As we wrap up our journey through the book of Romans, we turn to chapters 13 through 15, where Paul shows us what it looks like to live out the Gospel every day. Faith isn't just something we believe. It's something that shapes the way we live, love, and respond to the world around us.

In this episode, we'll explore what Scripture teaches about honoring governing authorities, loving our neighbors, living with the expectation of Christ's return, and extending grace to those who see things differently. Paul reminds us that love fulfills the law and should be the defining mark of every believer.

We'll discover how the Gospel transforms our relationships, calls us to unity in the body of Christ, and empowers us to reflect God's love and grace in every area of life.

The content shared on Living the Selah Life is for spiritual encouragement, personal reflection and informational purposes only.

It is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or replace medical, psychological or professional advice of any kind.

Please consult a qualified, licensed healthcare provider or professional for any physical, mental or emotional health concerns.

The views expressed are those of the host, Kimberly Lock, and are based on personal experience and Biblical insight, not clinical or professional training.

Welcome back to Living the Selah Life, a podcast that invites you to slow down, to breathe and to reconnect with the presence of God.

I am your host, Kim, and this space is for anyone longing to become more familiar with his presence.

Each episode is an intentional pause, a moment to reflect, realign and remember that God meets us when we create space for Him.

So take a breath.

You are right on time.

Let us live the Selah Life together.

In our last episode, we learned what it means to be living sacrifices.

We talked about presenting our bodies to God, being transformed by renewed minds, using our gifts, loving genuinely and overcoming evil with good.

It was a powerful conversation about what happens when the Gospel moves from our heads into our daily habits and our daily relationships.

Today we are concluding our Roman series.

We're going to talk about what it looks like to submit to authority, how to genuinely love our neighbors, and what it means to live in light of Christ's return, and how to accept one another across our differences so that we can glorify God together.

This is the capstone of Paul's letter.

He is showing us that the gospel transforms every single area of life, from how you relate to the government to how you treat the person living next door, how you handle disagreements inside the church.

All of it is shaped by the good news of Jesus Christ.

Get ready to see that love truly fulfills the law and that living for God's glory produces a real and lasting unity among his people.

So let's jump right in.

Submitting to Authority Paul opens chapter 13 with an instruction that many people are uncomfortable with.

He tells believers to submit to governing authorities and you would not even know this is a thing in today's world.

He explains that all authority comes from God and that governments which exist have been appointed by Him.

When you resist authority, you are resisting the structure that God has ordained for society.

Now, I do want to be clear about what Paul is and is not saying here.

He is not saying that government is always right or that you are obligated to obey commands that ask you to sin.

Scripture gives plenty of examples of believers who respectfully refused to comply when human authority conflicted with God's commands.

But the general posture Paul is calling for here is one of respect and submission.

Not because the government always deserves it, but because God has established authority as part of how he maintains order in the world.

Paul explains that the purpose of government is to restrain evil and promote good.

Authorities function as God's servants, whether they acknowledge him or not.

I'm going to say that again.

Authorities function as God's servants whether they acknowledge him or or not.

They are instruments in his hands for maintaining justice.

So Paul says we should submit not just to avoid punishment, but because it is the right thing to do for our conscience.

We pay taxes.

We show respect.

We give honor where honor is due.

When we choose to honor those in leadership in even when we disagree with their decisions, we reflect the humility of Christ.

It is a profound witness to a culture that is consumed with demanding its own way.

We show that our security is not tied to who is in office, but to the God who sits on the throne above every earthly authority.

That truth frees us from the constant outrage and anxiety and that consumes so much of the world around us.

We can live with a confidence, a settled, deep confidence, knowing that God is ultimately in control of human history.

Let's talk about loving your neighbor.

Paul then moves from how we relate to the government to how we relate to the people right around us.

He says we should owe no one anything except to love one another.

Keep short accounts.

Pay your debts.

The only ongoing debt you should carry is the debt of love, because you will never fully finish paying it.

He then makes a statement that I want us to sit with for a moment.

He says that the person who loves another has fulfilled the law.

Think about the commandments.

Do not commit adultery.

Do not murder.

Do not steal.

Do not lie.

Do not covet.

Every single one of those commands is designed to protect your neighbor.

If you genuinely love your neighbor, you will not do those things to them.

Love does not commit adultery because it honors marriage.

Love does not murder because it values life.

Love does not steal because it respects what belongs to someone else.

Love does not lie because it speaks truth.

Love does not covet because it celebrates the blessings of others rather than resenting them.

