"Owe No One... Love One Another."

I ask for the grace to experience presence and to be present.


Romans 13:5-10

⁵Therefore one must be subject, not only because of wrath but also because of conscience. ⁶For the same reason you also pay taxes, for the authorities are God’s servants, busy with this very thing. ⁷Pay to all what is due to them—taxes to whom taxes are due, revenue to whom revenue is due, respect to whom respect is due, honour to whom honour is due.

8 Owe no one anything, except to love one another; for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. ⁹The 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, ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’ ¹⁰Love does no wrong to a neighbour; therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law.

1) "...conscience;" "...respect to whom respect is due, honour to whom honour is due;" "...Owe no one anything, except to love one another;" "...the one who loves another has fulfilled the law;" "...Love your neighbour as yourself;" "...love is the fulfilling of the law;" "...love is the fulfilling of the law;" "...


2) For Paul, the end is near.  Jesus is coming back.  The expectation is in this lifetime.  So Paul is not interested in overturning the social order.  He's interested in living peaceably within the social order until the coming of the Risen Christ.  So he will affirm the social conventions of slavery and the Roman client/taxation systems, but he will expect them to be lived out with love and not abuse.  The Commandments apply to how one is to treat slaves.  He doesn't challenge the ownership of people, but he asserts a behaviour/attitude change.  "Love your neighbour as yourself."  Had he known we'd still be working things out 2,000 years later, would he have thought differently?    Jesus certainly challenged us on "who is my neighbour."  Love is the fulfilling of the law.  Love is the fulfilling of the law.  Love is the fulfilling of the law...


3) What is the invitation in all this?  To enquire, what would love do?


"Holy One, guide us on the way of love."


Breathprayer: "Owe no one... love one another."