Why is love the answer to what the Law demands?
Love is the answer because genuine agape love prevents the very wrongs the Law prohibits. A person who truly loves another will not steal, gossip, bear false witness, covet, or engage in sexual immorality, since such acts lack true love and bring misery. Therefore love fulfills every part of the Law.
Les teaches that Romans 13:8 says he who loves another has fulfilled the Law—every part of it. He explains love is always the answer for what the Law demands. He asks whether you can steal from someone you really love, or gossip about someone you love and seek their highest good; the answer is no. The same applies to sexual immorality: if true agape love were functioning, the present surge of immorality and adultery would die on the vine, because there is no true love in that kind of sexual satisfaction and it leaves people miserable. Triangles cause unhappiness, grief, and sorrow. Coveting also disappears, for you do not wish for what belongs to someone you love. Thus love fulfills the whole Law. Les also notes Paul’s teaching that believers are not under Law but under Grace does not mean freedom to steal or gossip; it means the Law no longer hangs over them as a threatening punishment. Once salvation comes through faith and God’s Grace, the believer’s system of want-to changes.
Owe no man any thing, but to love one another: for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law.
More Questions
How does love fulfill the Law?
Love for others fulfills the entire Law, because love is always the answer for what the Law demands.
What does Romans 13:8 mean that he who loves another has fulfilled the Law?
Romans 13:8 teaches that the one who loves another has fulfilled the Law—every part of it.
How can loving another person fulfill the Law?
When a believer loves another, that is actually the love of God operating in him, and he has therefore fulfilled the Law.