Fulfilling the Law
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Introduction
Introduction
Every January, Christians all over the world, start reading the Bible through, hoping to get it done in a year’s time. And as the old joke goes, everything is fine until they get to Leviticus. Then come all the sacrifices and the leprosy talk, and mold and mildew, and there’s only so much a person can take! But if we are not careful, we completely miss one of the greatest verses in all of the Bible. In fact, Jesus calls it the second greatest commandment in all of Scripture.
You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against the sons of your own people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord.
Jesus said that loving one’s neighbor, coupled with loving God with all our hearts, souls, minds, and strength make up all the laws and the prophets. Which means, if we are a people who want to live a holy life, we do it by loving God and loving others. And that’s what we want to talk about this morning. And in studying it, I want us to ask the five Ws and the H questions: Who, What, When, Where, Why, and How as it regards our obligation. Though the text does not directly state when or where, I think we can infer it by its context.
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.
To What are We Obligated? Love
To What are We Obligated? Love
The first question that we are posing to the text is: To what are we obligated? The answer is quite simple. To love. We are obligated to love.
Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law.
The word owe in verse 8 is the verbal form of the word Paul used in the previous verse, thus linking these two verses. We pay what we owe. Whether its taxes, revenue, respect, or honor, we pay what we owe. And now Paul says that in fact, we ought not owe anything at all, except love. In other words, we are obligated to love.
The two words in this verse for love come from that well-known Greek word, “agape.” I quickly want to help us to understand this love by comparing it to the other loves. Hopefully then, we’ll get an understanding as to what we are obligated to.
The first word for love is eros. Eros is what we could say is the closest thing to selfish love. Of course, we get the word “erotic” from it, but its more than just sexual in nature. It is selfish in nature. It’s a love that craves satisfaction. Most people probably have this type of love for God. They want God to be their genie and satisfy their desires.
The second word is philos. This is more of a mutual affection. This is the love that friends have for one another. They care about each other’s wellbeing. This love gives and takes between two or more participants.
The third word, this word in the text is agape. This is selfless love. Whereas eros is selfish love seeking one’s own desires and philos is mutual love seeking mutual care, agape is selfless. Eros may cast someone aside once the desire has been met. Philos may cast one aside if situations get too difficult. Agape does not cast aside because it isn’t in the relationship for itself but determined to be the good and do good toward others. This is the love that God demonstrates for us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. This is why we read about this type of love in
1 Corinthians 13:4–8 (ESV)
Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant
or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful;
it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth.
Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
Love never ends.
So to what are we obligated? To love selflessly. To exude patience and kindness, humility and gentleness, selflessness and forgiveness. To bear through things even when they are tough; it never gives up on its object.
To Whom are We Obligated? Everyone
To Whom are We Obligated? Everyone
So the first question was “to what are we obligated?” And the answer is to “selfless love.” The second question then is to whom are we obligated? If we are to never give up on the object of our love, then we ought to know who that object is. And the answer is everyone.
Let’s look again at
Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law.
Notice the three persons Paul mentions: No one, each other, and another. The word “no one” is all exclusive. The literal translation is closer to our improper English; it’s proper Greek, but improper English: “Owe nothing to no one.” It’s all exclusive. But then it looks as if there is only a particular set of people: each other. So then, Paul must mean the church, fellow believers. The word Paul used is the same word Jesus used in
By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”
So love between the disciples, right? So we are obligated to love our fellow-believers. But Paul doesn’t leave it there. He changes the word again! This time he uses the word “heteron.” It means “other” but of different sort. The simplest example is heterosexual couples. These are couples of two different genders/sexes. On the one hand, they are the same as they are both people, but they are different in their sexes/gender.
Taking into consideration the context in which this is stated, that we pay all that we owe, whether taxes, revenue, respect, or honor, which is all-inclusive, and that we’re still in the context of paying no one evil for evil, then it seems logical here that Paul is indicating we are to love everyone unselfishly. This certainly fits in with Jesus’s teaching that we not only love our neighbor, but our enemies as well.
Too often, we are like the lawyer seeking to justify ourselves and ask the question, “who is my neighbor.” In light of the Leviticus verse we saw earlier, that seems like a legit question. After all, its context is “You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against the sons of your own people.” Now the question is only, who are my own people? My family? My tribe? My country? Jesus’s response with the parable of the Good Samaritan was simply that everyone is your neighbor, and we are to be a good neighbor to everyone.
Jeremiah brought this up to those going into exile to Babylon, a very wicked city.
But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare.
As exiles and sojourners in this land, we are still to seek the welfare of this place. We are to love the people with a selfless love.
Why are We Obligated? Holiness
Why are We Obligated? Holiness
This leads us to our third W question: Why are we obligated to love everyone? For holiness’ sake. Or we could say for righteousness’ sake. Let’s look at what Paul wrote,
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.”
There’s that word “For!” “Because!” The reason to love everyone around us is because the commandments are summed up by loving them.
