Trustworthy Lives – Romans 13:8-14

A text – Romans 13:8-14

13:8 Owe no one anything, except to love one another; for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law.
13:9 The commandments, “You shall not commit adultery; You shall not murder; You shall not steal; You shall not covet”; and any other commandment, are summed up in this word, “Love your neighbor as yourself.”
13:10 Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law.
13:11 Besides this, you know what time it is, how it is now the moment for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we became believers;
13:12 the night is far gone, the day is near. Let us then lay aside the works of darkness and put on the armor of light;
13:13 let us live honorably as in the day, not in reveling and drunkenness, not in debauchery and licentiousness, not in quarreling and jealousy.
13:14 Instead, put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.

A reflection:

Yes, it is true that among the believers Paul was writing to, people who met weekly and often lived together communally in the first few dozen years after Jesus died and rose again, they believed that Jesus would come again very soon to usher in the heavenly age when peace and justice would reign on all the earth. They fully believed Jesus, the Jewish Messiah and the hero among the Gentiles (because he loved them too and they weren’t excluded from his future rule) would be coming right back and ruling with earthly power and might, or else the world would become something new – a heaven on earth.

So it may have been easier for Paul to convince these early believers to give up their earthly pleasures – no reveling or drunkenness, for example – and to live equitably among their neighbors – no quarrelling and jealousy – and even to love one another, doing no wrong to one another. This period of good behavior would be temporary, and after that heaven would take over and we would all be right with God automatically.

I sometimes wonder how Paul, today, in his heavenly home, looks back on these writings that have inspired so many in both good and bad ways, and admits that it hasn’t been just a few decades since Jesus walked among us but instead many centuries – a few millennia, actually! But maybe, precisely because it has been so long, we all need to be reminded constantly of Jesus’s style of life with his followers on earth. What he did every day is precisely what Paul prescribes here: love your neighbor as yourself, put on the armor of light, live honorably. When Paul refers to Jesus almost as clothing or a cloak – “put on the Lord Jesus Christ” – he wants his readers to know that Jesus is not only their model but their protection and their comforter.  Jesus loves them and us, and Jesus wants to help us remember we are God’s beloved children who will never be abandoned or left out in the cold. When we live in this way, we become trustworthy to others, just as God is trustworthy to us. When our congregations live this way, they become trustworthy to their neighbors, and the very sign of God’s Kingdom coming near to them.

A prayer:

Lord God, Thank you for loving us. Thank you for sending Paul to the early believers to begin communities of faith based on their belief in Jesus. Help us always to live in such a way as to contribute to trust and love whenever we can, and help us to realize that living that way is a sign to our neighbors that God’s Kingdom still comes near to them.  Amen.