Thoughts From Romans 13 - Part 2

... whoever loves others 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 whatever other command there may be, are summed up in this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” 10 Love does no harm to a neighbor. Therefore, love is the fulfillment of the law. Rom. 13:8-10

             "Do not covet" is the 10th commandment because it's the "etc." commandment. Paul talks about it in Chapter 7 and Jesus discusses it in the Sermon on the Mount. Paul as a Pharisee was a strict "law obeyor", but when he read "Thou shall not covet" it tore at him from the inside. All the other laws are somewhat doable like don't murder, don't steal, don't commit adultery, but don't covet gets at your heart. How do you stop wanting what others have?

       We addressed it a bit when we talked about the difficulty of rejoicing with those who rejoice and mourning with those who mourn, that it's hard to truly rejoice when you're coveting that they were blessed and mourn when you're kind of glad when they are brought down to your level as you are coveting their success. How do we truly love like Paul says here in Romans 13 when our self-centered hearts are prone to covet?

     When I think about the other commands, I would guess the other non-doable one is "don't worship idols". We are to worship God and nothing else. How easy it is to take a good thing like family, security, pleasure, possessions and make it the ultimate thing. Jesus said the two greatest commands are to love God first and then love your neighbor. Maybe the secret to obeying the second, which Paul is discussing in these verses, is to obey the first. If we truly love God and demonstrate that by making Him the ultimate thing rather than idols, we probably wouldn't have anything to covet and address the heart issue that makes it so hard to love.

     If we truly love God with all of our heart soul mind and strength, then we are free to love our neighbor as we should. Are you coveting something your neighbor has? Why? Is there an idol in your life that needs to be exposed? Let's let these 3 things be idol "diagnosticators"; coveting, problems rejoicing with, and problems mourning with.