Owe no one anything, unless to love one another for he that loves another has fulfilled the law.
Paul has just told believers to give everyone what is due to them. Verse 8 turns that round: close every account you can, and keep one open for life.
Paul gathers every kind of debt under one rule, then sets one debt apart from the rest.
Paul sums up every possible kind of obligation and states the principle the believer should act on. He goes on, "Owe no one anything, except to love each other." This takes in every form of debt. Love, then, if we may use the word, is an obligation you never pay off. More than that, it is the "fulness" of the law.
At first glance the words sound like a ban on ever taking a loan. Commentators point instead to the moment a payment falls due.
The first sentence does not mean that it is wrong to borrow money. The question is about paying. If a debt is due, you should pay it exactly on time. Borrowing money in a reckless way, with no prospect of paying it back, is sinful. It has often brought great dishonour on the name of our Lord.
It shapes giving too. What you owe comes before what you give.
We are to owe no one anything except to love one another. As the saying goes, "we must be just before we are generous." This matters greatly. We cannot give while we have not settled the just claims others have on us.
You can settle every other account and be done with it. This debt stands in a class of its own.
The debt of love is the only one that is legitimate and honourable. It is good among men and acceptable to the Lord. It is the debt we should always be paying, but can never pay off. Grace alone gives the power, and only that power fulfils the law. Law had constantly claimed love but never found it.
Commentators differ on the reach of "one another" here. Some read it of fellow believers and see the Lord standing behind the claim.
There is one load of debt the Christian has neither the power nor the wish to be free from. A firm bond holds him to a never-ending love for fellow believers, for the Lord's sake. His real creditor is the Lord Himself. His sheep are the ones appointed to receive what is due to Him.
Others take it as wide as "all men", believers and unbelievers alike.
These verses urge us to the right conduct of the believer towards all men, whether believers or unbelievers. Because this is our conduct towards all, the law comes in here, rather than the high standard of Christianity. We are to owe no one anything except to love.
So does love put the Christian back under the law? One writer answers by pointing to who supplies the love.
They should regard themselves as under the obligation of showing love to all. In doing this they are fulfilling what the law required. It demanded love, but man in the flesh has no power to meet the demand. The Spirit dwells in the Christian. With Him there is power to produce what the law required. So the Spirit's power carries out the law's requirement in the Christian. And it does this without putting him under law, either for righteousness or as a rule of life.
So which comes first — the law's demand, or the obedience?
As another has put it in few words, "By the conduct which flows from love, the law is already fulfilled before its requirement is applied."
Love shows up in what we refuse to say about someone.
Apart from love we may rake up something against a brother that we know has been judged, owned, and finished with, and so destroy his reputation by an idle word. In the Christian circle everyone's reputation should be safe from slander.
- Pay — the verse is about paying what is due, on time. It does not forbid borrowing. It forbids leaving just claims unmet.
- Owe — one account stays open for life. Love is the debt you always pay and never clear.
- Reach — commentators differ. Some read "one another" of fellow believers, others of all men.
- Power — the law demanded love and never got it; the Spirit produces it in a believer who is not placed under law.
- Proof — the test is ordinary: bills paid on time, and a brother's reputation safe when you speak.
For, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not lust; and if there be any other commandment, it is summed up in this word, namely, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
Paul lists the commandments about how we treat other people, then folds them into one command: love your neighbour as yourself. But why point believers back to the law at all?
Commentators tie this list to a debt. It is not a debt like any other.
Love is the only debt that is right and honourable. It is good among men and acceptable to the Lord. It is the debt we should always be paying, but can never pay off. Grace alone gives the power, and that power fulfils the law — nothing else ever does. Law had continually claimed love but never found it. Those under the law were obliged to love, but had no power to do it. Grace reveals Christ. It shows us His perfection and fullness, and it shapes the heart to match. Loving your neighbour sums up the commandments about people; loving God sums up the commandments about Him.
Paul picks the commandments about other people. Whom does this love cover?
These verses urge us to act rightly toward all men, whether believers or unbelievers. Since this covers our conduct toward everyone, the law comes in here, not the high standard of Christianity. In showing love we shall fulfil the law... Love will not kill, nor steal, nor bear false witness. True, a man with no love at all may hold back from killing or stealing for fear of the consequences. Yet he may still slip into bearing false witness. Only love will refrain from bearing false witness against our brother... In the Christian circle everyone's reputation should be safe from slander.
The last item on Paul's list is different. It forbids no action at all — only a desire.
No man could convict the Apostle Paul of breaking them, for he wrote, "as to righteousness under the law, blameless" (Phil. 3:6). Yet even he has to say, "I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, 'You shall not covet'... but when the commandment came, sin came alive and I died" (Rom. 7:7-9). The commandment "You shall not covet" convicts the very best under the law. There was not found a man who loved the Lord his God with all his heart, and his neighbour as himself.
If nobody could keep these commands, how does a Christian fulfil them? Everything turns on what comes first.
