Bible Verse of the Day Sunday June 25th, 2023

Romans 13:9-10 The commandments, “You shall not commit adultery,” “You shall not murder,” “You shall not steal,” “You shall not covet,” and whatever other command there may be, are summed up in this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Love does no harm to a neighbor. Therefore, love is the fulfillment of the law.    

The commandments concerning adultery, murder, covetousness, and all others encompass this one commandment with two parts. These are to love our neighbors, that is, all people, as ourselves, and not harm anyone. The harm mentioned here does not include only the physical realm but also the spiritual realm. In other words, the adage we have heard all our lives, "Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words can never hurt me," is of the world, not of God. Words can cause irreparable damage to someone because it does not stop there when we speak ill of someone to another person. The gossip we bring to someone concerning another person will continue into perpetuity; it spreads with the force of an atomic reaction. One person tells two people, those two tell two more, and those four tell two people each, and there is nothing humanly possible to stop the continuing growing reaction. 

 

The Apostle Paul echoes Jesus' teachings in this scripture verse (Matthew 22:36-40). In this verse, Paul speaks about one of the two commandments on which all laws and all the prophets hang. When Paul and Jesus say that we should love our neighbors, these are people that we meet and deal with every day of our lives. It is simple for us to love in the abstract, however, God is telling us to love real people. Charles Spurgeon once wrote: "No man can compass the ends of life by drawing a little line around himself upon the ground. No man can fulfill his calling as a Christian by seeking the welfare of his wife and family only, for these are only a sort of greater self." 

 

The bottom line, or where the rubber meets the road, is love for all people is the fulfillment of the Law. It is simple for someone to follow all the correct religious prerequisites but fail to love our neighbors as ourselves. The steadfast love we show all people is the true magnitude of our love and obedience to God. As Christians, our love for our fellow brothers and sisters must be more than conceptual; we reveal God's faithful love through our actions. Authentic Godly (agape love) will never turn to itself; it's the opposite. Agape love is selfless love; self-love is the foundational building block of sin. True Christ-like love holds no requirement that we must like our neighbors but always keep their best interest in our hearts. It would be a miracle if we did not need laws to keep people in line. Paul is alluding to that in his message here in these verses in Romans. 

 

Paul is saying we should treat our neighbors how we would like to be treated and love them like we want to be loved. If we do that, we won't do anything that would hurt them, much less violate a command of the Law. God gave Moses the Law on stone tablets, but He wrote the Law on our hearts; the question is, how receptive are we to what God has asked of us? Paul's point here is not a command to love ourselves. It is an acknowledgment that we do love ourselves and a commandment to love others just as honestly and sincerely. Let us all ask God to help us be good reflectors for the light of Christ and His love that shines into this dark and dying world.