Romans 13:8-14

We like to have things neatly wrapped up. No loose ends. Nothing left unfinished. This is the time of year when we start to hear how many shopping days until Christmas, which really means how many days we have left to get ready for the company that’s coming, for the family get-together. Do we have all the presents bought and the food planned? Is everything ready?

Plus, we’re coming to the end of the year, so some of us are thinking about wrapping up our finances. Are we where we need to be at the end of the tax year 2007, because that’s going to affect tax time 2008. So, do we have things all wrapped up? Are we ready? Is there anything we have left to do?

This is the question that Paul is putting before us in Romans 13. Are we ready? Is there anything hanging out that that we need to get finished yet. Because we’re coming to the end. Not just the end of the Christmas season, not just the end of the tax year, but the end of the history of the world.

As surely as Jesus came the first time, as surely as we will be celebrating Christmas in 23 days, that’s how surely Jesus is coming back the second time. And He could be back soon. He could be back before we celebrate Christmas again. All those presents that we’re buying might just go unopened. Wouldn’t that be great.

But Paul wants us to be ready, no loose ends, no unfinished business. So he tells us to balance our books, check the records, and, verse 8:

It doesn’t feel good to owe somebody something. It feels like something is hanging over our heads, and we want to take care of it. If someone loaned us some money, we want to pay them back as soon as possible. If someone has had us over for dinner, we would like to return the favor. Personally, I get nervous when someone has loaned me a book. It feels good to get that book back to it’s owner.

And now Paul gives a little incentive here. We’re coming to the time when we won’t be able to pay back what we owe. The debt is coming due, so make sure to get everything paid up. Jesus told us that we can’t serve two masters, and if there is something, some financial obligation, or any other responsibility, that we haven’t taken care of, that duty hangs over us. It functions as another master. And Jesus wants to be the only master. So, get rid of the burden, fulfill the obligation, pay the debt.

Except for one debt, that can never be paid. Verse 8:

Remember those feelings of obligation we have when we owe something? Remember that drive to pay it back? That’s the sense that motivates us to love one another. It should bother us when we’re not loving one another. We don’t love one another because someone told us to. We want to. We need to. We’re restless when we’re not loving.

And this restlessness never, ever goes away. We have never arrived. We can always do better. There’s always someone else that we haven’t loved yet. Maybe, there’s someone in our life that is making things miserable for us. We just wish they’d go away. Well, we owe them a debt, don’t we? We owe them our love. Maybe, all of our relationships are in order, we’re getting along with everyone we know, things are great. Except there’s that person we don’t know yet, who lives just down the street. We’ve seen them walking, we’ve met them at the post office. But we don’t know them yet. And we’re not loving them yet. And then, maybe we have met everyone around us, and we’re loving them all, and all our relationships are in order, we’re loving everyone. Well, there’s still that child on the other side of the world, who gets by on a handful of rice. And that man who is dying of AIDS and not because of anything sinful that he did. There’s the woman who isn’t allowed to speak in the presence of men for fear she’ll be killed. There’s a whole lot of people out there to love.

And we won’t, we can’t quit loving. Verse 8:

Paul makes it simple for us. We don’t have to remember to not murder and to not steal and to not covet and to not commit adultery as long as we are remembering to love our neighbor as much as we are loving ourselves. And that goal, that command, will never be fulfilled. We will always be owing this debt. We’ll always be trying to pay that one off.

And to make sure we’re not making the minimum payments on this debt, only paying what we absolutely have to, Paul sends out a payment notice. Verse 11:

There is a bit of a warning mixed in with a whole lot of comfort and encouragement in this statement. The warning comes for those who are only dabbing at the payment plan, only paying off the interest and none of the principle. The warning says that the loan will be called and the payment required. There’s no chance for an extension, no "we’ll do better next year". How are you doing on your debt reduction?

But again, love for others can’t be forced. God wants our love for others to be genuine, true affection for people. And that comes from the comfort and encouragement from knowing that our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed. Our salvation is closer.

And that helps, because loving in this harsh world is difficult. LIVING in this harsh world is hard enough, but loving is even that much harder. How do we love people who do bad things, evil things? How do we love them when they do those bad things against us? How do we love people who spread lies about us, who treat us like dirt, who take advantage of us? How do we love people who don’t ask for the love, who throw away our efforts like they’re cheap rags?

How? Because our salvation is nearer today than it was yesterday. This is true in two ways. First, as we come closer to seeing Jesus, when He returns or when we go to Him, we are being changed, transformed, sanctified. We are being made more holy by the Holy Spirit. Our full salvation, the full expression of our salvation is nearer, more complete today than say six months ago. We are more able to love this December than we were last December, because the Holy Spirit has had a whole year to work on us.

And, at the same time, Jesus is coming closer. Jesus is arriving sooner today than He was yesterday, or last month, or last year. It’s really hard to love when you don’t know how it’s going to turn out. Maybe, the love will be taken advantage of. Maybe we’ll never see the results of that love.

But the truth is, we will. There is going to come a day when everything will be the way it’s supposed to be. When right is rewarded and evil is punished. When love is returned for love. We’re going to see the end, and the end will be satisfying. No loose ends. Nothing left undone.

That gives us the courage to be able to love. Of course we can love without the assurance of being loved back. Of course we can give with the risk that we might be taken advantage of. Jesus is coming. He’ll be right back. We will keep helping and loving and working and serving until He is. People treat us nasty, but we’ll love them. People will ignore us, but we won’t quit. The problems of this world seem so big, so impossible, but we’ll keep trying. Why? Because, verse 12:

Paul makes a list of the things that look like love, love for another person, love for fun, for pleasure. But this is love that has been twisted and distorted and only looks like love. It’s not really love.

Paul is going for real thing. We can’t pay the debt of love by doing all these other things. We can’t love our neighbor as much as we love ourselves when we’re loving sin. Verse 14:

Christmas is coming. We’re only 3 weeks out. There’s a lot to do before we can rest and celebrate Jesus’ coming to earth. But, there’s something else. Jesus is coming to earth. We don’t know how far out we are from His return. And there’s a lot to do before we can rest and celebrate His second coming.

We owe some people. Maybe we owe them some money. Maybe we owe them something even harder to pay back. Maybe we owe them an apology. Maybe we said something, maybe it was even years ago, that was hurtful. And it’s still hanging out there. We owe them a phone call. We owe them repentance. They time is running out to pay the debt.

And then, and there’s no maybe about this, we owe some love. There’s someone that we have not loved, or if we have, we haven’t shown them that love. There’s someone in our church that never gets talked to, who sits in the corner of the fellowship room watching the groups laughing and talking. We owe them some love. There’s someone in our church that hasn’t been here for a while. Some who haven’t been here for a long time. And nobody calls them to check up on them. It’s like they never really belonged here, and nobody misses them. And they really wonder why they should come back. We owe them a phone call, we owe them a note. We owe them some love.

And there are some people in our neighborhood that don’t know what it’s like for a Christian to love them. Their idea of love is the distorted kind, the kind that Paul talked about, and they don’t know any different. And we owe them some love, too. Why do we owe it? Because Jesus first loved us. Because Jesus died for us. Because Jesus gave us a new, eternal, wonderful life. So we owe it to Him to love others.

Jesus is just around the corner. The night is nearly over, the day is almost here. Balance the books, close the loan, pay the debt, clothed with Christ and loving, like He loves.