Law and Love 121230

Romans 13:8-10 Owe 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.

In our attempts to follow Christ it is very easy to be drawn into a legalistic mindset. When that happens, we find ourselves missing the most important part — LOVE! Pharisees of Jesus' day lived that kind of life. One day Jesus said to them, "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and then neglect the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness. These you ought to have done without neglecting the others." Then he called them "blind guides" because they could not see the truths contained in their own Scripture. In their legalism they missed the most important things. In the same way, Paul points out that love fulfills the law.

Our Debt is Love

According to Jesus' command found in. John 13:34-35, “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. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

Please note that Jesus says here that all people will know that we are his disciples if we have love for one another. It's little wonder that the world doubts the validity of the Christian faith when they see how little we love one another. One of the most important testimonies we can give to the world is to act out our love for others. Remember, love is not the way we feel! Love is how we act – it is an act of our will. It is possible, literally, to love another person without having any strong feelings of liking them. When Jesus gives the command that we love one another he quantifies it by adding, "just as I have loved you,". This means that we are to die to our own selfish desires and ambitions in order to serve others. The world believes that those who are important are to be served. Jesus said that he came to be a servant and then said we should be like him, even unto death. The life we live is his life being lived through us. That life is one that is marked, preminently, by acts of love and compassion.

Love binds everything else. If you have your Bible turn with me to Colossians 3:12-14, and listen while I read. Put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.

Since we are chosen by God and set apart to his service (that's what "holy" means), and are loved by him, we are to "put on" compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience. We are to bear with one another even to the point of forgiving another that you have a complaint against. After all, that's what God did for us. He loved us, sought us out, forgave our sins and adopted us into his family. Yet, as comprehensive as the "put on" list is there is even more! Not only are we to "put on" compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience; bearing with and forgiving one another. Above all these, we are to put on love that binds everything together in perfect harmony.

This should be the goal of our teaching! Listen while I read 1 Timothy 1:5, The aim of our charge is love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith.

Someone once said that if you have no goal in life you are bound to be successful. Without a goal you never have to worry about achieving it. Paul said he had a goal for his teaching. This goal was simply "Love". Not some "touchy-feely" kind of love like the world offers, instead, it was to be God's kind of love. The word "Love" actually characterizes God. John, in his writings, tells us, again and again, that God is love. God's love comes to us in purity. Purity is one of the things we need in our lives. The only place we can get it is in the presence of a holy God. We need to come to him and confess our sins for cleansing.

When we confess our sins he forgives our sins and cleanses us of all unrighteousness. That kind of cleansing comes from the pure heart of God and enables us to give love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith.

When we look at the multiple tragedies going on the world today we know that something is missing. That something is morality based on the loving heart of God. These people who murder others and then take their own lives cannot believe that God exists or that he exercises judgment in this world and in the world to come. They have missed out entirely on the love of God.

The love we have in us should be like that Shown in the "human relations" commandments. By that term I mean the commandments that are directed toward our relations with others. In our text for today, Paul gives us four commandments: “You shall not commit adultery, You shall not murder, You shall not steal, You shall not covet,” these all reflect how we treat other people. They are all "human relations" commandments.

Jesus gave a longer list. A young man came to Jesus with a burning question, "What good deed must I do to have eternal life?" Listen while I read from Matthew 19:18-19. Jesus said, “You shall not murder, You shall not commit adultery, You shall not steal, You shall not bear false witness, Honor your father and mother, and, You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

Obviously, Jesus knew the 10 Commandments and he also knew this young man. He knew that throughout his life this young man had tried very hard to live according to the rules. In fact, after Jesus' statement he affirmed that he had kept all these from his youth up but he still knew he had a need, a great need, in order to be worthy of eternal life. Like most people on earth today, he believed that he had to do "something great or good " in order to inherit eternal life. He was in bondage to the law and did not understand that the law is simply a schoolmaster to bring us to the end of ourselves — to bring us to Christ! Only one man has ever kept the law in its entirety and that man is Jesus Christ! He knew no sin, had no sin of his own, and therefore could take our sins into his own body and nail them to the cross. From the cross Jesus passed through the grave and arose a victor over death, sin and the grave.

Jesus quoted to the young man from the last six of the 10 Commandments given on Mount Sinai. Jesus puts them in a different order and even changes the last from no coveting to loving your neighbor as yourself.

