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The River ChurchSermons

Romans 9-16

God's Justice, Our Trust, and Love's Victory

John Carter · Sunday, 9 November 2025 · Romans 13:1-10 · 45:09 · 6,846 words

Romans S29 · 13:1-10 Flushing

Listen to this message

Romans 13 shows that believers must trust God’s supreme justice and submit to governing authorities, even when those authorities misuse power. Following Christ’s example, Christians are called to live with integrity, to love their neighbors as themselves, and to overcome evil with good. The passage emphasizes that love fulfills the law and that authentic love, modeled at the cross, should guide every relationship—family, workplace, and community. The sermon challenges listeners to let the gospel reshape their lives and to reflect Christ’s love in all they do.

What this sermon is about

Ranked by keyness against every other sermon in the corpus. Each one is a word this sermon actually said — nothing here was written by a model.

authority 44 murderous 10 defensive 9 barabbas 7 love 81 government 16 persecution 10 listen 27 genuine 12 agree 12 respect 10 pilot 5

Topics

The Gospel 5 Government & Authority 5 The Law 3 Atonement & Sacrifice 1 Suffering 1 Condemnation 1 Freedom 1 Love 1

Scripture referenced 34

Verified against the transcript. A reference the recording does not support is never listed here.

Romans 13 3:08 Romans 13 4:03 Romans 13 4:06 Romans 12 4:27 Romans 12 4:27 Romans 12 4:39 Romans 12 4:46 Romans 13 4:46 Romans 12 4:52 Romans 13 4:52 Romans 12 5:06 Romans 12 5:06 Romans 13 5:06 Romans 12 5:12 Romans 12 5:19 Romans 12:1-2 6:15 Romans 12 7:37 Romans 12 8:37 Romans 12 8:38 Romans 13 10:41 Romans 12 10:48 Romans 1 10:59 Romans 13 11:00 Romans 13:1 11:00 Romans 3 15:07 Romans 3:2 18:36 Romans 3:5 27:23 Romans 3:5 27:46 Romans 3:7 29:27 Romans 3:8 32:44 Romans 12 33:04 Romans 12 34:38 Romans 12:9 39:04 Romans 12 41:13

Transcript

Every word, as spoken, with the second it was said. Each word links to its own entry in the index.

Pre-service announcement — 10 lines, 0:41. Excluded from every count and search on this site, kept here so nothing is hidden.

Hey, everyone. My name is Phil, and thanks for checking out this message today.

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Thanks again for joining us, and we hope you are blessed by today's message.

Morning, everyone. Man, who woke up this morning and was super excited?

All right, yeah, see, I did a poll this morning, kind of informal poll,

on how many people walked in with a smile and how many people walked in and were like,

oh, it's already here.

So, listen, I am one of those that was excited to see the beauty of God's creation

with the white snow. It was wonderful. I love it.

I'm thankful that the roads were not affected, as my daughter is a new driver,

and I'm like, oh, man, now I have a whole 'nother sense of fear with the snow.

I mean, when I'm driving, I'm all right with it, but now that my daughter's driving,

it's a whole 'nother game, right? So, looking forward to that.

Hey, listen, good news. Next week, I heard it's supposed to be 50, so we'll be all right, right?

We'll get through it.

Before we get into the message, hey, listen, I want to take some time to introduce you to some very, very special guests.

We have in our auditorium today.

I want to ask, we have some officials from our township and our city here representing.

I want to introduce you to them.

So, Mayor Ed Sullivan, if you would stand up, please, sir, just so we can recognize you and honor you.

So grateful for your presence here, as well as Councilman Michael Aversa.

If you will stand along with your wife, Nadina.

You don't have to stand if you don't feel comfortable, spouses, but I'm going to call your name out.

Either way, OK, it'll be all right, as well as I don't know if he made it or not is the township supervisor.

He did not make it. He was on the schedule to be here.

I'm sure there were circumstances that prohibit him, but we also are grateful for his work and his involvement.

So let's just give him a round of applause if he's watching online.

We want to honor him and thank him for for being a part of our community,

as well as our Flushing Township clerk, Wendy Meinberg, and her husband, Greg, her husband, Greg.

Thank you guys for being here.

And as well as our township treasurer, Terry Peck, and his wife, Pam, as well as his daughter, Lois.

And so, listen, we are super grateful.

Listen, for you guys, honestly, from the bottom of my heart, we are so honored that you are here today.

