8 Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the
one who loves another has fulfilled the law. 9 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.” 10 Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love
is the fulfilling of the law. (Romans 13:8-10 (ESV)
Love is the fulfilling of the law. This isn’t saying that as
long as we love that we fulfill the law. What it means is that love that cares
for other people does not want to break the commandments. You can’t love your
neighbor and steal his wife, you can’t even love his wife and do that to her.
Of course, adulterers normally try to justify their adultery by appealing to
their love for each other. At best this is a not guilty by reason of insanity
argument. The Romans to whom this letter was written to actually considered
erotic love to be a form of insanity. But that isn’t the love that Paul is
speaking of here. Once again, here Paul speaks of agape love. This is the love
that God has for all of mankind. It does no evil, it justifies no evil. This is
the kind of love that causes one to recognize that it is love that writes the
commandments as they are and so does no wrong. This is the love of God that
that would rather die for you than to condemn you.
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