Let’s read Romans 13:8-10, “Owe no one anything except to love one another, for HE 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 bear false witness,’ ‘You shall not covet,’ and if there is any other commandment, are all summed up in this saying, namely, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ Love does no harm to a neighbor; therefore LOVE IS THE FULFILLMENT OF THE LAW” (NKJV).

In short, this passage teaches us that we have one great debt to our fellow-man (and it will never be paid in full!) and that is TO LOVE ONE ANOTHER. And if we do, we will indeed FULFILL THE LAW; that is, we will be fulfilling the requirements of the Law in regard to others. We won’t by guilty of adultery, murder, stealing or bearing false witness, for we will have their best interests at heart and will seek to bless them instead of harming them.

It should be mentioned that “loving one another” is only HALF of the Law. Jesus was once asked, “Which is the first commandment of all” (Mark 12:31). His response was, “The FIRST of all the commandments is: ‘Hear, O Israel, the LORD our God, the LORD is one. And you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength. And the SECOND, like it, is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these” (verses 29-31). So, the Ten Commandments are really TWO Commandments: LOVE God and LOVE one another. If we are able to do this we will indeed have FULFILLED THE WHOLE LAW!

Let me ask you a simple yet pointed question: Are we able to do this? Can we really love the Lord with all of our heart and our neighbor as our self? If one is unsaved, it is impossible. God put Israel under the Law and told them to KEEP IT and they failed miserably. I would encourage you to read Romans 3:10-18 to see that until men are born again they are slaves to sin and can’t possibly love God or their fellow-man. Listen to these condemning words, “There is none who seeks God…they have all turned aside…their throat is an open tomb; with their tongues they have practiced deceit…whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness…their feet are swift to shed blood… destruction and misery are in their ways…there is no fear of God before their eyes” (verses 11-16, 18). God then declares to them, “Now we know that whatever the law says, it say to those who are under the law, that EVERY MOUTH may be stopped, and ALL THE WORLD may become guilty before God.” ALL MEN are guilty of breaking the Law!

Now one may be thinking, “But I have been born again through trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ as my Savior, so now I’m able to love God with all my heart and love my neighbor as myself.” Let me respond to that by saying this, “Once you are born again, you have the POTENTIAL to fulfill the Law (for you then have the DESIRE to do so) but you still lack the POWER (in yourself) to do it.” Notice, I said we lack the power IN OURSELVES, but we can thank God He has furnished us with all the power we need to love Him and to love our neighbor. I’m speaking of course of the Holy Spirit who has been given to every believer in Christ and if we yield our lives to Him we will indeed be empowered to love God and our fellow-man. This is seen beautifully in Galatians 5:16, 22-23 and Romans 8:4, “Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh…the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control….That the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.” Dear fellow-believer, may we take these words to heart and allow the Spirit of God to control us. If we do, we WILL surely experience the wonderful truth that LOVE IS THE FULFILLMENT OF THE LAW. (300.7) (DO)