10 May - Roman 13

Today we move on to Romans 13 in our Tattoo Church reading plan. Here are a few notes from this chapter:

1. We're taught that Christians are to obey the government and follow it's laws. The only Biblical exception we see is when to obey the government would require us to disobey God. In that case, we obey God. But in all others, we are to seek to obey the government and to view their leadership as, in a sense, representing God's leadership in our nation. (This obviously isn't always simple or easy.)
2. We learn in verses 8-10 that love is ultimate. All of God's laws have "love your neighbor" at their core. In fact, 'love God and love your neighbor' is (in a sense) like the cliff-notes of the Bible. A lot of Christians view their goal as knowledge (hence you'll hear Christians say, "I'm not getting fed at this church" if they feel like the sermons aren't "deep enough"), but the true goal is love. (Interestingly, you rarely hear Christians say, "I'm not being asked to love enough at this church, so I'm leaving!")
3. In verses 11-14 there's an alluding to the fact that someday Jesus is going to return. The Bible tells us that when He does, the world as we know it will stop and a new era will be ushered in. The truth is we have no idea what this will really look like. The important thing is that the reason Jesus is to return is to right all the wrongs in the world and we can all agree there is a  lot that needs to be righted. So, since we know that the "end is coming" we should live with that in mind, which means we should live for God.

Here's a challenge for you from today's reading:  Love is ultimate. But is that the ultimate thing for you? The goal of life should be love. But is that the goal of your life? Are you growing in love, or just knowledge? What would your life look like if you allowed it to be dominated by God's love? If you still aren’t sure if you even believe in God this can be applied to your life. We can agree that the world would be better if we lived out of love: so is your life characterized by love?