Love is the Fulfillment of the Law

Imagine, if you can, Christ's church attempting to live faithfully and surrounded by these circumstances.

There's an intrusive government, and it's taxing people excessively,

and it spends the tax money on unjust and murderous causes.

Marriage comes under attack as promiscuity and sexual immorality become more and more mainstream.

The makeup of the society was diverse in ethnicities, nationalities, and religions,

but there was an anything-goes culture that threatened to cause many to abandon any sort of sense of right and wrong.

Political corruption, bribery, blackmail, and cover-up seemed like everyday news.

Economic and social classes were at war with one another.

The top 1% had the ability to buy influence and justice,

and it seemed like they lorded their power over the other 99%.

And the nation's lawmakers were aware of the injustice,

but they were either incapable or unwilling to do anything about it.

Sound familiar?

Of course, I'm talking about Rome in the first century.

What were you thinking of?

As someone famous once said,

history doesn't always repeat itself, but it often rhymes.

I like that.

History doesn't always repeat itself, but it often rhymes.

And so the words of Romans 13 are as much for this time as they were for the Christians of Rome in the first century.

And God's word here brings us a comfort in the circumstances that we recognize

that are similar to the circumstances of Rome.

And as it often does, it brings a challenge with that comfort as well.

The Lord has a way of doing these things simultaneously,

challenging while he comforts and comforts while he challenges.

He did this very thing in the middle of the greatest persecution in history,

the Roman persecution.

And the simultaneity of this comfort and challenge is summed up well

as Paul closes chapter 12 of the book to the church in Rome.

He says,

As if to say,

evil will not overcome you.

There's a comfort there.

All you have to do is overcome evil with good.

The challenge in the midst of the comfort.

To overcome evil with good.

So Paul goes on from there in Romans 13

to describe the calling of Christians

in the midst of this unjust human rule.

And he says something that's a little bit frustrating.

He says,

Just pay them.

Pay what's owed to them.

Taxes to whom taxes are owed.

Revenue to whom revenue is owed.

Respect to whom respect is owed.

And honor to whom honor is owed.

And we might say honor.

Honor to corrupt officials.

If I was a believer in the church in Rome,

I might be saying,

Paul, give me something practical.

Practical to stand up under injustice.

To do something to reverse it.

And Paul, you're telling me just to submit to it.

Even enable it, we might say.

But I hope we see,

as we examine the passage today,

that Paul's challenge and his comfort

is a much higher calling than we would have imagined.

Would be our duty in the present corruption of the world.

So let's go into the passage for,

the New Testament passage for this morning,

which is Romans chapter 13,

Romans 13:8

verses 8 and 10.

8 to 10.

This is the word of God.

He says,

O 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.

Lord, by your Holy Spirit,

will you shed light on your gospel

through the preaching

and the careful hearing of the word today.

Amen.

So love is the fulfillment of the law.

There's the bedrock.

This is where Paul goes to guide Christians

who are frustrated with evil and injustice.

He doesn't give you practical advice

for redeeming the culture.

He doesn't give the people instructions

on how to organize politically.

He just moves from the first section of Romans 13,

which talks about honoring our civil magistrate,

the government officials,

our elected officials in our case.

He moves from honoring your government leaders

to the broader principle of loving your neighbor.

So let's start from verse 8

and see why Paul would land on this theme

as a response to evil.

He says,

O no one anything except to love each other.

And now the first thing to understand about this

is it's not a command forbidding any sort of debt

when he says,

O no one anything.

Debt's an abiding reality of this world.

Even in Romans 13, 7,

the seventh verse of the passage,

Paul is talking about paying debts

to whom they are owed,

specifically to the government.

And if you are,

we all pay taxes, right?

If you are a business owner,

you live in a perpetual state of debt, right?

You pay your taxes after they are owed quarterly or yearly.

You are continually owing taxes to your government.

If you are an employee,

you have taxes that you pay at the end of the year

and the government owes you, right?

There's this relationship of debt

that just exists perpetually among us,

particularly to our government.

So Paul's words are,

O no one anything.

But we shouldn't understand that

to mean a blanket prohibition of any kind of debt.

