What Matters Most (Romans 13:8-14)

Big Idea: Love deeply, live urgently, and live in the light.

Sometimes the Christian life feels complicated. There’s so much to know, and there’s so much to do. Sometimes it feels like we’re surrounded by clutter and noise, and it’s hard to figure out what really matters.

If you ever feel like you’re trying to keep track of what matters most with all there is to know and all there is to do in the Christian life, today’s passage will help you. Three things matter most: love deeply, live urgently, and live in the light.

Love Deeply (13:8-10)

Verse 8 outlines the main obligation we have to everyone we meet: to people inside the church and people outside the church, to people we like and dislike, to our friends and to our enemies.

Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law.

Paul’s just said we have one basic obligation to the government: to be subject to the authorities God has placed over us. After telling us what we owe the government, Paul gives the one obligation we owe everyone: love.

We need to understand the first part of the verse. It doesn’t forbid debt altogether. You could literally translate it as, “Let no debt remain outstanding.” The first half of the verse doesn't forbid debt. It means never leave a debt unpaid.

But there’s one debt you’ll never be able to repay others, and that’s the love that you owe to them. You’ll never be able to turn to someone you know and say, “You know what? I’ve done all the loving I need to do. I’m all paid up now.” You will always owe everyone you meet a debt of love. Love is your highest and most permanent obligation that you owe to everyone.

And here’s the thing: Paul says twice, in verses 8 and 10, that love is the fulfillment of the law. In other words, the person who loves their neighbor has satisfied what the law demands. Love isn’t abstract. It’s not just a feeling. It’s very practical. Love is shown by how we keep the law in our interactions with each other.

We have a tendency to see the law as a bunch of negatives. Don’t do this, don’t do that. That’s because the law was given to us as a set of commands of what not to do. But the purpose of these negatives is positive. The purpose is to show us how to love each other.

This is what Paul explains in verses 9 and 10:

For the commandments, “You shall not commit adultery, You shall not murder, You shall not steal, You shall not covet,” and any other commandment, are summed up in this word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.

Paul lists five commandments from the Ten Commandments. He explains the purpose of each of these commands. They are ways to love others. Love refuses to do what will harm others.

• Adultery devastates lives, families, and the fabric of society. Not committing adultery is a way to love your neighbor.
• Murder is taking someone’s life. If we are called to love others, we certainly will not murder another person, even with our words.
• Stealing is taking what belongs to others. Stealing is outright theft, but it’s also stealing when we cut corners at work, engage in dishonest business practices, or exploit others. If we love others, we will respect the property rights of others, and we won’t take what isn’t ours.
• Coveting is an internal, hidden attitude of the heart that wants what God has not given. It makes us insensitive to the needs of others and jealous of others. If we loved others, we would want good things for them rather than wanting what they have. Love doesn’t covet what others have.

What do we owe everyone we meet? Love. How do we love others? By behaving rightly toward them. What does this look like? The Ten Commandments. As R.C. Sproul put it:

When the Bible says I am to love my neighbor, it means I am to be considerate to my neighbor. It has to do with action; what I say, what I do with my money, what I do with my body, what I do that may bring harm and injury to another person. I am to care about other people. Christians are to be the most caring, considerate, and neighborly people in the world.

What matters most? Love deeply. Secondly:

Live Urgently (13:11-12a)

Besides this you know the time, that the hour has come for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed. The night is far gone; the day is at hand.

Paul’s message: wake up! There’s an urgency to this passage. Paul has no time for a lazy, lethargic, non-aggressive, passive Christian life. That is an unacceptable way to live the Christian life. Paul wants to give us a sense of urgency, like an alarm clock that cannot be ignored.

In other words, we don’t have the option to live like our lives don’t matter. We can’t just live our lives wasting our time on things without eternal significance.

Don’t misunderstand what Paul is saying. Paul is not saying that you should obsess about the end times, although a lot of us probably should think about Jesus’ return more than we do. He’s not telling us to focus on the future; he’s telling us to focus on right now.

And here’s what he says about right now. Time is running out. Every day that passes is one day closer to the return of Jesus Christ. We live at a critical moment in salvation history; our Lord will soon return. Live as if Jesus could return at any moment. Your time is limited; it’s slipping away every moment. The need is great, and Jesus is coming back soon. There is much work to do. That gives us a sense of urgency for how we live our Christian lives. Don’t live your life as a sleepy Christian. Live with a sense of urgency.

If you knew you only had a short time to live, how would that change how you live? Here’s the reality: you do only have a short time to live. Knowing that brings clarity to our choices. It changes where we invest our time and money, and what we consider important. Your time here is limited; live by focusing on what matters most in the short time you have.

What matters most? Love others, and live urgently. But there’s one more thing Paul tells us.

Live in the Light (13:12b-14)

So then let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light. Let us walk properly as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and sensuality, not in quarreling and jealousy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.

If Jesus’ return really is coming soon, that should affect how we live today. Specifically, we should do two things: we should cast off the works of darkness, and we should put on the armor of light.

