Several years ago, when I was still in college,
I thought I was in love with a young lady. Maybe
some of you can identify with that. I remember
one night I went out to her house to have an
evening meal. She came from a large family. I
think there must have been about ten children
in this family. She was one of the older ones,
and so there were a lot of little brats running
all around. Maybe some of you can identify with
that, too. I remember as we were talking together,
the adults, after the meal, that they disappeared
and came back in. Then we played games or something.
I don't remember all that we did that evening,
but it got time to leave about 9, 30, 10 o 'clock.
So I went out and got in the car and put the
car in reverse and tried to back up, and the
car wouldn't move. The wheels would turn, but
the car wouldn't move. And I got out and looked,
and those brothers of hers had jacked up my car
just enough off of the ground so the back wheels
wouldn't touch. And that was an embarrassing
evening, I want to guarantee you. They quickly
remedied the situation. Unless a car has wheels
in the ground, it doesn't go very far. Let's
compare that to theology. Except I want to put
it this way, that theology has to have feet.
Theology that is not practical is dead and sterile.
Doctrine must be applied to life in order for
it to have feet. Theology must be able to walk
in the real world, in real life, and be applied
to our decisions, our problems. The Apostle Paul,
in nearly every one of his epistles, realizes
that. Therefore, he speaks for the first half
of the book or so about doctrine, and the last
half or so of the book, he applies it to life.
He gives it feet so that doctrine can walk down
where you and I live and help us in our everyday
situations. Romans is no different than others
of his books that do that particular thing. on
our behalf. Beginning in chapter 12 of Romans,
we have a practical application of the doctrine
of the righteousness of God, our lack of it,
how God provides it for us through the sacrifice
of Jesus Christ, and how we receive it by faith
and are saved. And then he begins to explain
in chapter 12 how that righteousness of God is
worked out in our lives in various relationships
that we have. He spoke in chapter 12 about our
relationships to other believers in the church,
our relationships with those who are persecutors,
who attack us, who are against us. Last week
we saw what he had to say about our relationships
with various aspects of government. and authorities
that God puts into our lives. And as we come
now to our text, beginning in verse 8, he talks
about our relationships with our neighbors. 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. Love, therefore, is the fulfillment
of the law. And this do, knowing the time, that
it is already the hour for you to awaken from
sleep. For now salvation is nearer to us than
when we believed. The night is almost gone and
the day is at hand. Let us therefore lay aside
the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of
light. Let us behave properly as in the day,
not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual
promiscuity and sensuality, not in strife and
jealousy, but put on the Lord Jesus Christ and
make no provision for the flesh. in regard to
its lusts. Among the relationships that we have
all through life is this relationship that we
have with those who are our neighbors. Now the
logical question is, well, who is my neighbor?
I want us to see that our neighbor is not necessarily
someone who lives next door. or who has a certain
geographical proximity to where we live. But
our neighbor actually is whoever has need of
us. I believe that is a biblical definition of
what a neighbor is. My neighbor is whoever has
a need of me. Would you turn back to the book
of Luke, please, where Jesus was asked this very
question, who is my neighbor? On this occasion,
there was a lawyer who tested Jesus by asking
the question, Teacher, what shall I do to inherit
eternal life? And our Lord responded to him by
saying, What does the law say? The man responded
by this summary, You shall love the Lord your
God with all your heart, with all your soul,
with all your strength, with all your mind, and
your neighbor as yourself. And Jesus' response
to that lawyer of the Mosaic Law was, You have
answered correctly. Do this and you will live.
