Romans 13:5-10
Mike Doyle · Mar 30, 2025
Romans (2022-25), No. 117
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/49261938533199

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

So I get to read the Scriptures to you out of my Bible. I find the phone is an amazing thing to have, especially when you can get Bibles on it, and no matter where you are or what you're doing, you can spend time in the Word. So we have been working our way through chapter 13 of Romans, and that chapter only has 13 verses. So today we're gonna talk about, just two or three verses, but I'm gonna back up a little bit and talk about, or try to set this up a little bit.

So if you start in verse five, it says, therefore it's necessary to be in subjection, not only because of wrath, but also conscience sake. And we talked about that, being subjection to government. For because of this, you also pay taxes for rulers and our servants of God, devoting themselves to this very thing. Render to all what is due them, tax to whom taxes due, custom to whom custom, fear to whom fear, honor to whom honor.

And then today's verses are the next three. 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 or desire, and if there are any other commandment, It is summed up in this saying, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. Love does no wrong to a neighbor and therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.

So, last week, we talked about being in subjection. It's necessary to be in subjection, not because of the wrath or not because of the authority that the government has, but also for your conscience' sake. We talked last week that believers are in subjection, not only to avoid earthly government dealings. If you're in subjection to the authorities, they're not gonna mess with you.

But because of a loving conscience towards God, knowing that being subject They are doing right as well as avoiding trouble. It is God who has allowed the formation and growth of nations and given them the authorities who govern them to do so by divine command. I found it interesting, some of you probably listened to this. There was a Bible conference in Georgia a month or so ago, and one of the issues was government.

And Andy Woods, who really, this is, that and prophecy's kind of his thing, he asked the audience, he said, what would you rather have? No government or tyrannical government? Which one would you rather have? If you have no government, you have absolute tyranny. You gotta have some government, because why does God give a law to man?

To keep the evil people under control, to keep sin under control. And then verse seven says, render to all what's due them, taxes from whom taxes due, custom to whom custom is due, reverence or fear and honor to whom honor. Taxes come first. I know that you want them to be last, but they come first. How great the temptation is to avoid rendering this on April 15th. Next, custom.

A custom is a tribute, generally a tax paid by subjects to the ruling nation, giving example that Israel paid a yearly tax to Rome because they were under Rome's control. Every We're kind of having that go on now with this tariff thing. You know, there's a way you have to be fair back and forth in trade and custom and tribute. Customs are taxes on us, the duty of our goods by our own nation. Like I said last week, if you, McCulloch just went to Mexico, if they bought something down there and they came through customs on the way back, you have to declare it. because if it's something that's taxable, they're gonna tax you right then.

And fear is a conscientious regard or awe of men in whose hands God has placed governmental authority. And that's hard for us as Christians sometimes because if we look at the character of some of these guys that are in charge, we wonder how did they get there? God put them there, the Bible says. So you let believers first give honor to whom honor is due. Honor to whom honor is our attitude of reverence for the persons who have authority over us. Whether police, magistrates, judges, governors, presidents, or we don't have a king, but a king if we had one. not only law officers, but those men whom God has committed wealth or outstanding ability or have been risen honorably among, who have risen among their equals should receive honor due them. We all know men, especially in Christian circles that are writers or people that you count on their ability to decipher the word of God better than most people do.

So at the end of last week, we had this slide that said, honor all men for they are made in the image of God. The reason that God even has this kind of restriction in is because all creatures were made in the image of God. Now, granted from Adam forward, that image has been tarnished, but it's still the image and likeness of God. Love the brotherhood of the saints. Fear God, with whom you have constantly to do.

Honor the King, whom you may never see, but whom you hold in due regard in your heart, 1 Peter 2.17. My slides, by the way, I'm learning as I go with these new slides. Sometimes you build a slide and you get all these backgrounds going and then you go through them and you think, well, I gotta eliminate the backgrounds. I want them to just come up with the words, but not every time.

