“Wake Up and Live!”

Scripture: Romans 13:8-14

Christian faith is, at best, difficult to live and even more difficult to explain. Now, I’m not talking about the basic tenants of faith – Jesus Christ as God Incarnate, Jesus crucified, dead, and risen, Salvation by faith, redemption by grace, and so on. I’m talking about those things that aren’t just different from the ways of earth, but those that stand in stark contrast to the standards that others live by.
Two of the commandments that are quoted more than any others are “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and mind and soul and strength”, and “Love your neighbor as yourself”. (Mark 12:28-34) These two commandments are at the heart of Christian faith, acting as the basis for every other commandment ever given. And yet, they are the most challenging to live. On the surface, they appear to be logical and straightforward and right, but if we were to examine them in depth, to search for Divine meaning in each, we could study them for the rest of our lives, and still not come to a complete understanding! In our text for today, Paul delves into the realm of how we are to love, and what true and complete love must mean for our lives.

Read Romans 13:8-10

Have you ever thought of “love” as being a debt that we have taken on? We all have a pretty good sense of what worldly debt is all about. We have a job, which brings with it all kinds of obligations – to be at work on time, to put in the agreed upon number of hours each day, to accomplish the tasks assigned to us, and so on. Of course, our employer also has an obligation to us – to provide established benefits and to provide our compensation on a regular basis.
And our obligation to Christ is no different. Through his love for us, he becomes our Savior and Giver of eternal life, and in return, we are expected to follow his way and his teachings to our salvation. And a vital part of this new way is to love just as he has shown us his love. Paul says that this isn’t just God’s desire for us, but a debt that we owe to the Lord! And why is this Godly form of love so vital for our lives? Because it is the basis for satisfying all of the rest of the Lord’s commandments!
If we truly love our neighbors, could we ever do anything that might bring harm to their lives? And “love” doesn’t mean that we do and say all of the things that they want us to do and say – it means that we give them our very best, the best that we have learned, the best that we have received from Jesus.
But we need to be careful not to interpret this discussion of Paul’s to mean that we are to perform “good works”! While we are to live a life of goodness toward others, Paul is not implying that our goodness will satisfy the Laws and Commandments of God! It won’t! Good Works are simply our response to the salvation that faith in Christ will bring.

And just one more thought on that phrase “Love your neighbor as yourself”. Remember Jesus’ discussion with the Pharisee’s over this very issue? He was asked “Who is my neighbor?” And he then told that famous parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37). Jesus would have us know that our “neighbor” isn’t just those people who live next door, or those who we worship with on a weekly basis, or, more importantly, those who we are comfortable with! The Lord says through this parable that we are to love those whose lives and ways we detest, those who live according to a completely different set of beliefs, those who hate us, those who have committed heinous crimes, those who the world may hate, those the world loves (!) – these are the ones who are to receive our love in addition to those who are closest to us. And not in a token or halfhearted way, either – but in an authentic and honest and genuine way.

Love God - love others - love the good, the bad, and especially the ugly!

Read Romans 13:11-12

“And do this, understanding the present time.” And what is this present time? Think of it this way – do you ever wake up during that transition between night and day? During the time when just a hint of light begins to appear, when the darkness still obscures the yard and bushes but you know that all will be revealed very shortly? That is the present time – when darkness still prevails in our lives, but we know full well that the Light is on its way and will, very soon, reveal Christ in a way that all will see and know. And we are anxious for that day.
But Paul is telling us that we are to live as though the day has already broken, that we are to stop living our lives as though the darkness still hides our actions. As a matter of fact, he calls us to live a life that brings honor to the Giver of that Day, to the Light of Christ, to the glory of Almighty God!
And his thought that it is time to wake up reinforces this idea. If we sleep though the dawn, we miss the coming of the sun. If we sleep “’til noon”, we miss out on the best part of the day. And in faith, if our “slumber”, our inability to sense what God is doing for us, our inability to believe in Christ as Lord and Savior, keeps us from experiencing his glory, we will miss out on the life that he brings to all who believe.

“Put on the armor of light.” Have you ever thought of the truth of God as “armor”? Children of the Light, children of the Day, need the power and promise of the truth of Christ if they are to be truly his. Without his truth, the “arrows”, the lies of the Satan will cause us to live in perpetual darkness, never coming to know the glory of our Almighty God. We are protected by God’s truth, we are kept safe by his truth, we are promised eternal life in his truth. And Satan can only offer us the pain of deep and overwhelming darkness.

Read Romans 13:13-14

So what does it mean to “wear” the truth of Christ? It doesn’t mean that loving the ways of our neighbor’s is sufficient. It doesn’t mean that the world’s truth is just as good as any other. It means that not only are we to live in Christ’s truth, but we are to make it so obvious in us that others will come to know the difference.
Paul gives quite a list of “don’ts”, doesn’t he! The list itself reminds us of the normative life we would expect of Rome, but we also have to remember that this letter is intended for the Christians who live in Rome, not the pagans. Paul reminds the church that the morals and ethics of the worldly can never be acceptable for God’s own. And quite honestly, I expect that several of these would never even enter the thoughts of most of us. Orgies, drunkenness, corruption – Christians, for the most part, realize the harm that these actions can cause in their, and their families, lives. But how about the other 3 – sexual immorality, dissension, jealousy – how about those? Now, believe me when I say that I’m not accusing anyone of living these sinful ways. But I am just as certain that these do go on in many churches of today.
Sexual immorality is not limited to the homosexual issues that plague us – it includes, believe it or not, adultery and other immoral acts as well.
Dissension, or conflict, is more than just a difference in opinions. It’s pervasive, it’s divisive, and it destroys far more than we might think. And it generally occurs over the most mundane issues.
And when jealousy rears its ugly head, it reveals our envious nature. We feel that we should have been elected to some position instead of the one who was. We feel that we could do a far better job that the other person, and we begin to try to convince others of that.

Paul tells us that all of these attitudes only fuel our sinful nature, that they only increase the darkness that we live within, that they will cause us to continue in our deep, dark slumber. Church, it’s time to open our eyes and get on our feet and find our voice! It’s time to arm ourselves with the truth of Christ and to carry his message of truth and life into the world. That’s what our revival this week is all about – carrying the light of Christ into a dark and lost world.

Will you take up the “armor of light” and use it to show the love, the complete love, the powerful love, the indescribable love of Christ to our world? It’s so desperately needed, you know!