Matthew 5, 42 specifically,

where Jesus says,

Give to the one who begs from you

and do not refuse the one who would borrow from you.

And so there Jesus actually commands us

to be involved in debt,

if you think about it.

And he commands specifically

that we would lend to others compassionately.

I like the way Jesus puts it in Luke,

Luke chapter 6.

Luke 6 · chapter mention

He says,

Love your enemies,

do good and lend,

expecting nothing in return,

and your reward will be great.

And you will be sons of the Most High,

for he is kind to the ungrateful and the evil.

So there are kinds of debt,

debts that are monetary and otherwise,

that bring God glory.

And how do we understand

what kind of debt brings God glory?

The principle that we extract

from these scriptures is twofold.

Good debt occurs,

God-glorifying debt occurs,

when the lender lends compassionately.

That's the first principle.

And not for gain.

Think about how many relationships,

how many friends and families

have been broken by money.

Why do you suppose that is?

Because when most people lend,

they tie up their relationship

with their return on their investment.

When you lend money to another,

the temptation is to expect that back,

and when it doesn't come back,

your relationship is severed.

You've tied up your relationship

with the money that was owed.

And relationships are ruined.

So when we lend,

we ought to do it compassionately.

And we don't expect our reward,

Jesus says,

to be payment in kind.

We expect nothing in return.

We lend out of a heart of compassion.

The second principle of godly debt

is when the debtor shows honor

by discharging the debt promptly and joyfully.

When the lender lends compassionately

and expects nothing in return,

and then the debt is returned,

the debtor is now freely honoring

the one who gave by giving it back.

So the debtor's obligation

was not the money in the first place,

but the honor due

to a friend who showed compassion.

And likewise,

the lender's reward

is not a return on an investment,

but honor.

Honor for the compassion they showed.

The Lord offers his reward

to those who lend compassionately

and to debtors who show honor

by discharging their debts promptly.

This is the meaning of Paul's words,

owe nothing to anybody.

The Christians in Rome, like we do,

have ever-present debts to pay

to the evil and to the ungrateful.

And when they paid those debts honorably,

they reflected God's own love.

Because he is kind

to the ungrateful and to the evil.

So the commandment is,

demonstrate your love,

demonstrate your love to God

by discharging your debts quickly.

Taxes to whom taxes are owed.

Revenue to whom revenue is owed.

Honor to whom honor.

Respect to whom respect.

And we are to discharge all these debts,

except the one that can never be fully paid up.

And that debt is to love one another.

To love each other,

in the words of Romans 8, 14,

or 13, 8.

I'm reading from the ESV.

What is it to love each other,

in verse 8?

Is it the Christians we're in fellowship with,

here today,

or is it all mankind?

And it would be nice if we could just say

this applies only to the household of faith,

to love each other,

which would be a difficult enough command

to obey well.

But it's not.

The context is God's law.

And as we know,

God's law is not just for God's people.

God's law is the standard of living,

righteous living for all men.

So in the context of God's law,

this loving each other

must also be as broad as the law itself,

applying to all mankind.

It's neighbor love,

in the way that Jesus showed us

what neighbor love is,

in the parable of the Good Samaritan.

But does Paul mean to tell us

that this neighbor love is a kind of debt?

Think about that for a second.

If love is a debt,

doesn't that take away some of the freeness

of our expressions to love,

to each other?

Doesn't that reduce acts of love

to just mere transactions?

I'd like you to think about it this way.

There's a knock on your door

in the middle of the night,

and it's your close neighbor,

the neighbor you love,

asking to borrow your car

because her mother's having a seizure

and she needs to take her to the hospital.

What is it that you do?

You love your neighbor,

so what are you going to do?

You won't have to think about

what you're going to do.

You're going to help your neighbor

in her time of need.

In fact, even though it's the middle of the night

and all you want to do

is go back to bed,

you won't even ask

the basic practical questions.

What's wrong with your car?

Why don't you just call an ambulance?

Practical questions, right?

I'm not unreasonable

for wondering that in my mind,

but what am I doing in that moment?

If I love my neighbor,

I don't even ask them.

My neighbor has a need,

and that need

has created a debt.

It's created a debt

because I love them.

