Romans 13:8-10

Scripture Verse

Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for whoever loves others has fulfilled the law. ⁹ The commandments, “You shall not commit adultery,” “You shall not murder,” “You shall not steal,” “You shall not covet,” and whatever other command there may be, are summed up in this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.’^{’ 10} Love does no harm to a neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.

 Agape, Eros, Philia, and Storge, what really matters

When we think of love, we often mean “eros” (romantic love), and it’s pretty much bound to one person. We want the best for this person and especially never want to hurt that person. Here, Paul is talking about “agape” (sacrificial love) which is in principle the same as “eros” but not romantically. What do I want to say with that provocative claim? The way we love this one person, we should love non-romantically our neighbors. If we did so, we wouldn’t steal from them or kill or do anything bad to them. That’s easily done for people where we have “philia” (brotherly love) or “storge” (motherly love) for.

But what about that weird, annoying guy that always makes my life difficult? How should I not make him pay for what he has done? Well, the answer is in the end always Jesus. Jesus didn’t nullify the law but fulfilled it because Jesus is love. This love always referred as perfect “agape” we can never recreate using our own strength. But I think, the experience of “eros” gives us a glimpse of what that love looks like and why Paul thinks that loving our neighbors fulfills all existing laws of the Old Testament.

Why is it so important that we try to fulfill the law by loving our neighbors unconditionally? I don’t think it is because God first gave us the law but rather because God knows us humans well. This unconditional love changes people and sometimes their whole life. When I was younger and an agnostic, one of the main things that changed my mind at a Christian camp was that almost unreasonable love I experienced. Without doing anything good, the other Christians simply loved me as a brother in Christ even though I wasn’t one back then. But this “simple” thing changed my heart without me even noticing. I don’t think it was easy to love me, but God makes it possible for us Christians to love even the most horrible people to spend time with.

So, let us try to not only receive God’s love, but also give it to the people around us and those, we naturally wouldn’t like. The law might be fulfilled by that, but more importantly, we change hearts and lives with our love.