Living by Faith - Romans

The Fullness of Law

Professor: Dr. R.J. Rushdoony

Subject: Living by Faith

Lesson: 53-64

Genre: Talk

Track: 053

Dictation Name: RR311ZB53

Location/Venue:

Year: ?

Let us worship God. Our help is the name of the Lord who made heaven and earth; seeing we have a great high priest who is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us come boldly unto the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. Let us pray.

We praise Thee Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, that Thou hast in Thy grace and mercy made us Thy people, has surrounded us with so many blessings, and given us such great promises through Thy word and Thy Son. We gather together in Thy name to be blessed by Thy word and to be empowered by Thy Spirit to do Thy work. Give us joy therein, make us more than conquerors, make us ever mindful that the kingdoms of this world shall become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of His Christ. In Jesus name we pray, amen.

Our scripture is in Romans 13:6-10, our subject: The Fullness of Law. The Fullness of Law, Romans 13:6-10.

“6 For for this cause pay ye tribute also: for they are God's ministers, attending continually upon this very thing.

7 Render therefore to all their dues: tribute to whom tribute is due; custom to whom custom; fear to whom fear; honour to whom honour.

8 Owe no man any thing, but to love one another: for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law.

9 For this, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness, Thou shalt not covet; and if there be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this saying, namely, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.

10 Love worketh no ill to his neighbour: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.”

Scripture, the word of God, is always written with very great care. But in Romans, in fact anything by Paul, we find this care marked by the concern of a man of law, a man trained carefully and schooled in the disciplines of exact expression. Paul thus always writes carefully and chooses his words carefully, and every word is thus important. In verse 6 we have the word ‘pay’. This is an unusual word in the Greek because it is ‘teleo’ which we have as ‘teleology.’ It means to finish, to accomplish, to bring to an end, and also to pay. So that teleology has reference in our language to the study of purposes, of goals, things which are working in the process of history right now.

So, when Paul says we are to pay, and uses that word; what he has in mind is that: here is something God has ordained, this is part of a process; so that we are not to take the payment as something in abstraction, but as a part of an order.

Then we have also in the same verse, tribute. ‘tribute,’ ‘phoros,’ refers to that which is due to an overlord by a subject. So again the reference is to an order in God’s creation which we are to maintain.

Then we have next in verse 7 the word: ‘custom;’ “Custom to whom custom is due.” This is a very interesting word, because it is also related to teleo, it is a translation of ‘telos’ and it can mean toll, tax, or a goal; a termination. So that we render custom of payment in terms of a goal, something is going to be accomplished.

Then of course we have the word ‘fear’ which is here phobon, related to our English, ‘phobia;’ and honor is a word, ‘timen’ a price. We have it in 1 Timothy 5:17, where we are commanded to give double honor or double pay, because the word means both at one and the same time, to those who serve the Lord faithfully. And of course that clearly is not practiced by the church today, as a matter of fact there is a very prevalent opinion that it is best to pay ministers, pastors, priests, Christian school teachers, anyone missionary or otherwise who works for the kingdom, at a very low pay; as though sacrifice were somehow good for their soul.

Well, if sacrifice is so good for the soul of Christian pastors and workers, it should be even better for the soul of those who are not always at work in the Lord’s vineyard, because perhaps they need to sacrifice more. You see the fallacy of such thinking, it is ridiculous. God says double honor, double pay; and I think the word is important because it tells us that there is a relationship between what we pay somebody, and how we honor them. We dishonor someone if we do not pay them properly, and I used to speak on this subject, often at Christian school conventions; perhaps that is why I am not asked back any more by the directors thereof. Granted that a Christian school when it begins is not a financially viable operation; but when it is it should pay properly, and there are schools with hundreds or even thousands of students that are robbing their teachers.

I wish we could pay more, but I am horrified when I find that we pay far more than schools that have buildings and hundreds upon hundreds of students. Honor and pay, according to scripture, go together.

