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Duties toward One Another

Romans 13:8-14

Good News Translation (GNT)

8  Be under obligation to no one - the only obligation you
   have is to love one another. Whoever does this has
   obeyed the Law.
9  The commandments, "Do not commit adultery;
   do not commit murder; do not steal;
   do not desire what belongs to someone else" -
   all these, and any others besides, are summed up in the
   one command, "Love your neighbour as you love yourself."
10  If you love others, you will never do them wrong; to love,
   then, is to obey the whole Law.
11  You must do this, because you know that the time has
   come for you to wake up from your sleep. For the moment
   when we will be saved is closer now than it was when we
   first believed.
12  The night is nearly over, day is almost here. Let us stop
   doing the things that belong to the dark, and let us take up
   weapons for fighting in the light.
13  Let us conduct ourselves properly, as people who live in
   the light of day - no orgies or drunkenness, no immorality
   or indecency, no fighting or jealousy.
14  But take up the weapons of the Lord Jesus Christ,
   and stop paying attention to your sinful nature and
   satisfying its desires.

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Commentary taken from
'The Applied New Testament Commentary' (Kingsway)

Love Is the Fulfilment of the Law

Let no debt (obligation) remain outstanding.
Does this mean that we should never borrow money or anything else? No, it can't mean that; because the Bible teaches that it is good to loan things to others. Since it is good to loan, it must also be all right to borrow!

But the meaning of this passage is this: We must pay back our loans as quickly as possible. If there is a time limit on the loan, we must pay it back within the time limit - or we become, in effect, thieves of the other's person's money or property.

There is one thing, however, that we can (and must) keep on owing; and that one thing is love. Love is a kind of debt. For example, we can never love God as much as He loves us; we will never be able to love Him enough to pay Him back for His love to us. Thus, we shall always be in debt to God - we shall always have a debt of love.

We must act toward other men as if we owed them love. And in doing this, we shall be obeying God's two great commandments to love Him and to love our neighbour. Who is this fellow man we are supposed to love? He is any person in need.

Paul here repeats four of the ten commandments. If we love our fellow man, how could we murder him? Or how could we steal from him? Thus we see that if we obey the command to love our neighbour, we will be obeying these other commands too.

The Day Is Near (13:11-14)

The word sleep in this verse means "spiritual sleep." The time of our salvation, which Paul refers to here, is the end of the world, when Jesus will come again and destroy the works of Satan.

That is the final step in our salvation - the resurrection or redemption of our bodies. To believe in Jesus was the first step; now as each day passes, that final stage of our salvation draws nearer. But exactly when that final day will be, no one knows but God.

Jesus could come tomorrow. He will come by surprise. That final day will come like a thief in the night.

In other words: "Wake up!" How can we remain ready? By always doing Christ's will. If we are walking according to His will, then we will be ready. The night of darkness and sin is nearly over; the day is almost here, when the Christ will come again.

Therefore, let us get up at once and put aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armour of light. Rather, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus is all that we need.

Before we can clothe ourselves with Jesus, we must first put aside our old sinful self. To clothe ourselves with the Christ is to live by the Holy Spirit.

If we live by the Spirit, we will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature.

Normal bodily necessities - food, clothing, shelter, fellowship - we must make provision for.

But for the desires of the sinful, nature, we must make no provision.

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