MAKING THE MOST OF YOUR LIFE
God’s Invitation to Grace ❧ Part 59
Romans 13:8-14 ❧ Pastor, Dr. John Denney
Over the years I’ve grown to have a greater appreciation for those people God puts into our lives who have the ability to speak to us in both in truth and in love. You know they really care. They have a powerful ability to speak to us with a razor-sharp clarity accompanied with a genuine sincerity. You don’t walk away scratching your head wondering what they said or what their intentions were. I am deeply grateful for people like that. They are far and few in-between. One such person was the Apostle Paul. He was what we would call a straight shooter. This is especially true when it comes to Romans 13. In the opening verses (Vv. 1-7) Paul’s told us how believers, in their love for Christ, are to relate to human governments (a topic I hope to address more thoroughly in the days to come). Paul brought three facts to our attention: 1) Every government derives its authority from God. 2) Every government is accountable to God to promote and maintain justice, and 3) Every government should see Christ in the attitude of believers. Paul is very clear.
I read about a conversation a preacher once had with a farmer. “Do you belong to the Christian family?” “No,” came the reply, “they live two farms down.” “No, no! I mean are you lost?” “No, I’ve been here thirty years.” “I mean are you ready for judgment day?” “When is it?” “It could be today or tomorrow.” “Well, when you find out for sure when it is, you let me know. My wife will probably want to go both days!” There is no missing it with Paul.
Paul continues to speak just as clearly and simply in Romans 13:8-14. He is going to say to us, Now that you’ve sided with God by trusting His Son, how are you going to live the rest of your life so that it is the best of your life? How are you going to live in light of the fact that Jesus Christ is going to come back one day, and it could be very soon? Listen while I read Romans 13:8-14. Paul is saying: Now that your life belongs to God, make the most of it. Moses prayed in Psalm 90:12 Teach us how short our lives really are so that we may be wise(Psalm 90:12, NCV). Pointing to the brevity of our lives, Paul goes on to say: Do this because we live in an important time. It is now time for you to wake up from your sleep, because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed(Romans 13:11). It is said the average American who lives to be seventy will have spent 23 years of his life sleeping; 17 years working; 11 years playing; 6 years traveling; 6 years eating; 2 years dressing; and 1 year in church. In these verses Paul is going to prescribe six practical actions how to make the most of the time God has given you.
- Pay Up! Owe nothing to anyone except to love one another (Romans 13:8a, NAS).I recently
heard on the news that the interest alone we owe on our national debt is greater than our defense budget. On a practical note, Paul is not saying you should never go into debt. The Jesus permitted borrowing (Matt. 5:42). Borrowing isn’t the problem – borrowing beyond our means to pay it off is the problem. Proverbs says: The rich rules over the poor, and the borrower becomes the lender’s slave(Proverbs 22:7). Did you ever notice though when you’re in debt or have overextended yourself, all you can think of is paying off that debt? Paul is talking about a similar sense of urgency here. But it is not an urgency to pay off a financial debt of money rather a relational debt of love. The only perpetual debt we should have is the one to love one another.
Why is this so important? Because it has to do with making the most of our lives. In verse 11 Paul says do this knowing the time (καιρός). This is not so much the quantity of time, but the quality of it, not its measure but its meaning. It points to recognizing the significance of the time we live and using it strategically. The wisest use of our time is making sure people know we love them.
Some years ago, Dr. Karl Menninger, noted doctor and psychologist, was seeking the cause of many of his patients’ ills. One day he called in his clinical staff and proceeded to unfold a plan for developing, in his clinic, an atmosphere of creative love. All patients were to be given large quantities of love; no unloving attitudes were to be displayed in the presence of the patients, and all nurses and doctors were to go about their work in and out of the various rooms with a loving attitude.
At the end of six months, the time spent by patients in the institution was cut in half.
Wayne Hudson in his book: “Many A Tear Has To Fall” explains it this way. Since God is love and we must compare our love to him, we come up short if we define it any other way. For you see, in the final analysis, “Love is a commitment with a beginning and no end.”Christ chose to love us and he has never stopped. He never will. We should be very careful with a word like love. Are we willing to make that kind of commitment? I like that, Love is a commitment with a beginning and no end. That’s the debt of love Paul has in mind.
