All You Need Is Love - August 14, 2016

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Romans 13:8-10

In the letter to the Romans, Paul is giving instructions to the community. He has addressed their debates over who is right and who is wrong. He's leveled the field on the arguments of who's a sinner. He's shared the good news that we are saved while we are yet sinners, before we ever get it right, God intervenes on our behalf. Beyond that he tells us that our identity is both grounded in God's plan for us and centered on our calling and giftedness. Last week we heard Paul admonish the Romans, and us, that this good news needs to be shared but asked how people would ever be convinced they haven't heard the Gospel truth and how could they hear if we don't declare it. In essence, if the

Gospel message of redemption, equality, and worthiness as children of God is ever to spread, we have to be the ones to proclaim it.
In brief: Paul identifies the problem of our sinfulness, he shares the good news of Christ, and then he tells us to go and do the same. So then, what's left? If Christ has paid the price of our debt and we shouldn't get hung up on the law, then we are free to do whatever we want, right?
Wrong. We are called to do one thing: LOVE. Love one another—that's what Paul admonishes us to do. That's it. Plain and simple. We can all go home now, right?
Maybe, but not necessarily. Paul's command is straightforward but not quite as simple as we might like. In English, we have one word for love. Love. That's it. And when we hear that word we hear all kinds of things. And most often we hear love. And we associate love with the emotion we feel. If I say, "I don't love you anymore." I generally mean, I don't feel the emotion of love for you anymore. Or, I don't feel loved by you. But understanding the word and responsibility of love in Greek, the language of the New Testament, isn't so simple. In Greek, there are 4 words for love. Philos, Eros, Storge, and Agape. Philos can remind us of Philadelphia, which is the city of _______________ love. Brotherly. Philos is brotherly love, which may occur between brothers specifically, or between sisters, or between brothers and sisters, or even between friends who love like brothers. The word eros reminds us of erotic, but it's not simply sexual love, it's better defined as romantic love—the love of dating and marriage. Storge doesn't remind me of anything so I just have to remember it, it's parent child love. Both a parent's love for their child and a child's love for the parent. And then there's agape. Agape is God's style of love, it's selfless, self-sacrificing, generous, and never-ending. Regardless of the type of love, love in Greek is a verb, it's something that we do, not necessarily something we feel. So when we are charged to love one another, it doesn't mean we have to have warm fuzzies for everyone, it means we have to do the act of showing love. We have to do the work of love. When Jesus tells us to love our enemies, he doesn't mean we have to feel love toward them, he means we have to show love through the way we relate to them. Now, here in Romans, Paul tells us to love one another. More specifically, he tells us to agape one another. We are to live God's selfless, self-sacrificing, unconditional love with each other.
Here we thought that Paul was letting us off the hook. Our debt is paid. The rules aren't what matters. We are free. We thought that meant we could do what we wanted, whatever we wanted. But that's not so. You see, the point of God's work in our life is redemption. God is trying to redeem us, meaning restore us to our original value and circumstance. And to redeem us after sin corrupts us, means that we need to be forgiven, and we need to be restored in relationship with each other and with God. And to be fully restored isn't just to wash away the pain and hurt of the past. To be fully restored is to be drawn into right relationship for the future. God's desire for us, is for us to have healthy, encouraging, life-giving relationships. And as much as we would like for those relationships to come easily, they don't. We have to work for good friendships. Lord knows keeping our families together, nuclear and extended, can be a chore. And if you're married, you'll know that we have to sometimes hold on with everything we have to have a good marriage. So, when we wonder, well, what do we have to do to have that relationship God wants for us? Paul answers, you have to love one another. You have to do the work, live the selfless, self-sacrificing, unconditional love of God. Be compassionate. Be gracious. Be merciful. Be forgiving. Be understanding. Be hopeful. Be encouraging. Be generous. Be patient. That's how you live God's love.
