Insight for Living

Chuck Swindoll: Picture a freezing night, a stranded traveler, and drivers speeding past, some even swerving to avoid him. We live in a world where convenience overrules compassion. We've perfected the art of looking away.

Well, today, on Insight for Living, Chuck Swindoll asks the question that should haunt us. When did we last stop for a stranger in need? Drawing from Romans 13 and the parable of the Good Samaritan, Chuck explains why love is the one debt we should never stop paying. We'll begin by reading the passage together. Chuck titled today's message: Legal Tender and Loving Care.

We have just three verses today from Romans chapter 13. Don't think that means a short sermon. It just means I have a friend here in Texas who said when I spent a little while on just a few verses, "You sort of super irrigated that today, Chuck."

These verses appear in a context that is of invaluable significance on the whole matter of love, and Paul does not end the thought without driving them home in verses 8, 9, and 10 of chapter 13. Romans chapter 13, verses 8, 9, and 10.

Owe nothing to anyone, except to love one another. For he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law. For this, you shall not commit adultery. You shall not murder. You shall not steal. You shall not covet. And if there is any other commandment, it is summed up in the saying, You shall love your neighbor as yourself. Love does no wrong to a neighbor. Therefore, love is the fulfillment of the law.

You're listening to Insight for Living. To dig deeper into the book of Romans on your own, be sure to purchase our Searching the Scriptures Bible Study Workbook by going to insight.org/offer. Chuck titled today's message: Legal Tender and Loving Care.

Nothing is more attractive than love. And nothing is more unattractive and repulsive than the absence of it. Yesterday, we had an opportunity to see both placed in juxtaposition. The room today, we find filled with worshipers. Yesterday, it was filled with mourners. As we buried a fallen hero.

A Second Lieutenant in the United States Army who had died a hero's death after less than two months in battle in Iraq, leaving a family of mom and dad, and brothers, and sisters, and a heartbroken fiancée.

A large picture of this fine man stood on an easel right here on this platform. And people gathered from all over. Being a local football player in his growing-up years, there were former teammates and coaches who had come to mourn.

And what a marvelous occasion to reflect on his years at Texas A&M, and finally a commission in the Army, and cut down by an insurgent's assault. And we heard from one of his coaches who brought a eulogy of love for this man and his love for others, describing him as a fine athlete who played defensive end. In fact, he covered the fumble of the opposing team as they, a winning team, were able to make it in for the final winning touchdown, and they, and they won the championship.

He said it was so like him, said the coach, doing something that would help others succeed. At the same time, out on the corner, there were protesters, carrying ugly signs that said, "God hates America. God loves 9/11," and other signs too repulsive for me to repeat. Right out there.

I deliberately drove right in front of them to be sure I could look into their faces and read their signs. Thankfully, the family was protected from that awful scene by being rerouted into the church and surrounded by freedom riders with their big flags, and all of them veterans, riding their Harleys, encircling the family with their love, as opposed to the hate-filled rhetoric on the corner.

I thought as I drove home, how ironic in this cold rain this afternoon, the very freedom the man died to protect allows them the freedom to protest. But how drawn I was to this family in their mourning and love for this fallen hero, who earned a Purple Heart and Iraqi medal, as well as a Bronze Star, having died a hero's death.

You know, friends, whatever else I have to say, love never goes out of style. Love is never inappropriate. The absence of love always is.

I'm not surprised then that the Apostle in writing this grand letter filled with doctrine would keep unpacking the same message again and again, so that we could see all facets of it, as you would look at various facets of an enormous diamond sitting on black velvet. Because he, being a realist, knows that ours is a world filled with sin. You cannot escape it.

For whatever it's worth, we took our trip to Australia, and there's sin there. I mean, even in the land down under. The news sounds just like news in the States, except with an accent. I mean, there's murder, and there's violence, and there's, and there are kidnaps, and there is abuse, and there is terror, and there is robbery, and there is dishonesty, and there is personal misery, and there's political mud-slinging. It's all over down there. It's all over. You can't get away from it.

I tried to escape one night, and I clicked onto a sports channel. Cricket. Cricket. It's like baseball on Vicodin. The longer you watch it, the less you understand it. It's like watching paint dry. Cricket. They play it for days. There's sin everywhere, friends. I can't wait to get mail back from Australia on this message.