So today we're talking about owing nothing to anyone except. I entitled the handout today Except. This is what it means. To love one another, for he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled, or the fullness, not the filling of the law. We'll talk about that as we go.

For this thou shalt not commit adultery, thou shalt not murder, thou shalt not steal, thou shalt not covet. And if you have a King James, it also says bear false witness, but that's not in the Greek, that phrase. And if there's any other commandment, it is summed up in the saying, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. Love does no wrong to a neighbor. Love, therefore, is the fulfillment of the law. So let's dig into this a little bit.

I think it's important to observe that there are no instructions to a believer as to how they should exercise authority in the world other than to love. our place is to submit ourselves to the authority which already is there. So we have nothing to do with establishing authorities. We recognize them as set up by God. That doesn't mean that if you have an opportunity to be one of these people, you don't take that opportunity, but I think it would be good to pray about it before you did it.

The Christian is here to acknowledge that all the rights of rule pertain to the Lord Jesus Christ, all of them. Now, our present thought about this in the world system is that they have all the rights. No, the Lord Jesus has all the rights. And to wait in patience for him to come and take up his rights, and there will be that day.

In the meantime, to be in subjection to the powers that exist in the ordering of God and honor them as God's ministers. Kind of changes your attitude about when you get stopped doing 50 in a 30, honor the guy that stops you. So we are exhorted to subject ourselves to the authorities and not only that, we're to pray for them.

So another quote from Annie Woods, he asked his audience, he said, do you know the name of your councilwoman or man? Do you know the name of your mayor? Do you know the name of your representative, your senator? Do you know who they are by name so you know who to pray for? You should know.

Because 1 Timothy 2 says, first of all, then I urge I urge that entreaties and prayers and petitions and thank-giving be made on behalf of all men, for kings and all who are in authority, in order that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all goodness and dignity. That's what life is all about for a Christian. It's to be tranquil and quiet in goodness and in dignity.

So, if you take Romans 13, seven, which says, render to all what is due them, taxes to whom taxes, custom to whom custom, honor, fear to whom honor and fear, and the same principle that you pay tribute to those people, all passes to everyone's due, tribute, custom, honor, the Christian pays it, Owing nothing to any man, pay up, except for one thing. Owe nothing except to love one another, for love, he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law. So we have obligations as believers, to pay up whatever we owe except for one thing. And the reason is you can't pay it, because the obligation gets bigger and bigger all the time.

So let's spend some time there. So the emphasis is on love, and the word is mentioned five times in these three verses. And it's the Greek word agape. or a form thereof, which is different than filial or brotherly love. Now, basically, we're talking about believers to unbelievers. We begin with the love of God as a primary command, and from that comes love to men.

When Hal Malloy was alive, he used to do a great sermon on vertical and horizontal. The vertical has to be first. You have to know the Lord Jesus Christ and you have to know his love for you and be influenced by his love and love him back before you can do this. Now, I think one of the things I want to focus on today is the fact that this kind of love we're talking about, you just don't decide to do it.

Agape isn't something that, oh, I read somewhere that I'm supposed to love my brother, so I'm gonna get with it. Because John says we love because he first loved us. Well, he first loved me, and he saved me, and he gave me a new life. And that new life, the love in that life, is different than anything I'd ever known about love before I became a believer. Romans 13 is not vertical regards to love, but horizontal, man to, oh gee, that didn't turn out too well, man to man. It's talking about we loving our fellow man whether they're a believer or not.

So the whole theme here is debt. 8a says pay your debts, pay them off, all of them. But there's one unpayable debt that you can't pay off. Pay all your debts, be indebted in the matter of love alone. You and I are to love each other, and that obligation never stops. But if you lent me five bucks and I paid you back, that obligation is over.

The debt of love increases the more it's paid, because the practice of love makes the principle of love deeper and more active. Do you notice that with, especially amongst believers, you love them more as time goes on? It's a growing thing. And the responsibility or the debt to love one another just keeps increasing because the capacity is there. owe nothing to anyone except to love one another, for he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law."