- Build Up! for he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law. For this, “You shall not commit
adultery, You shall not murder, You shall not steal, You shall not covet,” and if there is any othercommandment, it is summed up in this saying, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of the law (Romans 13:8b-10). If you want to make the most of your time, be a lover of people. But Paul doesn’t have people who are easy to love in mind here. He has everyone in mind, the lovable and the unlovable. This is the anyone he has in mind in verse 8. The word he uses for neighbor means someone different than yourself. It is easy to love those who have the same temperaments, backgrounds, color, beliefs, and so on. It is not so easy to love those who are different.
How do you love? In V. 9 Paul lists the last four of the Ten Commandments: Don’t commit adultery. Why? It robs people of their home and honor. Don’t murder. Why? It robs people of their life. Don’t steal. Why? It robs people of their property. Don’t covet; don’t lust after your next-door neighbor’s new boat, home, wife – Why? It robs your life of contentment and the genuineness of your relationship with your neighbor. Interestingly, Jesus said Matthew 5 that even if you act these things out in your mind, let them consume your thoughts and attitude, you are guilty of them.
When I was in seminary, one of the instructors was known to have something of a temper. If he was at the copy machine everyone would know it. You could hear him grumbling and fuming over it. He was also a person of intense passion. The two tend to go together. He shared once that after he’d finished preaching one Sunday he and his family went home until evening services. His next-door neighbor was a young man who raced and roared his loud fast car up and down the street. Jim had asked him not to speed down the street because there were children around. The young man ignored him. Wrong thing to do. On this particular Sunday the young man in the loud fast car came racing down the street. Jim lost it. He went stomping over to his house where he and a group of biker friends sat around drinking beer. Suddenly the atmosphere grew tense as he walked over to where the young man was. He got in his face and yelled, “I have asked you not to speed down this street! My children play out here. If you ever, ever hit one of my children, I will kill you!…Slow down!!!” With that, he turned and went to his house to enjoy an afternoon nap before services. Try as he might, Jim couldn’t sleep. He knew what he’d done and what he had to. He got up and slowly made his way back to the group of bikers. Concerned looks were shared by the group as he approached the young man. This time with gentleness in his voice, he told the young man, “I am a minister of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. What I said to you was wrong. I really don’t want you to speed down the road anymore. But I ask your forgiveness for threatening you.” With that, one of the bikers put his beer down and said, “That’s alright man!”
Paul said, So, no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I’m bankrupt without love(1 Corinthians 13:3b, TM).If you want to make the most of your life – love people. When all is said and done, that’s what will matter most about your life. I may sound good to people on Sunday, but if I don’t love people, I am nothing. How we love others the measure of our obedience to Christ.
- Wake Up! Do this, knowing the time, that it is already the hour for you to awaken from sleep; for
now salvation is nearer to us than when we believed (Romans 13:11). Make the most of every opportunity. Your salvation is nearer now than when you first believed. We don’t know when the Lord will call us Home, but it is a lot closer now than it was yesterday or six months ago!
It is already the hour for you to awaken from sleep. Obviously, Paul is not talking about physical sleep, but spiritual laziness, spiritual lukewarmness, dullness. Paul’s sense of urgency came from the fact that he lived, breathed, ate, Jesus was coming back. That was two thousand years ago. Ever since then each generation has shared a growing number of skeptics. I want to remind you that in the last days scoffers will come, mocking the truth and following their own desires. They will say, “What happened to the promise that Jesus is coming again? From before the times of our ancestors, everything has remained the same since the world was first created.” (2 Peter 3:3-4, NLT).
Many believers have fallen prey to believing that Jesus will probably not return – at least in their lifetime. George Barna research once showed 62% of all Americans believe in Jesus earthly return. One of the ways to wake up is to begin to examine how much the Bible talks about the 2nd coming. Make the best use of your time, despite all the difficulties of these days. Don’t be vague but firmly grasp what you know to be the will of the Lord(Ephesians 5:16, JBP).
Biblical prophecy provides some of the greatest encouragement and hope available to us today. Just as the Old Testament is saturated with prophecies concerning Christ’s first advent, so both testaments are filled with references to the second coming of Christ. One scholar has estimated that there are 1,845 references to Christ’s second coming in the Old Testament, where 17 books give it prominence. In the 260 chapters of the New Testament, there are 318 references to the second advent of Christan amazing 1 out of every 30 verses. 23 of the 27 New Testament books refer to this great event. For every prophecy in the Bible concerning Christ’s first advent, there are 8 which look forward to His second coming!