So I don't ask those questions

in that moment

because I absolutely know

the debt that I have

towards my neighbor

is to fulfill her request

out of neighbor love.

I could expand that illustration

from this morning.

My tire pressure is fatally low.

I give a call to John Alpeter.

What does John Alpeter do?

There's probably taxis in the area, right?

Just get here.

But I don't

because the neighbor love in John says,

I see a need.

I've been asked to supply it.

That's my duty.

I do it not out of a sense of duty,

but because the love

has created that duty in me.

So does the debt,

the fact that love is a debt,

take away from the freedom

involved in works of compassion?

No.

The fact that we sense

that this reality is a debt

is evidence of our compassion

for one another

because love produced in us

that sense of debt.

Jesus explained to us this

when he was teaching

his disciples to pray.

This is from Luke 11.

He said to them,

Which one of you who has a friend

will go to him at midnight

and say to him,

Friend, lend me three loaves,

for a friend of mine

has arrived on a journey

and I have nothing to set before him.

And he will answer from within,

Don't bother me.

The door is now shut

and my children are with me in bed.

I cannot get up

and give you anything.

I tell you,

though he will not get up

and give him anything

because he is his friend,

yet because of his impudence

he will rise and give him

whatever he needs.

And Jesus' point is to say

that even a mediocre friend

will answer the request

of a neighbor

based on an earnest plea.

You might call this

the parable of the terrible lazy friend.

A mediocre friend

you can count on to do this

if you are earnest

and plea earnestly.

They will sense that debt to you,

though their love is weak.

So the passage that you heard

in Proverbs

tells you the same thing.

I'll read it again,

Proverbs 3, 27 to 28.

Do not withhold good

from those to whom it is due

when it is in your power

to do it.

Do not say to your neighbor,

Go and come again.

Tomorrow I will give it

when you have it with you.

Because the love

that fulfills the law

is our response

to the debt

that love creates

towards those in need.

So what's this law

of neighbor love

teaching us?

If your neighbor

asks for help

and you have the ability,

you have the power,

you incurred a debt

because you love them.

Because, as Proverbs says,

you have it with you.

When you have it with you

to supply your neighbor's need

and your neighbor asks,

there's nothing else love does

but supplies the need.

not from unwillingness

but from love

that proceeds

from our relationships.

So there are three simple things

that create this debt

of love for us.

Three things that love creates

in us

that equate to a debt.

Number one,

it's the need.

If there's a need present

in another.

And number two,

there's the opportunity.

The opportunity

or our occasion

to supply that need.

And maybe the occasion

is just the occasion

of being asked.

We have the opportunity

because there are a need

and we're asked to supply it.

And the ability.

Do we have the ability

to supply the need?

The need,

the opportunity,

and the ability.

These create

the debt of love

between us

as believers,

between us and unbelievers.

It's a mark

of the Christian life

that the Lord

will frequently bring

the needs of others

in contact

with our ability

and our opportunity.

That's how the Lord works.

It's a debt

that we will never

fully discharge

and therefore

we can owe no one anything

but our debt of love

will always remain with us.

The love that fulfills

the law

is a love

that seeks to apply

our abilities

to others' needs

and it is never

fully completed.

Anytime we look

at God's law now,

we should not only look

at how we should obey

the spirit of it

but also what it teaches us

about the God we serve.

We know that every one

of God's laws

was given to us

because it expresses

something about

his many perfections,

about his nature

in other words.

And love for the other

is integral

to God's very being.

How do we know this?

Well, let's ask ourselves

the reason

why we ought to obey

this command

to love each other.

We need to obey

because God commanded it.

That's true.

But that's not

the most true.

The most true reason

I will assert

that we obey

this command

is because

God is doing it.

not because God

said it merely.

We obey the command

because God

does it.

God

was loving each other

before the world

was created.

Think about that.

Before we were all here,

before there was anything,

God existed

in a relationship

of love

to each other.

The Father

loves the Son,

loves the Holy Spirit,

and back and forth.

God was an eternal community,

is an eternal community,

of love

toward the other.

God loves

his neighbor.

And he did it

before there was creation.

So we love

our neighbor

not out of

a respect

for a command,

though that is part of it,

but out of a love

for God

and who he is,

that we would seek

to emulate his nature.

