For Cross and Kingdom
Two Keys to Christian Love
Aaron Lee | Romans 13:8-14 | FCBCW Youth Worship | October 19, 2025
Question
What motivates a Christian to continue to love others? What kindles Christian love? What keeps our love alive?
Context
Ever since Romans 12, we have been looking at what the Christian life looks like. Namely, as an act of worship to God. We offer our bodies as living sacrifices. We live for the Lord as an act of worship. Paul has been telling us how to do this.
In our previous passage, Paul was talking about submitting to our government authorities as we submit under God. In a Christian sense, we owe the government honor and respect and obedience – as long as it is not sinful – because God has placed us under their authority. Paul is going to move now from the public arena to our personal lives, and why we are motivated to live a life of love.
Sermon Preview
We’re going to see two keys to Christian love:
Joyful Obligation: The Cross of Christ Behind Us
Eager Expectation: The Kingdom of Christ Before Us
1. Joyful Obligation
The first key to Christian love is our joyful obligation because of the cross:
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.
Explanation
Christians love each other because we are obligated by the love that God has given us, and we joyfully fulfill that obligation not by trying to repay God, but by expressing love to each other through obedience to his commands.
Paul bridges our text from matters of owing taxes to our government to loving each other. When Paul says “owe no one anything,” he does not mean we don’t borrow. He means that we are to pay back what we owe others. Don’t have any outstanding debts. Don’t be indebted to others, except for the debt of love that we owe to others. We owe it to love each other because God has shown love to us. We can’t actually pay God back. In fact, God doesn’t want us to try to pay him back. You can’t earn your salvation. This is what it means to receive grace. Our ‘debt’ is not repaid vertically, but passed on horizontally through love. Because we don’t deserve God’s love, and because we can’t pay God back, we are obligated to love each other. It’s a love that is joyfully obligated and motivated by the gospel. Good news is meant to be shared. Paul said so himself back in Romans 1:14-15: “I am under obligation both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish. So I am eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome.” It’s a “pay it forward” mentality. It is a continuous debt of love that we owe to each other, and we are happy to pay it.
Now, let’s see how we are to “pay” this debt of love that we owe to each other. Back in Romans 8, Paul explained that grace obligates us to kill our sin and live by the Spirit. He’s thinking along the same lines here, explaining how God used the Ten Commandments to show us how we are to love. The New Testament does not cancel the Old Testament. Rather, it is better understood, and built upon. They were given in the context of a covenant. God had just delivered Israel from Egypt, and he gave them the commands in the context of relationship. “I will be your God, you will be my people, these are the terms of our agreement: You shall not commit adultery, You shall not murder, You shall not steal, You shall not covet.” This is what Paul means when he says we fulfill, we keep, the covenant. Jesus said so himself in John 14:15: “If you love me, you will keep my commandments. We have an obligation to love by obeying God’s commands. This is not one and done, but it’s a mindset of continuously being on the lookout for ways to love.
Application
So, will you be on the lookout to love? Jesus makes this concrete for us: Jesus said in John 13:34: 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. I would like to highlight the way Jesus loved his disciples in service and in sacrifice. Matthew 20:28 says: even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” Our King came to serve. Luke 9:23: “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.” Deny yourself and take up your cross. Our Savior lived a life of daily sacrifice.
Let me give you some illustrations of service from my own life. I got my first car when I was 17 or 18. My parents gave me their car. It was a gift. There was no way I could pay them back for it. My obligation was to use it, especially when it came to driving my brother and sister around. To be on the lookout to love in this way would mean to ask: Do you need a ride? When I was in college, my small group bought me a guitar. It was a gift. I wasn’t meant to pay them back for it. My obligation was to use it, especially when it came to using it for worship at church. To be on the lookout to love would be to ask: Do you need help leading worship?
Let me give you some illustrations of sacrifice from my own life. One of the ways I knew I truly loved Jess was because I was willing to go out of my way to love her. To make sacrifices for her. To drive and see her. To spend my time with her. This pastors appreciation month, think about your pastors, and all the people that have poured into your life. It is your obligation to love others in the same way. To serve and to make sacrifices. To love through service and sacrifice in the church, with your friends, and with your family will bear witness to the world, for they will know we are Christians by our love (John 13:35). Go out of your way to serve and sacrifice for others.
Jesus goes out of his way. The Samaritan women at the well. He even puts himself in danger. People wanted to kill him. Even on the cross he made time to care for his mother and to talk to the thief on the cross.
The key to understanding Christian love is that it is motivated by an obligation from the cross of Christ, so we joyfully live on the lookout to love each other according to God’s laws.
2. Eager Expectation
Our first key was the cross behind us. The second key to Christian love is our eager expectation before us, because of the kingdom, the coming hour:
11 Besides this you know the time, that the hour has come for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed. 12 The night is far gone; the day is at hand. So then let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light. 13 Let us walk properly as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and sensuality, not in quarreling and jealousy. 14 But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.
Explanation
Christians love others because of Christ’s inaugurated kingdom and his imminent return, and we eagerly live according to this by fighting sin and having the mindset of our Savior.
Besides our joyful obligation to love, we also have an eager expectation of the kingdom, the coming hour. You know the time. It’s time to wake from sleep, to wake up. The night is over, daytime is dawning. Paul says in Galatians 4:4 that Christ came “in the fullness of time,” marking a new age – a new era. This is Christ’s inaugurated kingdom. Paul says that salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed. Yes, we have been saved through Christ – Jesus has already come. But we are still waiting for our final salvation, when Christ will come again to rule and reign. Paul writes in 1 Thessalonians 5:2: “For you yourselves are fully aware that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night.” This is Christ’s imminent return. The early church was aware that Christ would be coming back, and they were reminded to be ready. There is an element of time here, the clock is ticking, it’s winding down. Get up and let’s go.
