Love and the Law

The New Commandment

A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another:  just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.  By this all people will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.

--John 13: 31-35

Love and the Law

Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law.  For the commandments, "You shall not commit adultery, You shall not murder, You shall not steal, You shall not covet," and any other commandment are summed up in this word: "You shall love your neighbor as yourself."  Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.

--Romans 13:8-10

We owe it to God to fulfill His law.  Complete and total obedience to Him, from now until the day we die, would still not be perfect enough, for we have disobeyed Him already enough to earn Hell thousands of times.  In this passage, we find the broad category under which much of God's law falls: "You shall love your neighbor as yourself."

  

Jesus has a higher standard than just "Don't have an affair" or "Don't kill anybody."  In His most famous sermon, He revealed that He considers lust to be adultery and hatred to be murder.  So it isn't enough for us to just abstain from heinous, obviously despicable crimes that would earn us shame from other people.  That in itself is not enough to pay what we owe.  The perfect obedience which is our debt consists of a heart that loves.

If love is the fulfilling of the law, then I am a law-breaker.

Looking at these four sins, I find just how guilty I am of transgressing God's commandments.

Adultery.  There is more to lust than just looking at someone with impure desires in your heart.  There is a sense in which any relationship you have can contribute to indulging your cravings for attention.  One of the places this can be most obvious is in relationships with people of the opposite gender.  My selfish heart can and does seek to gratify itself in the attention of men.  God tells me that this is not only a way to rack up debt against Him, but it is in fact a refusal to pay what I owe to other people in my life.  If you see someone--anyone--in your life as a source of self-gratification, then your lust for your own glory is actively hindering you from loving that person.  No matter how much you may "like" that guy or girl, the only person you are loving is yourself.

Murder.  The sin of hatred is equally dangerous and equally disguisable.  Almost no one I know has ever actually taken someone else's life.  Yet we all have feelings of anger, bitterness, and un-love that we would be appalled to see anyone find out.  Daily, someone I know does something that causes the mercury in my anger-meter to push to the top.  I may ignore the person--may even be silent--but inside I am hot with wrath.  I have literally thought before of someone in my life, "I hate ____."  I have done this multiple times.  Even more numerous are the instances in which I have said, "I hate it when _____ does ____."  My open complaint reveals that I love my own unchallenged comfort more than I love the person who challenged it.

Coveting and Stealing.  The last two breakable laws seem to go hand in hand--"You shall not covet" and "You shall not steal."  How many times have I wanted something that someone else has?  To limit this to material possessions would be (for me) a major cop-out.  I have found myself capable of being jealous of anything and everything.  Someone's car or clothes or paycheck--sure.  Someone's abilities, popularity, or the favor they enjoy--even more prevalent.  I often like to see the sin of jealousy as a sin against God.  After all, I am being discontent with His numerous gifts.  But I am remiss if I don't consider this sin as a lack of love towards others.  Have you ever been actively envious of someone in your life, and continued to love them perfectly, or even treat them well externally?  It's not just difficult.  It's impossible.  To covet someone, or competitively fight to get what they have is to deny them your love.

Each of these sins jars me with the realization that I do not love as I should.  Every day, instead of paying God and others the debt that I owe, I am increasing my deficit by being lustful, hateful, and jealous.  A comparison to Jesus' law reveals that I am hopelessly behind on laying down even a fraction of the payment He is due.

But praise be to Jesus--He has paid our debts.

Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.

--Matthew 5:17

Not only does Jesus establish the law of love--He follows it to the letter.  In His perfect obedience, we are free to enjoy God's favor even though we cannot obey perfectly.  And because our Savior lives in us,  we know that He will help us to pay back what we owe.

 To image Christ to the world, rely on His power to help you obey the law.