matter was the law, demanding brick but denying straw. 00:31:01.119 --> 00:31:02.240 That's what the law does. 00:31:02.400 --> 00:31:07.599 It tells you what you can't do, it doesn't give you the power to do what you ought to do. 00:31:08.559 --> 00:31:12.000 The law cannot motivate positive action that's pleasing to God. 00:31:12.160 --> 00:31:13.440 It can't do it. 00:31:14.160 --> 00:31:17.279 And that makes sense because God is not served by human hands. 00:31:17.440 --> 00:31:19.279 God doesn't need your prohibitions. 00:31:19.359 --> 00:31:21.680 He doesn't need you to not do things. 00:31:22.319 --> 00:31:24.559 He doesn't need you to do anything, really. 00:31:25.119 --> 00:31:28.319