Title: Fulfillment of the Law
2010.10.31 Sunday morning worship service
Romans 13:8-10 ‘8. Do not owe anyone except for the love of one another. He who loves others has fulfilled the law.
9. You shall not commit adultery, you shall not murder, you shall not steal, you shall not covet, and if there is any other commandment, you have heard it in the words, You shall love your neighbor as yourself. 10. Love is evil to a neighbor therefore love is the fulfillment of the law' - Amen.
The law was not given as a way to obtain salvation in terms of fearing God, but as a pattern of life for people who have already been saved. The purpose of the law was to teach people to love life, not bowing down to vain gods, living according to vain and unresolved human philosophies, but to fear God first, and to live with their neighbors in the love of God, that is, faith through Jesus Christ. That is why the Law is said to be a tutor who leads to Jesus. What is the goal of the ultimate fulfillment of the law? I would like to share a sermon on the topic of <Completion of the Law>.
1. The purpose of all laws is love
As it is said in 1 Corinthians 13:13, 'Therefore, faith, hope, and love, these three things will always exist, but the greatest of these is love.' Practicing love is central to Christianity.
Romans 13:9 “You shall not commit adultery, you shall not murder, you shall not steal, you shall not covet.”
Matthew 22:37-40 ‘37. Jesus said to them, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind." 38. This is the great and first commandment. 39. And so it is with the second, that thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. 40. These two commandments are all the Law and the Prophets.'
2. The debt of love for receiving Jesus
Christianity is not a teaching religion. It is not Taoism at the level of cultivating the Tao. It is a religion that conveys the great historical event that, out of God's exclusive love, He called people who were inevitably on the road to destruction as sinners who could not find true joy in life and should be punished in hell by dying and saving them with forgiveness and love.
Christianity is not a religion to be regarded as an idol. Christianity is a documentary, not a drama. Pan-religion believes in fiction and Christianity believes in fact. Text Romans 13:8 “Ode to no one except for the love of one another, for he who loves others has fulfilled the law.”
In the Bible, Christians are seen as debtors of love. The content is that there is nothing we can do for the sins we have committed, and only because God saved us through His unconditional love and grace, we deserve to love one another.
1 John 4:11 “Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.”
Love can be done by those who have been loved by God. A person who has also received human love can do better. In particular, to practice God's love, you may need to experience God's forgiveness of sins and grace.
Because we are nominally a member of the church, the love we give is difficult and we cannot finish it. However, it is possible if we respect the love of God. That is why the Church always emphasizes that we must love the Lord first. This is because only then will you gain grace and the strength to love others.
John 13:34 “…Love one another as I have loved you”
As I have loved you, he said. Since you have given that love, you must first experience the love you have received.
To properly experience God's love is to receive God's forgiveness. Then you will surely love God fervently first and approach your neighbors with love without doing evil to your neighbors.
Romans 13:10 “Love does no evil to its neighbor…”
It is a sin to simply not care when your neighbor is dying. Even if you do not intentionally do evil to your neighbor, you live with selfishness, and if you are too individualistic, you may abandon your neighbor. This is not the attitude of living as a Christian.
Whether intentional evil or indifference, it is an attitude that harms a neighbor.
We live in a society where love is withered day by day. The love of God that Christianity received is so great that there is nothing in the world that can be compared. It is said that the fulfillment of the law is love. This means that in the end, trusting and fearing God well is loving your neighbor.
Love truly cannot do without faith. A person with good faith is right when there is a lot of love. People say that faith is good, but if they do not have love, they have lost the goal of true faith. The end result of upright faith, godly faith, and martyrdom is to have compassion and love for people's souls and lives.
Let's reflect on how much love is among the saints first in our hearts. And how merciful and loving are you really to your neighbor? I hope that you and I will look at the heart of the saints who must live with love this fall.