“Are You Putting Me On?”

Text:  Romans 13:8-14

Paul spends the first 11 chapters developing these themes and begins the so-what of all his dense instruction in Chapter 12 and continues doing so for the rest of the book.  But nothing he writes is clearer than versus 8-10.  And he repeats it three times in one paragraph.

• “whoever loves others has fulfilled the law”
• “whatever other command there may be, are summed up in this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”
• “therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.”

Verse 13.  Paul instructs against carousing, drunkenness, sexual immorality, debauchery, dissension and jealousy are mentioned.

• These are given not as a morality test but as examples of what love is not.

 As incentive for us to apply ourselves to love, He reminds us in verses 11-12 that our final destiny is not this earth or this life.

• “The day is almost here.” The day of Christ’s return is compared to the dawning of a new day.
• The “dawn” began when Christ rose from the dead and ascended to heaven.
• The time of Christ’s return is nearer in 2022 than it was in 2021.

Finally, he gives us the “how to” love.

Verse 14, “Rather, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the flesh.”

What does it mean to clothe yourselves with Christ?

• Get wrapped up in Christ Himself. The person Christ.  Not just in Christian behavior.
• Becoming more Christ-centered and Christ-focused is a process. Behind the process is a person.
• It’s all about the heart. It’s not paint-by-the numbers.
• Testimonial examples from this past week.

Every ounce of heart’s desire for the Lord comes from Him.  According to Romans 3, there is no one who does good.  There is no one who understands.  There is no one who seeks God.   Our desire for Him is because of the Holy Spirit’s development of the new heart we have received when we came to Christ.

To put on Christ is more about focus and pursuit of Him than it is about rote compliance to a moral code.   In everything, sports, the world of work, music.  There is the written code.  The way it should be done and then there is the spirit of how it is done.

Putting on Christ is about the spirit of our love as well as the details.  It is about seeing Him as the “it” of Life and pursuing Him as our supreme treasure.

 Main Idea:  As we adore Him, we adorn Him. It’s what we do. It’s what happens to us. It is what happens in us.