So the principle of love makes good the requirements of the law. I think the law, which the law itself could never make good, if you're commanded in Adam to be a lover, you can never, ever approach the requirements under the law, because you don't have it. And I'll explain in a minute, I think, why.

We're subjects, though not citizens of the world system. I saw this quote and I thought, boy, I'm subject to every person in authority on the earth. But you know what? I'm not a citizen of the earth anymore. I'm a citizen of heaven. But I'm subject to the laws and the people in the environment that God has put me in. So it's just because you say, well, I'm a citizen of heaven, I don't have to. Yeah, you do. Because God put those people there.

We obey the powers that be implicitly. and in our dealings with one another. We are to love our neighbor as ourself in business and everything else. We owe no man anything, and we render honor to whom honor is due, and we love. Owe nothing. The word owe here means dues. It's the same thing in verse seven. Render therefore to all their due.

When it comes to love, it's do them all the time, it never quits. I may not have to pay taxes. Well, I shouldn't say it because I'm always gonna have to pay taxes. I may pay a debt off and I don't have to pay that anymore, but I'm do or I owe love all the time, that never goes away. The connection is direct.

Love must remain the root and spring of all our actions. No other principle is needed besides this one. I mean, for the Lord Jesus to tell people that all the law is summed up in one thing, that you love your neighbor as yourself, it isn't that you've sort of fulfilled them all or obeyed them all. The point is, is that if I'm a lover, I am not violating things, and you'll see it in this next verse. Pay all your debts, be indebted in the matter of love alone. Fulfill the law, so let's talk about that. Notice carefully that it is love and not law doing, which is the fullness of the law.

So a person who is a rigid, law abider can never even approach trying to fulfill the law or the fullness of the law. The one who loves has, without being under it, exhibited what the law sought after. The law said, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. And love has, from another principle, even love and grace, intensely succeeded in producing no ill to others.

Because of who we are in Christ and the fact that we have this new life, all of the requirements that God put on in the Mosaic system, we are the ones, are the fullness of that. Love therefore is shown to be fullness, not the fulfilling of the law. Is that clear? I'm hoping it is. Fullness rather than your responsibility to fulfill. So pay everything except to love one another, the greatest thing in the world, and it's a new order of things. I got this from one of Bob's favorite guys, Charles Coast, and see if you can follow this.

I was once a brother to a dying earthly man. Kind of a weird statement. But now I'm a brother to a risen man. He was never a brother to me. We thank God that we can say now that I am much more distinctly and more irrevocably a brother to the risen man than I was to the dying man. Who are these two men? Adam and Christ. We were brothers to Adam, the dying man. We are now brothers to the resurrected Christ, the living man, which means we're no longer brothers to the dying man. Nice to know. I am unalterably of the stock and lineage of Christ. Really good to know that.

It is only those not under the law that are free to love others. Love and not righteousness is the active principle of Christianity. And the one who is loving has elaborately worked righteousness. If you're a lover, righteousness isn't an issue. You don't have to try.

Consequently, only those not under the law can show the fullness of the law. We believe, as in the new creation, as to walk by that infinitely higher principle, Galatians 6, 15 and 16. For neither circumcision is anything nor uncircumcision, but a new creation. And those who will walk by this rule, what's the rule?

Love. Peace and mercy upon them and upon the Israel of God and not by the law. If you and I recognize that we live in a brand new, never before creation, in which you don't need law. You have a resurrected life of the Lord Jesus Christ and indwelt by the Holy Spirit who will enact that life through you.

And it isn't follow the rules and become spiritual, it's you start from being spiritual. all those who walk by this rule. Now this word rule is kane, I looked at it and thought cane. It means faith and practice. And practice is an interesting word because when you see it in the Bible it means like going to, I gotta go to basketball practice because I got a game on Saturday and I need to work on. Practice means that you have come to understand how things work within the new creation. In general, the word came to serve for anything relating to actions of men as a standard or principle.