Love does no harm to a neighbor.

Therefore, love is the fulfillment of the law.

And this is exactly why Jesus said the greatest commandments are to love God and love your neighbor.

All the law and the prophets hang on these two commands.

If you love, you Fulfill what the law requires, not through obligation, but through genuine care for the person in front of you.

And this changes how we approach obedience.

We are looking at the people in our lives and asking how we can serve them well.

When love is the motive, obedience becomes a joy.

It becomes a natural overflow of a heart that has been changed by the grace of God.

We love because he first loved us, and that love spills over into everyone we encounter.

What does Paul have to say about living in the light of Christ's return?

Paul shifts the focus to the urgency of the time we are living in.

He tells the Roman believers to wake up from their spiritual sleep because their final salvation is closer now than when they first believed.

The night is almost over, the day is coming.

Hallelujah, and we need to live like it.

He tells them to cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light, to walk properly as if it is already day.

And that means leaving behind the things that belong to the dark, those things that have no place in the life of someone who was walking in the light of Christ.

Instead, Paul says to put on the Lord Jesus Christ like clothing.

Let him be what people see when they look at you and make no provision for the flesh.

This is the verse that famously convicted Augustine and led to his conversion.

He read those words, put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and it changed his life completely.

May that same truth convict and transform us today.

Urgency should characterize our lives.

Not an anxious urgency or a fearful urgency, but a purposeful one.

Because time is limited, use it wisely.

Live for what matters.

Every day is a gift and an opportunity to reflect the light of Christ in a world that so desperately needs it.

When we live with the awareness that our time here is short, it clarifies our priorities.

The petty arguments and trivial pursuits just fade away, and we are left with a deep desire to invest our lives in things that have eternal value.

Accepting one another.

In chapter 14 of Romans, Paul addresses a very real issue in the Roman Church.

Well, it was a very real issue in the Roman Church, and it is still one today.

The church was having disputes over matters of conscience.

Some people felt they could eat meat that had been offered to idols, while others felt they should only eat vegetables.

Ever heard this argument before?

Some people observed special religious days, while others treated every day the same.

Paul calls some of them weak in faith and others strong.

The weak believer abstains from certain things out of conscience.

The strong believer has freedom.

Both of them are sitting in the same church and they are judging each other for It Paul's instructions is simple but challenging.

Receive both of them.

Do not despise the weak person for being overly cautious and do not judge the strong person for having freedom.

God has received them both.

Who are we to judge another person's servant?

They answer to God, not to us, or to you or to me.

And God is able to make them stand.

Whether you live or die, you belong to the Lord.

You are not autonomous.

You are His.

Christ died and rose to be Lord of both the dead and the living.

So stop judging your brother and sister.

You will both stand before the judgment seat of Christ one day and let him do the judging.

Instead of judging, Paul says we should resolve not to put a stumbling block in our brother's way.

He knew that there was nothing inherently unclean about the food they were arguing over.

But he also knew that that if a brother thought it was unclean, it was unclean to him.

If your freedom grieves your brother, you are no longer walking in love.

Do not destroy the person Christ died for over a disputable matter.

And I know nowadays people are so hung up on what God said they could eat and what God said they couldn't eat.

If God told you that, live it out for your life.

It does not mean that it applies to everybody's life.

The kingdom of God is not about food and drink.

It is about righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.

If your freedom causes someone to stumble, restrict your freedom out of love.

Keep your convictions between you and God, and you don't have to flaunt your freedom in a way that hurts someone else.

Act from faith, not from doubt.

Because whatever is not from faith, the Bible said, is sin.

As Paul wraps up this section in chapter 15, he says that those who are strong ought to bear with the scruples of the weak.

We should not just please ourselves, we should please our neighbor for their good to build them up.

Christ did not please himself.

In fact, he bore reproach for us.

We are called to follow his example.

Paul prays that God would grant them unity, that they would have one mind and one mouth glorifying God together.

He tells them to receive one another just as Christ received them.

And think about how Christ received you.

He received you when you were a sinner.

He received you when you were far from perfect.

He received you before you had anything to offer.

Extend that same grace to the believers around you who differ from you on disputable matters.

Christ served both the Jew and the Gentile so that both groups could praise God together.

And Paul ends this section with a prayer that has stayed with me.

He prays that the God of hope would fill them with all joy and peace in believing so that they might abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

That is the goal.

Joy, peace and abounding hope.

And it all comes back to love.

