8 Owe no one anything, except to love one another, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. 9 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. 11 Besides this, you know what time it is, how it is already the moment for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we became believers; 12 the night is far gone; the day is near. Let us then throw off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light; 13 let us walk decently as in the day, not in reveling and drunkenness, not in illicit sex and licentiousness, not in quarreling and jealousy. 14 Instead, put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires. (Romans 13:8-14 NRS)
Happy Tuesday, dear Friend! Be a surprise blessing to many today by doing unexpected outrageous (for you) things! Blessings will be yours all day long! This is an adventure after all! Make it a fun one! Prayers for this old man as I prepare to preach at First Methodist Church in Gonzales this coming Sunday at 8:30 and 10:45! I may be a bit rusty!! Crusty too! lol.
I remember very vividly the day I paid off my credit card. Yes, I had fallen into the illusion of credit cards. I applied for a Foley's credit card and was elated that I was approved! I remember having supper with an old friend, and one of his old friends, who was bragging about having an American Express card. "They give them to anyone who applies!" he said, and dummy here applied and again, APPROVED! I also applied for a MasterCard and guess what, again, approved. I didn't rack up a lot of debt; Amex had to be paid monthly, so anything I charged during a month had to be paid at the end of that same month, and Foley's, well, I didn't buy expensive clothes, so I never really used it. But the MC was something else; and I charged gas and food on it; and of course, I was working with Ma Bell and making very good money for a single man; then I went away to seminary and I went on faith knowing I had to pay off my new car and other charges; and the day came I owed MasterCard nothing! And to celebrate I went and bought a new pair of boots to use in the snow there in Denver. And that was the beginning of what seemed lifetime debt to MC nation. Debt is no fun.
And here comes the Apostle Paul acting like Dave Ramsey in this passage with his "Owe no one anything..." Yeah, right! If you've ever had a loan you couldn't quite shake — the kind that shows up in your mind at 2 a.m. reminding you it still exists — you know exactly the itch Paul is describing. Debt lingers. It follows you around. It's the one bill that never seems to close out.
And Paul says there's exactly one debt he's comfortable with you carrying forever, never paying off, always owing a little more: love. Every other debt gets settled eventually. This one doesn't, and that's the point — you're never going to wake up one day and think, "well, I've loved my neighbor enough now, I can stop."
Then Paul does something that would've been almost scandalous to a first-century Jewish audience: he says the entire law can be summed up in a single sentence. Whoever loves another has fulfilled the law, because the commandments — don't commit adultery, don't murder, don't steal, don't covet, and whatever other commandments there are — are all summed up in this: love your neighbor as yourself. Love does no wrong to a neighbor, so love is the fulfilling of the law.
Think about how radically simplifying that is. The Pharisees had built an entire industry out of parsing 613 commandments into finer and finer categories — which ones apply on which days, under which conditions, with which loopholes. Paul walks in and essentially says: you can stop counting. If you actually love your neighbor — really love them, not just tolerate them from a safe distance — you've already kept the whole list, because love doesn't do the things the list is trying to prevent. It's like discovering that instead of memorizing six hundred rules for a card game, someone just tells you: don't be a jerk, and you'll never break a rule again.
Then Paul shifts gears into something with real urgency: besides this, you know what time it is, how it is now the moment for you to wake from sleep. He's telling the Roman church, and by extension us, to check the clock — salvation is nearer to us now than when we became believers. The night is far gone, the day is near. So let us then lay aside the works of darkness and put on the armor of light.
It's such a vivid image — waking up, throwing off the covers, putting on daylight like it's something you can wear. And then Paul gets almost startlingly specific about what needs to be laid aside: not in reveling and drunkenness, not in debauchery and licentiousness, not in quarreling and jealousy. It reads like a list someone wrote after attending one too many parties that went sideways. Paul's not being prudish here — he's naming the stuff that keeps people stuck in a fog, groggy and half-alive, sleepwalking through their own lives instead of actually living them.
And then the final instruction, which I think is the real heartbeat of the whole passage: instead, put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.
That phrase — "make no provision" — is such practical wisdom dressed up in old language. It's not just "resist temptation when it shows up." It's "stop leaving the door unlocked for it in the first place." Don't stock the fridge with what you're trying to avoid. Don't keep the relationship active that you know is pulling you toward darkness. Don't set your alarm for the version of yourself you're trying to wake up from. Paul knows that most of our failures aren't sudden ambushes — they're the predictable result of provisions we made for them days earlier, half-consciously, hoping we wouldn't actually have to follow through.
Put on Christ instead. Not as a costume you wear to church on Sunday and take off Monday morning, but as your actual wardrobe — the thing that determines how you show up in every ordinary interaction, every debt you never quite finish paying off, every neighbor you're called to love instead of merely endure.
PRAYER: Lord, wake us from our sleepiness, clothe us in Christ, and let love be the only debt we never stop paying, in Jesus' strong name we pray, amen.
Have a great and blessed day in the Lord! OUR CALL TO ACTION: Identify one "provision for the flesh" you've been quietly leaving in place, and remove it today.
I love you and I thank God for you! You matter to God and you matter to me! Live in a way that says you love all people and want them in the Kingdom of God.
Pastor Eradio Valverde, Jr.