In Galatians 6.16, those who walk by this rule, canaan, are those who make what is stated in Galatians 6.14. May it never be that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. through which the world has been crucified to me and I to the world, their guiding line of in a new creation and to walk by an infinitely higher standard. I think it's hard for us as believers sometimes to realize that because we are members of this new creation, everything is different there. All the principles are different.

Principle is a way a thing operates or functions. We live under an umbrella of grace. We live in an environment of love one another. We are already righteous. We are already totally acceptable by God and we have been so recreated in Christ that God looks at us as being only in him, not in Adam anymore.

So some say that Christians should not have any debt at all. Mortgage, car loan, credit cards, that kind of thing. You ever heard that? If it's wrong to borrow, then it's wrong to lend. But Matthew 5.42 says, give to him who ask of you, and do not turn away from him, he who wants to borrow from you. So there's a, a dilemma or a conflict there because believers are stewards of their assets, and where did they come from? You were given them by God. They're grace to you.

So principle, I will not borrow in order to purchase a home. I'll rent instead. So my question is, which is the better use of your money? to rent or to have a mortgage. The better use is to buy the house and have a mortgage because you're not throwing your money away at the end of every, being a realtor, I believe this.

Credit is a method of payment based on mutual agreement. So if I have a car loan, I've made arrangements with the seller of the car to pay him for the car. in installments. I'm paying my debt. I shouldn't let any debt become delinquent though. I should pay on time. I should pay fully on time. However we agreed to.

Never assume a debt you can't pay. Sometimes that's difficult. You really think what there's the old saying in the salesmanship that You buy something emotionally and you justify the purchase later logically. So I was really emotion about this going into debt greater than I should have, but I did it anyway. Well, you shouldn't enter into an obligation that you can't afford. Okay.

Now, practical aspect of this, for this, You shall not commit adultery. You shall not murder. You shall not steal. You shall not covet. And then the all-encompassing line, and if there is any other commandment, it is summed up in this saying, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. I still have the word agape there.

This is a list of things that love would not do to your neighbor. First one is, you wouldn't commit adultery with your neighbor's wife or husband. If you love your neighbor, you wouldn't murder him or her or harm them in any way. If you love your neighbor, you wouldn't steal from them. And if you love your neighbor, you will not desire whatever their possessions are.

So they sum up a mature believer in these verses, one who knows how grace works from Romans 1 all the way through 12, a person who now lives under grace. He doesn't have to be handcuffed to those last four things. They're just part of his life now because love is an operating principle in his heart. Chapter 13 then starts with a believer's relationship to government, to taxes, to money, to your neighbor, and moves on to our relationship to our neighbor.

What kind of relationship do I have with them? I'm to love them. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. Now, I come out of Catholicism, and they love this verse. because it gives them license to say the following, well, I have to love me first before I can love you.

Oh, really? So I had this argument with my mother of all people. She said, well, I really work on loving myself so I can love other people. And so I tried to explain to her what agape was and how that kind of love, that she's infinitely loved by God even though she wasn't deserving of it. And as she grew in that, that she would love her neighbor as herself, not because she loved herself, but because she loved the Lord Jesus. I think she understood that.

So Christian love, whether exercised toward the brethren or toward men in general, is not an impulse from a feeling. It does not always run with the natural inclinations that you have, nor does it spend itself only upon those whom some affinity is discovered. In other words, I like you because I like the way you comb your hair, or man, you're really cool, so I think I'll love you. That's not why you do it. Your neighbor is a countryman Christian or friend, it can be anybody, guy that lives next door.

So what's the greatest thing in the world? What is the greatest thing in the world? Is it righteousness? There is everywhere a real, very real human love. It's all over the place. But all Christians love, according to the scriptures, is distinctly a manifestation of divine love operating through the human heart. Adam can't do this. He can love, but he can't do it this way.