Now immediately there must have been the point
of conviction in the heart of that man. He knew
that he had not perfectly kept the law and could
not perfectly keep the law and therefore could
not live spiritually. He could not have eternal
life by his works. But in Luke 10 and verse 29,
wishing to justify himself, this man replied
to Jesus, Well, who is my neighbor? And Jesus
replied and said, A certain man was going down
from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among
robbers, and they stripped him and beat him and
went off, leaving him half dead. And by chance,
a certain priest was going down on the road,
And when he saw him, he passed by on the other
side. And likewise a Levite also, when he came
to the place and saw him, passed by on the other
side. But a certain Samaritan, who was on a journey,
came upon him. And when he saw him, he felt compassion
and came to him and bandaged up his wounds, pouring
oil and wine on them. And he put him on his own
beast and brought him to an inn and took care
of him. On the next day he took out two denarii
and gave them to the innkeeper and said, Take
care of him, and whatever more you spend, when
I return, I will repay you. Which of these three
do you think proved to be a neighbor to the man
who fell into the robber's hands? The lawyer
responded to Jesus and said, The one who showed
mercy toward him. Jesus said to him, Go and do
the same. Actually, what Jesus does in this parable
is to reverse the question on the lawyer. He
asked, who is my neighbor? And the way that Jesus
responded caused this question to be asked, whose
neighbor are you? And the way that Jesus responded
is this, the one who is my neighbor. is the one
who has need of me, and I am the neighbor of
the one that I help. So a neighbor can be someone
that we see frequently, who lives next door perhaps,
or can be a new acquaintance, like a man who
has been robbed and stripped and left for dead.
A neighbor may be one who lives nearby, or may
be one that we meet in another state. But the
one who has need of me, biblically, is my neighbor.
Are you aware that there are people who have
need of you right where you are? Do you realize
the needs may be in your own home or your neighborhood,
as we say it? Or that person who will wait on
you at the table today in the restaurant? Or
that person who will fill up your gasoline tank?
Have you ever thought about the needs they have?
And what kind of responsibility you have to them
as a neighbor? To be a good neighbor, a Christian,
must be characterized in two ways. Those two
ways are set before us in our text in Romans
chapter 13. In order to be a good neighbor, I
must be characterized by two traits. I must be
loving and I must be holy. Now you should immediately
notice that those are two of the chief attributes
of God himself. For God is both loving, he loves
the whole world, and yet he is holy and separate
from sinners. God has provided for sinners to
come to him and be saved. God has provided for
sinners to be the recipients of his love by the
work of Calvary. At the cross of Calvary, God's
love and God's holiness cross, they meet. And
Jesus Christ provides for God to be holy and
loving to sinners who will come to him. God expects
us as His children to be both loving and holy
as well. There's a certain balance here in these
two traits, characteristics. Love without holiness
has no power to it. But on the other hand, holiness
without love has no attraction. Therefore, a
Christian must be both loving and holy. He must
be compassionate and yet righteous and pure.
Let's talk about them. What does it mean to be
loving? Well, in the text that we have before
us, the apostle says we are to owe nothing to
anyone except to love one another. He is saying
by this that our first and last debt is to love
others. When he says, oh, no man anything, he
is not suggesting to us that it is sin for a
Christian to be in debt. I'm sorry if you are
one of those who take this as a proof text for
that, but that is not what he is saying here.
In fact, the Bible does not forbid legal transactions
which include debt or the payment of interest.
The Bible does forbid usury, which is exorbitant
interest. It also forbids failing to pay honest
debts and cheating or swindling. But some of
the parables that Jesus told, including the one
in Matthew 25, Luke 19, these parables suggest
to us that God does not condemn banking. or investing
for gain. Indeed, the servant who did not at
least invest for gain was condemned because of
his lack of use of what his master had given
him. I think that the implication of this is
if it's not wrong to invest for gain, then if
the need is that we have to borrow to pay interest,
then that neither is wrong. When he says, owe
no man anything, he is not saying we should not
be in debt. One is in debt when he is behind
in his payments and does not pay the interest
that is due. But his point here is not financial.
His point is love. He is saying if you have paid
off everything else that you owe, there is still
one debt that you have, and that is the debt
to love one another. This debt is most vividly
seen when it is expressed to an unlovable neighbor.
