Wednesday 3 Nov 2021

November 3: Romans 13:8-10
 
Key Verse: Romans 13:10
Love does no harm to a neighbour. Therefore love is the fulfilment of the law.
 
Devotion:
As the apostle continues to expand on how Christians should behave to the Romans, he also explains the evolution of love. Jesus taught the disciples how important love was, not just toward God and your friends and family, but toward those we do not think of loving in our normal discourse of life.
 
After explaining how the Romans should continue to obey the law and the governing authorities (something we do second guess when we don’t agree with the governing bodies) he explains the only debt people should owe is to return the love Christ has showed us by loving others because this is what Jesus commanded!
 
A reminder of the commandments from the Old Testament is talked about because the Jews would have taught these commandments as being the centre of their lives. Jesus did not come to overturn these laws, but to expand on them in ways which we like to think makes sense nowadays, but which did not come naturally to the Jews. Because of their differing lifestyles from the more liberal Romans, the Jews could keep their private lives because they could blame the Romans for their liberal lives.
 
What Christ teaches us, however, is to uphold the love for one another as being the logical conclusion of the law of the Torah (The Old Testament scriptures) If we love each other as Christ commanded, then we will live up to the Torah as well as going a bit further like Jesus did during His mission on earth. He came to show us how important love is in our lives; to love God with everything and to love the people around us just as much as we love ourselves.
 
Points to Ponder:
How many Old Testament commandments do you remember?
 
How many of those are a logical conclusion of loving others?