We thank you for your service to us in this community.

And we are so grateful for what how God uses you and the way that you are are being used in this community to serve us as a people.

And we just wanted to take this time this morning, especially as we're walking through Romans 13,

where it says to give honor to whom honor is due and respect to whom respect is due.

And you deserve both of those, the honor and the respect.

And so we are truly grateful for your presence in our gathering here this morning.

So I'm gonna take a moment and pray and then we'll get right into the message.

Heavenly Father, Lord, thank you so much for your word.

Lord, thank you for the truth of it. Right.

And the example that you give us in your son, Jesus.

Really, the love that he showed us is greater than any love that we as humans can ever understand or really, truly express, Lord.

And so today, as we open this passage, we ask that your spirit lead me, Lord, help me be invisible and help your word and your truth and your presence to be what everybody sees.

We ask this in Jesus holy name.

So if you have your Bibles, I kind of gave this away already.

We're going to be in Romans chapter 13.

So if you have your Bibles, go ahead and open them to Romans 13.

To give you some context here, I want you to understand this as we've been working through the Roman series.

I mean, I think we started at the beginning of the summer.

We have been kind of running through it in a sense, right?

We kind of just sprinted through chapters nine, 10 and 11.

And when we came to chapter 12, we took a little bit of a pause, a little bit slower pace, spent a couple of weeks in chapter 12.

And I really want to emphasize this.

What Paul began to walk us through.

In chapter 12 is not like like we have these chapters in here.

It's not a break in thought.

What he started in chapter 12 carries on and continues into chapter 13.

This isn't like, OK, chapter 12 is for this thought and then we're going to break the thought and then we're going to start a new thought and then we're going to start chapter 13.

That's not what Paul's doing. Paul is carrying a continued theme from the very beginning of

chapter 12 all the way through chapter 12 into chapter 13 and continuing on after that. And so

I want to remind you of where we started in chapter 12. Paul tells us very clearly in the first two

verses of chapter 12 that we as believers, those who call Christ our Lord, we are called to be a

living sacrifice, right? And this is this example of worship that the believer expresses to his Lord,

his God. We worship him in totality in every aspect of our life. And Paul in that second

verse there, he talks about this renewed mind or transformed mind that a believer has. The way he

used to think, the way he used to operate is no longer the same. He's being transformed and being

made new into this new creature.

We talked about this aspect of metamorphosis, the illustration of a caterpillar, like this idea that

like we're not becoming better caterpillars, right? We're being made into a new beautiful

creature. The butterfly that comes out of that cocoon, that is a new creature. That's how it

is described for us by Paul in chapters 12 verses 1 through 2. He walks in then what it looks like

in this new creature that we are, that how we serve each other in the body.

How we care for each other in the body. He gives us these gifts to serve one another. Such a

beautiful picture that Paul walks us through. And then last week we emphasized this aspect of

genuine love. What that genuine love looks like. And of course the example we have in scripture

is in fact given to us by Christ at the cross. What genuine, authentic, unhypocritical love

looks like.

And of course it's easy to love those who love you, right? Like it's easy to do that. Maybe not,

you know, some of you are thinking of your spouses. Sometimes it's not so easy. Listen,

I've been married not quite 20 years, but I understand, right? Like, or your kids, right?

Like, you know, listen, I know my kids are perfect. They never get under my skin ever.

I'm sure your kids are the same way. So when I say it's easy to love those who love you back,

right? Like that's, there is some sarcasm a little bit in that, right? But we also understand that,

listen, what Paul is telling us, this genuine, authentic love as he's been walking through

chapter 12 is really proven. It is shown to be genuine when we actually show Christ-like love

to those who may not be thinking the same way we think. In fact, Paul says these words,

bless those who persecute you. That word bless means to ask for God's favor to be poured upon

them. This is totally contrary to the way humans think, right? Someone cuts you off, what's the

first thing you're doing? We all laugh because we know it's true, right? This is the reality. Someone

comes at you in a way that you're not comfortable with, or you don't like, or you feel aggressive.

What's our natural response? We get defensive. And often we posture in a way that's completely

contrary to this transformed life that Paul is talking about. In fact, as we went and concluded

in the last part, the very last part of chapter 12, we get defensive. We get defensive. We get

defensive. We get defensive. We get defensive. We get defensive. We get defensive. We get defensive.

