Love Is The Fulfillment Of The Law, Part I

I’m taking a short break in my personal journaling through Romans to cover a topic that may either be just what God is guiding me through at this time in my life, or it may be that this is in fact a prevalent confusion and therefore it deserves some study.

Part I

There are several places in the Bible that describe love as the pinnacle of good works. Jesus taught that first and second place finishers in the Commandment Olympics are loving God (gold medal) and loving our neighbor (basically everyone) as ourselves (winner of the silver). He emphasized it by saying that on those two things “hang” the whole Israelite Law and the Prophets.

Love is a consummation.

One of those men that were closest to Jesus wrote “We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love the brethren. He who does not love his brother abides in death” (First John 3:14). John continued by writing, “And this is His commandment: that we should believe on the name of His Son Jesus Christ and love one another, as He gave us commandment” just two verses later.

Love is the commandment.

Another very influential Christian in the first century, Paul, instructed quite frankly – owe no one anything but to love! (Romans 13:8) Paul also authored what is likely the most famous description of love ever penned in a letter to the Christians in the Roman city of Corinth. There he exclaimed that love is greater than hope and greater than faith. He even went so far as to say that all religious knowledge and miraculous gifts will pass away from existence eventually... but not love.

Love is powerful.

Paul, who wrote a majority of the letters in the New Testament, grasped a view of love that surpassed any other framework that humanity had beheld before. Love could (and should) be incorporated into every act, every relationship, every work, every thought, every word and every plan that occurs.

Love is indispensable.

Undeniably love is a definer; according to John it is the definer, of a true Christian. John must have gained that perspective from Jesus, who, after all, also said that people who did not have faith in Jesus would know believers simply by how we love one another.

All of this is wonderful. We as humans crave and need and seek after and treasure love. To find that the love of God is accessible to us is the greatest news ever written by pen or spoken by lips. That He expects us to love those around us in like manner is the healing balm of all the world’s wounds.

God is love.