He says, he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled
the law. The word love is the word agape. It
comes from that word. It means God's kind of
love. Loving even those who cannot reciprocate,
those who do not appreciate. Nonetheless, loving
them, giving, sharing, helping. He says, he who
loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law. The
neighbor who reciprocates, the neighbor who is
congenial, the neighbor who is friendly is easy
to love. But the kind of love that is described
here really is the kind of love that even goes
to the other. In fact, the word neighbor in verse
8, is not actually there. In the Greek, the word
is other. He says, he who loves the other has
fulfilled the law, and the word other is a particular
word. It means one who is of another kind, someone
who is different. That's his point. He is saying
that this love that we owe is not just to those
that we're friends with. But those who are of
a different stripe than we are, who have a different
nature, who may not be appreciative or grateful
in return, we are to love them as neighbors as
well. The ones who may be presumptuous, the ones
who may be expecting, we are to love them and
to give. He says, you shall not commit adultery,
you shall not murder, you shall not steal, you
shall not covet. And if there's any other commandment,
all of these are summarized in this saying, you
shall love your neighbors yourself, even the
neighbor who is a little different. Have you
ever had a neighbor that way? We have always
been blessed to have neighbors that have been
kind. We've never been in a neighborhood where
we did not have neighbors we could not get along
with. We were not always close friends with them.
But really a neighbor is more than that. A neighbor
is someone out there who needs me. Have I ever
run into anybody who needed me that I didn't
like? Of course. And so have you. We are to love
that person who needs us. Even though there may
not be that natural attraction, how many times
I have failed in my own life to show that kind
of love to people. I'm ashamed to admit it. What
does it mean to love them? Well, it means in
one hand to not do anything wrong toward them.
He says in verse 10, love does no wrong to a
neighbor. And he gives us examples. He says,
love, for example, means that I will not commit
adultery against my neighbor. Are there those
who tell us that adultery is just expressing
love? Hardly. Hardly. Adultery is not the expression
of love. It's the expression of personal lust.
Adultery is not giving. It's taking. Taking another's
reputation, another's affection, it means to
steal the love that is owned by another in order
to fulfill my own passion. That's what adultery
is. It's not love. And so if I love another person,
I will not commit adultery. He says if I love
another person, I'll not kill them. I'll not
murder them. Murder is an expression of hatred
in the heart, according to 1 John 3. It has nothing
to do with love. Nor will I steal from another
person. Stealing is taking another's possession.
It's desiring to have without working or paying
or asking. That's stealing. And it is not love.
So love doesn't steal. Love doesn't covet either,
for coveting is a desire to have for oneself
what another has. It's inward, whereas the stealing
is outward. Coveting is a heart attitude. It's
a mindset, being envious, wanting what the Joneses
have, for example. That is not love. I'm not
rejoicing in what he has. I want it. But love
causes me to say, praise God for what my neighbor
has, and not desire it for myself. Then he says,
now if there's any other commandment, and of
course there are others, he says, whatever the
commandment is, if you love your neighbor, you
will fulfill that commandment. For he says, love
is the fulfillment of the law. Where there is
love, you do not need commandments. One who is
controlled by love will not sin against another
by committing adultery, by murdering, by stealing,
by coveting, by lying, by being disrespectful
or dishonorable. By the way, I think that's why
the New Testament does not repeat the Ten Commandments
as a rule for Christians to live by. You say,
don't we need some rules? We have one rule, and
that is the law of love. And where the law of
love is enforced and obeyed, you don't need the
other commandments. They are superfluous. They
are a taken. They are understood. If I am loving,
these other commandments are unnecessary upon
me. There was no law that said that Samaritan
had to stop and take care of that man. After
all, that man was probably a Jew who had been
robbed and stripped and left for dead. And he
was a Samaritan, and there was not a friendly
feeling between the two of them. And yet that
man, out of love and compassion, helped that
Jew when his own brothers passed him by. And
so here was one who was of a different kind.
