Loving each other is one of the two greatest commandments, but it is harder to obey than we think. Only through the power Jesus Christ can we learn to love perfectly.
No more burqas in France. The government ban on wearing Islamic veils took effect this week. What’s the rationale? Apparently veils just aren’t French. As Prime Minister Fillon put it, “The French Republic lives in a bare-headed fashion.”
Hear Oh Israel
The law in France will now imposes a 150 euro fine for wearing any Islamic veil that covers the face. Covering the head is not forbidden, but a burqa – the black headgear that leaves only the eyes exposed – is now against the law. Forcing a person to wear a burqa is also punishable by law -- a year in prison and a 30,000 euro fine. The French government says they passed the law because they’re committed to protecting the values of the nation. “Given the damage it produces on those rules which ensure the dignity of the person and equality between sexes, this practice cannot be tolerated.”
No doubt this will put some fundamentalist Muslims in a grave dilemma – they’ll be caught between two laws – the Law of Islam as they understand it and the Law of the land they live in. I think most Americans have a fundamental conviction that religious freedom can’t be messed with in this way – if it happens to them today, what will keep it from happening to us tomorrow?
I think that’s why even though a clear majority not only in France but in Germany, Britain and Spain back the burqa ban, two out of three Americans oppose it.
Most Christians I know living in the US and Canada regularly thank the Lord for our religious freedom. We see other believers suffering persecution for their faith and we realize how blessed we are – we not only can worship freely but we can live out our faith with very few restrictions.
But, even so, as the Apostle Paul explained in Romans, we actually ARE caught between two laws. The Law of God and the law of sin. Let me read it:
Romans 7.21-25 “I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God — through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God’s law, but in the sinful nature a slave to the law of sin.”
Paul is describing a terrible dilemma – God gave his law – it’s holy right and good and Paul wants to obey it. But when he tries, he discovers there’s another law at work in him – the law of sin. Paul said it was the tenth commandment that convinced him he couldn’t keep God’s law – “thou shalt not covet.” We’ve been talking about the Ten Commandments this week and looking at how Jesus fulfilled them for us as believers – how he transformed them and how he’s written them on our hearts.
The first four have to do with our relationship with God, the next six have to do with our relationships with each other. The last three are the ones I want to look at today:
“You shall not steal.”
“You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.”
“You shall not covet anything that is your neighbors.”
Before he met Jesus, Paul was a Pharisee and he no doubt kept the Law outwardly down to the last jot and tittle. He didn’t steal anything. He never went into court and lied. But that last commandment got him – “Thou shalt not covet.” It got him because it’s not an outward command – it’s an inward command – it goes right to the heart of our sinful nature and forbids us to have sinful desires. How can you control that? How can you change your desires? You can’t! That’s Paul’s point. Sin is like a law at work in us that keeps us from keeping God’s law. We’re caught between two laws.
There’s been a lot of debate among theologians about whether Paul was describing himself before he became a Christian or after. Either way, the important thing to see is that he’s describing how it is for us when we live under the Law.
The law sets requirements for our life and penalties for not keeping them – and yet we’re powerless to keep them. We’re caught between two laws and that’s a wretched place to be. “Oh wretched man that I am, who will deliver me?” That was Paul’s cry. It’s a form of bondage for sinners to live under the Law. Even Christians find themselves in that place – seeing the standards and failing again and again to measure up and feeling either worn out or condemned.
But Paul wants us to see that there’s a way out. He asks, “Who will rescue me from this body of death?” And obviously it’s a rhetorical question because he gives the answer: “Thank God! Through Jesus Christ our Lord!” As Paul said, “Thank God for Jesus!
Before he got to this part of his letter to the Romans, Paul had been saying for almost two chapters that as believers we’re no longer under law.
Romans 6:14 For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace.
Romans 7.4 So, my brothers, you also died to the law through the body of Christ, that you might belong to another, to him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit to God.
Paul obviously doesn’t mean we’re free to sin – to obey the law of sin that’s working in us. Paul is talking about freedom to begin to live in a new way – where sin doesn’t master us, where we begin to bear fruit for God. He’s set us free from the Law so we can love him and begin to serve him with all our heart and soul and mind and strength. He’s brought us out of bondage to the Law into the freedom so we can live for him and he’s done it in two magnificent ways:
1. He’s removed our condemnation and
2. He’s given us the Holy Spirit.
Romans 8.1-5 “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in sinful man, in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit. Those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires.”
