Content Love || Romans 13:9-10 || Manna for the Mind #19

Welcome to Day 19 of my “Manna for the Mind” devotional series! This series takes a passage of scripture (typically 1-3 verses) and builds its understanding through its context and connecting scripture. Doing this helps us understand what the Bible truly teaches us. 

Romans 13:9-10

9             For the commandments say, “You must not commit adultery. You must not murder. You must not steal. You must not covet.” These – and other such commandments – are summed up in this one commandment: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”

10          Love does no wrong to others, so love fulfills the requirements of God’s law.

We’ve been spending a lot of time recently digging deeper into what God’s love is all about. I recently dove into Romans 13:9 on “Manna for the Mind – Day #14,” so I encourage you to hop back a couple blogs and read about it in more detail. Today, I’ll summarize it. We’ll focus more on verse 10 today.

Love others as ourselves means actively working to meet their needs. People who do this don’t really suffer from low self-esteem. Does this mean we ignore our needs in the process? No. The commandment doesn’t say to love your neighbor only. We need to make sure we love ourselves also. It’s about finding a balance between how much time we spend on ourselves and how much time we spend on others. We can’t pour from an empty vessel, so how can share our overflow with someone else if we don’t have enough to give to ourselves.

I always like pointing that out because we rarely hear it in church. Most likely because it sounds selfish, but does it? No. It’s a healthy boundary. It’s a reasonable expectation. Yes, we’re expected to give, but not to the point where we’re putting ourselves physically, mentally, or spiritually in harm’s way. So please, as your friend, be mindful of how much you’re pouring into others and yourself. Make sure that it’s a healthy amount for both.

Love fulfilling the requirements of God’s law goes above and beyond most religious and civil laws. How many laws do we hear in society require us to intentionally focus on loving one another? Most likely, zero. We readily excuse our indifference to others because we are not legally obligated to help them. We see a crime happening, and very few of us jump in to de-escalate the situation because we don’t HAVE to do anything. We all fall victim to the bystander effect: “Someone else will take care of it, right?” I see that a lot today with the global issues happening with Ukraine and Palestine. Some people are voicing their advocacy for them, and others aren’t because other people are doing it. You and I might not have a direct stake in those situations nor have a direct way to resolve them, so we think, “Why waste the energy?” Yet, not doing anything is still doing something. Being a bystander to the situation intentionally allows less advocacy for those in need. It can be interpreted as you justifying what’s happening to them. It’s not illegal to stay quiet, but it feels like it is simultaneously.

Before I get told to step off the soapbox, I admit I’m also guilty of remaining quiet. I don’t post anything about it on my social media feeds. I don’t actively have conversations surrounding it. So far, I’ve added “#freepalestine” to my hashtags for the TikToks I post. Is it something? Yes. Is it enough? No. I’ve hesitated to do more because I want to avoid causing discourse with family members, friends, or anyone in different social circles. I’m too much of a people pleaser to publicly share my ideas, beliefs, and all that I’m working on. Yet, that doesn’t stop the fact that I need to be better about being less quiet about caring for God’s children. Jesus didn’t leave any loopholes in his rules of loving one another. When love demands to be shown, we must go beyond the human legal requirements and imitate the God of love.

Let’s look at this concept through the commandments referenced in verse 9.

Exodus 20:13-15

13          You must not murder.

14          You must not commit adultery.

15          You must not steal.

At face value, you’re thinking, “These aren’t loving things. I know not to do those.” The prohibitions against murder, adultery, and stealing require us to respect the life, personhood, and integrity of others. Don’t take the life of someone from them. In Genesis 9:6, it talks about how if someone commits murder, then that person should die because God made human beings in his own image. To murder someone is to murder a representation of God.

Leviticus 20:10 says that if adultery is committed, both the adulterer and adulteress shall die. This violates the sanctity of marriage, which was held in very high regard during this period. Now, let’s talk about what adultery is because it’s a word and concept that doesn’t get used a lot in today’s vernacular. Adultery is the unlawful sexual relations between a married person and someone other than their spouse. Adultery represents idolatry. It’s worshipping the concept of sex over the sanctity of marriage. Jesus takes it a step further and says that anyone who looks at someone with lust has already committed adultery with them in their heart. It points to the worship of our sexual desires and lustful thinking over God.

The punishment for stealing varies in the Old Testament depending on what was stolen. Still, it often circles back to having to repay the person stolen from more than what was stolen. Stealing an ox means you’d have to repay back with five oxen. Stealing a sheep means you’d have to repay back with four sheep. (Exodus 22:1) You took for selfish gain and needed to make things right by giving back what they would’ve lost.

Exodus 20:17

17          You must covet your neighbor’s wife, male or female servant, ox or donkey, or anything else that belongs to your neighbor.”

Coveting means the same thing as being jealous or envious. It’s resenting the fact that others have what you don’t. God wants you to feel content with what you have and what he has blessed you with. God knows that possessions never make anyone happy for long. Why else would we be fawning over the latest iPhone, gaming PC, Xbox or Playstation, cars, houses, etc. We covet the new because we’re not content with the current. Our things on earth come and go, but God remains forever. Since only God can supply all our needs, trust that you can find contentment in Him. When you feel jealous, dig deep into where that is coming from. See if a basic need is not being met and if you can resolve that need. Amen.

Father God, thank you for supplying everything we need to survive. We might yearn for something others have, but we know that contentment can be found through you. When that jealousy and envy crops up in our lives, help us remember to turn to you to get it resolved. It’s in your name, we pray. Amen.