As a matter of fact,

God's love

for one another

is one of the things

that Jesus longed for

when he was on earth,

to ascend again

and share the glory

that he had

with the Father

before the world was.

That's from John 17, 5,

where Jesus says,

And now, Father,

glorify me

in your own presence

with the glory

that I had with you

before the world existed.

Christ,

in his dwelling

here on earth

in flesh,

longed for

the fellowship

that he had

with God

from eternity,

the love that he shared

with his Father.

So God loves the other

perfectly within himself,

and then

he brought forth

a creation

to share in that love.

And ultimately,

God met our need

with his ability.

The first time

the Lord told his people,

love your neighbor

as yourself,

that wasn't in Matthew

that we just read.

It was way back

in Leviticus,

Leviticus 19, 18.

God said,

here's the command

I give you,

you shall love your neighbor

as yourself.

And he gave them

this reason.

He said,

you shall love your neighbor

as yourself.

I am the Lord.

What's the reason given?

That God asked us

to love our neighbors

as ourselves?

Because I'm the Lord.

I'm the one who does it.

Do what I do.

That's the heart

of all of his commandments.

And once God said this

to his people,

the wheels were set in motion.

Once the people of God

knew that God's nature

was to love his neighbor,

we could be certain,

we could take it

to the bank

that God will supply

his people's need.

And what was the need

that God's people

were going to have?

The need of God's people

was that their guilt

kept them distant

and its penalty

was too much to bear.

We had a death sentence

and we needed escape.

That was our need.

And that's what God

decreed from eternity

that he would supply.

And that decree

is expressed

in Leviticus 19.

You shall love

your neighbor as yourself.

I am the Lord.

I am the one

who does it.

So it was clear

once God said this,

if we were paying attention,

that he will certainly

save his people

who were in need.

So the need was expressed.

We had guilt.

We had a death sentence

upon us.

God had an ability.

What's the ability of God?

Well, the scripture says

to do far more abundantly

than we ask or think.

And there was an opportunity.

The opportunity

that God alone created.

A decree for eternity

that we are given

in Ephesians 1.

I'll read this

starting from the first

of the chapter.

Blessed be the God

and Father

of our Lord Jesus Christ

who has blessed us

in Christ

with every spiritual blessing

in the heavenly places

even as he chose us in him

before the foundation

of the world

that we should be holy

and blameless before him.

That decree resulted

in a debt

or if you'd rather

an oath

to meet his people's need

through a sacrifice

of infinite worth.

Think about that.

The debt that God

creates for himself.

Paul goes on

in Ephesians 2

Ephesians 2:15

verse 15.

He says,

What did he do?

He broke down

the dividing wall

of hostility

by abolishing

the law of commandments

expressed in ordinances

that he might create

in himself

one new man

in place of the two

and so making peace

and he might reconcile

us both to God

in one body

through the cross

thereby killing

the hostility.

How can God

in Christ

abolish those commandments?

By living them out.

By living them out

in neighbor love

and giving us

the example

and creating us

the spirit

to live by it.

Jesus taught us

that our father

binds himself

to this sort of debt

but that debt

isn't to us.

That debt's

to his own nature.

He made a decree

and he must

by his own nature

complete it.

So we will assuredly

receive our help

in our time of need

because of the debt

incurred by his love

for us.

Specifically

what he did

is he took

the righteous law

that separated him

from an unrighteous people

and he created

in himself

the one new man

in the place of the two.

The one new man

in the likeness of Adam

and in the likeness of God

right?

Which is our likeness now.

We have the likeness

of Adam remaining

but what unifies us

to Christ

it is the likeness

of God in us

the Holy Spirit

indwelling us.

He created in us

first in Christ

and then in us

the one new man

the one new woman

in place of the two

and thereby

he made peace

between man and God

through Christ

on the cross.

In John 3.16

the familiar verse

God loved

each other.

God loved the world

in John 3.16

but what is he speaking of?

He's speaking of God

who loves

his neighbor

his neighbor

within the Godhead

and his neighbor

his creation.

That loving each other

is God simply telling us

what he does

so that those who love him

can be like him.

