Context No. 1337 of 4322 · Romans
Context · Reflection
Romans 13:8-14: in context
8Owe no one anything, except to love one another; for he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law. 9For the commandments, “You shall not commit adultery,” “You shall not murder,” “You shall not steal,” “You shall not covet,” and whatever other commandments there are, are all summed up in this saying, namely, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” 10Love doesn’t harm a neighbor. Love therefore is the fulfillment of the law. 11Do this, knowing the time, that it is already time for you to awaken out of sleep, for salvation is now nearer to us than when we first believed. 12The night is far gone, and the day is near. Let’s therefore throw off the deeds of darkness, and let’s put on the armor of light. 13Let’s walk properly, as in the day; not in reveling and drunkenness, not in sexual promiscuity and lustful acts, and not in strife and jealousy. 14But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, for its lusts.
Paul turns to the one obligation that is never discharged. Owe no one anything, he writes, except to love one another, for the one who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law. All the commandments, against adultery, murder, theft, coveting, and the rest, are summed up in one: love your neighbor as yourself. Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law. And he urges urgency: the hour has come to wake from sleep, for salvation is nearer now; the night is far gone, the day is at hand. Cast off the works of darkness, put on the armor of light, and put on the Lord Jesus Christ, making no provision for the flesh.
The striking phrase is the exception Paul carves out: owe no one anything, except to love one another. He has just been speaking of paying what we owe, taxes, revenue, respect, but then he names one debt that is never paid off. The obligation to love is a debt that stays open no matter how much we pay on it; we never reach a point where we have loved our neighbor enough and are now free of the obligation. Every day it comes due again. And Paul says this continuing debt of love is actually the whole law in summary; the commandments that forbid harming our neighbor, killing, stealing, betraying, coveting, are all just love spelled out in particulars, and where love is truly present it does none of these things, so love fulfills them all. There is something freeing and something demanding in that at once. Freeing, because we do not have to master an endless list of separate rules; if we genuinely love our neighbor we will not wrong him, and the law is kept. Demanding, because love is a debt that never closes, that asks something of us again every morning toward every person God puts in front of us. We would often prefer a fixed obligation we could complete and be done with; love is not that. It is the one debt we go on owing as long as we live, and paying it is the whole of what the law was after.
Do I treat love as a debt I go on owing every day to everyone God puts before me, the one obligation that never closes, or do I imagine I can love enough and be done, when Paul says this continuing debt is the whole law fulfilled?
Sources
- Romans 13:8: owe no one anything, except to love one another; for he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law
- Romans 13:10: love doesn't harm a neighbor. Love therefore is the fulfillment of the law
- Romans 13:14: put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh