Romans: Theology for Everybody (12-16)Sample

If you start reading the Bible and try to do everything it commands, and not do everything it forbids, you can quickly feel overwhelmed at where to start and how to live in obedience to God. Thankfully, God has given us a simple way to start building momentum in the direction of obedience and holiness.

The first five books of the Old Testament are often referred to as the Books of the Law because they contain more than 600 laws. At the heart of those laws in the book of Exodus are the 10 Commandments. The first two commandments are to have the one true God as your only God and to worship Him alone. When those two things occur, the rest of the commandments are naturally obeyed. When God is the only God, we do not have sex, control, wealth and other things be our god, worshipped with adultery, lying, and stealing. When we obey God, we are also loving our neighbor because you cannot obey God or love your neighbor while sleeping with them, stealing from them, killing them, or being jealous of them.

Paul lists a great number of sins resulting from a lack of love for God, a lack of love for others, and a corrupted excessive love of self. Paul is essentially saying that the cure to our sins is not to fixate our transgressions, but rather to fixate on God’s love for us, our love for Him, and others. The power of that God-given, Christ-centered love alone has the power to conquer sins such as:

Adultery – sexually sinning against the marriage covenant

Murder – the unnecessary taking of an innocent life

Stealing – the illegal taking of property from another person

Coveting – a strong desire to possess that which belongs to another

Orgies/Revelry/Carousing – acting in such a way as to be a public nuisance

Drunkenness – an unwillingness to live in moderation

Sexual immorality – sins of any kind which involve forbidden sex

Debauchery – not merely a habitual life of reckless sin, but an accompanying loss of shame and disgrace in light of public disapproval

Dissension – being overly competitive in an effort to be victorious over others

Jealousy – a spirit of discontent that is never happy with what God has provided and desires the blessing given to another

The opposite of loving people is using people. The entire list that Paul forbids is one of selfishness where people use one another rather than love and serve one another. The only way to live in humble love that seeks the interests of others is to wake up every day and not just put clothes on your body but intentionally choose to “put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.” Just like every night we take off our dirty clothes, and every morning we put on clean clothes, we need to remember to do the same with our soul that we do with our body.

Questions: 

1. Since we are to owe no one anything but love, how are you doing at managing your finances, paying off your debts, and stewarding your wealth wisely?

2. What things on the list are you still wearing, if only now and then, that need to be taken off and kept off? What exactly are you going to do to make the needed changes in your life?