Owe Nothing to Nobody But Love

In one paragraph

Pastor Ray picked up Romans 13:8-10 and stayed on the ground he has been covering since chapter 12: what does it actually look like to present yourself as a living sacrifice? This week the answer was simple and demanding in equal measure. Love one another, and love does not stop there. The verse opens with what sounds like financial advice: owe nothing to anyone. Pastor Ray worked through several...

Read together

1. Romans 12:1-2 described as the center of the bull's eye and start of the application section of Romans
2. Romans 13:1 let every soul be subject to the governing authorities, used to show the scope extends to all people
3. Romans 13:8 the main text for the sermon, owe nothing to anyone except to love one another
4. Romans 13:9 lists commandments against adultery, murder, stealing, coveting, summed up in loving your neighbor as yourself
5. Romans 13:10 love does no wrong to a neighbor, love is the fulfillment of the law
6. Matthew 5:42 Jesus says give to him who asks and do not turn away from him who wants to borrow
7. Psalm 37:21 the wicked borrows and does not pay back but the righteous is gracious and gives
8. Matthew 5:17 Jesus says he did not come to abolish the law or the prophets but to fulfill them
9. Matthew 19:16-22 the rich young ruler asks what good thing he must do to obtain eternal life, Jesus cites the commandments
10. Luke 10:25-37 an expert in the law asks what he must do to inherit eternal life, leading into the parable of the Good Samaritan
11. Leviticus 19:18 you shall love your neighbor as yourself, cited as the Old Testament origin of the love command
12. 1 Corinthians 13 the love chapter, read through to show that love fulfills the law
13. Romans 12:9-21 the list describing love without hypocrisy, tied to what the Good Samaritan demonstrated
14. Romans 12:14 used as the benediction, be blessing even those who are persecuting you and do not curse them

Talk about it

1. Pastor Ray spent time with several different translations of 'owe nothing to anyone' and landed on the idea that the real point is not debt management but the second half of the verse, the continuing obligation to love others. What do you think it means that love is a debt you can never fully pay off?
2. Pastor Ray walked through how Jesus expanded the definitions of the commandments, so that anger counts as murder and lust counts as adultery. How does that expansion change the way you read the commandments, and does it make the command to love feel harder or more freeing?
3. The expert in the law asked Jesus 'who is my neighbor?' and Pastor Ray suggested the real question underneath it was 'what is the least I can get away with?' When have you caught yourself asking that same question, even if not out loud?
4. Pastor Ray listed qualities from First Corinthians 13 and Romans 12 and said the Good Samaritan demonstrated nearly all of them in one roadside encounter. Which item on that list do you find most difficult to live out, and why?
5. Pastor Ray quoted the line about love being 'the chain cutter' of hate and evil, and said somebody somewhere has to have some sense. Who in your life right now might God be calling you to stop hitting back at, and what would it look like practically to cut that chain?