#DailyDevotion Love Is The Fulfillment Of The Law

Romans 13:8-10

⁸Don’t owe anyone anything but to love one another. If you love the other person, you have kept the Law. ⁹The commandments: “Do not commit adultery, do not murder, do not steal, do not covet,” and any others are summed up in this: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” ¹⁰Love does no wrong to another person. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the Law.

So I wonder what Paul is meaning by don’t owe anyone anything but to love one another. To love one another pretty much means everything. I guess if you owe something to someone and you cannot pay them back and they ask you do to something unloving or you think they may ask you do something unloving because you “owe” them, then you should not go into debt in any fashion or way with such a person.

But as Paul says here, “If you love the other person, you have kept the Law.” Paul then list off a number of commandments from the second table. James says something similar, in chapter 1, “⁸If you really do everything the royal law demands, as it is written: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself,’ you’re doing right.” Then he says, “¹⁰If you keep the whole Law but fail in one point, you’re guilty of breaking all of it.” In 1 John 3, it is written, “²³He orders us to believe in the name of His Son Jesus Christ and to love one another as He has ordered us to do.”

James reasons that if you keep one commandment you are keeping them all because you can’t do that and not keep the first commandment. If you break a commandment you have broken them all because you sinned against God in breaking the first commandment. I think Paul is thinking in similar terms of love being the fulfillment of the Law. If you love your neighbor, you are loving someone made in the image and likeness of God. In essence then, you are loving God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength when you love those made in his image and likeness.

Now believe it or not, Christians really do not have a set list of laws and regulations we are to follow. We may bring up the Ten Commandments but it is only because they are a good summary of how Jesus and the Apostles teach us to love one another. Paul makes it pretty simple for us if we will have it, love does no wrong to another person. Since this is the case, love fulfills the Law. Sure, it may seem more open ended but our whole lives do not need to be regulated. How we may best show love to a person and not cause them harm depends a lot on what is going on in their lives. I’m not talking about situational ethics here. I guess we could call it situational love.

Now certainly there are numerous prohibitions and commands not only in the Gospels from Jesus and in the epistles. However, we should ask ourselves when applying any of them to ourselves and to our neighbors are we showing mercy or demanding sacrifice? Jesus says God prefers mercy and not sacrifice. So in showing love to our neighbor we need to remember to ask ourselves, “Am I being merciful here or am I demanding the other sacrifice?” Remember to be merciful and in doing so you will be keeping the commandment to love.

Merciful God and Father, grant us your Holy Spirit that we may know how to show love to our neighbor, the person in front of us and be merciful to them and in doing so keep your commandment. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.