"How should I be a neighbor?"

At the church where I serve, we have been spending our time together in a sermon series entitled “Won’t you be my neighbor”. During this series our hope and our prayer is to answer three specific questions. Our hope and prayer is that we would answer the question “Why should I be a neighbor?” “Who is my neighbor?” and “How should I be a neighbor?”

We launched into this series by asking the question “Why should I be a neighbor?” In other words why should followers of Jesus be a neighbor to the people around them?” To answer this question, we spent our time together looking at an event from history that is recorded for us in a section of an account of Jesus life that is recorded for us in the Bible called the gospel of Matthew, where we discovered the timeless reality that we should be a neighbor because being a neighbor is to be what matters most to Jesus.

Last week, we spent our time together asking the question “Who is my neighbor?” To answer that question, we spent our time together looking at an event from history that is recorded for us in a section of an account of Jesus life that is recorded for us in the Bible called the gospel of Luke, where we discovered the timeless reality that when it comes to being a neighbor, we are to view and love everyone as our neighbor.

We ended our time together by recognizing that a natural question that could arise at this point could be “Well Dave, if that is the case, if everyone is my neighbor, then how am I supposed to love everyone as my neighbor? How should I be a neighbor?” So this week, I would like for us to spend our time together by beginning to answer the third question that we are going to look at in this series, which is “How should I be a neighbor?”

To begin to answer this question, I would like for us to spend our time together looking at a section of a letter that is recorded for us in the New Testament of the Bible called the book of Romans. So let’s jump into this section of this letter, which a man named Paul wrote to early followers of Jesus, beginning in Romans 13:8:

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 this saying, "YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF." Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.

Now to fully understand, what the Apostle Paul is communicating in these verses, we first need to understand the context in which these verses take place. The book of Romans was written by the Apostle Paul to early followers of Jesus who lived in Rome, Italy. And the point of the book of Romans can be summarized in one simple statement. And that statement would be that the message of the gospel reveals the reality that God is right.

In Romans 1:1-17, Paul proclaimed that God is right. God always has been right; God always will be right; and the extent that we are right when it comes to living in a right relationship with God is directly related to the extent that our heads, hearts, and hands line up with what God believes is right, because God is right. And this reality is revealed to all humanity through the message of the gospel.

The message that that while all of humanity was created for a relationship with God and one another, all of humanity selfishly chose to reject that relationship, instead choosing to love our selves over God and others. And it is out of our selfishness that we do things that hurt God and those around us, which the Bible calls sin. The message that reveals that God responded to our selfish rebellion and sin by sending His Son Jesus, God in a bod, who entered into humanity and allowed Himself to be treated as though He lived our selfish and sinful lives so God the Father could treat us as though we lived Jesus perfect life.

The message that reveals that Jesus died on the cross, was buried in a tomb dead as a door nail, and was brought back to life as a result of the Holy Spirit’s transforming and supernatural activity in order to be our Lord and Savior. The message that provides the opportunity for all humanity to receive the forgiveness of sin and enter into the relationship with God that they were created for by believing, trusting and following Jesus as Lord and Leader.

After the first 11 chapters of the book of Romans, Paul begins to reveal the reality that the fact that God is right is not only based on who God is, what God has done, and what God has promised to do. Beginning in Romans 12, Paul reveals the reality that the fact that God is right is also revealed by how followers of Jesus practice their faith. When followers of Jesus live a life that genuinely and authentically puts into practice the message and teachings of Jesus, we are used by God to reveal that He is right. 

In Romans 12 Paul revealed the timeless reality that followers of Jesus are to practice a lifestyle of worship that pleases God. Paul explained that followers of Jesus are to practice a lifestyle of worship that pleases God through our response of surrender. Paul explained that followers of Jesus are to practice a lifestyle of worship that pleases God through our response of service. And Paul explained that followers of Jesus are to practice a lifestyle of worship that pleases God through our response toward other Christians.

Then, in Romans 13, Paul begins to reveal the timeless reality that followers of Jesus are to practice a lifestyle of submission.  When Paul uses the word submission, this word, in the language that this letter was originally written in, literally means to willingly place ourselves under others by placing others first. And in Romans 13, Paul reveals three areas where followers of Jesus are to practice a lifestyle of submission.

In Romans 13:1-7, which we looked at throughout the “Vote for Jesus” series, Paul revealed the reality that followers of Jesus are to practice a lifestyle of submission to the government. And, it is in this context, after providing three reasons why followers of Jesus are to practice a lifestyle of submission to the government, that Paul transitions in Romans 13:8 to address a second area where followers of Jesus were to practice a lifestyle of submission.

Paul begins verse 8 by commanding followers of Jesus throughout history to owe nothing to anyone except to love one another. Now the word owe here literally means to be under obligation to meet certain moral or social conditions. Paul’s point here is that as followers of Jesus, the only obligation that should be the driving and motivating factor in our lives is love. As followers of Jesus, our relationships should not be driven and motivated by slavery to financial or emotional obligations. Instead, the only debt or obligation that should weigh on our lives and drive the motivation of our lives is the obligation to love one another.

Paul then explains that when love is the driving and motivating force behind our lives, the result is that we fulfill the law. When Paul refers to the Law, he is referring to the first five letters that are recorded for us in our Bibles, which the Jewish people referred to as the Law or Torah. The word fulfilled means to bring something to a designated end. Paul’s point is that the person who practices a lifestyle of love that willing places ourselves under others by placing others first, will live a life that is in line with God’s commandments.

And to reinforce his point, in verse 9, Paul points the members of the church at Rome, and followers of Jesus throughout history, to the seventh, sixth, eighth, and tenth of the Ten Commandments that God gave Moses for the Jewish people. In addition, Paul reminds the readers of this letter of God’s command to the Jewish people that is recorded for us in a letter of our Bibles, called the Book of Leviticus, in Leviticus 19:18.

To understand what Paul is communicating here, let me ask you this question: If you loved your neighbor as yourself, would you ever sleep with their spouse? Kill them? Steal from them? Desire what they had? Wish that they did not have what they had? Would we ever sin against one another if we lovingly placed ourselves under them by placing them first? No we would not.

And that is Paul’s point here. Paul then hammers his point home in verse 10 by stating that love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of the law. Paul’s point is that when followers of Jesus willingly place ourselves under others by placing others first out of a selfless and other-centered love for one another, we do not wrong to our neighbor and we fulfill God’s requirements of how we are to relate to one another.

And it is in these verses that Paul reveals for us the reality that, as followers of Jesus, we are to practice a lifestyle of submission to one another. As followers of Jesus, we are to willingly place ourselves under others by placing others first. Paul then transitions to reveal a third area where followers of Jesus are to practice a lifestyle of submission that willingly places ourselves under others by placing others first in Romans 13:11-14.

Tomorrow, we will discover what Paul will say next…