January/February 2003
Love and the Law
by J. Michael Feazell
| We seem to find ourselves more comfortable with the idea of the law fulfilling love than we are with the idea of love fulfilling the law. |
The apostle Paul once wrote of love as a "continuing debt" to one another, saying, "he who loves his fellowman has fulfilled the law." He cited four of the Ten Commandments and then included all others, explaining that they "are summed up in this one rule: 'love your neighbor as yourself.'" He said, "Love does no harm to its neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law." You can read his discourse in Romans 13:8-10.
When we consider Paul's teaching about the relationship between love and the law, it is interesting how we seem naturally inclined to reverse it. We seem to find ourselves more comfortable with the idea of the law fulfilling love than we are with the idea of love fulfilling the law.
Law Rooted in Love, Not Vice Versa
The law, contrary to what many well intentioned Christians believe, does not define love. Law and love may intersect at many points, but they are definitely not the same thing. The law is rooted in love, to be sure, but love is not rooted in the law.
Just as the law does not define love, so love does not define law. It transcends the law. The law exists only because God loves. I doubt anyone would want to say that God loves only because he first had a law.
Even though the law is a product of love, the law can be misused and turned into something that harms, rather than helps, when it is administered by cruel and pitiless people. But love, from which law springs, cannot be misused.
In his love, God tempers justice with mercy. Regarding the way God views the law and justice, James wrote: "Speak and act as those who are going to be judged by the law that gives freedom, because judgment without mercy will be shown to anyone who has not been merciful. Mercy triumphs over judgment" (James 2:12-13).
Now here is a curious thing! Many religious people have the idea that God's spiritual blood is constantly at a furious boil at the sinning masses, and that he is first and foremost the God of justice who is itching to blast the evildoers. So naturally, most people who believe this caricature of God are either worried about or resigned to their obvious toboggan slide to hell.
But James, the biblical writer who is a hands-down favorite of works-oriented Christians, says two remarkable things in the just-cited passage: 1) people are judged by the law that gives freedom, not the law that condemns, and 2) the only kind of people who will get judgment without mercy are people who have not been merciful, because mercy triumphs over judgment!
This ought to be no surprise, because like Zechariah reported, "This is what the Lord Almighty says: 'Administer true justice; show mercy and compassion to one another'" (Zechariah 7:9). In other words, in God's view, there is no other kind of judgment but the kind that is tempered with mercy and compassion. When God talks about judgment, he is talking about something quite different from what a lot of religious people are talking about.
God loves. And it is because he loves that he gave the law. It is because he loves that he judges. It is because he loves that he judges us all guilty, since we are. It is because he loves that in judging us guilty, he has mercy on us. It is because he loves that he sent Jesus. It is because he loves that he sent the Holy Spirit. It is because he loves that he moves us to turn to him (repent), to trust him (have faith) and that he saves us from sin and death (salvation).
When we love, we are behaving like God. Jesus said, "So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets" (Matthew 7:12). Psychiatrists say that at the basest level, what all human beings need and want is to be loved. If we want to be loved, then Jesus says we need to love, and that, he says, sums up the Law and Prophets.
-- J. Michael Feazell