Lesson 56 October 16, 2002

Rabbit trail!

Romans 13:8-10 Debt of Love we owe has no limits!

Where do we find this obligation first given to us?? Applicable to Church age?

Jn. 13:34-35

Just how encompassing is this love to be? 1 Cor 16:14;

Eph 5:1-2

Since we are children of God, we are to imitate our Father;

The motivation for "continually walking in love" is the example of Christ's self-giving love, His self-sacrificing love on the Cross.

Gal. 2:20

Rom 8:4 Puts this in perspective.

Verse 2 speaks of the provision of freedom for the believer; and it is linked to His having condemned the sin nature; in Christ no longer does it have to rule!

Verse 3 Basis is the work of Christ

Vs:4 "in order that this gives the reason/purpose that He condemned the sin nature

the requirement of the Law to. dikai,wma the ground or basis of something, here the righteous requirement of the law.

Paul is affirming what Jesus taught in Mt. 22:37-40

Rem: the ultimate aim and purpose of God is for each of us to be conformed to the image of Christ!

Ø What Paul is describing here is the believer who is empowered by the Spirit is one who is not fulfilling the desires of the flesh but is fulfilling the righteous requirement of the will of God. Normal Christian life!

What Paul is saying here is that the Spirit produces in the believer a love to which the law can offer no objection, since this love fulfills what the law requires, something that the law itself cannot produce.

Rom. 13:9 “For this” i.e. the obligation to love our neighbor, this on going debt of love is never fulfilled by these 4 sins Paul enumerates here from the Decalogue.

To discover what sin is we must always go to the Word, one of the functions of the righteous precepts of the law, the reason there still is a purpose for the whole of the Word of truth.

Rom. 13:10 Summarizes paragraph