This is a copy of my talk given at Ayia Kyriaki and Saint Stephen’s in the Anglican Church of Paphos on Sunday 6 September 2026. The Bible Reading was Romans 13:8-14.
Prayer
Heavenly Father,
I thank You for Your word.
By the power of Your Holy Spirit,
May You speak to my heart,
And change my life.
In the precious name of Jesus I pray.
Amen.
Introduction
In the early verses of Romans 13:1-7, Paul talks about why we should submit to rulers and writes, vs7: Give everyone what you owe them … taxes, revenue, respect and honour. As Christians, we should be the most dependable when it comes to our bills being paid. We are to pay off what we owe to other people. Vs8a Let no debt remain outstanding. However, Paul points out there is one debt that we will never pay off: except the continuing debt to love one another … Paul says the debt we will never repay is the calling to love other people. There are three main points I want to make this morning.
1. We Must Love Abundantly
Let’s look at Romans 13:8a Do not owe anyone anything, except to love one another … Of course, this command to love is not a new command. God commands His people in the Old Testament, in Leviticus 19:18: “… love your neighbour as yourself; I am the Lord.” Also, Jesus said in Matthew 19:19: “… love your neighbour as yourself.”
And Matthew 22:37-40: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and most important command. The second is like it: Love your neighbour as yourself. All the Law and the Prophets depend on these two commands.”
So, this message from Paul that we are to love others is nothing new. However, Paul does provide this idea of us being in debt to loving others. In other words, we owe love to others.
The reason we are to love other people is because God has loved us so abundantly. If we’ve experienced God’s love, others should experience love from us. So, we should love abundantly because we have been loved abundantly. That’s not the only reason that we should love abundantly. Paul writes that if we have been loved by God, we should seek to obey the law of God.
Romans 13:8b-10. Paul writes … for whoever loves others has fulfilled the law. The commandments, “You shall not commit adultery,” “You shall not murder,” “You shall not steal,” “You shall not covet,” and whatever other command there may be, are summed up in this one command: “Love your neighbour as yourself. Love does no harm to a neighbour. Therefore, love is the fulfilment of the law.
What Paul is essentially telling us is that you can’t go wrong with loving others! It’s like buying a gift for a loved one for no reason: you can’t go wrong! It is always a good thing to love others because love does no wrong to a neighbour.
We have been loved abundantly by God, and we can abundantly fulfil the law of God when we love abundantly. That’s the first truth that we must grasp: we must love abundantly.
2. We Must Live Intentionally
The second: we must live intentionally. Let us look at vs11 And do this, understanding the present time: The hour has already come for you to wake up from your slumber, because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed. Notice that Paul says, “And do this …” The King James Version says, “And that …” The New Living Translation says, “This is all the more urgent…”
Love is so important. But besides love, there’s something else Paul wants us to focus on. Paul wants us to pay attention to something. He says in vs11a to “… wake up from sleep.” He says this as if his readers should already realise that they need to wake up. Paul says, “… since you know the time …” and “…the hour has already come…”
Then Paul, gives the reason that we should wake up and pay attention, vs11b, “because now our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed.” Paul continues in vs12a “The night is nearly over; the day is almost here …”
Paul is talking about the night in reference to the time of the reign of sin on the earth. He is talking about the day in reference to the return of Jesus when Jesus will reign as King in the new heaven and new earth. So, now we are living in the nighttime. Sin is affecting all of our world. However, soon (we don’t know exactly when) but sooner today than yesterday, Jesus will return and the daytime will begin.
When Jesus returns, we will fully live in the light, spiritual darkness will be eliminated, and sin will be eliminated! Then, we will experience the joys and blessings of God forevermore! However, just because we are in the time of darkness doesn’t mean that we need to live lives of darkness.
In Romans 1:21 Paul writes that God is light but, if we choose to push God out of our lives, then light will be absent and we’ll be left with darkness. John’s Gospel: This is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. It could be a description of C21 world, couldn’t it?