But there is another usage here, another word that is important. Earlier in this passage in this chapter in verse 4 we are told: “For he is the minister of God to thee for good.” The word ‘minister’ there is ‘diakonos,’ it means literally servants, we have it in our word deacon. Now however, in verse 6, Paul uses a very different word when he says: “For they are God’s ministers, attending continually upon this very thing.” The word here is ‘leitourgos’ which we have in the word ‘liturgy.’ Paul describes himself as a minister in Romans 15:16 using this very same word. Again in Philippians 2:25, Paul describes Epaphroditus as a minister of the Philippian church to Paul, serving and helping him. In Hebrews 8:2 Jesus Christ is called ‘our minister’ leitourgos, in the heavenly sanctuary. This is important because it means that this word is not limited to civil authorities, so that what is here said can not be limited to the state, it definitely can not be.

Therefore when we are told: “For for this cause pay ye tribute also: for they are God's ministers, attending continually upon this very thing. Render therefore to all their dues: tribute to whom tribute is due; custom to whom custom; fear to whom fear; honour to whom honour.”

We are being told that in every sphere the laborer is worthy of his hire; that we are not to defraud a man in any sphere of life where he is doing God’s work. Whether that work may be as a carpenter, or a maid, or a storekeeper, when they are working as a vocation, as a ministry, then they come under God’s provision here.

In our forthcoming Chalcedon Report, the one which will be in the mail before November, Otto Scott has an exceptionally fine article on vocation, in which he deals with the consequences for a society when the Biblical sense of calling, of vocation, departs from work in any sphere. Well, that is what Paul is talking about. When we have a sense of vocation, then God says things are due to us because we are laboring under Him.

Thus God has an order in every sphere of life. We are to respect that order, and to give it that which is due and Godly. Legitimate authority requires legitimate duty on our part.

So, God’s tax, Paul implies, extends beyond the boundaries of civil government. The tithe is a tax. What we pay others in terms of this Pauline usage, is a tax. It is our requirement, it is mandated by God that the laborer is worthy of his hire.

Now this is important to realize because it sets the context of what Paul says here and before this, and after this. We cannot limit Romans 13 to the state. Now it is important, since the state is a part of the reference in this passage, to realize how the early church viewed the state; they saw it as an enemy, after all it was persecuting them. Paul gives us a catalog of how many times he had been arrested and mistreated; so however much Paul requires us to respect the state, civil government, we know that it had very often been evil in its relationship to him.

The early church saw the state as an enemy in practice, to be coupled with the enemies of the cross, as a subject of prayer. Very early in the history of the church after the New Testament we see in Polycarp’s letter to the Philippians this statement which brings this point out. Polycarp said and I quote: “Pray also for kings, and potentates, and princes, and for those that persecute and hate you, and for the enemies of the cross, that your fruit may be manifest to all, and that ye may be perfect in Him.”

What does Paul here do? He classifies, or rather; Polycarp, What Polycarp here does is to classify kings and princes and potentates with all other enemies of the cross, those who do evil, and says we are to pray for them. This is something that Paul tells us elsewhere.

But at this point the church today and Christians today are both wrong and stupid. So commonly you hear prayers in churches and in prayer meetings: “God bless the president and congress, and God bless the governor,” and so on. When we pray we are not commanded to bless evil. Does God ask us to bless the ungodly? At the moment, Reagan does need prayer, he is the president; but remember he said just a couple of weeks ago when Rock Hudson died, that we had lost a great and good man, and he concluded by saying: “He is now with God.” That is blasphemy. Do you want to pray to bless that kind of thing, or to say: “Lord bring wisdom and enlightenment to him, bring salvation to him.” Because what saved man could make a statement like that? We are commanded to pray for those in authority, but we are not asked to say: “Bless evil Lord.” and if they are evil, or if their acts are evil, we are to pray that God give them wisdom, bring them to repentance, and to a saving knowledge of Him; but certainly not to bless them in their evil ways.

In verses 8-9 where we have been studying some of the words, Paul says first that we are to live in terms of Biblical faith concerning debt. The law forbids long term debt, the goal is to be debt free in our living, therefore Paul says as a general premise: “Owe no man anything but to love one another.”

