8 Owe no one anything except to love one another, for he 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 bear false witness,” “You shall not covet,” and if there is any other commandment, are all summed up in this saying, namely, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” 10 Love does no harm to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of the law. ~ Romans 13:8-10
Today, we return to our study of Romans 13 which is a part of the overall final section in Romans. While Romans 1-3 is about the sinful condition of man, and Romans 4-5 is about salvation, and Romans 6-8 is about sanctification, and Romans 9-11 is about the sovereignty of God, Romans 12-16 is about service or being a servant.
In v.8 of today's passage we read, "Owe no one anything except to love one another, for he who loves another has fulfilled the law."
The Apostle Paul used the word "love" five times in these verses. When we feed the flesh, we limit love. When we feed the Spirit, we allow love to run wildly our midst. The love that the Apostle wrote about here is agape or unconditional love. Used 320 times in the New Testament, agape is the type of love that is selfless and self-sacrificing. And, when we love like this, we are getting to the essence for which God gave us the commandments in the first place; that love might abound among us.
When Paul says "owe no man anything," he is not forbidding us from taking out a loan to purchase something. To "owe no man anything," is a bridge from v.6-7 where the Apostle had addressed the paying of our taxes, which we owe the government. Paying our taxes is a debt. The Apostle Paul bridges from there to the point about love by simply saying, "owe no man anything but love." In other words, pay all our debts, and the one debt we will always pay and never really have paid is the debt of love.
We have all owed money to people, and when we are around them, the first thing that comes into our minds is the money we owe them. And, we find it difficult to turn off that thought. In fact, we wonder to ourselves, "Is he thinking of the money I owe him?" This is the way we ought to be about love. We should remember that we have an obligation to love everyone. Such is the nature of the heart that has been impacted by the mercy and grace of God. Mercy reminds us that we are not getting what we deserve and grace reminds us that we are getting what we do not deserve.
In v.9 of today's passage we read, "For the commandments, 'You shall not commit adultery,' 'You shall not murder,' 'You shall not steal,' 'You shall not bear false witness,' 'You shall not covet,' and if there is any other commandment, are all summed up in this saying, namely, 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.'"
In this one verse, the Apostle Paul isolates the seventh, the sixth, the eighth, the ninth and the tenth commandments, in that order. Perhaps, he mentions the seventh first because there was a particular problem with the seventh in the church at Rome. You will note that the Ten Commandments consist
of two divisions: the first four have to do with our relationship to God, and the second, commands 5-10, have to do with our interactions with other people. The only commandment of the ones related to our dealings with people that is left out here is the fifth command, "Honor your father and mother." The point that Paul is making is: if we live by the law of love, we will fulfill the law of Moses.
In v.10 of today's passage we read, "Love does no harm to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of the law."
In the Old Testament there were Ten Commandments, and then, the Lord Jesus comes along and turns them from negatives into positives when He reduced them from ten to two commandments. Instead of a bunch of "thou shalt nots," He said, "Love God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength and love your neighbor as yourself." And, when we are busy loving someone, there will be no danger of us longing for their spouse, murdering them, stealing from them, bearing false witness about them or coveting what they have.
It’s important not to confuse the order of these two great commands. People often get this backward and live as though the law is the fulfillment of love. The trouble is that when the law is the fulfillment, we may try to learn what love is by examining the law. Christians start assuming that the rules they follow are inherently loving in every context.
The Pharisees made this mistake when they assumed that it was the law that made them righteous. In Matthew 12:1-8, they question Jesus about his disciples picking and eating grain on the Sabbath, which is unlawful. Jesus points out that David and his men broke the law by eating the consecrated bread, and even the priests break the law on the Sabbath to perform their duties. The law, in and of itself, doesn’t make a person holy, nor does breaking the law necessarily make one unholy. When we place love as the fulfillment, we can use it as a measure of the law. Paul says that loving others fulfills the law, that all commands are summed up in loving our neighbors as ourselves, and that love is the fulfillment of the law because it doesn’t harm others.