- We Must Put On The Armour Of Light
Which is why Paul writes in vs12b “… So let us put aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armour of light.” As children of God, as children of the light, each of us must intentionally make a decision to live as people of the light. This doesn’t happen by accident; this happens by us intentionally doing something. Paul says we must, “… put on the armour of light.”
We are to arm ourselves with the ways of God so that we can live lives for God and it reminds me of the Armour of God in Ephesians 6: Shield of Faith, Breastplate of Righteousness, Sword of the Spirit etc.
But not only must we put something on, we also must take something off. Paul encourages us to: “… put aside the deeds of darkness.” And he names those deeds of darkness: “… carousing (drinking) and drunkenness … sexual immorality and promiscuity … quarrelling and jealousy.”
Paul identifies three areas where many people struggle: controlling our lives (drinking and drunkenness); controlling our bodies (sexual impurity and promiscuity); controlling our emotions (quarrelling and jealousy) – this was referred to in our reading from Matthew 18:15-20, when Jesus teaches us how to manage difficult and divisive people.
There are certainly other areas of darkness in this world and there are certainly other areas of temptation for the Christian. However, Paul only names a few here – perhaps these were areas that were particularly troubling for the Romans. Of course, we don’t experience such problems, do we?
The late Nelson Mandela was an inspiration to many people. His ability to work with and, forgive, those who incarcerated him for 27 years in appalling conditions characterises what we might call Christlike behaviour. However, what many people seem to overlook is that Madiba’s example was borne in a resurgence of his Christian faith. He quoted the poet Marianne Williamson at his inauguration:
We are all meant to shine … We were born to make manifest the glory of God within us. It is not just in some of us; it is in all of us, in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same.
Our Deepest Fear
By Marianne Williamson
Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.
Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.
It is our light, not our darkness
That most frightens us.
We ask ourselves
Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?
Actually, who are you not to be?
You are a child of God.
Your playing small
Does not serve the world.
There’s nothing enlightened about shrinking
So that other people won’t feel insecure around you.
We are all meant to shine,
As children do.
We were born to make manifest
The glory of God that is within us.
It’s not just in some of us;
It’s in everyone.
And as we let our own light shine,
We unconsciously give other people permission to do the same.
As we’re liberated from our own fear,
Our presence automatically liberates others.
For Marianne’s website, click here.
In vs13a Paul adds: Let us behave decently … Other translations say to walk “properly” or “honestly.” Paul encourages us to walk in the way that God has created and called us to live our lives. You might ask how can we do this? Paul repeats what he said earlier, vs14, we are to “… put on the Lord Jesus Christ.”
Again, this act is an active decision. We choose to be more like Jesus. We choose to take on behaviours that make us more like Jesus and we do so because we have been changed by Jesus. To put on the Lord Jesus Christ means that we choose the Fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23) and we choose humility, forgiveness, purity, we choose self-control, kindness, patience, we choose generosity, wisdom and love, and we choose so many other things that make us more like Jesus. As Christians, we must be marked by love and light. We must love abundantly and live intentionally.
Conclusion
After hearing these challenging words from Paul this morning – the challenge continues in the week ahead! I want to challenge you to live out this passage in the coming week:
Challenge 1. Identify a way that you can love someone. Think of something that you can do to show love to others this week. Can you forgive someone? Can you help someone in need? Can you encourage someone? Can you be generous to someone? Be intentional. Love on purpose.
Challenge 2. Identify a way that you can put on Jesus. We put things on purposefully all the time, don’t we? Perfume, aftershave, deodorant! You don’t accidentally put those things on. So, think of one way that you can purposefully put on the Lord Jesus Christ this week.
COPYRIGHT DISCLAIMER The text contained in this sermon (except where stated) is solely owned by its author, Revd Paul A. Carr. The reproduction, or distribution of this message, or any portion of it, should include the author’s name. The author provides free sermon resources in order to inspire believers and to assist preachers and teachers in building God’s Kingdom and making disciples.
revPACman 