A little boy lived in a home where there was a grandfather clock that broke. One day as they were getting ready to leave for church the clock went crazy and struck about twenty times. The little boy ran into the room and said, “Mommy, Daddy, it’s later than it’s ever been before!” The little boy is right: It’s later than it’s ever been before. It’s closer to the time of Jesus’ coming than it was 1900 years ago when Paul wrote this. He’s saying Wake up! Stop putting off the things you know God wants you to do.
- Gear Up! Prepare for battle. The night is almost gone, and the day is near. Therefore let us lay
aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light(Romans13:12). The moment you say to Jesus, I give you my life, you became the enemy of the devil. When you became a believer, you did not come aboard the Love boat, you came aboard a battleship!
In fact, the very analogy that Paul uses is one of preparing for battle – put on the armor of light. The most used analogy in the NT for Christians is that of a soldier. More than anything else Paul compares the Christian life to that of being a soldier. Only, our armor and our weapons are very different from this world.
Listen to Paul’s words that describe these weapons in Ephesians 6 from The Message: God is strong, and He wants you strong. So take everything the Master has set out for you, well-made weapons of the best materials. And put them to use so you will be able to stand up to everything the Devil throws your way. This is no afternoon athletic contest that we’ll walk away from and forget about in a couple of hours. This is for keeps, a life-or-death fight to the finish against the Devil and all his angels. Be prepared. You’re up against more than you can handle on your own. Take all the help you can get, every weapon God has issued, so that when it’s all over but the shouting you’ll still be on your feet. Truth, righteousness, peace, faith, and salvation, are more than just words. Learn to apply them. God’s Word is an indispensable weapon(Ephesians 6:10-11,17 TM).
Years ago I attended a Promise Keepers event. The question was asked what difference Promise Keepers makes in the lives of the men who attend. One of the speakers shared a story of father whose daughter was living with a man out of marriage. The guy was bad news. The father lovingly coaxed her back home. When the boyfriend found out he decided he was going to make the father pay by going over to his house and making him really hurt. On the way he ran into a friend that asked him to attend a Promise Keepers event. The boyfriend went. While there, he heard about Christ. He came forward to accept Christ. When he did, one of the counselors met to pray with him. The man said he had to tell someone of the violence he almost did to the father of his girlfriend. After he finished, the counselor said, “I am her father.”
That is the battle Paul is talking about. We cannot fight on our own. We desperately need God’s best armor to fight. The armor to be man or a woman of peace and faith when I would rather use the weapons of Satan; hate, revenge…How? Get into the word on a daily basis.
- Clean Up! Let usbehave properly as in the day, not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual
promiscuity and sensuality, not in strife and jealousy(Romans 13:13). Simply put, clean up your life. Stop putting yourself in compromising places in your life. Stay away from sexual immorality. Don’t watch it on your TV, on your phone, on your computer or wherever. Stop it. Why flirt with temptation? A mother called to her son, “Billy, what are you doing staring in the pantry?” “Fighting temptation, Mom.” Billy replied.
It is interesting that Paul combines four overt expressions of sinful living: carousing, drunkenness, sexual promiscuity and sensuality with two more socially acceptable crimes of the heart: strife and jealousy; trouble making and possessiveness. God says a person who causes division and dissention in the church is just as wrong as the person getting drunk or committing sexual immorality. They’re all the same. It’s time to clean up our lives, Paul says.
- Dress Up!. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh in regard to its
lusts(Romans 13:14). Let us be Christ’s men from head to foot, and give no chances to the flesh to have its fling(v. 14, JBP). That’s good.Let God own all of me, all of my life. Literally, clothe yourself with Jesus. It means take up the very resources of Jesus: His power, His example, His teaching, His expectations, His way of thinking on life.
When you find yourself being tempted, where does that temptation begin? In your mind. James 1
says sin begins with a thought, then when it’s conceived it brings death – the action. Whatever gets
your attention, gets you. Paul is saying here, make it the object of your attention to learn to think like
Jesus. It does not mean that you won’t have the same old desires, thoughts, you will for the rest of
your life. What is important is what you do with those thoughts.
Martin Luther said, You can’t prevent the birds from flying overhead but you can prevent them
from building a nest in your hair. You can’t prevent thoughts from going through your mind. Many
of the thoughts the devil puts there. he suggests an impression. But you can prevent from dwelling
on them and meditating on them. That’s what Paul means when he says, give no chances to the
flesh to have its fling.
Teach us how short our lives really are so that we may be wise(Psalm 90:12, NCV).
