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At this point in Paul’s letter, he has deconstructed religion and given us the living, Christological framework (which he calls faith), through which we can see the life of Christ in and as our own life. This Christology appeals to both religious and irreligious to become free from the Platonic binary which cause each to look down on others. Paul’s Christology proves that Christ is the end of retribution and the beginning of restoration as a basis for God’s justice. This means that God’s love and mercy, that were on display in Christ Jesus, are now gifted to all people. Paul’s Christological faith takes us into an experiential love of God rather than conformity to religious law.

Last week, Paul instructed us how we are to live within any society regardless of the governments established over us. Today, he instructs how we are to live with one another, according to the law of love. The implication is that if our Christology is right, our lives and world transform accordingly. The only imperatives (prescription) in this section are “to love” and to “owe nothing”, the rest of the commandments are indicatives (descriptions).

⁸ Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. ⁹ For 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: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” ¹⁰ Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.

Paul likely had some version of Jesus’ sermon on the mount, or had heard first-hand cases of Jesus sermons. The golden thread shared between them is that the law of Love replaces all religious law, not by eradicating it, but by fulfilling it. Paul uses some of the 10 commandments to train the heart (inner self) and mind to “love others as ourselves,” proving that religious laws (i.e…religion) while helpful, are not necessary (v.9-10).

Paul’s “debt of love” seems so far away from us. We welcome consumer debt, and think nothing of it, but we aren’t familiar with owing “love” to others. We owe love to the drivers of cars blocking our way. We owe love to all clerks. We owe love to all people. We owe it because we were all given love by God through Christ. Everyone was given love…so now everyone owes love to everyone else. Religion isn’t our focus…love is. Morality isn’t our focus…love is.

The disposition to love is the key to living in freedom and peace with others, and every human intrinsically knows it. Paul is asking his congregation to wake up to the law of love upon the heart/inner self. That is the key to cleaning up our lives and living in moral fidelity to what is at work within us. This inner transformation, brings with it the transformation of the world (8:19-20).

¹¹ Besides this you know the time, that the hour has come for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed.¹² The night is far gone; the day is at hand. So then let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light. ¹³ Let us walk properly as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and sensuality, not in quarreling and jealousy. ¹⁴ But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.

Isn’t it interesting that Paul’s salvation is not the individual salvation offered by Evangelicalism, but a corporate salvation, shared by all of us? Salvation is also not tied to belief nor morality, but awakening to the work of love within us. If love is working on our heart, we won’t squander our life as if we were on a reality dating show. Paul’s key to staying in love and out of moral failure is twofold:

1. Put on the Lord Jesus Christ. We are to wear or (héndúo-clothe) our Christology. We aren’t to go about our day without this consideration of Christ’s love upon our heart. In other words, we are “The Beloved”. That truth must establish our identity and then we won’t go about trying to be someone or something else. To wake up is to finally know who we are in God.
2. Make no provision (prónoia-forsight, plan, provision) for the flesh. Our appetites are not good gauges. They don’t help us. When they speak…when they want our attention, we are to ignore them. His point is to catch them at the headwaters, when our affections begin scheming for ways to find satisfaction. Sins are stoppable at this point, because they haven’t transduced into the will. After which point, sin is like a gestating baby…it only grows until that sin is born in action. Check out my book for a full training on how this works. To clean up is put off our dirty garments.

I suppose it should seem obvious that a church shouldn’t have orgies, but in the Ancient world, sex and spirituality were often co-mingled, and that sort of makes sense when the foundational goal is love. Paul knows that while sex and sensuality are beautiful gifts to humanity, they are also ones which spoil if not opened within the context of covenant love. In like manner, a church shouldn’t have quarreling and jealousy, which are the hallmarks of social media. Yet these exist for congregations who reject love and its work on the heart.

Love then is what wakes us up. Love helps us to clean up. It does so not from a moralistic, outside-in, rule based penal system, but from the inside-out, freedom based law that God loved us first. God doesn’t love us if we are good, or are good enough….God loves us because God is good. The love of God is the love we give others, it’s what makes us want to live better lives, to make that incremental progress to overcome our shadows, addictions, ugly habits, and to transform by love, into a loving person who see everyone else as a work of love in progress too. That’s when love shows us how to grow up and transform from prideful, quarreling children, unto men and women of God. Love fulfills the law, and is our new operating system.

We must know we are loved if we are to practice love. If we clean up our act but don’t grow up we become the religious. If we grow up but don’t clean up, our world will never heal. In love, is the freedom and the practice to do both, and that only happens when we discover our nothingness apart from God, and our belovedness that sustains each moment.