SERMON TITLE: Love Does No Wrong
SCRIPTURE: Romans 13:8-10 (ESV)
SPEAKER: Josh Hanson
DATE: 8-17-25
Sermon Discussion Guide
Take notes here
As always it’s a joy to be with all of you this weekend at Gateway Church. And there’s one thing I want you to know — and this is true if you’re worshiping with us for the first time — if you’re joining us at our North Main Campus or are with our friends in Bucyrus — I want you to know that God loves you and that I love you too.
We’re continuing our series in Romans this weekend and — to everyone’s delight — we’re moving on from the topic of politics — three weeks on the subject was enough. But we are continuing in Paul’s letter — and we’re in the application section — where he’s showing us how what we believe is to change how we live.
So — if you have your Bible with you — please turn with me to Romans chapter thirteen. We’ll be in Romans chapter thirteen — looking at verses eight through ten. There Paul writes…
Romans 13:8–10 ESV
8 Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. 9 For 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.
Today we’re going to focus on what it means to be people who love others. And we’ll do so by looking at — one — what Paul means when he says that we owe others our love — two — how our love fulfills the law — meaning the Ten Commandments — and — three — what it means to love others as ourselves. What does Paul mean when he says we owe others our love, how does our love fulfill the law, and what does it mean to love your neighbor as yourself? That’s where we’re headed today.
Now — if you’re here and wouldn’t call yourself a Christian — know that for those who follow Jesus — God’s Word is our final authority on all things — or at least it’s supposed to be. We Christians are a work in progress — individually and corporately — so don’t hold our failures against God. But with God’s Word as our final authority on all things — his definition of love and what it means to be a loving person is what we aim for. Again — God’s Word gives us the ideal — of who we Christians can and should be — but because of our sin — just like you — we regularly fail at being who we long to be. That doesn’t invalidate God’s Word — in fact — many times our failures prove the truthfulness and trustworthiness of God’s Word because — often — it’s like, “Yup. The Bible did say that would happen if I did that.”
So — yes — God’s Word is our final authority. And — yes — we Christians still often try to find a way to fulfill what we long for while ignoring God’s Word. But we gather together each week to sit under God’s preached Word — so that — we’re all drawn back to God and his Word and live the “therefore lives” that Paul’s describing to us. Which — today — is on how we’re to love others.
So let’s jump in by returning to the beginning of verse eight where Paul writes…
Romans 13:8 ESV
8 Owe no one anything, except to love each other…
With as slow as we’re going through Romans — it’s hard to remember how what we’re currently reading relates to what we’ve previously seen in Romans. But not too long ago, Paul wrote…
Romans 12:9–13 ESV
9 Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good. 10 Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor. 11 Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord. 12 Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer. 13 Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality.
We looked at this passage back on Mother’s Day — three months or so ago — which is long enough to miss the connection between it and our verses for today. My point is that our love for others isn’t a new topic for Paul. He brought it up back in chapter twelve — early in his description of what a life changed by Christ looks like. In fact, I’m not sure that Paul ever left the topic of love. In describing genuine love — in Romans twelve — Paul mentions “holding fast to what is good” and “honoring” others. He then tells us how to overcome evil with good and — as we’re all familiar with by now — he goes on to talk about how we’re to honor those who are in authority over us. Including the words…
Romans 13:7 ESV
7 Pay to all what is owed to them: taxes to whom taxes are owed, revenue to whom revenue is owed, respect to whom respect is owed, honor to whom honor is owed.
Which then transitions nicely to our verse…
Romans 13:8 ESV
8 Owe no one anything, except to love each other…
Paul’s made it clear — I think — that those who believe in Jesus are not to go delinquent on the debt we owe. Whether it be taxes to the government. Revenue for something we’ve purchased. Respect and honor to those in authority. But — now — he adds love. And Paul says that we’re to owe no one anything — except — to love each other.
Some take Paul to be saying that Christians are not to have debt — no credit card, car, or mortgage debt. Yet this would be quite odd for Paul to say right after saying, “pay back what you owe people” — including financial debts. I’m not saying we’re free to pile on a bunch of debt — there’s biblical warrant for being careful about debt — but what I am saying is that this kind of debt isn’t on Paul’s mind in our verse — he’s focusing on a different kind of debt we owe: a debt to love others.