Put Off

What are the works of darkness we should put off? Paul mentions three pairs of sins that are the opposite of loving God and others. They are nighttime activities that have no place in the day that is dawning.

• Orgies and drunkenness. This is a picture of drunken individuals having a so-called good time. We’re to set aside this kind of behavior.
• Sexual Immorality and sensuality. This is to participate in the sexual immorality that’s all around us. Paul says this kind of behavior has no place in the Christian’s life, and we’re to put it off too.
• Quarreling and Jealousy. It’s not just partying and sexual immorality that are problems; it’s living as a quarrelsome and jealous individual.

This list of sins isn’t random. The combination of sexual sin, drinking, and parties was apparently common in the Greco-Roman world. This was everyday life in Rome. Paul was targeting the specific moral landscape his readers inhabited and reminded Christians that they’re called to live differently.

It makes me wonder what Paul would write to us today. What are the particular sins of Toronto that we’re called to cast off? What would he say about cannabis stores, sports betting, what’s on our streaming services, and the opportunities for immorality that are just a swipe away? Put them off, Paul says.

Put On

And then put on the armor of light. I think Paul describes what this means in verse 14: “But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.”

This is one of the most profound verses for understanding how to live a godly life. It has two parts.

First, put on Christ. If you are a Christian, you have already put on Jesus Christ. You are united with Christ in his life, death, resurrection, and glorification. Your life is connected to his, so you receive all the benefits of salvation — grace, new life, being saved, eternal life, being made right, growing in holiness, and being glorified — as your own. You are joined to him. You have put him on already.

But now you need to live like that every day. One preacher (Ray Stedman) said:

When I get up in the morning I put on my clothes, intending them to be part of me all day, to go where I go and do what I do. They cover me and make me presentable to others. That is the purpose of clothes. In the same way, the apostle is saying to us, “Put on Jesus Christ when you get up in the morning. Make him a part of your life that day. Intend that he go with you everywhere you go, and that he act through you in everything you do. Call upon his resources. Live your life IN CHRIST.

Put on Christ. Live every day in ongoing communion with him. Don’t live a moment apart from him. Believer, it’s not enough to avoid sin; you have to replace sin with something better, and that something better is Christ.

This is so important! Paul doesn’t just tell us to strip off drunkenness, sexual sin, and jealousy and then stand there with nothing. This would leave a vacuum that’s ready to be filled by something else. Instead, Paul tells us to fill this vacuum with Christ. As Christ becomes more beautiful to us, the works of darkness lose their grip. We don’t simply resist them; we outgrow our appetite for them because we’ve found something better. Rules alone can’t hold back desire. A new affection can.

Put on Christ. And then make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires. If you invited me to your house for a meal, you might ask what I like to eat. You might go to the store and buy ingredients for a meal, so that when I came over, you would have food ready to serve me. That’s making provisions for having somebody over to your house, and that’s a good thing.

But Paul says: don’t do this for sin. As Tony Merida says:

To “make no provision for the flesh” means to say no to any thought that may lead you to sin; avoid even the desire for it. Do not plan to sin. Do not daydream about sin. Do not seek comfort in sin. Do not flirt with sin. Specifically, in light of this passage, do not entertain the idea that a wild night of drunkenness and partying will cure your loneliness, sadness, or boredom. As a married person, do not entertain the idea that committing adultery will satisfy your unfulfilled romantic desires. As a person frustrated with your current situation, do not entertain the thought of growing jealous of others. As a bitter person, do not begin quarreling with others.
Make no provision for the flesh. Instead, direct your mind to the promises of God in Scripture. Direct your mind to the beauty of Christ!

Figure out how sin usually enters your life, and deliberately structure your life to avoid temptation. Structure your life so it’s hard for sin to get in.

This is what’s important. This is what matters most. Love deeply, live urgently, and live in the light.

If we’re honest, that can feel like a lot. Some of us feel like we haven’t paid the debt of love we owe to others. We have been sleepy when we should have been awake. We’ve made provision for the flesh more times than we’d like to admit.

One person has lived these words perfectly. He has paid the debt of love in full. He has never sinned. He went to the cross and paid a debt that belonged to us. He owed nothing, and yet he paid everything.

In 386, a man in his early 30s was struggling with sin. He believed the truths of the gospel, but he still struggled with sin. One day, he sat in his garden and cried out to God: “How long, O Lord? Why not now? Why not this hour an end to my uncleanness?"

Suddenly, he heard a child’s voice, possibly from next door: “Take up and read!” He took this as a sign from God. He opened his Bible, and he read these verses that mentioned the very sins he struggled with most.

He writes of what happened at that exact moment:

I neither wished nor needed to read further. For immediately at the end of this sentence, by a light as it were of serenity infused into my heart, all the darkness of doubt vanished away.

This passage named his sin; it gave him the alternative (Christ); it woke him up.

That man’s name was Augustine, who became a North African pastor and one of the most influential thinkers in Christian history. What a picture of grace. He had spent years trying to become virtuous. And yet his transformation did not come from himself; it came as he surrendered his self-reliance and looked to Jesus Christ.

You can do the same today. What matters most? Love deeply, live urgently, and live in the light.