Restrictions of the law are, under grace, fulfilled in one word – love. We are to love our neighbor as ourselves. Love will never hurt or defraud one’s neighbor.
Owe no man any thing, but to love one another: for he who loves another has fulfilled the law. For this, “You shall not commit adultery, you shall not kill, you shall not steal, you shall not bear false witness, you shall not covet;” and if there is any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this saying, namely, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Love works no ill to his neighbor: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law (Romans 13:8-10).
For, brothers, you have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another. For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; “You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Galatians 5:13-14).
As members of Christ’s Body, we are neighbors.
… Speak every man truth with his neighbor: for we are members one of another (Ephesians 4:25).
Love is the fulfilling of the law. This is why, to the pure, all things are pure, and there is nothing unclean of itself. This is why love is eternally bound to grace. Grace is the absence of law, and there is no need for a law where love is genuinely present … “and the greatest of these is love.”
Unto the pure all things are pure … (Titus 1:15).
I know, and am persuaded by the Lord Jesus, that there is nothing unclean of itself … (Romans 14:14).
All things are lawful for me, but all things are not expedient: all things are lawful for me, but all things edify not (I Corinthians 10:23).
And now abides faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is love (I Corinthians 13:13).
Clyde L. Pilkington, Jr.
Bible Student’s Notebook
© 2007, 2010
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