In fact — the point of this sermon’s title — “love does no wrong” — is to highlight the importance God has put on love in the life of his people. For God calls his people to be lovers of people — where everything we do is to be done as a loving person. And love does no wrong towards the one loved. As Paul writes elsewhere…
1 Corinthians 16:14 ESV
14 Let all that you do be done in love.
…including — paying back the debts we owe. Which means that we — who believe in Jesus — don’t just pay our taxes — even non-Christians can and should do that. But we’re to pay our taxes — not reluctantly, or angrily, or indignantly — but lovingly. And we pay for our purchases lovingly. And we show respect and honor — and are to do so — lovingly. And we know exactly what Paul means by love. For he defines it when he writes…
1 Corinthians 13:4–7 ESV
4 Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant 5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; 6 it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. 7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
Words used in wedding ceremonies — but unfortunately — have failed to be applied to the breadth that Paul originally intended. For Paul wasn’t even writing about marriage when he wrote these words. He was just talking about love. Love for husbands and wives? Sure! But also love that Christians are to have for other Christians. And love that Christians are to have for non-Christians. Even love that Christians are to have for their enemies.
Now — in our culture — love is often described as a subjective feeling. Then there are people who — if you say, “You never say ‘I love you’,” will respond with, “My actions demonstrate that I do.” Paul challenges both of these views of love. Love isn’t a subjective — undefinable — feeling — he’s defined love! — and neither is it purely action. As one pastor has said…
Love is not just an action toward a person; it’s a mindset, an attitude, a disposition that produces behaviors that are good for people. Isn’t it amazing that Paul’s description of love contains almost entirely inner dispositions not outward actions. To be sure all these dispositions produce certain outward behaviors, but that is not the essence of love: patience, not envying, not arrogant, not irritable, not resentful, not rejoicing at wrong, rejoicing in the truth, bearing, believing, hoping, enduring. These are all acts of the soul first, not acts of the body.
Which means — you can be doing all of the “loving things” while still not loving people — or God — for that matter.
So — here’s where we are. Everything we do is to be done in love. And love is specifically defined for us in God’s Word. Yet we still haven’t seen how loving others is a debt we owe them. Remember Paul tells us to…
Romans 13:8 ESV
8 Owe no one anything, except to love each other…
Admittedly confusing language — because — owing something usually means that they’ve given us something. Whether we agree with all that it goes to or not — we owe taxes because we receive benefits from the government. We owe someone revenue because we’ve received something from them. And so on. But there are many people who’ve never given you or me anything — and yet — Paul says we owe them our love. So what does he mean — how did we get in their debt?
Let’s make this personal — how did you get into my debt — where you owe me your love — just as I owe you my love — just as we all owe each other our love — just as we owe everyone in Findlay and Bucyrus — and ultimately the world — our love? That’s a really big debt to owe, right? So how’d we get into such debt?
Again Paul says, “Owe no one — that’s all inclusive — anything, except to love each other” — and the “each other” refers back to “no one.” So — for the Christian — this command includes loving Christians and non-Christians — because loving everyone is a debt we owe. So how’d we get into this debt?
We believed in Jesus.
Look at what Paul wrote earlier in Romans.
Romans 1:14 ESV
14 I am under obligation (“I owe a debt”) both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish.
And what is the debt Paul owes them? He goes on to tell us.
Romans 1:15 ESV
15 So I am eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome.
The debt he owes — to Jews, Greeks, barbarians, slaves, and freemen — is sharing the gospel with them. And why is Paul under this debt? He tells us in his opening words of the letter.
Romans 1:1–7 ESV
1 Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, 2 which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy Scriptures, 3 concerning his Son, who was descended from David according to the flesh 4 and was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord, 5 through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of his name among all the nations, 6 including you who are called to belong to Jesus Christ, 7 To all those in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
God had called Paul — called him from spiritual death to spiritual life — called him from being an opponent of Christianity to an apostle. He says that God set him apart for the gospel — set apart is one of the most common phrases used to describe God’s people — holy ones, saints, set apart ones — something true not just of Paul but of all who believe in Jesus. Additionally, Paul says that God had given him grace and faith — and gave these gifts to Paul for the sake of God’s name being proclaimed among all the nations — including those in Rome who are loved by God. And — all of this — put Paul in debt.
And since — if you believe in Jesus — God has called you from spiritual death to spiritual life. And God has set you apart for the sake of his gospel being proclaimed throughout all of his creation. And God has saved you through faith in Jesus Christ and all that he accomplished in his life, death, and resurrection on your behalf. You also are in debt.
