Word of Salvation – Vol. 40 No.10 – March 1995

 

Love Fulfils The Law

 

Sermon by Rev. B. G. Aldridge on Romans 13:8-14

Suggested Hymns: BoW 399 51 444 381 448 240

 

Dear Congregation.

Love is the most used and abused word in the English language.  We use the same word for sexual relations, feelings between husband and wife, children and parents, between friends, as well as our feelings for our pets and God’s attitude towards us.  More poems have been written and more stories told about love than any other subject.

Love has been defined in many ways:
   “Love is like trying to eat soup with a fork, you never get enough of it.”
  “Love does not make the world go round, it just makes the journey worthwhile.”
   “God is love.”

Certainly, the Bible makes much of love.  Love is greater than anything else.  It is greater than all the sacrifices.  It is greater than faith.  It is greater than all the spiritual gifts.  1Corinthians 13:1-3 (read:) “If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.  If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.  If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.”  This makes it crystal clear that love is above all.  This also makes it quite clear that the ‘fruit’ of the Holy Spirit is valued above the ‘gifts’ of the Holy Spirit, for love is a fruit, not a gift.

The Bible distinguishes two kinds of love:

a.  Love which is an Indicative.  Here love is a fact.  Like the love of God.  The Scriptures say that God is love.  This is a fact, it is a reality.  It is Jesus dying on the CROSS.

Listen to 1John 4:7-10.  “Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God.  Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.  Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.  This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him.  This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.”

God did, but does not have to love us.  He loves you because He chose to love you.  Out of all others who could be chosen, God chose you to be loved by Him.

b.  Love which is Imperative.  Our love for God and for each other.  Two scriptures spell out this kind of love:

“This is my commandment that you love one another.” “And this is love: that we walk in obedience to his commandments.”

This is human love.  In loving God and loving you, I do not have a choice.  I cannot discriminate.  Love is a command.  It is an imperative.  Love is a decision, not a choice.  Is this a popular idea?  Not at all!  It is totally rejected by the world.  For many, love is all about feelings.  Now, I do not deny that feelings are involved in love (my wife, I hope, will testify to that), but true love remains when feelings may not be there.  Feelings are changeable, love is not.

So, when the Bible says (read verse 8): “Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for he who loves his fellow-man has fulfilled the law” it is talking about human love.  It is talking about my loving you as another person made in the image of God.  It is talking about love as a decision.  It is talking about love as an imperative.

But how can my love fulfil the law?  I know that Jesus came to fulfil the law, but what about me?  When I read this, I am tempted to say, “Look, Father, this is altogether too much.  After all, I am not Jesus.  I am not perfect.  You are asking too much.  How can I fulfil the law?”

Did you ask the same question when this scripture was read?  Did you wonder what is being talked about?  If you were listening, you most certainly would have.  So, let us look at this through the eyes of the Ten Commandments.

The Ten Commandments get a bad press these days, even among Christians.  But they are still the best description of love available to us.  That is why I want to set out the Ten Commandments in terms of love and show how love is the fulfilment of the law.

1.  Love is Loyal.  First Commandment: “You shall have no other gods before me.” Love is absolutely one-eyed.  It is loyal to one God.  Jesus said: “No one can serve two masters” (Matthew 6:24).  If Jesus says that it is impossible, it is impossible.  Someone said to me the other day that he could love two women at the same time.  I doubt that, and I am sure if I asked the women concerned, they would not agree.  But one thing I can assure you of, you cannot be loyal to two gods.  Love is having one God and one only!

2.  Love is Faithful.  Second Commandment: “You shall not bow down to them or worship them.”  Love is jealous.  Love is to worship only the Lord your God.  Jesus said: “Worship the Lord your God and serve him only.”  There is a clear line drawn here.  Worship the Lord, and Him only.  When we love God, we will worship only God and nothing else.  God will not allow anything else to be worshipped.

3.  Love is Reverent.  Third Commandment: “You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God.”  In our society, reverence is old fashioned and reverence for God has gone out the window.  At no time has reverence for God been less than it is now.  God is not only a swear word, but the subject of joke and ridicule.  It hurts, doesn’t it, when you hear it?  Love means that we are not a part of it.  The name of the Lord is sacred and precious.  How would you react if someone used the name of your wife or husband or mother or father as a swear word?  Should we not react with the same outraged love when the name of the Lord is used in that way?