A neighbor who was helped by a Samaritan. Not
because he was commanded to, but because he had
love and compassion. Do you have that kind of
compassion for people? Or do you have to be ordered
to do things right? You boys and girls who are
listening. You children. Do you do what you do
because your moms and dads say you have to do
it? That's one motive, but it's not the best.
Do you do what you do in your home? Do you do
your chores, treat your brothers and sisters
kindly? Do you do that because you love your
brothers and sisters and you love your mom and
dad and you want to do what pleases them? Where
there is love, there doesn't have to be law.
Love overrules law. Love is its own law. In our
relationships with others, we should be controlled
by love. And I should be concerned about that
person who's different than I am. And who may
not even understand or appreciate what I'm going
to do for him. But my love for him should be
so real, so much like God's love, that I will
go help. I will go give what is needed. To be
a good neighbor, I have to be loving like God
is. To be a good neighbor, I also have to be
holy. I don't mean holier than thou. But I mean
being pure and righteous. There are three things
I want to say about being holy, as we see in
our text here. In the first place, pure lives
are the result of a close watch on the time.
What time is it anyway? You say about 20 to 12,
about 15 minutes before you're to be done. Well,
that's right. But that's not the time I'm talking
about. Notice what he says, verse 11. Do this,
that is love, fulfilling the law, knowing the
time. And here's the time, that it's already
the hour for you to awaken from sleep, for now
salvation is nearer to us than when we believed.
What he is saying to us here is that the time
before the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ is
short. He says we are nearing the culmination
of our salvation. As you know, there are three
tenses to salvation. I have been saved from the
penalty of my sin. And that is settled forever.
I will never be called into account for my sin
because Jesus Christ has taken the penalty for
me. I was saved one day by faith in him. And
now as a Christian, I am being saved from the
power of sin. And someday I'm going to be saved
from the very presence of it. And that's the
tense that he has in mind here when he says our
salvation is nearer to us. than when we believed.
Obviously, time has passed since then, whether
it be 2 ,000 years for the people who had read
this book for the first time, or ourselves, maybe
two years. Whichever way you look at it, salvation
is nearer than then. Jesus' coming is at hand.
The time present is a time of opportunity in
life. We are given time now and the privilege
to serve the Lord. And so he is saying, know
what time it is. Look ahead and see that Jesus'
coming is soon. The culmination of your salvation
is at hand. Therefore, take advantage of the
time that you have right now. He says, this is
no time for sleep. You don't sleep in the daytime,
and for us it's day. We are children of the day.
For the world, it's night. He says to us who
are children of the day, wake up! Realize what's
taking place around you, that life's opportunities
are slipping by day by day, and salvation is
coming soon. Don't be unresponsive. Don't be
lethargic. Don't be unaware, unconscious, or
sleepy in the day in which you're living. Take
advantage of every opportunity. Know that the
day is close when Christ will return and will
establish the new age. If you and I really understand
that Jesus is coming and what His coming will
bring, then it's going to cause us to live pure
lives. 1 John 3 says, He that has this hope...
the hope of Christ's coming. He that has this
hope purifies himself, even as he, the Lord,
is pure. So the first thing he tells us about
holy living is that pure lives come when we realize
what time it is. We don't have time to be playing
around. We don't have time to waste. Opportunities
are brief at best. The second thing he says is
that Pure lives in a degenerate society like
ours mean living properly. Pure lives mean living
properly. What does it mean to live properly?
