Romans 13 Part 1 (Adi and Kathryn)

by Opcomm · Published January 25, 2011 · Updated March 17, 2016

Teaching 1.25.11
Romans 13:7-10
- “Render to all what is due them: tax to whom tax is due; custom to whom custom; fear to whom fear; honor to whom honor. Owe nothing to anyone except to love one another; for he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law. 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.” Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.”
  - What is the one phrase that I mentioned twice in this section?
    - Love is a fulfillment of the Law
    - Author is trying to make an emphasis of this point
  - The Law
    - The Ten Commandments?
    - A bunch of does and don’ts?
    - LOVE FULFILLS THE LAW
Matthew 22:36-40
- “’Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?’ 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.’ “This is the great and foremost commandment. The second is like it, ‘YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.’ “On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets.”
  - Jesus is saying love God and love your neighbors
  - Love is the most important thing we can do for God, others and ourselves
John 15:9-13
- “”Just as the Father has loved Me, I have also loved you; abide in My love. If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love; just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love. “These things I have spoken to you so that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full. This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends.”
  - Boiling down to love
  - “My love”
People are fascinated by love
- Romance novels and romantic movies
“Love is the irresistible desire to be irresistibly desired.” Mark Twain
- That feeling and wanting of love
“Attention is the most basic form of love; through it we bless and are blessed.” Zen Master
- Attention is the key
“Can there be a love which does not make demands on its objects?” Confucius
- Demanding from others
“Love is just a system for getting someone to call you darling after sex.” Julian Barnes
“We don’t know how we love now. We’re not even sure we know how to love…” Millennials Magazine
- “You Don’t Know What Love Is” by The White Stripes
Where are we going to get this true love?
- It has to originate with God
- It has to start with a personal relationship with God
1 John 4:7-8
- “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love.”
  - If you do not know God then you don’t know love
  - Love is a BIG DEAL
Genesis 1:26-27
- “Then God said, ‘Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.’ God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.”
  - When God created man, he made them relational beings
  - Inside all of us, we wants to have relationships
  - We need relationships and love
1 John 4:9-10
- “By this the love of God was manifested in us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.”
  - God loved us so much
  - He is a personal being
  - He created us to be personal beings who need love
    - Not romantic love
    - He wants to get to know you
    - This is His purpose
  - But we have the wrong idea of love
    - Why?
      - Because we sinned!
    - This is when people started putting themselves at the center
Romans 10:9-10
- “That if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.”
  - When you want a relationship with God, He will accepted
  - God does not force us into a relationship
  - We do not realize how much God loves us
  - It is a process to understand God’s love
1 John 4:16
- “We have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.”
  - The people who know love, know God very well
  - This takes a long time to understand what love means to us
  - Start focusing on others instead of self
1 John 4:18
- “There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love.”
  - We have to redefine how we think love is
  - We cannot fear it
  - Real love does cast out fear
Philippians 4:8-9
- “Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things. The things you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.”
  - Focus on things that are loving
  - The peace of God will be with you
1 John 4:19
- “We love, because He first loved us.”
  - That’s it!