Love, On the Top of It All
Do not owe people anything, except always owe love to each other,
because the person who loves others has obeyed all the law.
(Romans 13: 8)
The Christian life is challenging and its frameworks are set by love. At the top of everything that a Christian may hold on to, love should be the most important element of life. Everything that a Christian is expected to live with is made of love and is governed by love. And, love gets the prominence in the midst of all the other elements.
In Romans 13: 8 - 14, Paul writes as he highlights this importance. He carefully shows how love becomes the most important command. Paul explains by saying "The law says, 'You must not be guilty of adultery. You must not murder anyone. You must not steal. You must not want to take your neighbour’s things.' All these commands and all others are really only one rule: 'Love your neighbour as you love yourself.' Love never hurts a neighbour, so loving is obeying all the law" (Romans 13: 9, 10). Yes. That was the most valuable relationship Paul found between the law that governs our living and the love that is on the top of it all. And this is what we receive from this teaching.
All the thoughts that cause us to sin are built on our selfish thoughts and lack of love for 'the other.' If we care about the other person out of the love that we have for them we will never do something that hurts them. Yes! And, this becomes the baseline on which the rest of the life of a Christain should be set. It is this relationship between love and law that Christ Jesus insisted on when he said 'Love your neighbour as you love yourself' as the great command in Matthew 22: 36-40. Love draws this most important line of Christian living. When you begin to love 'the other' like yourself, your life becomes not only sin-free but also a blessing to others. Selfishness and the lack of love for your neighbour ('the other' person) become the two elements of sin. And when there is true love, surely there is no more selfishness.
Christ Jesus lays importance on this. For him, love was the most important command than any other. In Matthew 22:36-40, we find this conversation. One of the lawyers from the Pharisees gathered around Jesus asked him "Master, which is the great commandment in the law?" And Jesus said to him, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets." Everything else that is expected from a Christian is depending on the love that we have towards the other.
Today, it is a great calling for us to love one another. It is a call to have love as the greatest command in our lives and to love others just as we may love ourselves. There begins the life of a Christian. That is where the essence of Christian life is felt. And that is exactly the life that we are called to live; a life of love and blessing. I pray that all of us would be blessed with an abundance of love so that we will be lead by God to love one another. May the blessings of God our Father, the grace of Christ Jesus and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit help us have love as the greatest command.
May God bless you.
Yours in Christ,
