8 Always pay your debts to people. The only debt that you should have is to love each other. Anyone who loves other people has obeyed God's Law completely.
Romans 13:8–14 describes the Christian obligation to love our neighbors as we love ourselves. To do this is to fulfill the law of Moses, because love itself never hurts anyone. The time has come for believers to cast off any works of darkness, including drunkenness, immorality, and jealousy.
Traditionally the way people have interpreted Romans 13, one to seven is that we should obey the government in so far as we can and not disobey God. That we should not be troublemakers for the government in any kind of unnecessary sense.
Paul restates this, by showing his audience that if you love your neighbor, you will do no wrong to them. You won't steal, covet, murder, or do any wrong to them if you truly love them. Because of this, Paul makes it clear that living a harmonious life through faith involves loving one another.
The love that believers express is a weapon against the darkness and the flesh as the community moves together towards the day of salvation. The debt of love can never be settled because we grow up into the salvation that is ours in Christ by loving our neighbor through the work of the Spirit.
We must not quarrel. We must not be jealous of other people. 14 Instead, you must live with the Lord Jesus Christ as your guide. Do not even think about the bad things that you may want to do to make yourself happy.
Read Romans 13:11-14 NKJV
In Romans 13:11-14, Paul tells us that the time of our salvation is rapidly approaching. He urges us to lead a life of integrity, where we clothe ourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ and abandon our desire to satisfy our sinful nature.
My Prayer...
Holy God who owns all things, I thank you for not just owning me, but for having bought me out of slavery, sin, and death. Please kindle love in my heart through the Holy Spirit so I will love others as you do. In Jesus' name. Amen.
In Romans 13:8-10, Paul continues to apply love to a third level of our interaction with those who do not know Christ. Too often, these verses are extracted from their context that starts in Romans 12:9.
The overall meaning of Romans 8 is to tell us to live through the Holy Spirit, give us encouragement about our present sufferings and future hope, as well as to remind us of God's great love. Romans 8 is an important part of the New Testament.
For there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God: We subject ourselves to governing authorities because they are appointed by God and serve a purpose in His plan. i. No authority except from God: God appoints a nation's leaders, but not always to bless the people.
Let us behave decently, as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and debauchery, not in dissension and jealousy. Rather, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the sinful nature.
This verse demonstrates that the fulfillment of the Ten Commandments that relate to our neighbors is interrelated with love. This verse shows how love obeys the law. the commandments, Paul here quotes four of five of the Ten Commandments in the second table (Ex 20:13-15, 17).
For the commandments, “You shall not commit adultery,” “You shall not murder,” “You shall not steal,” “You shall not bear false witness,” “You shall not covet,” and if there is any other commandment, are all summed up in this saying, namely, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
Now you come to Romans 13:7-8 and you hear something this: “Owe no one anything, that is, owe no one any honor, except to love each other.” What would that mean? It would probably mean: any time you have a debt of honor, you should pay it in love. Every payment of honor should be a payment of love.
ESV Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. NIV Let everyone be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established.
Paul wrote to the Roman Christians because he was "eager to preach the gospel" to them, so as to remind them on "certain subjects".
Love does no harm to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of the law. Love does no harm to a neighbor; The negative “does no harm” is a rhetorical figure of speech employing understatement, here meaning “greatly benefits the neighbor.” The negative expression implies a strong affirmation.
Romans 13:1–7 describes the responsibility for Christians to live in submission to the human authorities in government. The reason given is that every government leader has ultimately been established by God for His own purposes. Generally speaking, human government serves to rein in and punish those who do evil.
Romans 13:1-8 In-Context. 1 Everyone must submit to governing authorities. For all authority comes from God, and those in positions of authority have been placed there by God. 2 So anyone who rebels against authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and they will be punished.
31 So, because of all the things that God does for us, we can say this: If God is working on our behalf, nobody can really do anything against us. 32 God did not even keep his own Son safe. Instead, he gave his Son to die on behalf of all of us. So certainly, God will continue to be kind to us.
Let me be awake! Let me put on the armor of light! Let me put on the Lord Jesus and his righteousness, and be found in him! Let me trust, obey, even suffer, in order to have the victory!
Therefore let us cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light. Verse 12 continues the thought of the nearness of our ultimate salvation. 12. The night is far spent [advanced], The “night” is the entire period of man's alienation from God (1 Th 5:5-7).
You do not have authority to judge someone else's servant. The servant's own master will decide if he has done well or he has done something wrong. And he will serve his master well, because the Lord is able to help him to do that.
In Romans 14, Paul is trying to teach Christians to stop judging each other regarding secondary matters of religious practice about food and holy days. Paul is talking to committed disciples and he told them to focus on peace, upbuilding and avoiding quarrels.