A quick glance will show us that what he gave was different from the 10 Commandments. Look at Deuteronomy chapter 5 with me.

Simply stated, the Commandments are as follows: verse seven, No other gods; verse eight, No idols; verse 11, do not take the name of the Lord in vain; verse 12, observe the Sabbath day as a day of rest; verse 16, honor your father and mother; verse 17, no murder; verse 18, no adultery; verse 19, no stealing; verse 20, no lying and verse 21, no coveting. The 10 are divided four toward God and six toward man. The human relations commandments are the ones we must concern ourselves with. If we are careful to carry them out we will show others love that comes from a pure heart, a good conscience and a pure faith.

The apostle Paul tells us that the debt we owe, once our sin debt is paid, is to love each other. If we'll do that, we will fulfill the original intention of the law.

The law is Summed up in this word Paul tells us…

Any other commandment… There are 613!

The Jewish rabbis, who made the study of the law their life, count 613 Commandments. Of course, the key to them all is the 10 Commandments given to Moses on Mount Sinai. All of the others grow out of them. In our text for today Paul takes four of the commandments that all reflect how we treat other people and then says any other commandment is summed up in this word, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." This goes a long way towards explaining the condition of the world we live in today! I submit to you that we can only love others if we love ourselves. I'm not talking about a narcissistic love that is self-centered and egotistical. I'm talking about a love that recognizes that we are made in the image of God and we should respect ourselves as God's image bearers on this earth. Having done that, we are able to respect others as image bearers of God. We can call them to come to him whose image they bear.

As Jesus ministry began to come to an end he was confronted frequently by the Pharisees and teachers of the law in an attempt to challenge him and prove that he was a heretic. In Matthew 22 we find several such instances. "Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar?" they questioned him. He confounded them thoroughly by simply asking for a coin and then asking whose image was on it. When they told him the image was Caesar's he simply said they should give Caesar that which belongs to Caesar and God what belongs to God.

Then they brought up a classic problem with the resurrection. According to their story, a woman had seven husbands. "Whose wife would she be in the resurrection?" they asked him. He answered that they simply didn't understand the Scriptures or the power of God. Then he said, contrary to Mormon doctrine, that in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage but instead are like the Angels. Note, he didn't say they would be Angels he said they would be "like the Angels".

The Pharisees then decided to try to prove he was a heretic by asking what the greatest commandment in the law was. This opened the door for Jesus to confront them about the real meaning of the law. He put forth two Commandments rather than one. He said the…

Most important is Godward. Listen while I read Matthew 22:36-38, “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. …"

Love for God is first and foremost. With all your heart. I think that means with your feelings. We need to choose to feel love for God. With all your soul. I believe that means our personality is to reflect God. With all your mind. I believe that we are to reflect love for God in our thoughts and with that which we store in our mind. I deeply regret many things that I've allowed to be brought into my mind and struggle against them so that I may love him with all that I am.

Jesus had answered their question. But he wasn't through with them. He had a second commandment, the first commandment is Godward, …

The second is manward. Listen while I read Matthew 22:39-40, And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”

"All the law and the prophets" is a very comprehensive statement. To love God with all you are and to love your neighbor as yourself sums up the teaching of the Bible. Remember I said earlier that our ability to love others is in direct proportion to our willingness to love ourselves.

In Paul's first letter to the Corinthians he gave us a comprehensive statement about the importance of love in chapter 13. If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing. Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known. So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

Love never ends! Prophecies? They won't be needed — they'll pass away! Tongues? They will cease! Knowledge? It will pass away! None of these will be needed when the perfect comes.

Paul once said that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom he was chief. The law, given thousands of years before Christ's birth, was never intended to be a source of salvation. In Galatians we are told that the law is a schoolmaster to bring us to Christ. Jesus did not come to do away with the law he came to fulfill the law. Having met the law's demands he allowed himself be taken and crucified. He had no sin of his own and as such

he took our sins into his own body so that we could become God's righteousness in him. Rather than trying to keep the whole law we need to devote ourselves, by our actions, to loving God and loving each other. Surrender your life to him today and then let him live it out through you. That's what I want to do! Please join me in this.

All scripture quotes from:The Holy Bible : English standard version. 2001. Wheaton: Standard Bible Society.