Two things Paul is telling us God has done through Jesus to deliver us out of this situation of being caught between two laws: he’s removed our condemnation and he’s given us the Spirit.
1. There’s now no condemnation. When we live under the Law we’re constantly vacillating between feeling proud of ourselves when we think we’re meeting the standard and feeling rotten and guilty because once again we’ve failed. But in Christ there is no more condemnation and no more pride. There’s just Jesus who took our condemnation and removed our guilt. Jesus who delivered us from the curse we were under for failing to keep the law.
2. We have the Holy Spirit. The Spirit gives us new desires. Desires that are motivated by love for each other. Desires that aren’t completely self-centered. The Spirit gives us love for each other and love doesn’t murder, or commit adultery or dishonor those in authority over us. Love doesn’t steal, it doesn’t bear false witness and it doesn’t covet. Love fulfills the Law.
Romans 13.8 Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for he who loves his fellowman has fulfilled the law.
Romans 13.10 Love does no harm to its neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.
Galatians 5.14 The entire law is summed up in a single command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”
Paul says that when we’re walking in the Spirit we’re not under law because we’re walking in love. We’re doing good instead of harm. We’re living by the law of Christ, loving each other the way he loved us.
Jesus has fulfilled the Ten Commandments. You can take each of them one by one and see how he fleshed them out for us. The command to love was part of the Law God gave to Moses: Love your neighbor as yourself. But Jesus gave it new meaning by loving us all the way to death.
John 15.13 “Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.”
It’s an old command lived out in a new way.
1John 2.7-8 “Dear friends, I am not writing you a new command but an old one, which you have had since the beginning. This old command is the message you have heard. Yet I am writing you a new command; its truth is seen in him and you, because the darkness is passing and the true light is already shining.”
As believers this old command to love is lived out in us as it was in him as we
walk in the light
walk in the Spirit
walk in love
walk in the law of Christ.
It’s just different ways of saying the same thing.
· As believers our command is not only “you shall not steal” it’s “give – give out of love. Give because Jesus gave to you.”
2Corinthians 8.7-9 “Just as you excel in everything — in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in complete earnestness and in your love for us — see that you also excel in this grace of giving. I am not commanding you, but I want to test the sincerity of your love by comparing it with the earnestness of others. For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich,yet for your sakes he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich..”
· As believers our command is not only “You shall not bear false witness” it’s “say good things about one another and to one another. Bear witness to one another about the truth.”
Ephesians 4.25 Therefore, laying aside falsehood, SPEAK TRUTH EACH ONE of you WITH HIS NEIGHBOR, for we are members of one another.
· As believers our command is not only “You shall not covet” it’s “desire good things for one another. Think about others as much as you think about yourself.”
Philippians 2.1-4 “If you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.”
It all sounds good – it’s a beautiful in fact. But how do we get it working in our lives? How do we begin to walk in the Spirit and begin to love one another the way Jesus loved us?
Three things:
1. Take it seriously. Jesus meant it when he said, “John 13.34-35 “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.”
2. Give up on yourself. You can’t manufacture love in your own heart. That’s what it means to live under the law. We can’t be the vine – we’re meant to be the branches. As Jesus said, “Apart from me you can do nothing.”
3. Look to Jesus. There never comes a time when grace ends and we’re on our own. Left to our devices we always default to selfish mode. Instead we can repent of our selfishness and turn to Jesus – again, and again, step by step, and his life will be lived out in us.
Let me read from a wonderful little book by Roy Hession called “We Would See Jesus” where he talks about how this works:
“He is the vine to me only as I repent of trying to be the vine myself. It is only as I repent of my unlove that I have his love; only as I confess my impatience that I have his longsuffering, only has I confess my resentment that I have his meekness and so on. When we are willing for him to be the vine and to be just the branch, his purposes of salvation and blessing for others will begin to be worked out. Things just happen; marvelous things. Being what he is, it could hardly be otherwise. Being a marvelous Lord, marvelous things are normal to him.” . . . God has placed us in his Son, united us to him as a branch is to the vine. Let’s just simply remain there, dwell there, continue there, abide there – as Jesus says – abide in him. He, on his part, promises to dwell, remain, abide in us. . . As we begin to be poured out to others not in word only but in deed, as we begin to pour out love, Christ will pour in love. . . We just need to keep seeing Jesus as the vine and ourselves as part of him, and be willing to be his branches for others.”