Well, he says, let's behave properly as in the
day. And he says, not doing these things, and
he lists six. He's saying that pure lives mean
that we will separate ourselves from this kind
of activity. What does he mention? Well, he mentions
carousing. This word in the Greek comes from
parades that were held at nighttime in those
days. These torch -lit processions were processions
of drunks who would walk through the city singing
boisterously. in honor of the god of wine, Bacchus,
or some other deity if they chose. That's the
origin of this word. And it came to apply to
all kinds of drinking parties and orgies and
feasts where people get together and perform
what they desire in their imaginations. That's
carousing. And he says that if we are going to
live pure lives, we separate ourselves from that
kind of thing. We separate ourselves from the
kinds of things that happen on a Saturday night,
for example, in the typical bar in St. Paul,
and what happens after the bar, or the dance
floor, etc. A Christian has nothing to do with
that. As a child of the day, that's a part of
the night. the degenerate world. He says properly
behaving means that we also avoid drunkenness.
In other words, being habitually intoxicated,
whether it be with wine or some other kind of
narcotic, we are to have nothing to do with those
things that cause us to lose control of ourselves.
That's the thought here. Drunkenness is a terrible
sin in our society. I am glad that more and more
we are seeing the government and the surgeon
general give pronouncements regarding smoking.
But I wonder when they're going to start giving
similar kinds of pronouncements regarding drinking.
For alcohol is just as destructive to the body
as smoking is. and is infinitely more destructive
to the home. Today we politely call it alcoholism,
and we say, well, it's a disease. I'd like to
say to you that there are some aspects of alcoholism
which do affect the body, and therefore in that
sense it may be a disease. But basically and
primarily and in its root, the Bible says it
is sin. It is sin. That may alarm a sociologist
to hear that. It doesn't concern me a great deal.
The Bible says that drunkenness, being habitually
intoxicated, is sin. It's a part of the night.
We're to have nothing to do with that. We're
to live pure lives. Holy living has nothing to
do, thirdly, with sexual promiscuity. I think
that's clear enough. It is the unrestrained expression
of every kind of lust. It is sexual relationships
outside of the holiness of the marital commitment.
We are living in a day when this is not only...
experienced in secret, in darkness, but it is
something that is in our living rooms on television
day in and day out if we choose to watch the
garbage. I am deeply concerned about what's going
to happen with cable TV in our communities and
the kind of filth that will be made readily available
to people. The temptation is going to be overpowering
for too many. I expect that we are going to see
a dramatic rise in all kinds of sexual perversions
and sexual offenses in our society as a result
of it being made so readily available to people.
Christians are to have nothing to do with sexual
promiscuity. Sex is a wonderful thing that God
has given to us. It is blessed and it is holy.
The Bible says the marriage bed is undefiled,
but notice that it is the marriage bed. In a
sexual relationship outside of marriage, the
Bible calls sin. We're not to have anything to
do with it. You say, what if we have? Or what
if I have been drunk? Or what if I have been
carousing? Then, my friend, repent of it. Confess
it as sin to God and get it out of your life
if it's there. Sensuality is the fourth on the
list. A pure life will be one that is separate
from debauchery or animal lust, shameless greed.
Sensuality has to do with the thought life as
much as the activity that we've just talked about.
There are some of us who would sit here and be
very... content that we had not been involved
in sexual promiscuity. But oh, the X -rated movies
that run through our minds and our imaginations.
We live in a society which is causing yet to
be more and more of a problem to all of us. Therefore,
we need to be more and more in battle against
it. Sensuality. We're to have nothing to do with
a sensual. Now, God has given us senses. God
wants us to enjoy pleasures, but we're talking
about pleasure here that comes from sinful sources.
