Week 2 – Jeff Maness – July 7, 2019
Romans 11:36 – For everything comes from him (God) and exists by his power and is intended for his glory. All glory to him forever! Amen.
Romans 13:8a 8a Owe nothing to anyone—except for your obligation to love one another.
Romans 13:8a (NIV) 8a Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another…
Big Idea: The debt of love is not something to avoid, it’s something to abide in.
Big Question: Why should we abide in the debt of love?
Main Scripture: Romans 13:8-10
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Romans 13:8a 8a Owe nothing to anyone—except for your obligation (your debt) to love one another.
Romans 13:7 7 Give to everyone what you owe them: Pay your taxes and government fees to those who collect them, and give respect and honor to those who are in authority.
- Love is never fulfilled
“The transition of the thought is something of this kind. When you have paid all your other debts, taxes, customs, respect and whatever else you may owe, there will still be one debt unpaid—the universal debt of love. Love must still remain the root and spring of all your actions.” — Charles Ellicott
There is only one debt that you must be ever paying, yet ever owing; and that debt is love. — Matthew Poole
Romans 12:5 5 We are many parts of one body, and we all belong to each other.
1 Peter 4:8 8 Most important of all, continue to show deep love for each other, for love covers a multitude of sins.
John 13:34-35 34 So now I am giving you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other. 35 Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples.”
1 John 4:7-12 7 Dear friends, let us continue to love one another, for love comes from God. Anyone who loves is a child of God and knows God. 8 But anyone who does not love does not know God, for God is love. 9 God showed how much he loved us by sending his one and only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through him. 10 This is real love—not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins. 11 Dear friends, since God loved us that much, we surely ought to love each other. 12 No one has ever seen God. But if we love each other, God lives in us, and his love is brought to full expression in us.
- Love always fulfills
Romans 13:8b-9 8b If you love your neighbor, you will fulfill the requirements of God’s law. 9 For the commandments say, “You must not commit adultery. You must not murder. You must not steal. You must not covet.” These—and other such commandments—are summed up in this one commandment: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”
Matthew 22:37-40 37 You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind. 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments.”
- Love never fails
Romans 13:10 10 Love does no wrong to others, so love fulfills the requirements of God’s law.
1 Corinthians 13:1-8 1 If I could speak all the languages of earth and of angels, but didn’t love others, I would only be a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I had the gift of prophecy, and if I understood all of God’s secret plans and possessed all knowledge, and if I had such faith that I could move mountains, but didn’t love others, I would be nothing. 3 If I gave everything I have to the poor and even sacrificed my body, I could boast about it; but if I didn’t love others, I would have gained nothing. 4 Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud 5 or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. 6 It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. 7 Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance. 8 Prophecy and speaking in unknown languages and special knowledge will become useless. But love will last forever! (Love never fails.)
Love to God and man can never be dispensed with. It is essential to social and religious life; without love no communion can be kept up with God; nor can any man have a preparation for eternal glory whose heart and soul are not permeated with it. Without love there never was true religion, nor ever can be; and it not only is necessary through life, but will exist throughout eternity. — Adam Clarke
1 John 4:9-10 9 God showed how much he loved us by sending his one and only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through him. 10 This is real love—not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins.
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