So we see the mystery

of this truth

now coming full circle.

One, the law exists

to explain to us

how we can love

our neighbor

and then

if we have loved

our neighbor

we have fulfilled

the law.

Though that fulfillment

resides in us

still

we remain ever bound

to discharge

the debt

of love to others.

And in a more broader

and a broader

and more perfect way

Christ fulfilled the law

once for all

through his life

and through his death.

And intrinsic

to that fulfillment

is the fact

that he sits

at the right hand

of God

ever binding himself

to meet our need

out of the debt

of love

that he created

for us.

Remember Jesus'

illustration

in the parable

of the terrible

lazy friend?

He told us

that story

to explain

how much more

we should be sure

that God

who is better

than a mediocre friend

whose love surpasses

the kind

that we find

in any friend

will assuredly

supply our need.

He finishes

that story

in Luke 11 verse 9

Luke 11:9

and he says

I start in verse 8

I tell you though

that neighbor

he will not get up

and give him anything

because he is his friend

yet because of his impudence

he will rise

and give him

whatever he needs

and I tell you

ask

and it will be given you

seek

and you will find

knock

and it will be open

to you.

In Christ

God perfectly

and completely

fulfilled

all points

of the law

which means

he has demonstrated

the epitome

of neighbor love

rescuing us

out of our deepest

and most desperate need

namely our own

death sentence.

So we love each other

not merely because

God said it

but because

God does it.

He creates in us

the same love

as well.

The one who loves

another

the end of verse 8

in our passage

has fulfilled the law.

Paul uses the words

has fulfilled

in the perfect sense

and he doesn't merely say

he has obeyed the law

he has fulfilled the law

the one who loves

his neighbor.

That has a fuller

and deeper meaning

than simply obeyed.

If I just obey the law

by loving one another

the rest of the commandments

remain to be obeyed

but if I have fulfilled the law

there is nothing lacking

if I have loved my neighbor.

John Murray

summarizes that

by saying this

the law has received

the full measure

of that which it requires

in loving our neighbor.

That fulfilling

means the law

has received

the full measure

of that which it requires.

It's not saying

love has replaced the law.

It's not that

it's a better thing

to love

rather than

obey the law.

It's that the law

itself

fulfills

in a way that

the law

rightly obeyed

brings the fruits

of love to others.

Again John Murray

has a great summary

and this is worth

writing down.

John Murray says

love fills to the brim

the cup

which the law

puts into our hands.

Love fills to the brim

the cup

which the law

puts into our hands.

It's as if we have a cup

and that cup's giving shape

to what we're about

to put in it

and we are

given the cup

in order to fill it

and what we fill it with

is love

at the first drop

every drop in between

down to the last drop.

There's nothing else

that fulfills the law

but the love

that we put in it

and there's no other

commandment

there's no other

principle of God's law

that fills the cup.

Those are commandments

and ordinances

they teach us

we become

schooled

by the ordinances

so that we might

love well

and love effectively.

Going on to verse 9

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.

Now those who would say

you talk about God's laws

that's fine

I just want to love

as Jesus loved.

When you hear that

we understand

that that person

doesn't really understand

what the love of God is

to say that

don't tell me about the law

I just want to love

as Jesus loved.

I don't need the law

in order to love

I just love instinctively.

That person doesn't

understand what God

did in us

what he does in us

to produce neighbor love.

