Owe No One Anything but Love - Sermon for Pentecost 15A/Proper 18A (Romans 13)
Let me tell you how it will be
There's one for you, nineteen for me
'Cause I'm the tax man
Yeah, I'm the tax man
Should five percent appear too small
Be thankful I don't take it all
'Cause I'm the tax man
Yeah, I'm the tax man ---Beatles
Thus, sang the Beatles. It’s true that no one really likes the “tax man.” That’s true today and it was true in the ancient world. Nevertheless, Jesus told the people to give Caesar what belonged to Caesar and to God what belonged to God (Mt. 22:21). Paul seems to have agreed with Jesus. Here in Romans 13, he told his readers in Rome to obey the authorities and pay their taxes. Yes, it’s the right thing to do “to pay taxes for the civil authorities are appointed by God for the good purposes of public order and well-being. Give everyone his legitimate due, whether it be rates, or taxes, or reverence, or respect!” (Rom. 13:7 JB Phillips).
As the saying goes, there are only two things that you can’t get out of in life. Those two things are death and taxes. So, even though it hurts to pay “the tax man,” you’ve got to do your duty. In fact, give to whatever entity you encounter their due, whether it’s taxes, respect, or honor. (Rom. 13:1-7)
That’s the “give-to-Caesar” side of the equation. Now, for the give-to-God side of the equation—and just to be clear, this isn’t a stewardship sermon!
In the first word we heard this morning from Romans 13, Paul tells us to “Owe no one anything, except to love one another.” This is the one kind of debt that God wants us to incur.
I realize that most of us have incurred some kind of financial debt during our lives, whether it’s a mortgage, car loan, student loan, or some other kind of consumer debt. You’ll be glad to know that I’m not going to meddle in anyone’s financial affairs, but let’s see where this takes us.
The opening clause of verse eight tells us to owe no one anything except to love one another. The second clause in that sentence tells us why we should owe no one anything other than to love them. This is what Paul tells the Roman church, you should owe no one anything but love because “the one who loves another has fulfilled the law” (Rom. 13:8).
Paul was a good, Law-abiding Jew, who knew the Law by heart. He was, after all, by tradition, a Pharisee (Phil. 3:5). Nevertheless, following Jesus, he knew that the primary law of God, after loving God with his full being was to love his neighbor as himself. While Jesus spoke of the two great commandments, he drew those two commandments from the Old Testament. The first commandment comes from Deuteronomy 6. It tells us: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind” (Mt. 22:37; Deut. 6:5). Then there’s the second one, the one Paul picks up on here in Romans 13, which draws from Leviticus 19. It declares that “You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Mt. 22:39; Lev. 19:18). Jesus tells us “On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets” (Mt. 22:40).
These two commandments provide a summation of God’s Law, God’s Torah. If you fulfill these two commandments, you fulfill all the commandments. Since Paul knew these commandments by heart, and because many of his readers were Jewish Christians, they would know these commandments as well. So, he tells them and us that “the one who loves another has fulfilled the law” (Rom. 13:8).
This isn’t the only place where Paul shares this message. In his Galatian letter, where he highlights God’s grace, he tells the Galatian church that the “whole law is summed up in one single commandment, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself’” (Gal. 5:14). John Squires points out that according to Paul: “Law and love are here seen in close interrelationship with one another, not in opposition to one another. Love is the essence of the Law, bringing fulfillment to what the Law set forth.” So, there’s really no distinction between the Law and Love in the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Paul wants us to know that if we would just love one another as we love ourselves then we needn’t worry about breaking any of God’s laws. Of course, sometimes we need to be reminded of what loving one another looks like. So, Paul gives us a few examples. If you love one another, you won’t break your marriage vows, kill people, steal, or covet what belongs to the other person. Now, he could have added more commandments to the list. In our day, with all the mudslinging we see on social media and in the political sphere, the commandment concerning bearing false witness would be a good one to include. Paul didn’t feel the need to write them all down because he figured we get the idea. If you want to fulfill the Second Table of the Law, then love your neighbor.
