Tuesday Romans 13:8-10

Love your neighbor as yourself.

Click here for an online Bible. Romans 13:8-10

We are to give ourselves wholly to God. In real life this means that we are saved to be part of the community of believers which is the church. We also live in relationships with our fellow believers. We must live in submission to the authority of the government. We also love other people.

Paul is looking beyond the boundaries of the church here. He refers to the other people as “fellow men” so he means all people, not just church people. As Christians who have died to self and now live as servants of God, we are to love all people.

Paul pictures love like a debt, except that this debt is never paid off. We must continue to love others in an ongoing way.

Moses summed up all of the Law with the ten commandments. If you followed the “big ten” you would probably not have any trouble with the rest of the Law. Jesus summed it all up with two commands: love God and love your neighbor. Paul has already addressed following God, now he is talking about other people. He sums up the rules for dealing with other people as, “Love your neighbor as yourself.”

We are on a mission. We are not trying to make the world a better place. We are reaching the lost with the gospel and growing them as followers of Christ. We are making disciples. In order to do this, we must live in submission to the government and deal with the people around us in love. The goal is not to have pleasant lives, but to carry out the mission of the church.