The difference is found in Romans 5.5, because the love of God has been shed abroad or poured out in my heart. Whose love is it? The love of God, agape. in our hearts through as produced or caused by the Holy Spirit which is given unto us. What's cool about this, the very first place in the New Testament or in the epistles where the Holy Spirit is mentioned is right here.

And what is he doing? He's shedding abroad the love of God in your heart. That's what he's doing. And that's too bad because it puts you under obligation to always love somebody else. This activity then is not the working of human affection, it is rather the direct manifestation of the love of God passing through the heart of the believer out from the indwelling Holy Spirit. That's what it is. Is that clear? Kind of faded.

Love is the realization of the last prayer in the high priestly prayer of Christ. What did he say in John 17? That the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them and I in them. That's what he's asking the Father for, for us. not human love, his love. It is simply God's love working within and out through the believer.

Such a feeling could not be humanly produced or even successfully imitated, for it goes out to the objects of divine affection and grace rather to the objects of human, and grace rather than to the objects of human desire. In other words, how do I say this? As you grow in the knowledge and grace of the Lord Jesus, you can't help but be a lover of this kind, you know? And if you've been a Christian very long, you know what I'm talking about because it just, I love them and I don't, I can say it to them and it's really cool because that's what it is. A human heart cannot produce divine love, but it can experience it because when the Spirit of God goes after a non-believer, he goes after him and he woos him. He doesn't intimidate him, he draws him with his love.

To have a heart that feels the compassion of God is to drink the wine of heaven. The love of God being imparted is not experienced by the unsaved. no matter how much they write about it. The love of God reaches out to the whole world. The love of God abhors the present world system. You know, we said a couple of weeks ago, it's okay to be a good hater as a Christian, to hate the world system, to hate sin. The love of God is directed especially towards his spirit-born children. And the love in God continues without end. It will never end. And the love of God is self-sacrificial. Louis Ferry Chaffer.

So love does no wrong to a neighbor. Love, therefore, is the fulfillment or the filling of the law. Sometimes the word of God is just so simple. Love does not, does no wrong to a neighbor. Pretty simple. I want you to notice carefully that it is love and not law doing, as I said before, which is the fullness of the law.

The one who loves without being under it exhibited what the law sought after. The law wanted you to love because God said you shall love, but he couldn't do it. For the law said thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. And love has from another principle, even love and grace intensely succeeded in producing no ill to others. It's an interesting way to say, I love you. I'm not doing any ill to you. and I don't want to do any ill to you. Love, therefore, is shown to be the fullness, not the filling, of the law.

So, what a refreshing contrast is to turn from the old to the new. But what, it may be asked, is the new spring? It is nothing less than the Spirit of God, the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus, And what do you get from this source? I forget the guy's name, but it's a great quote.

He says, why, the first fruit produced by the Spirit is the very thing which the law demanded but couldn't produce, namely love. Everyone born of God loves. but it is not after a natural order to all men. Man naturally loves because of what the object is. But that is not the way the Christian loves. At least it is not the only way. He loves not merely because of what he sees in another who is naturally amiable and attractive, but because of what the Father has put into him, that is a new life. A life in the power of the Spirit, a life in the son of his love, George Cutting.

So, it's a good time for the slides to freeze up because that's the last one. So just in closing, These verses are so informative to us as believers and directly have to do with our neighbors and with the people in the sphere of influence that we live that we possess as sons of God or the son of God's love, his own love. which comes out of us towards the world and towards them. And that's what makes Christ attractive.

Nobody in the world system has ever been loved like God can love them. And he can do it through you and me. And it's not legal, it's gracious. So let's close. Father, how we thank you for what you've done for, not only for us, but to us. to live in this environment where we're receivers of your personal, unique love towards us. and that it puts us in a position where our debt to others is never paid to love them the same way. We're thankful for that. We're thankful that you have done what you've done. And I guess our desire is that we would grow continually in the knowledge and grace of the Lord Jesus, because that's, he's the lover. And we pray in his precious name, amen.