In Romans, Paul has written about many themes of Christianity, but in every instance he returns to one overriding principle. Paul teaches us that the conduct of believers is draped in love. Saintliness has nothing to do with success or money or social rank.
Paul speaks of tolerance and love, but he also says to live in peace with everyone as far as it depends on you. When the actions of others go too far, Christians have to stand on principle. This does not give us cause to retaliate, which Paul reminds us to leave in God’s hands. Rather, we must hold fast to our spiritual ground. As Christians, we have core beliefs and values. Tolerance does not include compromising those values. When someone challenges your belief system, show them that your Christianity is a lifestyle and not just an opinion. Paul’s remedy for evil is “Overcome evil with good.” Paul reminds us that we really don’t have to fight evil as much as we have to respond to all things with Christian love.
In the Roman Catholic Church and other western traditions, consummation is the word we use to denote that a newly married couple has made love to one another. Until this act had taken place, at least historically, it was possible to annul the marriage. In a broader sense, it is a signaling that a watershed event has occurred. It changes things. It is a mark that says this part is over, and now this other part has started. What is Paul talking about here? He says the hour is near, the night is almost over, the day is almost here.
This is a huge statement from Paul and Christians need to claim it like a birthright. The age of evil has begun its demise. Why? Because Jesus has triumphed! Paul is saying that we are in the last days. To understand this is to begin to understand the course of the Bible.
God creates mankind and gives it dominion over the creation. Mankind chooses to be disobedient through Adam, and falls into sin. Throughout the Old Testament, God is revealing himself to mankind through his relationship with the Hebrews. The Old Testament is littered with prophesy of he who is to come, the Messiah, the Savior of the Jews and ultimately of mankind. The New Testament bears witness to the birth, life, death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. The Bible could be said to contain only two chapters, and Chapter One is now written. The only other chapter is entitled the Day of the Lord, the day when Jesus comes again and ushers in the end of the age.
The coming of Jesus as a man is the consummation of Chapter One. The plan of redemption is engaged and the march is on. While it has taken two thousand years and may very well take hundreds or thousands more as God wills it, we are nevertheless in the last days. We are in the night, but the light has been promised and it will come again.
Listen to Romans 12: 10 again: “Love does no harm to its neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.” What an understatement! Not only does love not do harm, it does so much more! Remember how Paul ended Chapter 12? Overcome evil with good! Love is the engine that pulls that train. Paul talks about it here in the context of debt. He tells us to owe no man money, but exhorts us to go on owing the debt of love to each other every day. Origen was one of the great theologians of the early church. He lived in the 3rd century, a time referred to as the Patristic period. Origen had this to say about Paul’s comment: “The debt of love remains with us permanently and never leaves us; this is a debt which we both discharge every day and forever owe.”
If you can keep this overriding principle of social righteousness in your sights and live by it, you will have no trouble with the last six Commandments. These are the commandments having to do with relationships with others. They require honoring parents, not committing murder or adultery or stealing or testifying wrongly or coveting your neighbor’s life, relationships and possessions. You just can’t break those commandments if you are loving your neighbor. Paul’s “law of love” consecrates us to Christian life. It makes us obedient to God without having to remember a rulebook. It’s so much easier doing than dealing with the don’ts. As A.B. Simpson says, it’s always better to have a principle than a manual.
In God’s timing, we are barely an eye blink from the end of the age. As we are reminded in 1 Peter 3: “With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years is like a day.” There’s a story about a young fellow who had a conversation with God about God’s concept of time. “How long is a thousand years to you?” asked the youngster. God answered, “About like a day to you.” “Well, how long is a day to you?” asked the youngster. God answered, “About like a thousand years to you, I suppose.” Then the young fellow said “I’m getting pretty confused by all this calculating. When will it start to make sense to me?” And God replied: “In a minute.”
God is outside time. Time is a series of man-made calculations by which mankind attempts to understand the physics that God put in place at creation. Terms like light year and millennium are irrelevant to God. The trinity is self contained in its relationships and space. And yet, God loves us and wants us. Peter tells us that God wants none of us to perish and is patient with us. But both Peter and Paul warn that when the Day of the Lord comes, it will be like a thief in the night. There will be no other time to get ready. Getting ready is for right now.
We know that Paul thought that the Second Coming of Christ was imminent, and he spoke with a sense of urgency. His later writings, most notably in 2nd Timothy, show him at the end of his life understanding that he will probably be martyred before Jesus comes again. The old Apostle John’s writing at the end of Revelation sounds much the same. But it makes no difference except to timing. Both knew that Jesus would come again and usher in his kingdom, and both felt a sense of urgency to prepare believers and the Church for the suddenness of it.
Paul was haunted by the shortness of time and lived his life in a hurry, trying to reach all those that he could to witness the Good News. His urgency was not lost on St. Augustine
Augustine’s discovery that day is no different from what awaits you and me if we will look for it. The Scripture can do us no good if we do not hear it, no good if we do not read it, no good if we do not, as Augustine did, ponder it. It contains revelation. It is the word of God himself. I love what Samuel Taylor Coleridge, the 19th century English poet and philosopher, once said of the Bible. He said he knew it was inspired because: “It finds me.”
Think on these things. Do you believe in Chapter One, that our Creator God loved the world so much that he gave his only son to live and die and be resurrected and ascend into heaven all for us; that whoever believes this shall not die but have everlasting life? Do you? If you do, then surely you believe in Chapter Two, that Jesus will come again in glory at the close of the age to judge, to redeem, to establish his kingdom forever? Do you?
If you do, you can live with meaning. You can live as though we are in the last days because whether or not we are as the people of God, we certainly are as the individual believers of God. You can live a beautiful, wholesome life by loving your neighbor as yourself. You can put that sinful nature behind by doing as St. Augustine
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