Love Is the Fulfilling of 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 13:9–10)
There is a law in the Gospel and that is the Law of Love. In fact, according to Paul, love is the fulfilling of the law. Paul’s message in this regard directly follows Christ’s teaching, as found in Matthew 22:37-40 and John 13:34-35. Some things in life are nuanced, complicated and require us to see the grey between polarities of black and white, but this is no such issue. This is a matter profound in both its remarkable simplicity and awe-inspiring implication: In all things, be motivated by love.
Now, as elegantly simple as this sounds, we all know how difficult it can be to apply. Love requires so much of us and our sinful nature often overwhelms us. And that is a key point: The Gospel doesn’t just teach doing loving things but being motivated by love inwardly in all we do. There is a legal concept known as mens rea, or scienter. To adjudicate someone guilty of a crime, a jury must discern their intent. What motivated the person’s actions? What was in their heart? Likewise, the Law of Love is only fulfilled through an inside-out process: that love imbues our hearts and from that internal source our outward actions flow.
Consider what love requires of us. Love requires we open our hearts with empathy for others. Love requires us to sublimate our own ego and to see the world from another’s perspective; even those who, in truth, do not deserve such regard. Loves compels submission and surrender. We love others, regardless, because they too were created in God’s image, and all things work for the glory of God. (Romans 8:28 and 11:36). We offer love, regardless, surrendering to His plan and purpose. We love others remembering that most people are doing the best they can with what they know. Now they may not know very much, but they act according to what they believe to be warranted in the circumstance. In truth, are any of us any different? Love necessitates grace. Because we ourselves so desperately need grace, in fact, utterly depend on it, we offer it to others.
Perhaps most of all, love demands courage. You must be brave to love. There is no one you love from whom, at some point, you won’t be separated. With love can come grief, pain and rejection. Like the woman with the Alabaster jar, love asks us to break our own hearts. You must make the investment regardless of the possibility of any return. It is this painful process of loving others that brings us closer to Christ. The very difficulty inherent in loving others is what makes love so precious. It can be such a struggle, but Praise be to God for that struggle, because the fulfillment of the law by love is what gives it such inestimable value.
I want to return to the sublime simplicity of the Law of Love, for two truths may exist simultaneously: Love may be complicated and fraught with risk, yet at the same time it can be so simple. Last week, our family dog, Reggie, died. He was thirteen years old and had suffered for several months with cancer. As a family, we said a prayer for Reggie and reflected on the fact that Reggie possessed a knowledge perhaps far greater than any of us. Reggie never met a stranger. Reggie was kind to everyone and genuinely happy to see them. Reggie loved us; he loved everyone. That is just who he was.
Let us all pray that God opens our hearts, softens us, and through the Holy Spirit, helps us to fulfill the law by manifesting love. To my Grace family, I love you.
In Christ,
Mort Taylor