The Law of Love

Sacred Heart Window in All Saints Catholic Church (St. Peters, Missouri)

 

 

Used with Permission of 

Nheyob / CC BY-SA 

 

 

(https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)

Scripture

Romans 13:8-10

 ⁸Owe no one anything, except to love one another; for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. ⁹The 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, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” ¹⁰Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law.

Devotion

 "Love your neighbor as yourself."  Spoken by God in Leviticus 19:18 and repeated by Jesus in all four gospels offer a challenge to Christians, this commandment seems simple in theory.  Yet anyone who tries to follow it quickly learns how difficult it can be to put into practice.  It's hard to prove that you really love someone...especially that you love them as you love yourself. This whole following God thing would be much simpler if we got to just follow a set of hard and fast rules.  After all, isn't that why God gave us the Law?

Paul unpacks this conundrum for the Romans by explaining that all the laws we find in the Torah (from the 10 Commandments on down to how much thieves must repay their victims) can be summed up by God's instructions to love their neighbors as themselves. To truly follow the Law means to do no wrong to another person.  This means that if we harm another person in any way, then we have neither loved them nor fulfilled God's Law.

As if Paul's advice wasn't formidable enough, John Calvin would go even further.  Drawing from Matthew 5 and his own logic, Calvin writes that God's commandments extend to include each minor offense related to them.  For instance, the command "you shall not kill" is God's way of forbidding us from wounding, insulting, or even thinking of hurting other people (Calvin, 146). Calvin argues that from God's perspective, wishing someone ill or fantasizing about doing them harm is just as bad as sinful as murdering them.

What's more, Calvin concludes that each time God us from forbids doing evil God also requires us to do a related form of good.  From this perspective, "you shall not kill," really means, "we must help preserve our neighbors life by all possible means...The Lord forbids us to wound and insult our neighbors because He wants our neighbor's life to be dear and precious to us; so He likewise requires the duties of love by which that life may be preserved" (Calvin, 146).  In other words, if we truly wish to live into the commandment, "You shall not kill," then we must be ready to help our neighbor however we can.  The same basic rule applies to each and every commandment.

Refrain from hurting people in any way.  Keep all the commandments and anything that seems related to them not only through our actions but also in our hearts and minds. Do good for our neighbors every way we can.  Showing our love for one another by fulfilling the Law has gotten really complicated.  It seems like no one will every be able to measure up to this impossible standards.  Nobody, that is, but Jesus. 

The fact of the matter is that God's love is so great that it is impossible for sinful humans to perfectly fulfill God's love-based Law.  But the Good news is our merciful savior doesn't require perfection.  Instead, he asks us to trust in him as we do our best to live as he taught us.  As we seek to love God and love our neighbor as ourselves, Christ forgives our sins and draws us closer to him.   Slowly, but surely, we learn to love more deeply...more surely...more consistently.  The stronger the Love of Christ shines within us, the better we fulfill God's Law.   And the richer and fuller our lives become.

When fulfilling God's Law seems proves difficult, let us yield the flickering torches of our hearts to Christ, whose love will not let us go.  As our hearts blaze brighter than the sun with the love the Christ gives, let us recommit truly loving our neighbors in thought, word, and deed.  If we love them with even a fraction of the love that Christ feels for us, then we will find ways of doing good (instead of ill) for others.  And we will grow on step closer to the moment when we see God's Law of Love fulfilled throughout the whole wide world.

 

Prayer 

God of Love, help us rest our hearts in thee so that we may follow your commandments and fulfill your Law.  May Christ's witness inspires us to never forget that true love does no harm and seeks the good of all.  Amen.

Works Cited

Calvin, John.  Institutes of the Christian Religion:1541 French Edition. Trans. Elsie Anne McKee.  Grand Rapids, Michigan: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2009.