Love's law

Love's law

Love does no wrong to one's neighbor [it never hurts anybody]. Therefore love meets all the requirements and is the fulfilling of the Law. Romans 13:10 AMPC

What's the law? Why the law? God is a God who derives pleasure from relationships, as seen in His interactions with Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. He laid down the terms of engagement with them, defining what they were required to do and avoid, even what they should eat and avoid. There was an end in view: unbroken fellowship with God, and the attendant undying favour, grace and mercy that naturally follows obedience. The standards haven't changed much, even with the advancement in science and technology. God is still very much interested in relationships with man, and he has made his mind, purpose and rules known through his Word.

Does it then appear that the law isn't working? Well, depends on whose perspective you are looking at. Under the same law, a man like Korah got judged for disobedience to God's rules, and the ground opened and swallowed him up, along with his co-conspirators and entire families. Under the same law, a man like Enoch walked with God for 300 years, and God took him away. The question then is: is the law bad? No, but it depended so much on how I accepted and related with it.

Love is one of the rules under the law. So many directives were given under the law relating to man's interactions with fellow man. There were so many laws, yet Christ seems to be saying here that love is simply the fulfilment of the law. If God's idea behind the law was the sustenance of his relationship with us, the same rule would apply to our human relationships too. If God could be concerned about the welfare of his children, how much more would he expect us, under the same dispensation we have received of Him, to extend the same grace to other people?

It is the law of love that is most difficult to follow, because it calls for me to look outside myself for a while and pursue good to other people. If I truly love someone, I would do all I can to pursue that person's welfare and good. Interestingly, loving other people is the one thing no law on earth can legislate against. Man can make rules forbidding so many things, but when I set out to truly love, even when it could cost a life, God's law is being fulfilled and because he is the ultimate judge, He will reward each one for what s/he has done. What's it going to be for me: love by God's standard or live to please myself? His time of favour is here.