Romans 13, part B

love and law

“Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law.” (Romans 13:8)

After the brief section outlining the necessity for societal orderliness and government subjection (and it’s appropriate place within the discussion on genuine love), the Apostle Paul returned to the direct conversation of Christian love. Again, the entire dialogue must be understood as a whole. First, within the smaller section starting in the twelfth chapter, Paul urged the church to live self-sacrificial lives of worship and to maintain unity within the Body of Believers as a people devoted to a genuine call to love with the familiarity of family; however, also included in this discussion is the call to be a people that live well and proper within the society in which they are found. The people of God were not to encourage antichrist lawlessness, disorder, or anarchy. This smaller section then continued into a furthered conversation regarding the need for love and the explanation as to the rational for love’s superiority. Second, within the larger conversation throughout Paul’s letter to the Romans, this next section of the thirteenth chapter should also be read as a beginning of the apostle’s closing remarks; the conversation is drawing to a conclusion with its writer connecting the main themes of the argument into key practical elements: the need to love, how one must maintain the law, not returning to godlessness, and (in the fourteenth chapter) how to practically live out nonjudgmental lives clothed in the righteousness of Christ.

This practical guidance begins with love and love’s intertwined nature with the Law. It was previously noted during Paul’s earlier deductive arguments on the nature of grace and faith in the life of the believer (and, along with that, the relevance of the Law) that, despite the superiority of faith, the Law is not made void. He wrote, “Do we then overthrow the law by this faith? By no means! On the contrary, we uphold the law” (Romans 3:31). What was not previously answered was the manner in which we uphold the law. To this, Paul argued on behalf of love. It should be noted, again, within the context of the larger conversation centered on the Gospel of Christ, that to define devout obedience to the Law as being markedly displayed by love of one’s neighbor is not to be reductive. To reduce the entire Law to the command to love is not to actually be reductive; love is superior, and Paul wanted the Church to know this. Also, this was not a call to mere affirmations and sentimentality. Christ was specific in His command:

“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.” (John 13:34)

“This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.” (John 15:12)

To know that we are to love just as Christ has loved us is to accept that we are to stand on the truth of God’s Word, encourage and guide others to righteousness, live out genuine compassion, be a healing balm to the hurting, and sacrifice self for the betterment of others; Jesus dined with sinners, called them to repentance, healed them of their afflictions, responded with compassion and grace, and spoke the Truth of Heaven—Christ did not affirm another’s sin. Such a definition of “love” that would affirm sinfulness requires devious secular definitions and ideologies and is not the conversation that Paul initiated. Again, “let love be genuine” (Romans 12:9). Genuine love for one’s neighbor is such that loves just as Christ loved. It may be difficult today for those raised in the church (because we have heard this teaching time and time again) to grasp the manner in which such a teaching may have been received by the first audiences—both those gathered around Jesus hearing the Anointed One call them to nothing less than the standard of Himself as well as to those later who risked their lives under fear of persecution because of the belief that Christ suffered and died for the redemption of His enemies because of His overwhelming love for the lost. Clearly, to love as He loved is not a small task. And, so, with a heavenly perspective of love, Paul argued that love is the means by which we uphold and fulfill 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.” (Romans 13:9-10)

And, such a conclusion is consistent throughout Scripture. Christ taught that love of neighbor was the second greatest command (and yet still like the first) second only to love of God. James called the commandment the royal law; his description of the Law of Moses included a warning while the royal law came with an encouragement: “you are doing well.” For James, the royal law came second only to the law of liberty (which represents the very Gospel of Christ). In Works of Love, Kierkegaard likewise described this royal law as not only being an accurate summary of the totality of laws as well as the means to the fulfillment of all other commandments, but he also argued that all of the Law was but a mere sketch of Love ultimately fulfilled the personhood of Christ Himself—“God is love” (1 John 4:8), and Christ is the fulfillment of the law (Matthew 5:17), and living lives of genuine love for others is the fulfilling of the law (Romans 13:10). And, in this we should be reminded to “owe no one anything, except to love each other” (Romans 13:8).

“If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself,’ you are doing well.” (James 2:8)

“The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” (Mark 12:31)

“You shall not hate your brother in your heart, but you shall reason frankly with your neighbor, lest you incur sin because of him. 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.” (Leviticus 19:17-18)

The Epistle to the Romans has historically been studied with the intention of extrapolating non-contextual doctrines; but, it must first be remembered that the entire focus of the letter is the presentation of the Gospel of Christ. Understanding Romans through the lens of the thesis statement from the first chapter (Romans 1:16-17) should be our utmost concern. This letter to the church in Rome unrelentingly made an unashamed appeal to the Gospel; and, Paul’s discussion of the Law must also be understood as that which further guides the Church into living within that Gospel truth. Next, if a doctrine is to be extracted from the epistle, it should be a doctrine of love and be specifically defined by the simplest of terms: “you shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Any doctrine that does not uplift or properly represent the royal law is no doctrine at all; any presented understanding of the Law that cannot be fulfilled by love of neighbor is nothing more than an example of misunderstanding.