4.  Love is Holy.  Fourth Commandment: “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy” or consecrated.  The Sabbath day was a sign of the covenant made with Moses.  It was to remind Israel that every part of life was holy, to be consecrated to the Lord; to be used only for the purposes for which He gave it.  Love sets us apart to belong wholly to the Lord.  Paul proclaims: “You are not your own, you are bought with a price.”  To love is to have a tag on yourself which says, “For Jesus’ use only.”

5.  Love is Respectful and Obedient.  Fifth Commandment: “Honour your father and your mother,”  Unfortunately, the world in which we live has become a battle ground between parents and their children.  Children are taught to be independent of their parents and parents are taught that children are a nuisance.  Love is recapturing the idea that we are both on the same side.  Parents and children are on the same team.  They are living for the same goal.  If the church could do one great thing for our society, it would be this: Show them that healthy, happy and fulfilling family life is both desirable and possible.

6.  Love is Protective.  Sixth Commandment: “You shall not kill.”  Among the many things love does, it protects life.  Love does not destroy life.  Love, says Paul, “always protects.”  But love protects more than just life.  It also protects reputations.  I have not had any trouble learning not to kill anyone.  In fact, I have not even come close to killing anyone.  But I have found it much harder to learn to protect reputations, not to bad-mouth anyone, to refuse to put someone down and to think the best of even the worst.  But if we are serious about love, then this is what it means – it means that no one will suffer as a result of our words or actions.  That is love.

7.  Love is Virtuous.  Seventh Commandment: “You shall not commit adultery.” Love does not defile others.  You can trot out all the arguments you like, but having more than one permanent partner is to defile and be defiled.  It is sinful and destructive.  Love exults purity in our relationship.  Love leaves no room for duality in our sexual relations.

8.  Love is Giving.  Eighth Commandment: “You shall not steal.”  One of the distinct features of love is that it is giving rather than taking.  Whether it is your life for your brother, your goods for the poor, your body for the mutual and exclusive enjoyment with another, or yourself for the world: love is giving.  If we are not giving, we are not loving.  You cannot love and be on the take all the time.  When we steal from someone, whether their goods or reputation, then we are stealing from God because everything belongs to God and we are merely stewards of it.  Love does not take what has not been entrusted to us.  It gives and gives and gives.

9.  Love is Honest.  Ninth Commandment: “You shall not bear false witness.”  Love is not deceitful.  This is a tough area.  We deceive so easily.  We tell half the truth.  We present information in such a way so as to make ourselves look good or always be in the right.

We talk about white lies.  What nonsense!  There is no such thing.  Love does not only mean that we do not lie, but when we give our word, then we stick to it.  Love means that people can rely upon us.  Our YES is YES and our NO is NO.  We think that no one will know, but we still have to live with ourselves.

10.  Love is Content.  Tenth Commandment: “You shall not cover.”  Love does not make us resentful of what others have.  Love is not greedy.  Love does not measure your importance in terms of material possessions.  Love is not interested in the size of your bank balance.  Love is content with such things as you have.

When we look at love in terms of being the fulfilment of the law, we can see it leaves no loopholes.  It means we live according to the spirit and not just the letter of the law.  It really personalises what God is saying to us.  For a Christian, there is no escape but to love.

Conclusion.

Love like this is an imperative.  God demands it.  It is our response to His love.  We have no choice.  But besides that, love is just the most wonderful thing.  So much that is said about love makes it seem like a real burden; makes it seem like a real pain.  But it is not!  There is nothing more wonderful than to love and to be loved.

Loving is also enjoyable; the only way to enjoy life is to love.  Any other way of living just makes you miserable, uncomfortable, and feel that you have been let down.  Only love lifts you up.  Only love does not let you down.  That is why we thrill every time we read that wonderful description of love in 1Corinthians 13:4-7 – “Love is patient, love is kind.  It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.  It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.  Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.  It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.”

Are you having trouble loving?  How do we become more loving?  Love is a fruit of the Holy Spirit working in our lives.  Love is poured out in our lives by the Holy Spirit.  God is love, so we learn to love by spending time with the One who is love.  If you are having trouble loving, I will guarantee one thing: you are not spending much time with God.  Love is God sending Jesus to die on the cross for us.  If you are having trouble loving, I will guarantee that you have not been spending much time with Jesus.

So, if you want to love, then spend time with Him who is love.  Spend time with the One who gave Himself for you.  Let the Holy Spirit work in your life.  Let Him pour out the love of God in your life, and loving will be much easier than you think.

Amen.