Love Fulfills The Law

Romans 13:8-14

Love Fulfills the Law

8 Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for whoever loves others has fulfilled the law. 9 The commandments, “You shall not commit adultery,” “You shall not murder,” “You shall not steal,” “You shall not covet,”[a] and whatever other command there may be, are summed up in this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”[b] 10 Love does no harm to a neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.

LOVE MY NEIGHBOR

By: Charles Stanley

The second part of Jesus’ love command is to love my neighbor as I love myself. At another point, Jesus takes our requirement for loving one another to another level. He says, “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.13 Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:12-13). Loving our brothers just got harder. The standard of loving my neighbor as I love myself is a high standard but not as high as the standard of laying our lives down for our friends, an allusion to the sacrificial death of Jesus on our behalf.

How can I describe what that kind of love for my fellow man looks like?

The priority love to my fellow-man shows up in my relationship with my parents, ouch! Any of us who have lived through being a teenager probably have offenses toward our parents we would rather forget. But the kind of love Jesus describes honors our parents first.

Love for my fellow man is always redemptive. When I am offended I never become angry and throw insults around about the stupid idiot who just mistreated me. I will never murder someone, literally or figuratively, no matter how severely I have been offended or injured.

Love will always honor the sanctity of my marriage. I will never allow anything to break the covenant bond I have with my wife. Love will always honor the sanctity of my friends’ marriage. It is a holy thing. No matter how hot my friend’s wife may be, she is not mine and my heart will not desire her. With this kind of love, I will never commit adultery, even in my heart.