Romans 13:8–14 (ESV)✞: Fulfilling the Law Through Love
Passage
In the last passage Paul urged us to submit to the authorities placed over us. He now pivots to talk about how we are to relate to one another. I’d divide it into two main parts:
- Love your neighbour
- Knowing that the times have changed, live righteously
That last piece, especially, is way more nuanced than what I just said.
The first section is easier to take in at a glance, and is similar to something Jesus Himself said. (See Matthew 22:34–40✞, Mark 12:28–34✞, and—in a longer passage that leads into the parable of the good Samaritan as an object lesson—Luke 10:25–37✞.) Not surprisingly, Paul is saying exactly what Jesus said:
8 Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. 9 For the commandments, “You shall not commit adultery, You shall not murder, You shall not steal, You shall not covet,” and any other commandment, are summed up in this word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” 10 Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.
Why does Paul start by saying that we shouldn’t owe one another anything? He’s continuing from the last verse of the previous passage – remember, Paul is writing a letter, he’s not thinking in terms of chapters, verses, section headings, etc. So the flow is like this:
… Pay to all what is owed to them: taxes to whom taxes are owed, revenue to whom revenue is owed, respect to whom respect is owed, honor to whom honor is owed.
Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another …
In this light, the flow makes perfect sense: Paul says that we should pay our debts, which leads him naturally into talking about how we should treat each other. I don’t read Paul as saying that we should never borrow from one another, but when we do we should pay back those debts, as much as is in our power. And even that’s not his point; his point is to use the concept of “debt” as a pivot into our “debt” of love to one another – which is a fulfillment of the law.
Speaking of fulfilling the law, Paul rounds out this passage by reminding us that we should be living rightly:
11 Besides this you know the time, that the hour has come for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed. 12 The night is far gone; the day is at hand. So then let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light. 13 Let us walk properly as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and sensuality, not in quarreling and jealousy. 14 But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.
If I have any consistent readers they probably know what I’m going to say next: let’s not get hung up on these ideas about “the day” being “at hand.” Paul is not trying to get us caught up in “end times” thinking. It’s true that the day is at hand, and it’s also true that the day had been at hand for almost 30 years when Paul wrote his letter to the Romans, and has been at hand for over 2,000 years by the time I wrote this blog post. Paul isn’t saying “let us walk properly because Jesus could come back any second now.” Technically, in theory, He could come back any second now, but that’s not what Paul is saying.
What I believe Paul is saying is that we’re in a new phase of human history; we sometimes call this phase of history “the last days” but that is not, as I’m saying, an indicator that Christ’s return is imminent, but rather a period of time between the time Christ left and the time He returns. However long that period happens to be (2,000 years and counting, at this point).
Why is that relevant? After all, a Jewish scholar in Paul’s day would have told his fellow Jews the same thing Paul was saying to Christians: don’t partake in orgies or drunkenness or sexual immorality or sensuality or quarreling or jealousy. Those would all be valid admonitions to anyone who is trying to live a good life. But Paul is saying this is even more important—and more attainable—for the Christian. Christ has freed us from the Law and justified us before God; He has also sent the Holy Spirit to dwell in us.
All this to say that Paul is not trying to get us to look forward (to Christ’s return), but backward (to what Christ has already accomplished), and, in light of that, to live as if Christ is dwelling within us – because He is.
Thoughts
What does Paul—and Jesus—mean by saying that obeying the two greatest commandments “fulfills the law?” It’s easy for us to overthink this because the New Testament sometimes gets a bit fuzzy in terms of what the “law” is; for example, Galatians 6:2✞ tells us to bear one another’s burdens, which fulfills “the law of Christ” – what is “the law of Christ?” Is this a new law, that is put in place to replace the Old Testament Law?
I don’t think we need to fall into a rabbit hole on this; when Paul says that loving one another fulfils the law he means it in the same way Jesus had meant it: if I was able to properly and completely love the Lord my God with all my heart, and love my neighbour the way I love myself, I’d be perfect. Frankly, I’d have the kind of perfection that Jesus Himself had! If I—or anyone else—was able to do this perfectly, Jesus wouldn’t have needed to come and die; God would simply have demanded that we do it, and those who earned a relationship with Him would have that relationship. But nobody is able to do this perfectly, we’re all sinners, and hence the entire book of Romans in which Paul spells out the need for and the mechanics of Jesus’ salvation.
All Paul is saying here is that we are to continue to follow the words of Jesus: let’s love one another. Now that we have the Holy Spirit—now that the kingdom of God has already begun—we’re better able to do this than humans had been in the past; shame on us when we don’t.
And, just because we can’t attain perfection doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be striving for it! I will never find myself loving my neighbour as well as Jesus did, but I should always be trying to do so.
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