Love is The Fulfillment of the Law
Do not owe anyone anything, except to love one another,
for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. The commandments, Do not
commit adultery; do not murder; do not steal; do not covet; and any other
commandment, are summed up by this commandment: Love your neighbor as yourself.
Love does no wrong to a neighbor. Love, therefore, is the fulfillment of the
law.
There is one debt that exists in the Christian life. All
other debts have been paid for in the saving work of Jesus Christ. The one debt
that we continue to owe is to love one another. This is quite a truth that is
being proposed here. What is interesting is that Paul is literally saying that
love fulfills all the commands of God.
Love is not merely a subject of Christianity; it is THE subject of
Christianity.
Jesus said about love in Matthew 22:40
“All the Law and the Prophets depend on these two commands.” Jesus elevates
loving God and loving others as the crux of all the law and the prophets. It is
not hyperbole to suggest that all things hang on love. If you do not have love
there is nothing about any religious passion or devotion that means anything (1
Corinthians 13:1-3).
I meet many who want to elevate obedience over love. They
make obedience the master of love and suggest that the only way to love God is
to obey. That is to say loving God is a work accomplished through exacting
obedience to God. If this is true then in Jesus’ day the Pharisees would have
been the most loving group. Yet Jesus rejected them.
Someone might point to John 14:15
“If you love me, you will keep my commands.” Notice though that the keeping of
commandments is contingent on loving Christ. It is not keeping the commands to
love Christ. It is keeping the commands because you love Christ.
The reality is that obedience to God hangs on loving God.
Obedience is dependent on a heart that loves God. Obedience that does not flow
from a place of love is a dead works religion. And that type of obedience is
spiritually dung (Philippians 3:2-9).
One more connection. Love is the fulfillment of the law
according to God’s word (Romans 3:10; James 2:8; Galatians 5:14;).
Christ also is fulfillment of the law according to Scripture (Matthew 5:17;
Romans 8:3-4;
Romans 10:4).
Since both love and Christ are fulfillment of the Law there is a spiritual
union that exist between Christ and love. We get the phrase “God is love” from
this spiritual reality. In 1 John 4:16
“And we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is
love, and the one who remains in love remains in God, and God remains in him.”
we see that this union extends to us. So Love is the union of God to the souls
of man through the sacrifice of Christ and the confession of men.
Love is the obedience and good works that follow which is
the fulfillment of the Law. Love is supreme, was supreme, and will always be
supreme. Love never ends (1 Corinthians 13:8).
God Bless You,
~BJ
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