Now, let’s see how we are to live in light of this coming hour. Paul gives us a couple ways to think about getting ready for Christ’s return: what to wear and how to walk. He tells us what to wear in a negative sense – casting off the works of darkness, and then in the positive sense of putting on the armor of light. This is the proper attire for Christians – it’s the armor of light. Armor is for protection, to be prepared for attacks, to defend, to guard. And we see this as Paul says to make no provision for the flesh. Don’t feed your flesh. Don’t give it an opportunity. Don’t give it a chance. Putting on the Lord Jesus Christ means to have his mindset, have his mentality, have his attitude, his character. Ephesians 4:24 says: “to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.” Righteousness and holiness. Compare and contrast that with what Paul says proper, fitting, right way to walk: Let us walk properly as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and sensuality, not in quarreling and jealousy. Broadly speaking, we can put these into the categories of partying, promiscuity, and pride. A partying lifestyle of orgies and drunkenness. A promiscuous person is unprincipled in sexual conduct. And a heart of pride wants to argue out of envy. All this is to say that Jesus is coming soon, so we should live with urgency and purity.
Application
So, will you live with urgency and purity? Urgency as in don’t be lazy, and purity as in the entire way you live your life. 2 Peter 3:8 says: “Do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.” We’re on God’s timetable here. We must live urgently. And James 1:26-27: “If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this person’s religion is worthless. Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.” Unstained from the world. A pure life before God.
One of my pet peeves is when my kids take their time to get ready. They do this to Jess more than they do this to me. I’ll say something like “we have to get going” and they’ll keep reading their books, coloring their art, playing with their toys. I have several ways to handle this. I could start yelling, but I stopped doing that haha. I could also start counting down. This puts some pressure on them. But what’s better, and what I prefer, is to actually tell them where we’re going – especially if it’s somewhere fun or something they’re looking forward to. We’re going to our friends! We’re going to eat hot pot! We’re going to Disneyland! They’ll get ready with expedient, hurried, urgency. My brothers and sisters, we have to get going. There’s a time for studying. There’s a time for your art. There’s a time for your toys. God doesn’t yell at us, but he does give us his word – through the Bible and through the church. Time is counting down. You can see it all around us. But the best motivation is to know where we’re going. We’re going to be with our friends. We’re going to the marriage supper of the Lamb. We’re going to our eternal home with our heavenly father in Heaven. Examine how you spend your time. Examine your priorities. Let’s get ready with expedient, hurried, urgency.
To stretch the image of putting on the Lord Jesus Christ – people should be able to tell who you are by what you wear. When I wear my scrubs, people know I work in healthcare. When you wear a certain uniform, maybe for band or for the team, people know that you belong. When wearing the clothes of Christ, people should know you are a Christian. It’s interesting that the type of clothing associated with Christ is armor. To put on the Lord Jesus Christ is most closely associated with a renewed mind and learning to be like him (Ephesians 4:22-24, Colossians 3:10). A pure heart comes from a renewed mind. What if your mind was just constantly bombarded with Christian thought? The Bible is, of course, our homebase. We are to be sharpened with Scripture. But I love Christian books. I listen to Christian podcasts and sermons. I read Christian articles and websites. Prayer and fellowship are always excellent opportunities. Guard your mind, protect your heart, be ready for battle. And we do this with hope, knowing that the victory is secured.
Jesus lived with absolute urgency and purity. He knew the scriptures so well at a young age that the rabbis couldn’t believe it. He got up early to pray. His life was so unstained by the world that he was accused, abused, mocked, and he did speak wrong. so unstained that he could be tempted by Satan and overcome (defeating him by scripture by the way).
The key to understanding Christian love is that it is motivated by an expectation of Christ’s kingdom, so we eagerly live according to this with urgency and purity.
The Gospel
Jesus even loved his enemies. Jesus also taught that our neighbors are not just believers, but it includes everybody. The story of the Good Samaritan shows us how we are to love strangers, those who are different. Loving your neighbor as yourself means that we seek their welfare, their good, their happiness. Romans 5:8 says: “God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Christ died for us because he loved us. The point is that we needed saving. Without Christ, the love we show falls short. Our sin separates us from God. On the cross, our sins were forgiven. He took the penalty, the punishment, for our sin. He took our place. We have faith in his life, death, and resurrection. Our relationship with God is restored. Enemies are now friends, enemies are now family. And we go out to share this love with others. The offer is free for anyone who wants to believe.
Answer
What motivates a Christian to continue to love others? What kindles Christian love? What keeps our love alive? Christian love is motivated by the cross behind us and the kingdom before us.
To Love for Cross and Kingdom
To love for cross and kingdom
To love with all my might
The love of Christ compels me
To love and shine his light
Our joyful obligation
To love like Jesus Christ
For at the cross, he saved the lost
And gave to us new life
To love for cross and kingdom
To love with all my might
The love of Christ compels me
To love and shine his light
Our eager expectation
The hour and the day
Christ’s Kingdom comes, the battle won
And all bow at his name
To love for cross and kingdom
To love with all my might
The love of Christ compels me
To love and shine his light
References
Romans: Reformed Expository Commentary by Daniel M. Doriani
The ESV Study Bible by Crossway
The Gospel Coalition Bible Commentary on Romans by Donny Ray Mathis II