Yet this is not a debt you can pay back to God. So the debt you owe isn’t to God — you can’t pay that debt back. Yet — the debt we owe to others isn’t because of something we’ve received from them either. The debt we owe — to love others — all people — Christians, non-Christians, even our enemies — with a love that is patient and kind, isn’t arrogant or rude, and so on — the debt of love you owe to others is because you’ve been loved by Christ when you did not deserve his love. And — in response to his love for you — not to pay him back — but because you want to honor him and make him and his love for you look glorious to the world — you love all people.
1 John 3:16 ES
16 By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought (are debtors) to lay down our lives for the brothers.
1 John 4:11 ESV
11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought (are debtors) to love one another.
Two questions before we move on. First, do you know that God loves you in this way — unconditionally so? God doesn’t love you because he weighed his options and thought, “Well, I’ll get a little more something out of this one than that one, so I’ll love her and not him.” He didn’t think, “Look at how pathetic she is, I’ll only give her a little bit of my love, but not all of it.” Nothing like that.
When God chose to love you he knew everything about you. Including that…
Ephesians 2:1–3 ESV
1 you were dead in the trespasses and sins 2 in which you once walked, [and how you followed the] the course of this world, [and followed] the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— 3 among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, [and how you carried] out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.
And — yet — he said, “This one’s mine anyway. I love him. I love her. She’s my daughter. He’s my son. They’re my forever children.” Pastor Tim Keller described all of this with these words: “The gospel is this: We are more sinful and flawed in ourselves than we ever dared believe, yet at the very same time we are more loved and accepted in Jesus Christ than we ever dared hope.”
And — in being loved this way — we find ourselves obligated to love God in return — so much so that our love for him overflows into our love for all people. And this kind of love is a love that fulfills the law.
As Paul writes…
Romans 13:8 ESV
8 Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law.
And…
Romans 13:10 ESV
10 Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.
The “law” — here — refers to the Ten Commandments. We know this because Paul quotes some of the Ten Commandments in verse nine. This is important for us to understand — because this highlights the difference between true Christianity and what many think is Christianity. Many think that Christianity is — if you do these things — or don’t do these things — then God will love you. Where — what you do — earns God’s love. And that’s not Christianity.
Christianity — true Christianity — is what Tim Keller said. Yes — you are more flawed and sinful than most of us would ever dare admit about ourselves. And — at the same time — you’re more loved and accepted by Jesus than most of us are able to dare believe is true. But — in being loved — not because of what we have or haven’t done — but simply because God has chosen to love you — now — what you do isn’t done to earn God’s love, but is done because you are loved. Meaning the motivation behind what we do — having believed in Jesus — isn’t the law — “if you do this you’ll be rewarded or if you do that you’ll be punished” — but is love. For the God who created everyone and everything has said, “You are my forever loved son or daughter.” Love — not law — is the motivation for what the Christian does. And — plot twist — that includes — obeying God’s law!
So it’s not that the law — or the Ten Commandments — is unimportant or out of date. What Paul is stressing is that the motivation for the Christian — when it comes to…
…is love. God’s love for us and our love for him in return. And our love for God can’t help but spill over into our love for other people. I mean — right — more than half of the Ten Commandments are about our relationships with others. And our obedience to these commandments — like all of the commands — is love.
Which may make you wonder, “Then what’s the point of the law?” Traditionally there are three reasons for God’s law — but we’re only focused on one: God’s law shows us how to love God and love others. That’s why — when Jesus was asked…
Matthew 22:36–40 ESV
36 “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” 37 And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. 38 This is the great and first commandment. 39 And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. 40 On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”
I’m sure you noticed — if you hadn’t already — that Paul quotes Jesus when he writes…
Romans 13:9 ESV
9 For 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.”
“You shall love your neighbor as yourself” is a quote from the Old Testament book of Leviticus. What an interesting command — the wording, I mean: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Some have tried to take Jesus’ two commands and make them into three. 1) Love God. 2) Love others. 3) And love yourself. But that’s not what he says — that’s not what Paul says either.
It’s 1) love God and 2) love others…as you already love yourself — or in the same way that you already love yourself. You see — Jesus and Paul — and the rest of the Bible for that matter — assume we already love ourselves. Now — because this is what we do — we go to a few exceptions. Like, “What about the suicidal person? Do they really love themself?” There’s not enough time to explore such a personal subject like suicide. All I’ll say is that — exceptions like this — prove a principle — they don’t disprove it. And what we see all around us is that the vast majority of people are experts at loving themselves. Thus God found no need for “love yourself” to be a command.