The reason why Paul believes that we fulfill the Law when we love others is that “love does no wrong to a neighbor” (Rom. 13:10). The good news is that, according to the Psalmist, the Law of God is perfect, and revives the soul. It also causes the heart to rejoice. It enlightens the eyes and the teachings of God are righteous and more desirable than gold. (Ps. 19:7-10).
Of course, sometimes people want to clarify the definition of this neighbor that Leviticus, Jesus, and Paul speak of. That’s the question a lawyer raised with Jesus. He wanted to know what was required of him to gain eternal life. Jesus responded by asking the Lawyer what the Torah said about gaining eternal life. The lawyer responded by telling Jesus that we should love God and our neighbor as we love ourselves. Jesus commended him for giving the right answer and told him to do these two things and he would live. Now the lawyer wasn’t quite finished with Jesus. That is because he wanted to know who is this neighbor he’s supposed to love (Luke 10:25-29).
It’s a question that many of us ask God. How large a circle must we draw. It can be difficult to love some of our family members, let alone the people who live next door to us. We might be satisfied with including fellow church members, but what about the folks down the street who worship at another church? Do we have to love them? What about those people who follow very different religions? Must we love them? What about the people who don’t share our political positions? I probably should stop here, because I might get charged with meddling. But that is the question the lawyer asked. How big a circle must I draw?
Jesus answered the lawyer’s question with the Parable of the Good Samaritan (Lk 10:30-37). In this parable the person who exemplifies neighborliness is a Samaritan. While tradition has attached the adjective “good” to this Samaritan man, Jesus’ Jewish audience would not have agreed to this usage. You see, Samaritans and Jews were ancient enemies. So, Samaritans weren’t good people. They were the enemy and should be avoided at all costs. Yet, Jesus used a Samaritan, an ancient enemy, as the one who fulfilled his definition of neighborliness. In this parable, it’s the Samaritan who stops and looks after the person who had been mugged by bandits while the religious leaders pass him by. As you can imagine, since I’m a religious professional, this parable does make me uncomfortable from time to time!
Now, Paul doesn’t give us a definition of the neighbor. He just tells us to love our neighbor. If we do this, we fulfill God’s Law.
After Paul tells the people that the way they will fulfill God’s Law, God’s expectations, is loving their neighbor as themselves, he offers a warning to the Roman Christians. He tells them it’s time to wake up. That’s because their salvation is near at hand. Therefore, it’s time to lay aside the works of darkness, put on the armor of light, and live honorably. In other words, put on Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh, but instead love your neighbor and you’ll fulfill God’s Law.
What Paul is talking about here is what it means to live in Christ. According to Paul, “Christ is the end of the law so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes” (Rom. 10:4). This call to love our neighbors is rooted in the call to be transformed by the renewing of our minds so that we might “discern what is the will of God—what is good and acceptable and perfect” (Rom. 12:2).
While these Roman Christians lived under the rules and regulations of the Roman Empire, Paul wants the reader not only to obey these rules and regulations, and of course, pay their taxes, he wants them to also remember to obey the Law of God, which means loving their neighbors as themselves. That means, that while they lived in Rome they shouldn’t behave like Romans. In other words, don’t embrace the adage: “When in Rome, do as the Romans do.” Instead, be like Jesus and love your neighbor as yourself. If you do this, you will fulfill the law of love, which does no harm to one’s neighbor.
Preached by:
Robert D. Cornwall
Pulpit Supply
First Presbyterian Church (PCUSA)
Troy, Michigan
September 10, 2023
Pentecost 15A
Image Attribution: Schnell, Sister Maurice, 1839-1902. Thou Shalt Love the Lord Thy God..., from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. https://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=56207 [retrieved September 9, 2023]. Original source: https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Thou_Shalt_Love_-_Sister_Maurice_Schnell.jpg.
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