Last part of chapter 12, just before you walk into 13, Paul says these words, do not be overcome by

evil, but overcome evil with good. Okay, now I want to put this in very clear, proper historical

context. If we don't have the historical context in this passage, you're going to miss a lot of

what Paul is trying to teach the church in Rome. Paul is dealing with a government system, not our

government system. I want you to understand this. This is not written to the American church. Just

hear me out when I say this. Paul did not write this letter to the American church. That doesn't

mean we can't take principles from it or take understanding from it, but he did not write it

to the American church. He wrote it to a church in Rome. And in a few years after writing this letter,

they would be under severe persecution by an evil, evil dictator named Nero. Nero, in the sense

of history, you can read on it, Nero is written by history as an absolute evil, callous man. These

very, very stories of Christians, he would be under severe persecution.

would literally use Christians to light his garden so he could see the path he was walking on. That's

brutality at its highest form. Grossness. We would all agree with that. I don't think there's a single

person in this room that would say, yeah, let's light some Christians up as torches. That sounds

wonderful. Not a chance. He would feed them to lions. He would often publicly execute them to

incite fear and incite the people of Rome against Christians. So this is the historical context

to whom Paul is writing. So when he says, listen, this is what makes this statement that he is about

to say in chapter 13 so profound and so important for us today to grasp in the context of everything

he's laid out in chapter 12. Overcome evil with good is what Paul says. And then he says, as we go

into chapter 1,

or chapter 13 verse 1, he then says, let every person be subject to the governing authorities.

For there is no authority except from God. And those that exist have been instituted by

God. Therefore, whoever resists the authorities resist what God has appointed. Now this is really

hard sometimes for us in America in our very comfortable

Listen, the Roman church would have envied every single American church in its time. They would

have looked at them and said, what are you complaining about? You're complaining about

a government that lets you assemble freely without restrictions? Listen, come hang out in my era.

We'll show you what it's like to live under persecution. This is part of the historical

context when we grasp what Paul is saying here in this text and why as we as a church in a very

free country, a very privileged country, a country with enormous amounts of liberties need to

understand who Paul is writing to and why it's so significant and what we can gleam from it, right?

How do we take this text and really apply it to our life? Paul continues as he's saying these

very profound statements. So what he's saying is this, listen, even Nero, who history has recorded

as an absolutely wicked man, was put in that place.

As God's appointed. That's hard to grasp, especially when you know what he did to Christians.

There is a specific purpose and a reason God put him in that place, in that time, in that

governmental authority system. Maybe we can pontificate, maybe it was to help spread the

gospel to the rest of the world. Without the persecution of the Christian church, the early

Christian church, the gospel may have never been spread throughout the rest of the world.

That is a possibility. I don't know that that's his, I'm not going to try to play God and pretend

why God did what he did. I don't, I'm not God, so I'm not even going to pretend that. But we can

see some of the positive effects, positive in the sense that the gospel spread through persecution

in this early church. And so as we, as we study this and as we look at this, one of the things

that I think as a Christian church today, in today's day and age, we have to ask ourselves

is this question. How do we, how do we as God's people, how do we as God's people live faithfully

in a world where power is sometimes misused? How do we as Christians, as God's people live

faithfully in a world where authority doesn't always align with our perspective? How do we do

it rightfully? Paul answers this question. He really does in the following text, and he says

it in these simple forms. He says, listen, if we are going to answer that question, we first and

foremost, we must trust God's justice.

God's justice. We must trust it, that he is the ultimate and the supreme ruler

of all authority. He is the highest level of authority. And when we understand that God is

supreme, he makes no mistakes, and he is in full control and full sovereignty, even when we

disagree with whoever may be in authority, we can still trust that God's justice

still is true. Second thing is this. This is what Paul is going to walk us through in continuation

in chapter three. We live, we live as people with integrity. We imitate and we follow the very Lord

and Savior Jesus in his engagement with authority. He gave us the greatest example of how we are to

conduct ourselves in authority who may not be right or may not even agree. Jesus, when he was

being put to trial the pharisees hired and bribed witnesses to speak falsely of jesus's character

so much so did they bribe they they got one of jesus's own named as judas they bribed him to

betray jesus we would all consider that to be a horrible horrible sense of authority and a misuse

of power what did jesus do he still submitted himself to the earthly authority that he was

under though he himself was god almighty wow what an example not only did jesus submit himself to

the pharisees who were those in authority in that time frame but he also submitted himself

