Love Fulfills the Law
Daily Scripture
Deuteronomy 26:11, Romans 12:9-10, 13:9-10
Deuteronomy 26
11 Then celebrate all the good things the Lord your God has done for you and your family—each one of you along with the Levites and the immigrants who are among you.
Romans 12
9 Love should be shown without pretending. Hate evil, and hold on to what is good. 10 Love each other like the members of your family. Be the best at showing honor to each other.
Romans 13
9 The commandments, Don’t commit adultery, don’t murder, don’t steal, don’t desire what others have [Exodus 20:13-15, 17; Deuteronomy 5:17-19, 21] and any other commandments, are all summed up in one word: You must love your neighbor as yourself [Leviticus 19:18]. 10 Love doesn’t do anything wrong to a neighbor; therefore, love is what fulfills the Law.
Daily Reflection & Prayer
Mia Hamm: “I am a member of a team, and I rely on the team, I defer to it and sacrifice for it, because the team, not the individual, is the ultimate champion.”
The apostle Paul would have strongly agreed with Mia Hamm’s focus on “the team.” Deuteronomy 26:11 extended “family” to include even the foreigners in Israel. Paul’s challenge—”Love doesn’t do anything wrong to a neighbor”—pushed against innate human nature. John Wesley, Methodism’s founder, agreed: “Let our hearts be joined herein; let us unite our wishes and prayers; let our whole soul pant after a general revival of pure religion and undefiled, the restoration of the image of God, pure love, in every child of man!… let us, with all diligence, diffuse the religion of love among all.” *
- People too often think “holy” people are not very loving, that Christians are judgmental and harsh. That was not Paul’s view! Dedicating a new chapel, John Wesley urged Methodists, “Let us provoke all men, not to enmity and contention, but to love and good works; always remembering those deep words…‘God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him!’” * When have you experienced a “love” that couldn’t be honest, or a “just being honest” approach that caused needless pain? How can you live out Wesley’s vision while avoiding either extreme?
- Paul strikingly said ALL the commandments are “summed up in one word.” Not a complex list, but one word: love. How might deadly religious chapters in history (the Salem witch trials, the Inquisition) have been different if Christians had truly followed “love doesn’t do anything wrong to a neighbor”? How can you stand for truths that matter to you without harming those who disagree?
Prayer
Living Lord, help me take in—and then live out—”the religion of love.” Let me live in love, in you, and have you live in me. Amen.
GPS Insights
Reese Pritchard
Reese Pritchard, who is serving as a Summer Intern for Resurrection in the Overland Park Early Learning Center, wrote todays Insights. Her family have been members of Resurrection her whole life. Reese attends The University of Kansas and will be a Junior in the Fall studying Speech, Language, and Hearing. She loves to play pickleball with friends and family and enjoys listening to country music!
To me, the idea of “Love Your Neighbor” is the most important commandment given to us by God. It is also one of the simplest and straightforward directions but can be hard for many to carry out in a world that seems so governed by division.
Loving your neighbor does not mean you have to agree with them about everything. There is no condition by God that says to only love your neighbor if you have the same religious beliefs, political beliefs, or general opinions. However, God does call us to recognize these differences in beliefs and still demonstrate compassion, kindness, respect, and service—all wrapped up in the term “love”—to everyone around us.
When I think of loving your neighbor, I think of my next-door neighbor, whom I had known my whole life. Recently, he tragically passed away, but in reflecting on his life and remembering who he was, he demonstrated in every action how to show love to everyone in our neighborhood and in his life. He had such a heart for service, whether in being asked for help or just because he wanted to do something nice for others. He was the type of person everyone knew and for the best reasons. He united and created a community in our neighborhood in ways he may not have known, and I am a better person for having known him.
When we love our neighbor, we are able to celebrate the unique difference that God gave each of us. When we celebrate differences and love one another, we actively oppose evil and hate. It may seem hard in the climate of the world we live in, but we know that Jesus paid the ultimate price for our sins, and the only thing He asks of us in return is to love and believe in Him, and spread His message and love through loving and caring for one another.