So what are Jesus and Paul saying? Essentially they’re saying, “With all of the passion, zeal, energy, and focus that you put in loving yourself — make that your measure of what it means to love others.” Sometimes we Christians are way too quick to call the idolatry card on others simply because they’re finding enjoyment in God’s creation. And — to be clear — being loving towards yourself and enjoying God’s creation aren't necessarily sinful — though they can become sinful.
For example…
Now — some of you are playing mind referee right now. Instead of thinking about yourself — you’re thinking of someone else. If this is you — the first thing you should do is repent. And — second — know that the very real spiritual enemy we face loves nothing more than for you to hear truth from God and ignore how it applies to your life by thinking of how it applies to someone else.
Does it apply to others? Absolutely! But the point of hearing God’s Word preached is for God to speak to you about your life first.
So…
Yet we can’t talk about loving God and loving others — without remembering two other things Jesus said on this subject.
Luke 10:25–37 NLT
25 One day an expert in religious law stood up to test Jesus by asking him this question: “Teacher, what should I do to inherit eternal life?” 26 Jesus replied, “What does the law of Moses say? How do you read it?” 27 The man answered, “‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your strength, and all your mind.’ And, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’” 28 “Right!” Jesus told him. “Do this and you will live!” 29 The man wanted to justify his actions, so he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” 30 Jesus replied with a story: “A Jewish man was traveling from Jerusalem down to Jericho, and he was attacked by bandits. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him up, and left him half dead beside the road. 31 “By chance a priest came along. But when he saw the man lying there, he crossed to the other side of the road and passed him by. 32 A Temple assistant walked over and looked at him lying there, but he also passed by on the other side. 33 “Then a despised Samaritan came along, and when he saw the man, he felt compassion for him. 34 Going over to him, the Samaritan soothed his wounds with olive oil and wine and bandaged them. Then he put the man on his own donkey and took him to an inn, where he took care of him. 35 The next day he handed the innkeeper two silver coins, telling him, ‘Take care of this man. If his bill runs higher than this, I’ll pay you the next time I’m here.’ 36 “Now which of these three would you say was a neighbor to the man who was attacked by bandits?” Jesus asked. 37 The man replied, “The one who showed him mercy.” Then Jesus said, “Yes, now go and do the same.”
Jesus’s point is obvious: it’s possible to be very religious — and — very unloving. You can even be an expert in God’s Word — and — be an expert in being unloving. At the same time — someone can not fit the mold of those same religious so-called experts — and yet be someone who fulfills the law by their love.
Second, Jesus said this about love.
John 13:34 ESV
34 A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.
Followers of Jesus are not only to love our neighbor in the way we love ourselves — we’re to love others in the way we’ve been loved by Christ. For Jesus is the true and better Good Samaritan who didn’t leave us to eternally perish on the side of the road because of our sin, but entered into our world to soothe and bandage the wounds caused by our sin. And he took our place — not just half dead beside the road — but on a cross where he died for our sins. And it’s this love — Jesus’ love for you as displayed in his life and death — that he now commands you — and me — and all who believe in him — to love others with. For this is the only love that does no wrong — not to God or others. For it’s a love in response to — and empowered by — the perfect love that Jesus Christ has for you. Let’s pray.
Loving Father, today your Word has told us of your great, powerful, and saving love for your people. And — in being loved by you — we’re indebted to love others. Forgive us — we ask — for the many times we’ve not loved you or our neighbors. And forgive us for forgetting and doubting your love for us. For when we really trust in your love — grasp your love — dwell on your love — we will be changed into people who love.
Spirit, you’re the One who causes this change in us. Change us, we ask. Give us new hearts. Open our eyes and ears. For those who already believe — stir in us an increasing passion and trust in your love so we live a life of loving others.
And — Jesus — you are the perfect display of what it means to love your neighbor as yourself. We’re so grateful for your love. May we keep our eyes fixed on you so that we show the world your love for them through our love for them.
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit — to any who’ve yet to trust in your love — may you draw them to you — giving them new life — as you give them faith to believe and trust in your love for them. And we pray all of this in Jesus’s name. Amen.
BENEDICTION
May you go knowing that Jesus gave his life in love for you — and in response — may you love God and love others. Amen.
God loves you. I love you. You are sent.
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