Romans chapter 13

vs 8

Thinking of love as a continual debt that we can never repay makes it a lot different to thinking of it as warm squishies. Warm squishies are nice, but they are hard to hold onto for long. Debts we all understand - they are things imposed on us from above that we are held beholden to forever.

The idea that by loving one another we fulfil the law is an interesting one. We do fulfil a fair bit of it that way at least.

vs 9

This is pretty much what I was thinking.

vs 10

I'd be interested to know how removing someone's eye in vengance is love for one's neighbour. But overall I get the idea.

vs 11

Well, that sounds exciting until you realise that this is just a way of saying "You're older than you've ever been, and now you're even older. And now you're even older. And now you're even older." At least he's honest about it though.

vs 12

Since we are people of light, we should be doing deeds of light, even if the darkness still seems to be around.

vs 13

I wonder if these were problems for the Roman church. I wonder how big a problem this was for any church? Perhaps the early churches, having come out of greek carnality, were far more rugged than we first imagine. Ther certainly didn't have 2000 years of church history to tame them like we are just losing now.

vs 14

Don't even think about it! Good advice, really. If our focus isn't on us and our desires and how we can meet them, but is on Christ, then we are going to go where our focus is, and our actions will meet our focus. I like this verse.