I thank God

for the Pharisees

they give us such

great examples

of perfect villains

yet they also give

the challenge

that pokes at our heart

in our own hypocrisy

and I'm going to read

this passage

from Matthew 23

where Jesus speaks

to the Pharisees

he says

woe to you

scribes and Pharisees

hypocrites

for you tithe

mint and dill

and cumin

and have neglected

the weightier matters

of the law

justice and mercy

and faithfulness

these you ought to have done

without neglecting the others

you blind guides

straining out a nad

and swallowing a camel

woe to you

scribes and Pharisees

hypocrites

for you clean the outside

of the cup

and the plate

but inside

they're full of greed

and self-indulgence

you blind Pharisee

first clean the inside

of the cup

and the plate

that the outside

may also be clean

woe to you

scribes and Pharisees

hypocrites

for you are like

whitewashed tombs

which outwardly appear beautiful

but within are full

of dead people's bones

and all uncleanness

so also you outwardly

appear righteous

to others

but within

you're full of hypocrisy

and lawlessness

right

now to call a Pharisee

a hypocrite

was one thing

but to call a Pharisee

lawless

that was beyond the pale

the Pharisees

at least by their own lips

loved the law

they loved God's law

they loved it so much

that they expanded on it

and they taught the people

to do things beyond

God's law

but the trouble

with the Pharisees

was not that they practiced

the law too minutely

and knew it too well

the problem with the Pharisees

is they didn't understand

the law at all

they appeared righteous

to others

but they were really full

of unlawlessness

of lawlessness

they would strain out

a gnat

the mint

the dill

the cumin

things that Jesus said

yes do those

but they swallowed a camel

because works without

works of the law

without neighbor love

are empty deeds

this is what the person

is reacting to

when they say

you have the law

talk about the law

that's fine

I don't

I love

right

that's the hypocrisy

they're reacting to

they see that works

of the law

without love

are just empty deeds

like Paul says

in 1 Corinthians

if I give away

all I have

and I deliver up

my body to be burned

but I have not love

I gain nothing

but on the other hand

to love without

the law

is just impotent

sentimentality

John

the apostle John

is a great person

to go to

who by the spirit

answers

what true love is

and he gives us

it's all the way

through 1 John

I'm going to read

1 John chapter 5

1 John 5 · chapter mention

this is John

the apostle

telling us

what love is

by this we know

that we love

the children of God

when we love

and obey

when we love God

and obey his commandments

verse 3

for this is

the love of God

that we keep

his commandments

so there's no room

in scripture

for us to say

I just want to love

my neighbor

I don't need

to be taught

by the law

don't give me law

give me love

because the law

is the shape

right

John Murray's

example of the cup

the law is the shape

that love fills

you don't understand

love

if you haven't been

taught

by God's law

because as

Romans 13 says

and the ten commandments

show

love does no wrong

to a neighbor

therefore love

is the fulfilling

or the fulfillment

of the law

the law is the shape

of love

we work toward each other

it's the cup

that we fill

with works of love

without the law

without God's law

our works

are formless

our love is formless

it has no place

to abide

and without love

we just hold on

to an empty cup

we have a law

that's empty

and we're hopeless

to truly obey it

we're Pharisees

we have ordinances

but we don't have

the law

what God

Christ abolished

was the law

of commandments

and ordinances

the law remained

but without love

it is merely ordinances

without love

we hold on

to a law

that's empty

and then when you

look around

your neighborhoods

or you look at CNN

and you can't help

but see evil

and corruption

and ingratitude

we remember

that our Lord's way

is to be kind

to the ungrateful

and to the evil

because we were also

ungrateful

and hostile toward God

and what did Christ do

with our hostility

with our ingratitude

he killed it

Ephesians 2 16

he killed the hostility

between us

it died with Christ

on the cross

he gave us a grace

that loves the other

because he's been loving

the other

from eternity

when we love the other

we're not just

obeying God's law

we're fulfilling it

there's nothing else

that the law requires

because we're not just

doing what God says

we're being who God is

we're being taught

by God's nature

this hymn we sang

struck me this morning

love divine

all love excelling

joy of heaven

to earth come down

fix in us

thy humble dwelling

all thy faithful

mercies crown

Jesus thou art

all compassion

pure unbounded love

thou art

visit us with thy salvation

enter every

trembling heart

let's pray

father our need today

our need today

is to be filled

so that we can fulfill

we have no way

to fulfill your commands

but by what you work

in us

may the Holy Spirit

fill us with compassion

for each other

that we can fill up

the cup you gave us

and pour it out

on the needs around us

Lord we give thanks

for taking such an unlovable

we give you thanks

for taking such an unlovable

people pouring out

love upon us

and all the while

making us instruments

to carry that love

to each other

plant this word deep in us

as we use it

to bring you glory

we pray it in Christ's name

Amen

God bless Ane

Jesus iso

and this word

bring you glory

from his heart

for whoever

are you

and this word

is in your name

again

for whoever

is in your name