to the roman authority who was the authority above the pharisees when he sat in front of

pilot and pilot man as you examine the story of jesus christ pilot understood jesus's innocence

but he was struggling in a political arena to figure out how to appease people

yet deal with an innocent man and and what he does he washes his hands symbolically saying okay listen

you pharisees this is on your head you're making the call you're choosing this judgment i see him

as an innocent man i'm washing my hands this is now on you he goes a step further he's like listen

there's got to be a way i can step in this is pilot he says i am going to give them a murderous

man known to be a murderous man named barabbas an absolutely convicted man who is not a murderous man

known to be a murderous man named barabbas an absolutely convicted man who is not a murderous man

known to be a murderous man named barabbas an absolutely convicted man who is not a murderous man

known to be a murderous man named barabbas an absolutely convicted man who is not a murderous man

known to be a murderous man named barabbas an absolutely convicted criminal clearly the people

would not want this man in the midst of their society versus a perfectly innocent man who went

around doing wonderful miracles healing people doing incredible signs that he was in fact the

son of god speaking peace speaking forgiveness and the pilot as a politician is like clearly

the people will choose the obvious in this this is such a contrast

offers the choice to the people we know the story they chose to release the convicted criminal

because their hearts were so cold towards jesus and as we look at this text we see that even in

that instance right even in that instance the people who god had appointed in authority for

that time was there because god had a purpose an appointed purpose for what was going to happen

to christ and as a believer we understand this because without christ we have no mercy

without christ we have no grace we have

no forgiveness and so when we examine this and we understand that every authority every single

authority that god has put in place is for his appointed purpose that's what paul is saying and

then he goes in as we look at this in verse two and he says and those who resist will incur judgment

for rulers are not a terror to good conduct but to the bad see paul goes into explaining the role

of authority now we all have authority in our life so authority isn't something new to any of us

listen if you're a child in here guess what your parents are your authority real if you're a student

guess what your teacher is your authority how many of you have a job right hopefully a lot of us do

right guess what our boss is our authority how many of you drive a lot of us do maybe not all

of us but a lot of us drive listen we when we get our driver's license we know this we understand

this we are agreeing to abide by the rules and the authority that governs the rules and the laws of

the road and we are all in this together and we are all in this together and we are all in this together

okay with it often many of us may speed but listen here's the deal if you get pulled over don't be mad

at the police officer right he's just doing his job we're the ones that broke the rules we're the

ones that broke the law we're the ones that aren't honoring the the law of the land we rightfully

deserve that hundred and however many dollar ticket right sometimes the officers are really

merciful and they say hey

don't do this again. They may give you a warning. Man, that is mercy at its finest. I think it's

wonderful. I just have to throw this in here. I have gotten two speeding tickets this year.

I know it's bad, really bad, but I'm going to tell you, I deserve both of them. I really genuinely

deserve both of them. But there was one, one was a state trooper, one was a sheriff on the other

side of the state. The state trooper, man, I'm telling you, he was a saint from God. He just

treated me very kindly, very, very nice, and he reduced my ticket significantly. And honestly,

this is going to be bad. I probably as a pastor shouldn't even admit this. He could have easily

impounded my car and taken me to jail, and I would have deserved all of it. Going way too fast,

wasn't paying attention to my speed at all, in a new car, didn't feel like I was going as that

fast. I can make all the excuses in the world, but really and truly that man did the right thing,

and he could have done so much more to me. He showed me extensive mercy. A wonderful man. I'm

I still had a ticket. I still had to pay it, and I got the points, which I rightfully deserve. This

is what we're talking about, right? This is what Paul is emphasizing as we're walking through this,

as we look at this. He says, the rulers are not a terror to good conduct, right? I'm just confessing

my poor conduct. I deserve those tickets. There's no question about it. There's no wrongdoing by the

officer or anybody in authority that executes those judgments. And he goes in and he says,

as he continues,

then do what is good, Paul tells us, and you will receive his approval. For he is God's servant,

speaking of those in authority. We can put this in this context. It is in those who are in

government authority. Listen, this is what Paul is saying. He is God's servant for your good. The

purpose of authority in our life isn't to destroy us, isn't to make our lives miserable. It is to

be for the good of God.