Now Paul does not by this abolish any option for debt, because our Lord Himself makes it clear that on occasion we are to lend to those who ask. But there is a second factor here, we have a debt to all men to love one another. The word ‘owe’ can be rendered: ‘be a debtor’ to no man save to love one another. The requirement of no debt moreover, is not only to be debt free, but to give men their due for their work, their goods, their loans; so what Paul said earlier, custom to whom custom, tribute to whom tribute, pay to whom pay is due; render it. Because what does the law tell us?

To cite two passages: First Deuteronomy 24:14-15 “Thou shalt not oppress an hired servant that is poor and needy, whether he be of thy brethren, or of thy strangers that are in thy land within thy gates: At his day thou shalt give him his hire, neither shall the sun go down upon it; for he is poor, and setteth his heart upon it: lest he cry against thee unto the Lord, and it be sin unto thee.” Prompt payment for work done.

Then again in Proverbs 3:27-28 “ Withhold not good from them to whom it is due, when it is in the power of thine hand to do it. Say not unto thy neighbour, Go, and come again, and to morrow I will give; when thou hast it by thee.”

The word that Paul uses for: Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself, and love is the fulfilling of the law, and love worketh no ill to our neighbor; is a form of agape, agapan. This word means much more than we normally think of as the word love. As I have called attention to this before, let me review it briefly; in the Greek there are three words for love; Eros, for erotic love, Phileo as in Philadelphia, brotherly love, for the natural human affection we have one for another, good, but very human. And Agape is a word that while seldom used by the Greeks, had some kind come into being to indicate another kind of love, an unmerited love, a love that is grace, it is God’s love for man; and our debt to all men is to fulfill the law.

This love is the fulfilling of the law. The word ‘fulfilled’ of course is filled up to the brim, put into force; so that when we are told that ‘love is the fulfilling of the law’ Paul has given us a summary of what this means. Thou shalt not commit adultery; you cannot say you love your husband or wife if you commit adultery, you hate them because you have done evil towards them. Thou shalt not kill; love means not only to respect the sanctity of our neighbors home or our enemies home, but also his life. Thou shalt not steal; you do not lay hands falsely on his property. Thou shalt not bear false witness; you respect his reputation. Thou shalt not covet; you do not do these things in word, thought, or deed. And Paul says, if there be any other commandment, it is also summed up in this, “Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. Love worketh no ill to his neighbour: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.”

In other words, love is something more than personal affection. The word ‘phileo’ is not here used, it is agape; it is a manifestation through us of God’s love, God’s grace, and God’s law. How we feel is irrelevant, and this is where so many go astray. They think then when we are told love is the fulfilling of the law, that somehow: “I have to show some kind of personal affection.” It has nothing to do with how I feel, in fact it says how I feel has to be put aside. It is irrelevant, because it is the fulfilling of God’s law, it is applying God’s law irrespective of my feelings in the situation, and as Sanford Mills has said and I quote: “As a Christian you have no rights, only duties.”

Paul is telling us that the just shall live by faith, and he is now developing the duties of justice, the life of the just, and he says: “Now you are not your own, you have been bought with a price, and therefore you don’t manifest your feelings in a situation, whether they be love or hate.” And it is possible in a situation, we may feel love for a persona and are inclined to wink at what has happened; or we may feel hate, and we do not want to apply God’s word to a situation. And Paul by his language makes clear that what you and I think has nothing to do with the situation; nothing. We are under God, and we are to apply His word, His law, His love.

There can be in Biblical thinking, no separation between love and law, between anything in the nature of God; because all things are in perfect harmony in God. We can in various degrees be schizophrenic, we can be divided in our mind about something, but never God. So God’s love, God’s justice, God’s hatred, God’s mercy, God’s grace, God’s wrath, all are one, they are in perfect harmony.

Love, says Paul, worketh no ill. The word ‘worketh’ implies continuous action. No ill to his neighbor. Thus it is very wrong to take a humanistic view of love or of law. Paul is here dealing with supernatural facts. God’s power and might are to be at work in us, we in Christ are supernatural facts, and we have to see ourselves not in terms of ‘well, these are my feelings.’ No. We are now supernatural facts because Christ has saved us and remade us, and God’s power and might are at work through us.

