Love Fulfills it All

 DEVOTION

THE LETTER TO THE ROMANS

LOVE FULFILLS IT ALL

Rom 13:8-10

8 Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for he who loves his fellowman has fulfilled the law. 9 The commandments, "Do not commit adultery," "Do not murder," "Do not steal," "Do not covet," and whatever other commandment there may be, are summed up in this one rule: "Love your neighbor as yourself."   10 Love does no harm to its neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.

NIV

Once again we are faced with the idea that the law is no longer something we should look to for our righteousness or even in being obedient to God. Why are believers still wanting to look to the law, or create their own laws? When we establish any form of law, that is rules to live by then we are accountable to those rules or the law. When we think about the law that was given to Moses, we might dismiss those laws the Israelites had to live under, but we might well still look to the Ten Commandments as relevant to live by. However, Paul makes it clear, as we have seen Jesus make it clear, the law is fulfilled simply by loving our neighbor.  Paul even references those Ten Commandments as being summed in but one rule, “Love your neighbor as yourself”. Let us set all our rules aside, for we know that we cannot find any peace in following them for we are frail and cannot, just as the Israelites. But we can love our neighbor the same way we love ourselves. That is we would never do ourselves any harm, at least on purpose. We could be harming ourselves unaware in some way, perhaps through food that is bad for our health, or through some some attitude that is bad for our heart or spirit. In the same manner we could unintentually harm our neighbor, but we would never do it with purpose. But we would have to think for the most part we would never purposefully do harm to ourselves. This is the same as what loving our neighbor is all about. We would never intentionally cause them any harm. We would not murder, or hate them, as Jesus said was the same. We would never steal from them, or not give them the honor they deserve. We would never covet anything they have, for that would be either jealousy or envy and we know that is not right. Or whatever other commandment there may be, including all those rules and regulations that we what to impose upon ourselves. No, all we are supposed to do is love others as we love ourselves. If we can do that, we have fulfilled every last law that ever was or could ever be. If we are the image bearers of God, and if our fellowman, who is either the image bearer of God, or should be, then we could say loving them is the same as loving God. If we want to see what loving them looks like, then we just have to look in the mirror and see our heart, see our being the image bearer of God.