Right? That we have systems, that we have controls, that we don't have chaos and anarchy

running wild. It is for our good. But if you do wrong, Paul warns, be afraid, for he does not

bear the sword in vain, for he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God's wrath

on the wrongdoer. The purpose of government is very clearly articulated by Paul. To institute

justice and to, I'm going to use this term, police injustice. Now, sometimes does that get

misused? Yes. Does sometimes, do we see sometimes, and this is not, I have a huge respect for police

officers. I know several of them. I think they are very godly men and men who do their best to

do what they do. Is it possible that somebody with authority can abuse it? Yes, it's true.

It can happen. Is our response then, as Christians,

to rebel against the whole institution? Paul says very clearly, listen, this is the purpose and the

function of government as it exists, that it is them who are appointed by God. They are called

servants of God, and they are the ones who are in God's authority. God has granted them this

authority to do what is right and good and to bring wrath on the wrongdoers. That is how government,

as Paul is describing it, is. Now, I want you to understand,

Paul is writing this to a church that understands persecution, understands suffering. In the Roman

time, if you were a Christian and you were a part of this church in Rome, you would have been

considered a very peculiar person, because in Roman society, you had a choice of either serving

God, according to the scripture, and living uncomfortably and under some form of persecution

or suffering, because the Roman empire saw suffering as a form of persecution. So, if you

worship Caesar as their God, and if you did not worship Caesar as God, there were consequences.

Paul's writing this to them and saying, hey, honor, honor.

and respect your authorities. I've already given you some of the harsh illustrations of what

happens to this church and those who Paul wrote this letter to years after this, when Nero

comes into his full reign of terror, and he literally is executing them, I'm sure, without

cause. Now, let's just take a pause. I didn't Google this. I was going to this morning, and I

didn't. I lost track of time. But I'm about to say something, and I want you to hear this. I can't

say it with 100% assurity, but I'm pretty confident in what I'm about to say. In our government,

as Americans, federally, state level, or local level, there is nothing on the books that prohibits

us as Christians from worshiping God the way the scripture tells us to. Did you hear what I just

said? There should be some shouts of praises and hallelujah. There's nothing that says you can't

gather or assemble and worship God. Now, do we agree with every rule that's out there, that the land

is made? No, right? We understand the distinction of God's word and its position on abortion or

homosexuality or all of these things. But there is nothing in the books, either federally, state,

or local, that says you must commit abortion. You must live this lifestyle as a believer. There's

nothing that restricts us as believers to gather and assemble and live out God's word, like Daniel

had to deal with, or Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego had to deal with. They were commanded,

if you do not worship God, you will not be able to live out God's word. They were commanded, if you do not

worship God, you will not be able to live out God's word. They were commanded, if you do not worship God,

worship this idol and bow down, you will be executed. We don't have those restrictions in

our government. We should be very grateful and very thankful as a people of God to say we can

live in a time where we can worship God freely and clearly. We live in a wonderful, magnificent

country that gives us that liberty. And as Paul walks through this passage, as we see him continue

in verse five, he says this, this is part of where this really meets the road for the Christian

our behavior matters, our integrity matters, how we are obedient under authority, whether we agree

with it or disagree with it. This isn't about whether you're on the right side or the left side.

That's not what this is about. This is not a political message one way or the other. This is

about what God's word says to his people. Look at this in verse five. Therefore, one must, must,

circle that word, must be in subjection, not only to avoid God,

God's wrath, but also for the sake of conscience. For because of this, I know so many of us are going

to cheer at this. You also pay taxes. Listen, I'm just, can I just, I don't know of any person that

loves paying taxes. I don't know of any government. I've never met a person, whether they are in the

government or out of the government that says, oh man, I just love paying my taxes. We have the

township treasurer here. I'm sure he has stories galore, right? I'm not going to put you on the spot,

but the reality is, but listen, the scripture

tells us as believers, this is not a point of tension for us. This isn't a point of contention

for us. The scripture is very clear. It says, listen, for this reason, because of everything

that has happened in chapters 12, all the way through 12 into 13, because we are a living

sacrifice, because we have received God's mercy and grace, because we want to live out genuine love,

we pay our taxes. I'm waiting for some amens here. Come on. Don't leave me hanging. Don't

leave me hanging. This is uncomfortable. And look at, as he goes on, for the authorities are

ministers of God attending to this very thing. This is their job. He goes on and he says this

in verse seven, pay to all, not just taxes. If you owe a debt to somebody, go pay it. You should

be known as Christians and followers of Christ to make sure that what you owe is paid. Pay to all

what is owed to them. Taxes to whom taxes are owed, revenue to whom revenue is owed, respect to whom

respect is owed, honor to whom honor is owed. What Paul's walking us through is what a transformed

looks like, that lives out genuine Christ-like love in the day-to-day, and it looks like that.