Love your neighbor.

Accept one another.

Do not cause others to stumble.

Bear with the weak.

Love is the practical outworking of the gospel.

You have been loved by God.

You have received mercy.

Now extend that same love and mercy to the people around you.

We will move on to this week's pause prompts and remember.

Pause prompts are just a moment to take inventory of where we are so that we will know where we are going.

Let's go.

Pause prompt number one.

How do you respond to authority?

Do you submit respectfully or do you rebel against structure?

Are you loving your neighbor as yourself?

Are you living in light of Christ's return?

Do you judge other believers over disputable matters?

Do you pursue peace and unity in the body with one mind and one mouth?

We are called to glorify God together.

Pursue what makes for peace.

Let's move on to our Selah moment and prayer.

My favorite part of the podcast.

This is our opportunity to reflect on the journey through Romans and commit to living out its truth.

So you can sit comfortably and take seven.

Take several slow, deep breaths.

Reflect on the journey through Romans from the power of the gospel all the way to the love that fulfills the law.

Celebrate the gospel.

You are justified by faith.

You have peace with God.

You are dead to sin and alive in Christ.

There is no condemnation.

Nothing, no thing can separate you from God's love.

Embrace your calling.

You are a living sacrifice.

You are being transformed by a renewed mind.

You love your neighbor, you pursue peace and you live in the light of Christ's return.

Commit to love.

Love fulfills the law.

Commit to living in love toward your neighbors, toward your fellow believers and toward your enemies.

Let love shape your life from the inside out.

Let us pray.

Father God, in the name of Jesus, thank you for the book of Romans.

Thank you for the gospel proclaimed so clearly and so powerfully in this letter.

Thank you that we are justified by faith and not by works.

We thank you that we have peace with you through Jesus Christ.

Thank you that we are dead to sin, sin and alive in you, Lord.

We thank you that there is no condemnation for us and that nothing can separate us from your love.

We thank you that your gifts and callings are irrevocable.

We thank you for calling us to be living sacrifices, presenting our bodies to you and being transformed by renewed minds.

Help us to submit to authority respectfully.

Help us to love our neighbors as ourselves and help us to live in light of Christ's return, awake and walking in the day, making no provisions for the flesh.

Father, help us accept one another in spite of our differences, keep us from judging or over disputable matters and help us pursue peace and build each other up.

Help us bear with the weak and to restrict our freedom out of love.

Help us serve rather than to please ourselves, following the example of Christ.

Make us people who glorify you with one mind and one mouth.

Help us pursue unity in diversity, accepting those who are different from us while maintaining truth.

Fill us with joy and peace in believing.

Make us overflow, Lord, with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

God, we thank you that love fulfills the Law.

Help us to love love genuinely.

Let love shape every relationship, every decision and every action.

As we finish this series on Romans, help us to live out what we learned.

Do not let the book of Romans remain intellectual knowledge.

Make it a lived reality.

Help us to rest knowing that we are justified by faith and that we are being led by the Holy Spirit.

Help us follow his leading.

Lord, nothing separates from your love.

Help us find security in this thank you for the Gospel.

Thank you Jesus for your sacrifice.

Thank you for your mercy, Lord.

Thank you for the transformation that you are working in us.

Thank you that you who begun the good work will complete it all.

Glory to you.

From you, through you and to you are all things.

To you be glory forever.

It is in the name of Jesus who is the power of the Gospel and the fulfillment of the Law.

And it is so.

Let's lean into our Selah moment.

Well my friends, that is it for today.

Thank you for listening to Living the Selah Life and thank you for journeying through the Book of Romans with me over these past episodes.

If this series has stirred something in your spirit, share it with someone who needs to hear the good news of the Gospel.

You can connect with us on Instagram, a Facebook group or or YouTube at Living the Selah Life.

Or email me a Selah moment that you'd like to hear to Living the selah life at ProTime me.

Until next time, remember that God is speaking.

He wants to guide you and direct you and give you his wisdom for your life.

Create space to listen.

You are just justified by faith, secure in God's love, and called to live as a transformed person who loves others.

Well, may you go from this place rested, carrying the awareness that his presence is always near.

May you be rooted in the unshakable word of God, the Logos that grounds you and the rhema that guides you.

Men shall not live off the alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.

And may you keep rising into the life he designed for you, into purpose, into peace, into the fullness of his calling.

May your life become a living Selah, an intentional pause that reveals his presence.

It is in Jesus name that we pray, and it is so, Selah.