Romans 13:8-10 Ours to Do: Love One Another
The Text
Romans 13:8–10 (CSB)
8 Do not owe anyone anything, except to love one another, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law.9 The commandments, Do not commit adultery; do not murder; do not steal; do not covet; and any other commandment, are summed up by this commandment: Love your neighbor as yourself.
10 Love does no wrong to a neighbor. Love, therefore, is the fulfillment of the law.
The Introduction
1 John 4:7–19 (CSB)
7 Dear friends, let us love one another, because love is from God, and everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.8 The one who does not love does not know God, because God is love.
9 God’s love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his one and only Son into the world so that we might live through him.
10 Love consists in this: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins.
11 Dear friends, if God loved us in this way, we also must love one another.
12 No one has ever seen God. If we love one another, God remains in us and his love is made complete in us.
13 This is how we know that we remain in him and he in us: He has given us of his Spirit.
14 And we have seen and we testify that the Father has sent his Son as the world’s Savior.
15 Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God—God remains in him and he in God.
16 And we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and the one who remains in love remains in God, and God remains in him.
17 In this, love is made complete with us so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment, because as he is, so also are we in this world.
18 There is no fear in love; instead, perfect love drives out fear, because fear involves punishment. So the one who fears is not complete in love.
19 We love because he first loved us.
Our God
8 Do not owe anyone anything, except to love one another, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law.
Love One Another: This is like loving God
Matthew 22:34–40 (CSB) When the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they came together. And one of them, an expert in the law, asked a question to test him: “Teacher, which command in the law is the greatest?” He said to him, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and most important command. The second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself. All the Law and the Prophets depend on these two commands.”
And
1 John 4 (CSB):
9 God’s love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his one and only Son into the world so that we might live through him.10 Love consists in this: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins.
11 Dear friends, if God loved us in this way, we also must love one another.
There is where the love of God is so intertwined with his law and his nature and righteousness and goodness, there is no separation.
One of the most wonderful attributes of God that he does not share with us is his simplicity. Another way of saying, his aseity.
We are complex. We are made up of complex feelings, emotions, wills, heart, and thoughts. If I feel sadness, it is extremely difficult to feel gladness at the same time. Between this emotion and that emotion, something has to give.
In contrast, God is not like us. We think that in order for him to be loving or kind, he has to suppress his holiness and his righteousness or just. But that is not God. God is not swayed by emotions or passions. He is loving and he is holy. He is kind and he is righteous. He is good and he is just. All at the same time. How? Because he is simple and not complex like we are.
God the Father sent his Son to fulfill the law and to die in our place. He did not do this because he was sad or angry or frustrated. He did this because he is love. And since Christ fulfilled the law, we are free to love one another. Not to love one another is to not be in God and God is not in us.
9 The commandments, Do not commit adultery; do not murder; do not steal; do not covet; and any other commandment, are summed up by this commandment: Love your neighbor as yourself.
Love One Another: Love is of God
Exodus 20:12–17 (CSB)
12 Honor your father and your mother so that you may have a long life in the land that the LORD your God is giving you.13 Do not murder.
14 Do not commit adultery.
15 Do not steal.
16 Do not give false testimony against your neighbor.
17 Do not covet your neighbor’s house. Do not covet your neighbor’s wife, his male or female servant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.
1 John 4:7–8 (CSB) Dear friends, let us love one another, because love is from God, and everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. The one who does not love does not know God, because God is love.
And
1 John 4:19 (CSB) We love because he first loved us.
You know how we know that God loves us? He sent his only begotten Son.
Do you know how he love us? God has never sinned against his creation.
Let that sink in for a moment. God has never done anything evil, bad, wicked, treasonous, terrible or wrong against us. Never.
In the same way, want to know how to love your neighbor? Don't sin against them. Those six commandments are the base line on how to love your neighbor. Don't sin against them.
Our Response
10 Love does no wrong to a neighbor. Love, therefore, is the fulfillment of the law.
Love One Another: Loving Others is Obedience to God
1 John 5:2–3 (CSB) This is how we know that we love God’s children: when we love God and obey his commands. For this is what love for God is: to keep his commands. And his commands are not a burden,
You cannot separate the love of God from his law. Just like there is no separation between his love and his holiness, so to there is no separation between his love and his law.
But the it is the simplicity of God that makes the gospel of God the absolute truth. God has and will never sin nor do us any wrong. God is incapable of sin and can do us no wrong. Because of this, the promises of God are yes and amen forever.
Just as there is no separate between his love and his law, because in God's love he sent his only begotten Son to fulfill the law, there is therefore now nothing separating us from the love of God that can only be found in Jesus Christ our Lord.