Do you agree with everything your boss does? No, obviously not. We all have different opinions,

different perspectives, different ideas, but listen, at the bottom line, they're the ones in charge.

They're the ones that God placed in authority in the workplace. We are called as believers to

respect them and honor them. Students, you ready for this? Do you always agree with your teacher?

How many teachers we have in here? I know we have a few. Like, do we always agree with the teachers?

No. Listen, I went to, I graduated from U of M in Flint. Man, I took several different classes

with different professors, and man, I did not agree. We were like on totally opposite sides

of a certain topic. Could have been economics, because I went through business. It could have

been how we handle finances. I mean, I had one professor that talked about his spreadsheet on

how many credit cards he had and how he was managing all the points.

And I'm like, man, I totally disagree with that notion. Do we, as students, agree with our teachers

all the time? No. But you know what, as believers, we're called to do? Honor them and respect them.

That can be hard sometimes. Love this one. Kids, do you always agree with your parents?

Oh, there they are. They're not afraid to say it. Nope. But hey, here's the cool thing. The scripture,

if you're a follower of Jesus, says regardless of whether you agree with them 100% or not,

you're called to and commanded to respect them and honor and give them the proper authority that is

due to them. Here's what Paul is saying as we continue in this, and I want to highlight this

as we come to the end. As we're walking through this passage, here's the key thing. We walk in

integrity. Our obedience is an aspect of worship. But what Paul leads us to and what he gets us to

at the end of these difficult texts that are often very hard for us as Christians and even really

freedom-loving Americans.

The only way I know how to put it, and I love our freedom. But Paul walks us into, as believers,

something that is so different than this notion of I have freedom. You ready for this? I don't know.

I've seen a lot of very stern-looking faces. Look at this, verse 8.

Oh, no one anything except to love each other. You know what's really amazing about that word love?

So earlier in chapter 12, when Paul spoke of brotherly love, it was phileo love. We talked

about the picture of a soldier who's willing to lay his life down for his fellow soldiers, right?

That's phileo love. Agape love is a love that is really hard for us sometimes to grasp because it

is the love used to describe Jesus and his love for his people. It is a full, selfless kind of

love. It is a love that comes from God. You know the word used here, the word love in this word,

where he says, oh, no, anyone, anything except to love each other.

That word love is an agape love, a love that we as believers have received from Christ and his

sacrifice at the cross. Here, Paul says, listen, do not owe anybody anything except. Here's a debt

that we can never pay back. It's the love that we received from God. This is what we pay to all of

the people, our brothers, our sisters, our neighbors, our bosses, our teachers, our officers, our government

to illustrate that in our day-to-day walk, in our life. Look at what he says. Except to love

each other for the one who loves one another fulfills the law. Here's where Paul takes it

up a notch. Go back to that passage in chapter 12 where he says, let your love be genuine. Let

your love be authentic. Let your love be unhypocritical. And Paul is summarizing the

Christian walk, the, the, the walk of love. And he says, let your love be genuine. Let your love be

genuine. Let your love be authentic. Let your love be unhypocritical. And Paul is summarizing the

the walk of one who believes in Christ and has fully committed

to him as their Lord, says, listen, there is no greater law in any land greater than the law of

love. Not a hypocritical love, not one that's self-serving, not one that's after motivating

something for some purpose, but the agape love, one that is shown and illustrated to us in the

very life of Jesus Christ himself when he took our burdens, our sins, our iniquities, and he put it

upon himself and he hung on a cross for me and for you. That is the agape love that Paul is tying

this all back to, the genuine, authentic love that doesn't just force us to obey. This is such a

beautiful picture. It is the kind of love that transforms our heart and changes it from a

rebellious heart to a heart that is truly, genuinely, authentically pursuing the well-being

of God.

