“Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for he who loves his fellowman has fulfilled the law. 9The commandments, “Do not commit adultery,” “Do not murder,” “Do not steal,” “Do not covet,” and whatever other commandment there may be, are summed up in this one rule: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” 10Love does no harm to its neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.” (Romans 13:8-10 NIV)
The connection with the preceding is made through the words “what you owe” in v. 7 and “owe nothing” in v. 8 (paraphrased in the NIV as “let no debt remain outstanding”). This short passage completes the “debts” of v. 7 with a comprehensive debt to all people of Christian love. Paul has not related the obligations in v. 7 to the law of Moses, but he is at pains to relate the obligation of love to that law. The basis—the very heart and soul—of the law of Moses is the Decalogue, the “Ten Commandments”. And it is obvious that all of the commandments that Paul cites here involve doing harm to another person. And since one cannot harm another out of love, love is the driving force of fulfillment of the law. Whereas the original command “You shall love your neighbor as yourself” and Jesus’ repetition of it are styled in the positive, Paul has turned it around and phrased it in the negative. His reason is that the Decalogue is also phrased in the negative, and he wishes to show how the love command embraces all those negatives. He realized just as well as we do that the full implementation of Christian love results in positive acts toward others.
13:11-14
“And do this, understanding the present time. The hour has come for you to wake up from your slumber, because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed. 12The night is nearly over; the day is almost here. So let us put aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light. 13Let us behave decently, as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and debauchery, not in dissension and jealousy. 14Rather, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the sinful nature.” (Romans 13:11-14 NIV)
We have already explained (see under "4:17b-25 Describing Abraham’s faith as resurrection faith" there) that Paul and the other apostles understood that the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus inaugurated the “Last Days” within the community of believers. For the outside world those Last Days have not yet begun. Christians have died and been raised to new life with their Lord (Rom. 6), and this means that the life they live, though played out in a world that is still evil, is an eschatological life, a realization of the powers of the Age to Come, marked by the presence of the Holy Spirit within them. In these verses Paul alludes to this teaching. From the standpoint of the world, it is still “night”, and rulers of “darkness” still rule, but the Second Coming of Jesus (the “day”) is almost here—“almost here” both in the sense that it is the next item on the agenda for the entire world, and in the sense that it is already present only within the body of believers.
Since the "night" is almost over for the world, and since the dawn of the new "day" has already come for believers, we who believe should be fully awake and living as we will live in the Age to Come (see also Matt. 4:16; 6:23; 8:12; 25:30; Luke 1:79). Deeds of darkness and night belong to unbelievers (Luke 11:34-35; 22:53; Jn 1:5; 3:19; 8:12; 12:46), for whom the new day has not yet dawned. And since in Roman society (and perhaps in all ages) the nighttime hours are preferred for debauchery, Paul urges these believers to live as though it were always broad daylight.
In verse 14 he switches his imagery, and for the first time in this chapter speaks of Jesus: we should “clothe ourselves” with the Lord Jesus Christ. Garments as symbols of behavior are common in the Hebrew scripture (Isa. 59:17; 61:10; Jer. 2:34; Zech. 3:1-4), and elsewhere in the ancient world. Both Paul and Peter love to use this metaphor for taking on the character traits of the Lord Jesus (Rom 13:12, 14; 1Cor 15:53; 2Cor 5:2; Gal 3:27; Eph 4:24; 6:11, 14-15; Col 3:10, 12, 14; 1Th 5:8; Titus 2:10; 1 Peter 3:3-5). Paul sometimes explicitly pairs putting on Christ (or the “new man”) with putting off character traits and behavior patterns of the pre-Christian life (Eph 4:22-24; Col 3:7-11).
All of us—both men and women—take a good deal of care in choosing what we will wear each day. We choose according to both the attractiveness of the clothes and their appropriateness to the activities we plan for the day. But do we think much about our behavioral “clothes”? Is what others see in our attitudes and actions really a good picture of what Jesus has done for us and wishes to do for others through us? Do we “clothe” ourselves with humility, kindness, generosity, patience, and good cheer? Or do we—through deliberate choice or just inattentive neglect—allow our behavior to reflect an attitude of disregard—and even dislike—for those we meet?
“Clothing” ourselves with Christ is not the same thing as putting on a mask or a disguise: it is not what hypocrites do. When we “put on” Jesus, it is done sincerely—from the heart, not to hide the real “me” but to let Jesus be the real “me”. If acting as you know Jesus wants you to without “feeling” the desire to do makes you feel hypocritical, re-read what I wrote above in the posting on "Romans 12 - Part 3" about how actions can produce the desires.
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