Fulfilled!

Fulfilled!

For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.

Galatians 5:14 KJV

Context:

The law had its uses. It pointed us in the direction of God's idea of perfection under the old testament. However, the dispensation of the law had not much room for grace and mercy. It was not that mercy and grace were non-existent; it was just that the law demanded action and laid out the consequences for inaction or disobedience. It was as straight as it got; you knew what each action deserved.

Then comes in the dispensation of grace. It did not totally rule out the law; the righteous requirements of the law, which was God's whole idea from the start, were fulfilled in Christ Jesus. The law reminded us of sin and our helpless sinful nature, but Christ came to remind us of the blessings we were entitled to now in Christ. Christ did not come to abolish the law, but to fulfil it. He came to make God known to man, and man can only be totally reconciled to God when he comes through the One that has the mandate of God to draw men to him. 

Message and Response:

If the law was that imperfect and could not bring about God's perfect idea of righteousness, it means that nothing under that law can lead to God's perfect idea of relationships too. Under the law, all I needed to do was keep to a set of rules. It did not matter if my heart was not in it; I was judged on the basis of activity, action and reaction. That is why under the law, the rich young ruler would have got a pass, because even Jesus did not fault the man's assertion that he had kept the law since his youth. If all we had to do was to keep a set of rules and be justified, where then is the place of grace? Why would I need God if I could get his approval by labour?

Jesus' engagement with the rich young man is in line with today's extract. God's law of love is deeper than the scope of the old law. You can't get away with mere activities that lack heart devotion. In fact, from God's perspective, once your heart is not in it, it may well be a waste of time. That is why today's extract says all of the law is summarised in one word, and that word is love.

It is important to define this love from God's view, not the world's. The world's idea of love is messed up; there are quite a number of ways the word is used by men of the world which looks nothing like what God says here. It leaves no room for selfishness; it places the interests of other people over and above self. It does not promote itself at the expense of another. It does not keep a record of wrongs or remind others how it has been hurt. It is not the kind that first seeks what it may get from you before it gives you of itself. 

All of the law finds expression and fulfilment in the word love. If I love my neighbour, I will always seek his good. If I love him, I will not covet what he has, and I will not seek to harm him. The ten commandments, as well as the others, become easy when my heart is sold out on God's kind of love. I will honour God with all my heart when his love is all I have got. I will not have any other God apart from him when his love fills every available space. I will not steal, or bear false witness against someone I consider my friend. If I will live right, I just must love right. Just as I would love myself, and not seek harm to myself, so must I love other people and not seek harm to them. If God were to deal with me on the same level as I deal with other people, what would my fate be? May the Lord teach me how to live and love right, so I can be all that God has created me to be. His time of favour is here.