Owe no one anything except to love one another, for he who loves another has fulfilled the law. (9) For the commandments ”You shall not commit adultery,” ”You shall not murder,” “you shall not steal,” ”You shall not bear false witness,” ”You shall not covet,” and if there is any other commandment, all are summed up in this saying, namely, ”You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” (10) Love does no harm to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.

In Romans, chapter 13, the apostle Paul deals mainly with our political duties and our conduct as Christians in society. Our verses today are NOT a prohibition against proper use of credit but a discussion of the one debt we will always owe and that is the debt of love Christians owe to all others. Jesus said that love is the distinguishing mark of His followers and marks how they are known. Paul frequently wrote of the command to love our neighbors which is evidence of genuine faith. In faith we are transformed and this is the foundation for loving others and seeking to do God’s will – if we try to love others when we have not experienced the love of God in Christ we are just into moralism and again back into the belief that works can earn salvation. Only in faith will our motive be to love the God who loved us while we were still sinners. Loving one another is a command that extends to loving all people – we may not like them but we are commanded to love them. Just think how galling it is to learn a lesson from someone we don’t like – but it changes our perspective. Love is an act of will involving not just our feelings.

In our verses today Paul cites commandments to show what love does NOT do and that is “love does no harm to a neighbor”. This is particularly relevant in this present time of violence and mindless destruction of property. Loving others is a lifelong process and a debt that can never be paid off.

My favorite, c.s. Lewis writes of our lifelong process of sanctification: “Imagine yourself as a living house. God comes in to rebuild that house. At first, perhaps you can understand what He is doing. He is getting the drains right and stopping the leaks in the roof and so on; you knew those jobs needed doing and so you are not surprised. But presently He starts knocking the house about in a way that hurts abominably and does not seem to make any sense. What on earth is He up to? The explanation is that is He is building quite a different house from the one you thought of – throwing out a new wing here, putting an extra floor there, running up towers, making courtyards. You thought you were being made into a decent cottage: but He is building a palace. He intends to come and live in it Himself. “