God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us (Rom. 5:5). Now, when that love works, it flows out to others — the love of God in our hearts by the Spirit. The result is, "the one who loves another has fulfilled the law." So the commands about our neighbour are all fulfilled... This does not put the Christian under law again. It does not say that if he keeps the law, God will love him and give him the Holy Spirit. Nor is it telling him to pray for the Spirit so that he may keep the law. It is the opposite of all this. He already has the love of God and the Spirit... How beautiful God's order is! God never puts the effect before the cause.
In this commandment, you are the measure. Commentators point to another measure in Christ.
Law required that we love our neighbour as ourselves. That is a perfect rule where all is right, and it brings blessing to both sides. But it does not suit a state of sin, and it cannot meet it. We are called to love as Christ loved, and to give ourselves, our lives if needed, for others. The one takes self as the measure when all is happy. The other means giving ourselves up for need, misery, or want of any kind.
Some Bibles include "You shall not bear false witness" in this list. The ESV does not.
In Romans 13:9 the words "You shall not bear false witness" are also an addition. Some no doubt thought the quotations would read better in a fuller form. So they added the pieces named, to correct what they judged to be omissions.
- Cause — the Spirit pours God's love into the heart first. The command comes after the gift, never before it.
- Debt — love is the one honourable debt. We pay it always and never clear it, because grace gives the power the law only demanded.
- Reach — these commands cover how we treat people, and they govern our conduct toward everyone, believer or not.
- Depth — "You shall not covet" convicts even the blameless, because it forbids the desire and not just the deed.
- Result — love needs no command. It will not kill, steal, or ruin a reputation. And Christ set a higher measure: love that gives itself away for others.
Love works no ill to its neighbour; love therefore [is the] whole law.
Paul has just gathered the commandments about adultery, murder, theft and coveting into one line: love your neighbour as yourself. Verse 10 says why that line holds — and raises a question: does it put the Christian back under the law, or give him something the law could never reach?
The verse defines love first by what it will not do. One writer follows this through those commandments, down to the one that fear alone cannot cover:
Love works no evil. Love will not kill, nor steal, nor bear false witness. True, a man may refrain from killing or stealing for fear of the consequences, with no love at all. Yet he may still slip into bearing false witness. Only love will refrain from bearing false witness against our brother. Apart from love we may dig up something against a brother that we know has been judged, admitted, and finished with. One idle word then destroys his reputation. In the Christian circle everyone's reputation should be safe from slander.
The commandments Paul quotes are all negative — a list of things not to do. Love is more than the absence of those things. It owes something to everyone:
Love is what fulfils the law, or the whole of it, for if we love our neighbour as ourselves, love works no wrong to a neighbour. The commandments give us only the prohibition of these various forms of harm. Love owns the debt to all men and pays it.
The word translated "fulfilling" is the same word used elsewhere for "fullness." It carries the sense of filling something out to the brim:
In Romans 13:10, love is called the "fullness of law"; that is the correct rendering of the word. Every thought of God in the law finds its expression and filling out in love. By no other principle could God's mind in the law be expressed.
The law had always demanded this love. The problem was never the demand — no one under it could produce the love:
The debt of love is the only one that is right and honourable, good among men and acceptable to the Lord. It is the debt we should always be paying, but can never pay off. Grace alone gives the power to fulfil the law, and there is no other way. The law had continually claimed love but never found it. Those under the law were under obligation but were wholly unable to make it good. Grace reveals Christ. It shows us His perfection and fullness, and it shapes the heart to match.
Some use this verse to argue that the Christian is under the law after all. The same writer turns the argument around:
It proves the very reverse. The Christian, in the new nature that marks him now, does love — not as a requirement under law, but as the outflow of his life in Christ. Love works no wrong to one's neighbour. So love is the fulfilment, or full complement, of law. But this comes by being under grace, not under law.
This debt is never paid off. That shapes how the Christian treats everyone, and what he expects back:
Love, if we may use the word, is an obligation that is never paid off. Further, it is the "fullness" of the law. As another has put it in few words, "By the conduct that flows from love, the law is already fulfilled before its requirement is applied." So the activity of love in the believer — the activity of the divine nature — governs his conduct in every relationship. He gives everyone what is due to them and expects nothing in return. That holds even if, like our blessed Lord, he meets with little but ingratitude and hatred.
Loving your neighbour as yourself is where the law stops. Christian love is free to pass that mark:
To love one's neighbour as oneself is the limit under the law. Only under grace is it possible to go a step beyond this, as, for instance, Aquila and Priscilla did, as recorded in Romans 16:4.
- Debt. Love is the one debt a Christian should always be paying and can never pay off.
- Fullness. "Fulfilling" translates a word meaning fullness. Love fills out every thought of God in the law, and nothing else can.
- Power. The law claimed love but never found it. Grace reveals Christ and shapes the heart, and the love appears at last.
- Freedom. Love acts first, so it fulfils the law before the law makes its demand. That is life under grace, not a return to law.
- Reach. The law's ceiling is loving your neighbour as yourself. Grace lets love step past it and expect nothing back.