You move to Wyoming, you live on a ranch, you'll get a sinful neighbor who'll make your life miserable. You go to Hawaii, you'll have a sinful person in the hotel room next door, who will make your nights miserable. Furthermore, you carry a sinful person into the room when you walk in. It's everywhere.

It's everywhere, as one theologian put it, if depravity were blue, we'd be blue all over. So Paul writes to blue people. And he says to us in this context, this is how to live the Christian life. That's the general context of this passage of scripture. Here's how to live the Christian life. The specific context is, this is how to be a good citizen.

So the general context is in verses 9 through 21 of chapter 12. The specific context is in chapter 13, verses 1 through 7. 12:9 to 21 is the general context, how to live the Christian life, and then 13:1 to 7 is how to be a good citizen. While on that subject, he doesn't leave the matter of love.

He begins in a way that would surprise you, and some have been surprised and even led astray by taking only the first four words, and teaching that there should never be debt. Owe no one anything. But the verse is filled with many other words. It begins, "Owe nothing to anyone," and you could think, "Well, that means we should never borrow money." It would be wonderful if we never had to. It would be magnificent if we could live debt-free, and some do, and everyone applauds that.

People ask, "Is the church in debt?" Yes, it's a debt we can manage, but yes, why are we in debt? Well, we preferred not to meet in the rain. It was just helpful to have a roof over our head. And I think you'd agree we didn't splurge, and we're we're here, with a debt. Will there be debt in the new building? There will be debt. But I thought the scripture says, "Owe no man anything." But do you know what the rest of the verse says?

You say, "Well, before I look at the rest of the verse, I want to know what that means." And I don't blame you. First of all, the verb is in the present tense, meaning, "Keep on owing." So the idea is, don't keep on owing on the same debt. Pay it off. Let no debt remain outstanding. You borrowed money to buy a car, pay the debt off. Don't get another debt on top of that debt, on top of another debt. If you have a credit card, pay the credit card off. Don't keep stacking credit on top of credit. Pay off the loan. You're buying a home, pay it off. At chunks over time, over the years, you finally get it paid off.

And so he says, "Owe no one anything," meaning, don't let your debt remain outstanding. No one has been more conservative in his writings than Martin Lloyd Jones, so he certainly wouldn't take liberty with what we just read in his work on Romans he writes, "There's no need to waste any time over this. This verse cannot mean that because we are instructed elsewhere in scripture to give loans. In the Old Testament, as well as in the New, the question of usury is taken up, also the question of paying interest on borrowed money, and they are not prohibited.

A legal loan correctly arranged is all right, as long as you observe the terms of the agreement. It is wrong not to repay as soon as possible anything you have borrowed." That's the point of the first four words. But, now that you have listened to that explanation on loans, understand what he's really teaching. Keep reading. When you do serious study of the scriptures, guard against partial verses and forming convictions out of a few words.

Owe nothing to anyone, except to love one another. That's the debt you stay permanently involved in paying off. Owe no one anything, except to love one another. Keep reading. For he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law. This is the debt you never stop paying.

Let me have a parallel here to give you an example. Hold your place and look at Romans chapter 1. You'll remember when we were there, several months ago, or was it years ago, in Romans 1, verse 14. Notice what he says about being in debt. He says, "I'm in debt." In fact, the same Greek word rendered, "Owe nothing," verse 8 of chapter 13, is the identical Greek word as translated, "under obligation," in verse 14 of chapter 1. Same term, so it's the same meaning.

I am in debt, both to the Greeks and to the barbarians, to the wise and to the foolish. Meaning what? I am in debt to give them the good news. That's why he says in the next verse, "So for my part, I am eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome. For I'm not ashamed of the gospel. It's the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first, and also to the Greek."

Look at his "I ams." I am in debt, verse 14. I am eager to preach the gospel, verse 15. I am not ashamed, verse 16. There's your devotional for next week when you have to bring your talk. There it is. You can act like you found it on your own. I ams of Paul, right there. But the one that interests us today is, "I am under obligation." Let's see if I can illustrate it.

