Ro 13:7 Render therefore to all their due: taxes to whom taxes are due, customs to whom customs, fear to whom fear, honor to whom honor.
Paul teaching believers that paying our taxes honor God. That paying of taxes and fees to the government we live under is the duty of every follower of Jesus Christ. According to historians the Christians were noted for their abiding by Laws of the Roman Empire . No doubt as the believers in Roman hear this section of the letter, heads were going up and down in agreement. Perhaps even in their hearts boasted in confidence that they submitted to the Roman authority and had paid the government their due taxes and fees. It is probably the same for most of you who have no problem abiding by the law and pay the appropriate taxes and fees that are due to government. We may have paid our due to the economy of man and that is to be commended, however Paul in the next verse declares that the believer has a greater obligation to the economy of God. It is an obligation that is much harder to fulfill than paying taxes and having all our bills paid. We as believers have a great debt we owe to Gods economy and that is the debt of love for another.
Ro 13:8 Owe no one anything except to love one another, for he who loves another has fulfilled the law .Here Paul is not talking about a debt that is owed to government so that we can have a better temporal existence on this earth, but a debt to love our neighbor so that God can influence their eternal existence. Paul understood the debt that had been paid on his behalf and so he qualified to proclaim this truth. Paul declared this truth earlier in his letter Romans I am a debtor both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to wise and to unwise. Paul as a fellow follower of Jesus Christ understood the price that was paid for him to know the truth. That God Himself sent His only beloved Son to redeem Paul from a debt He could not pay, and Christ paid the debt that He did not owe. Paul therefore came to the conclusion that he owed Christ everything he had his heart, his soul, his mind, and his strength. Paul gave himself as a living sacrifice to the service of God. And so Paul compels the church in Roman and every follower of Jesus Christ to understand that a great debt was paid on our behalf, a debt that we would not have been able to pay for all of eternity. therefore we are to love our neighbor because Jesus who redeemed us first loved us. As believers we are to owe a debt to love one another. Not just in our family circles, Paul does not have to teach on the love that is expressed in a family. Paul is speaking about the greater family of mankind, to whom Jesus stepped out of heaven and into to the darkness of this world to redeem. Who are our neighbors it was asked? Any one who is breathing. This love does not come naturally and is really impossible apart from the love of Jesus Christ. This love that the believer is to owe his neighbor is not just for the sake of making them feel loved or making their lives more comfortable. What kind of love is that when a person’s soul is perishing from the lack of the truth of Jesus Christ? This action of love can never be separated from the truth of Jesus Christ. This debt that a believer is to owe to all men is to point the lost to the source of all love Jesus Christ. When we stop and consider what Christ has done for us, we owe all to Him.
Php 3:7-8 But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ.
8 Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ
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