Then he talks about strife, contention, quarreling,
rivalry. That is not a part of a Christian life,
a holy life, a pure life. If we're going to live
before our neighbor a life that pleases God,
it must be one that is non -contentious. And
then it must be free from jealousy. A lust for
what another has. As we said before, trying to
keep up with the Joneses. Jealousy over what
they have and desiring it for oneself. No Christian
should be overcome with that plague. And yet
in our materialistic world, when there is such
an emphasis on what people have, it's very difficult,
isn't it? And jealousy as well as sensuality
is something inside. It can be hidden, and yet
God can expose and reveal that to us. My friend,
a pure life in a degenerate society means behaving
properly, and that means getting away from this
kind of thing. How do you do that? Well, thirdly,
a pure life is only possible when we obey verse
14. He says, put on the Lord Jesus Christ. and
make no provision for the flesh in regard to
its lusts. He says it similarly back in verse
12. He says, Lay aside the deeds of darkness
and put on the armor, or literally the weapons
of light. We are to clothe ourselves, literally
he says, with Jesus Christ. Now that is a metaphor
which means that we are to appropriate Jesus
Christ as our life. It means that not only is
He our Savior from sin in the past tense, but
He is our Savior from sin right now in the present
tense. And as we walk with Him and yield ourselves
to Him and grow to know Him and therefore to
be like Him, we will be able to appropriate His
strength when we are tempted to live impure lives.
To put on the Lord Jesus Christ means to appropriate
Him. But then he says at the same time, negatively,
we are to not make provision for the flesh. The
idea is here to take no forethought for it. Do
not plan in advance how to fulfill what your
flesh wants. The flesh, by the way, is that pattern
of action, the propensities of our human natures
which have been established by sin in us. He
says we are not to fulfill what our flesh wants.
Go back to Galatians 5 and you can read what
the flesh wants. It's works. Have you ever found
yourself planning to sin? You're probably lying
if you say no. Rare is the person who can't say,
yes, I can think of times. when I have taken
forethought as to how I was going to fulfill
what my flesh wanted. That's what we're not to
do. The moment that the flesh suggests to us
a plan of action so that it can have its way,
we are to come to Jesus Christ and say, Lord
Jesus, I appropriate you. You subdue what the
flesh is suggesting that I do. You care for this
temptation. In doing that, you will be laying
aside the deeds of darkness and you will be putting
on the armor, the weapons of light. Only when
you and I lead holy lives as well as loving lives
will we be able to help our neighbors. If we
love them without leading a holy life, then our
words will be essentially powerless. On the other
hand, if we are so holy in an extreme and unbiblical
sense that we don't love our neighbor, then they
won't have anything to do with us because they
will see us as being too far above them, too
perfect, or too snobbish, perhaps. Therefore,
folks, we need this balance that he tells us
about here. We need to be loving and compassionate
and at the same time pure in the way that we
live. There are people who need you. They need
you to act this way toward them. Who are they?
Who is in need of your help today? Whose neighbor
are you? How then in love will you... reach to
that person? How in holiness will you express
to that person the love and the holiness, the
character of God? It may be a quick little deed
that you'll do. Maybe the waitress will have
had a bad morning and as you go in there for
lunch today, she's going to be a little temperamental.
Just a word of encouragement. Just a word of
God's love. Just a brief word of witness. will
be doing a neighborly deed for that person. Maybe
it's handing a gospel tract to the person who
fills up your gas tank. Maybe it's taking a meal
to that person across the street who's been in
the hospital. Or maybe it's taking care of the
kids of your neighbor so that your neighbor can
be involved in a certain activity. Or running
them to school. I don't know what it may be,
but whose neighbor are you? To whom can you be
a blessing? The ultimate neighbor is whom? Jesus
Christ. Let's be like him. Father in heaven,
in so many ways we have been unloving to those
who've needed us. We've not been good neighbors.
Father, I confess before you that there have
been too many times when I've been like the Levite
and the priest who walked on the other side of
the road and didn't want to get involved and
pay a price and be delayed in my own activities.
Forgive me. And teach me what it is to be like
Jesus. And Father, there have been times when
I've been unholy. And when my life did not have
power because it was not pure. And I know there
are many brothers and sisters here today who
identify with what I've said in some way. And
we cry out to you that you would teach us personally
and practically what it means to put on the Lord
Jesus Christ. To appropriate him who is our life.
That we may lead the balanced. neighborly life
we've talked about today. Father, make us blessings
to people every day of the week. And I pray this
in Jesus' name. Amen. Would you take your hymnal
now as we close?