You see, most people think that the way to live a holy life, a righteous life, is to live it according to the law, which is what Paul uses as an example. No adultery, no murder, no stealing, no coveting. It’s not an inclusive list, but enough to get the point across. These are all behavioral things. These are things that occur outside the body, with the exception of coveting perhaps. But what does Jesus tell us is the root of these things? It’s the heart.
For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander.
Love speaks to the root issue. If we want to actually fulfill the law, then we need to dig down deep into our hearts. Why is it that a person commits adultery? Because they love with an eros kind of love. They love in order to receive satisfaction. Why murder? Murder tends to be a product of anger, pain, or bitterness. Agape love counts no record of wrong; it forgives. Why steal or covet? Because we want what we do not have. Eros pops its ugly head up again. We love to be satisfied. So agape really is the answer to sin. It is the way to holiness and righteousness.
I may have mentioned this in the past, but I love Les Miserable. It’s a story of opposing forces: law and love. Jean Valjean is a criminal given a second chance at life because a priest showed him love and mercy. From that moment on, he was a new man, full of selfless love for all he came into contact with. Javert is an officer who spends his life seeking Valjean. When Javert finally catches him, he is constrained to let him go. But unable to deal with his own law-breaking, Javert jumps off a bridge to his death. His heart was so filled with law, he had no place, no category for love. Law kills.
Some here are living like Javert. You live according to the law, not realizing that the law kills. You’re trying to get others to live by the law, not realizing that the law kills. It’s just what you know. But we do not live by the law. We do not have a ministry of the law. But of grace, of love, of the Spirit.
Such is the confidence that we have through Christ toward God.
Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God,
who has made us sufficient to be ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit. For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.
If we want holiness in our lives, if we want holiness in the lives of others, it is through the love of the Spirit that we bring it about. Not the letter of the law.
How are We Obligated? Do Good
How are We Obligated? Do Good
Which leads us to the H question. How are we obligated to love everyone since love brings holiness? Do them good.
Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.
I read a story the other day that I’d like to share with you.
In 1569 Dirk Willems escaped from a Dutch prison. He’d been imprisoned because he was an Anabaptist, someone who believed the church was made up only of professing believers. Willems fled across a frozen lake, pursued by a prison guard. Half-starved from prison rations, Willems cross the lake safely. But the guard fell through the ice into the freezing water. Willems immediately turned back and pulled him out. The guard wanted to release Willems, but by then a burgomaster had arrived on the scene. Willems was arrested, tortured, and burned at the stake. Willems didn’t have time to decide on the right thing to do. He reacted in a moment. That’s a sign of Christian character. It’s a sign that grace [love] has become a habit. (Chester, You Can Change, 112).
I tell that story so that you can understand what I mean by “doing good.” I mean developing that inner-working of love. That’s what Paul intends for us to understand. Love is an implanted work in our hearts. Just as evil has its fruit come from the heart, so the good we are to do has its root in our heart.
At this moment, and until Jesus returns or we pass from this life, we have two gardens growing in us and out of us. One is a garden rooted in evil and it produces all manners of wrongs against others, ourselves, and God. The other is a garden rooted in love, producing all manners of good to others, ourselves, and God. Which one are we cultivating?
The word that Paul uses there for wrong, is the Greek work “kakos.” It is the same word that Paul stated the government was to punish. It is the same word that Paul said we are not to repay. In our Bibles, these verses are separated by subtitles telling us what the passage is about. In reality, these three passages go together. Do not pay evil for evil, pay the government to take care of it for that’s their job, instead pay only what you owe: selfless love.
Conclusion
Conclusion
It probably goes without saying, but the when and the where is every moment in every place. That’s not in the text, but we can certainly infer it from the text. If we are to love everyone, then whenever and wherever people are, we are to show them such love: selfless love.
Those people who harass you at work or at school, love them. It doesn’t matter why they harass you; it doesn’t matter if its because your a Christian or because your hair is cut a certain way or because of your height or weight. Love them. You owe it to them. We owe love to everyone.
You may be thinking, “I can’t. You don’t know what you’re asking of me. The things they’ve done. The things they’ve said. I can’t love them.” You’re right. At the risk of changing ideas, in that love is the root to the good we give to others, love also has a root. The Holy Spirit.
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.
The fruit of the Spirit are those things. Notice that those things are inward fruits that express themselves outwardly. Our outward actions are produced by that fruit of the Spirit. It is not you who are loving, but God loving through you. What God is working in you, display outside of you.
If you’ve noticed that you have a spirit of antagonism, cynicism, anger, hate, I would encourage you to spend your mornings in the Word and in prayer. Be in prayer while in the Word. Study God’s love, and as you do pray that God would love through you especially to the people to whom you least want to love. Bring your anger and cynicism and hatred to the Lord. Lay them at his feet and earnestly pray that the Spirit would produce in you the fruit of love.
Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.