Let's imagine that you, though young in life, suffer from a terrible, dread disease that is affecting your joints, your muscles. It's a lot like arthritis, perhaps it's even worse than that. It keeps you awake at night. Before long, they are no longer supple. You can't move them without pain. You find you can't move around as you once could, playing tennis or playing catch or playing a little pick-up game of basketball. You can't move about. And the pain is horrendous. You try the massage therapy, and you try spas, and you go to one physician after another.

In the process, you find out there's no cure for this ailment. Then you have someone tell you almost by chance. There is this physician who lives in another country, who practices good medicine, and has come up with a formula that he can prescribe that if you take it, you'll be free of pain. You don't ignore that. As soon as you're able to afford it, you take that trip and you go to that physician. And he listens to you, and you describe your situation, and you realize, he realizes that you've got exactly what he's able to help. And he writes that prescription. You take that prescription and you have it filled. You begin to take that medicine.

Three or four mornings later, you're noticing an absence of pain. Less and less pain, and another week passes and you're sleeping through the night, and in less than two weeks, you're free of pain. Let's say in the next month you come across someone you've never met, who is obviously in pain. And you could tell by looking, they're going through the very same thing that you were going through.

And you have the name of the physician right here near your heart. You are under obligation to give that name to this suffering friend, right? You're in debt. To everyone you meet who is in this kind of pain. You dare not keep this to yourself. This is hope. Now you know where I'm going.

Many of you lived many years without Christ, and you knew what it was to go through sleepless nights and anxious moments and the misery of guilt, and doing wrong, and not being able to, quote, "straighten up your life." And there was a sense of hopelessness and despair, and education didn't help, and travel didn't remove it, and you couldn't escape it. Till someone cared enough about you to pay their debt. And they told you of a savior, the name of the one who could change your life. And now you carry that name right in your heart.

In that sense, verse 8 is saying in chapter 13, "Owe nothing to anyone, except there is a debt you do owe, and you will owe it the rest of your life." And that is to love one another. He who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law. Interesting change in terms, I have to take the time to say this, even though it may sound a little pedantic. See the word "another" in verse 8, love one another. And see the word "neighbor" a little later on. It doesn't really read in the original "neighbor," it reads "another." Except it's another of a different kind.

The first is another like you, and the other is someone very different from you. Different in beliefs, in theology, different in personality, different in politics, different in mannerisms, different in taste and color and values and past history. All of that different makes no difference. Love is to be shown, you're still in debt. Don't let any of the barriers that would normally hold you back from extending a life of love to that other individual, hold you back from doing it. You're in debt to them. And it's a perpetual debt that goes on and on.

As a matter of fact, I love the way it continues, when you do that, you actually fulfill the law. What's the purpose of the law? To make us like God. But it has no power to do it. Until Christ comes into the life, and as Christ comes into the life, and we live out the life of Christ, which is a life of love, it is amazing. It is amazing the difference it makes. And as I said at the beginning, nothing is more attractive than being around someone who loves us unconditionally. And yet discerning enough to express that love in a way at times it's tough. Honest.

As a matter of fact, he goes on to say, as you fulfill the law, "You shall not commit adultery." May I make the statement, delicate though it is, don't let anyone who is attempting to lure you into adultery convince you that it's love. Love doesn't prompt adultery. Love, verse 10, does no wrong. Adultery is obviously wrong. When you love, you don't commit adultery. It wasn't love that David had for Bathsheba. He didn't love Uriah, her husband. When he lured Bathsheba into his home, into his palace, it wasn't love. Though I'm sure he used words that were very affectionate in the process of lust.

And you shall not murder. Never convince yourself that you take someone's life out of love. It's impossible. Or stealing, taking something that isn't yours, you never do it because you love them. Or coveting what they have, or who they are, or some title they possess, or whatever may be that point of covetousness, it doesn't come from love. Love seeks the highest good of the other person. You know what it does? Well, I'll tell you what it doesn't do, verse 10, it does no wrong to a neighbor.

Let's face it, folks, we live in a cold, heartless, uncaring world. It is a world that is going its own way and won't stop to help you as you struggle in your way. I thought of it when I read this article from.