Paul takes us back to the rules of the 10 commandments...thou shalt not commit adultery, thou shalt not steal, thou shalt not murder, thou shalt not covet and he says those rules are there for a purpose. God didn't give us rules just to kill our fun. God gave us the commandments because God knew that if we followed these steps we would be on our way to the healthy, life-giving relationships we were designed for. Seriously. Think about it. We always thought the 10 commandments were just some set of rules that kept us from doing what we wanted. But they're not, they're meant to be life-giving. They're meant to teach us how to go in the right direction, how to go in God's direction. The first four commandments, thou shalt have no other God before me, thou shalt not create false idols, thou shalt not take the Lord's name in vain, and thou shalt honor the Sabbath and keep it holy—those are about maintaining our relationship with God. If we do those things, we honor God and we keep our relationship with God in good standing. And commandments 5-10: thou shalt honor your father and mother, thou shalt not murder, thou shalt not commit adultery, thou shalt not steal, thou shalt not bear false witness, and thou shalt not covet—those are about our relationships with others. Think of how much better your relationships would be if there were no lies, no lust, no greed, no jealousy, no betrayal. If we kept the laws, those things would go away and our relationships would benefit. God wants good things for us...that's why we have the law.
And Paul (following Jesus' example) said, "You all have this problem where you get hung up on the law...you want it spelled out in specific detail. You're always looking for the loophole or the easy out and that's how the law ends up as a hindrance instead of a help. So, instead of spelling out the law 50 different ways to make sure you get it, we're just going to say this: Love one another. Agape one another. Live God's selfless, self-sacrificing, life-giving, never-ending love and you'll be just fine. Because if you boil down all the other laws—their purpose is to bring life and health to your relationships. So, let's keep it simple. Live God's love. If you do that, you'll be fine."
So then where does that leave us? Building on all that Paul has said in the letter to the Romans, it leaves us redeemed and forgiven. It means we are offered freedom in Christ not because of what we've done but because of Christ. It means our identity is rooted in God. And that in order for us to stay in the place of restoration, we have to agape one another.
Think of it this way, when you live with little ones, like we do, you live in the world of law-making, disciple, and reiteration every day. Every day we state the rules. Every day we discipline for rules that have been broken. And every day we affirm them when they get it right, and we go back to stating the rules when she doesn't. When we go out to a park, or to the beach, or to a very crowded mall or theme park, we have 3 rules. 1) Stay where mommy or daddy can see you. If you can't see us, we can't see you. 2) If you are going to go from mommy to daddy, or vice versa, you have to tell mommy, "I'm going to go with daddy." And number 3) You never go anywhere with anyone you don't know, unless you cannot find mommy or daddy, and then you may go with a police officer. Those are our 3 simple rules. And if I had to summarize my instructions in one simple phrase it would be, "be safe". That's ultimately what I want for my kids, right? For them to have fun and be safe. But they're little. Ruth is getting older and so she understands more, but still, in the long run, she doesn't know what I mean when I say be safe...she knows I don't want her to fly off the jungle gym, but those other rules wouldn't mean anything to her. So, right now, these are the rules. Well, they're some of them, those are for when we go out. But we have other rules too: wash your hands, eat your dinner, don't run into the street, don't stick your hands in the toilet—that one's for Steven. We have a lot of rules at our house. But if I had to sum all of them up, I'd say, "Do what is good for you and for others."
In the Bible, we have the rules too, "Don't murder, don't steal, don't covet." And what God is really saying is, "Do what's good and life-giving for you and for others." God wants what is good for us and God has taken every measure to get us to a good place—created us with intention and for a purpose. God has gifted us to live into the calling God has placed on our lives. God has given us life and free will. God has worked to fix the mess we make with our poor choices. God has forgiven our offenses. God has paid the debt of our sin. God has taken every possible step to get us to a good place to live the life we were created for. And in order to not throw it all away, God says, there are still some rules. Please don't get hung up on the minutia, please don't squabble over whose interpretation is right. If you want to keep it simple, this is the rule and the litmus test—love one another. Agape one another. Show God's life-giving, self-sacrificing, never-ending love. If you want to know if what you're doing is acceptable, ask yourself this: am I doing what is good and life giving for me and for others? How does this convey God's unconditional and self-less love? If it's not good and life-giving, if it's not based in an action of pure love—then it's probably not the right thing to do.