It is interesting too that when the Bible speaks of God’s law, it speaks of it as one, as a unity. It is not a series of options to be rated by us, and for us to pick and choose from; it is the justice of God. All the attributes of God are in harmony. The life of justice and the life of love is the covenant life, and it is inseparable from God’s kingdom work, God at work, in us and through us. Let us pray.

Oh Lord our God, Thy word I struth and Thy word is glorious, a light on our way, and a light in terms of which to read the times, and a light in terms of which to act. Make us therefore zealous in Thy service, faithful to Thee; setting aside our feelings in what we are, that we might be Thy work in this world, supernatural facts in Thy hands. Bless us to this end, we beseech Thee, in Jesus name, amen.

Are there any questions now about our lesson? Yes.

[Audience Member] You mentioned not blessing the government or the governor, or some particular individual, in Matthew 5:44 it says: “But I say unto you, love your enemies, bless them that curse you” and so on. That doesn’t seem to jive?

[Rushdoony] There of course it is dealing with the generality of those who oppose us, but in such instances we are to pray for what they need, when we bless them. We don’t say: “Lord, I thank Thee that this persona clobbered me and cheated me.” That would be absurd, you see. What we are to pray for is that God’s work be done in their lives, that they come to know Him. So in no place are we told to bless them in their evil, but our blessing is to wish that God’s grace come upon them, that is what blessing is. God’s joy, God’s peace, God’s grace, come upon them, to make them repent, to make them change their ways. It would certainly be a mistake to ask God to bless somebody for clobbering us or robbing us, or doing us an evil, you see. That is the point. Any other questions or comments?

[Audience Member] Well, the only blessing would be that they come to know the Lord. …coming to know Him, in that aspect it could be. I was just thinking, that… walk by faith, what God says, rather than what we feel is the walk of the Christian.

[Rushdoony] Yes, that’s right. It is His word and His Spirit, His way, His life, in us and through us. Yes? Any other questions or comments?

Yes John?

[John] I know an awful lot of people, an awful lot of friends; a lot of friends of mine in L.A. I know, one of the major problems that they seemed to have, they kept running up against people of the type that we are all too familiar with, and it seemed like their biggest problem was not dealing with these people according to the law, their biggest problem was that they didn’t like them, and they felt guilty about not liking them, because they were enemies. And the whole point of ‘love your enemies’ is keep the law with them, I don’t find any place in the Bible where it says you have to like your enemies, it says love them, meaning keep the law with them. And most of the people that I was dealing with at the time had come out of pietism in one form or another, and their biggest problem was that they didn’t have a good emotion about these people that were persecuting them, about these people that were taking their jobs away, some of them hauling them into court, and what have you. And that was more of a hangup than it was in terms of doing law with them.

[Rushdoony] Yes, you see, because we are so much a part of our time, and our time is very intensely given to self love, we overrate the importance of how we feel. So we think endlessly about it, and our absorption is with ‘my reaction, my feeling.’ And God says: “That is not the point; it is what I require. Now get busy with that.” When we see the priority of what God requires of us, then we drop the rest.

Now part and parcel of that is the feeling of the omnipotence of what we have to say and think, that is a part of Genesis 3:5 “Ye shall be as God.” God’s word determines things, and we feel that if we think or talk enough about something it is going to accomplish something. It doesn’t do anything except rile us up.

But if we do what God requires of us, leave the results in His hands, that takes care of it.

When we lie awake at night because we are worrying over something, it is really saying to God: “Look Lord, if I don’t stay up and think about this, everything is going to go to pot. It requires me to be on the job because you are not looking after it.”

Any other questions or comments?

Well, if not let us bow our heads in prayer. All glory be to Thee oh God our Father, and we thank Thee that Thou hast called us and given us the word of life. We thank Thee that Thy word is truth, and Thy word ministers to our every need. Give us grace to be silent where our word is concerned, and to hear Thy word, and to act in terms of it, that we might have strength and peace, and joy in Thy service. In His name we pray, amen.