That is the gospel. That's the gospel love. You care for your brother and sister. You care for

your family member. You care for those in this congregation, but you also care for those that

aren't in this congregation. You love them with the same kind of love that you have received from

Jesus Christ on the cross. You go out of your way to be uncomfortable. That's what Jesus did. Even in,

and I put this in context to what is happening to this church in Rome who is living under persecution

who is living under extreme, extreme pressure. Paul is saying, live like Christ lived. Love like Christ

loved. When Jesus was being beaten, not just nicely being beaten, not just thrown in prison with

shackles, when they were literally with their whip ripping his flesh apart. He is the son of God. He

has all authority. He even said it earlier, all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to

me. I believe he has complete authority. And even though Jesus had complete authority to flip the

script, if you will, he chose with his love for me and for you to take the beating so that we as

humanity has a chance to restore our relationship with God, the father. Jesus was willing to not

raise his voice, to not revile when being reviled. Jesus, when all authority seemed to be against

him, chose to sit or stand in silence. He understood that all authority was appointed

for a purpose. And that authority he himself submitted to recognizing and knowing that God's

purpose is far bigger than anything we can even begin to fathom. And we today as believers of

Jesus Christ, trusting in his purpose for our lives, recognize that love, that mercy, and that

grace in our life. What Paul is telling us to do is now go live like Christ. And that's what we're

going to do. Go live it. Go live it in our community. Go live it in your workplace. Go live it in your

family, in your home. Care for your neighbor, not just the surface level, but genuinely and

authentically. Care for those in our community, genuinely and authentically. And he goes in and

he gives this illustration in verse 9. He says this, 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 these words.

You shall love your neighbor as yourself. Two greatest commandments in all of scripture that

Jesus himself says in the the gospel of Matthew is those two commandments. First is to love the

Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and mind, and then to love your neighbor as yourself. And

then he says all of the commandments, all of the prophets, all of the psalms, they hang on these

two commandments. As believers, this is what we are called to live out. And what we see is this,

love triumphs over any other commandment. And that's what we're called to live out. And that's

other mandate. What's really

interesting, and I won't read the

full context but after Nero had gone through pillaged the church and once they were even

destroyed there is an author a Roman author named Tertullian and he spoke of the Christians that

survived and can you guess what his words were look at them for the love that they have for one

another this is what's really cool even in the midst of pressure on their persecution this Roman

church was able to survive and their testimony was that they loved people they loved one another

what a powerful powerful testimony of the gospel the good news of Jesus Paul concludes he says

love does no wrong to a neighbor therefore he says it twice love is the fulfilling of the law

without love we as a people lose so much credibility here Paul is tying this whole

thing together and he says it twice love is the fulfilling of the law without love we as a people

that he's continued back in chapter 12 bringing it into 13 and helping us understand that if we

are not motivated by the love of Christ in our engagement with whomever your co-worker your boss

your neighbor your family member if love is not the driving force we're going to mess it up and

so the call is to come back to the truth of the gospel recognize in our own life that what Jesus

did for us on the cross is not just a story of history it is a story that is meant for me and

for you to grasp and understand that we are authentically and genuinely loved by God our

creator and he has given us a way to receive forgiveness see the story of Barabbas and Jesus

is this I am Barabbas I am condemned criminally in the court of heaven this is the good news

as I stand condemned the death sentence that Jesus received should be my death sentence the

gospel is truly this Jesus stepped into my place and took my punishment for me he did it for you

too and as someone that has been forgiven of that condemnation there is no greater love that I can

appreciate that I can grasp to and hold on to than the love that Jesus Christ has shown me personally

at the cross that is what we

as Christians cling to in our day-to-day life and Paul in this passage is telling us this is what it

looks like this is what authentic and genuine love looks like not easy I mean it's much easier for us

in America because our government is very very different than the government the Roman church

had to deal with we have incredible freedoms we should be very grateful we should be the servants

helping our government officials doing the job that is tough they have a tough job guys we should

be the example they should look at us and go man there is a

lot of good people that shows the love like I've never seen let that be our challenge today as we

move forward and if you do not know the Lord I want to challenge you there is no greater relationship

to have in this world than with Jesus do not delay that day of salvation is for you today

let's pray heavenly father thank you so much for your good news for the gospel lord thank you for

the love that you have shown me that you have shown us as a people thank you for the truth that

your word speaks

to us even though sometimes lord it doesn't feel good and it may be challenging and there may be

some of us in here that are super uncomfortable lord I am grateful for those uncomfortable

conversations because in it I grow closer to you and I am able to reflect your love even better

lord as a pastor and as a church we desire to be a light in a world that is so dark help us be the

light that light is your love help us live it out in every place that we walk in every place that we

go may you shine

brightly through us in this community. We ask this in Jesus' holy name.

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