Sleepers Awake

As we indicated last week, we are now into Paul’s instruction on how Christians are to live their lives. Although he has not forgotten his earlier argument while doing so. In fact he still has the law in mind telling us that love fulfills the law. But, what does that really mean? Is he saying that by loving others, you do all the law? That idea would invalidate his earlier argument that we cannot, on our own, keep the whole law. By only listing four of the Ten Commandments also indicates that Paul is not thinking about the whole Law as it is stated in Deuteronomy. If he, Paul, does not mean that love fulfills the whole Law does he mean that loving others is the only requirement of the Law? The fact that the four of the ten commandments he gives as examples are from the second tablet – those that deal with how we treat each other – may indicate this. Neither of these thoughts are fully satisfactory. I would suggest a different approach. That the Law is not the subject of these paragraphs; love is.

We know that Paul emphasized love in his letters. Think of the thirteenth chapter of First Corinthians. But who are we to love? Our translation tells us we are to love our neighbors. But who are our neighbors? Is it the people who live on the same block that we do? Is it the people who live in our community? We need to look to the original Greek to get a better meaning of our text. There, the word that is translated “neighbor” means “the other.” Paul is calling the Christians in Rome to love all people, even those who were not Christians. While the Christians had a good reason to stay away from those who were not a member of the church – it could mean betrayal and persecution – Paul called on them to love those who would harm them. Following the Law just might be easier to do. 

We live in a different time and place than the early Christians. None of us are persecuted because of our faith. We have no fear of betrayal. Yet, it seems that we struggle with following Paul’s instructions here. We do note that Paul talks about it because it was Jesus’ command. Although, it does not seem to completely fit with our gospel reading today. There, after the third attempt at trying to correct a person’s wrong and they do not respond, you are to treat them as a tax collector or gentile. This text might mean something different than we first assume knowing that the church was made of gentiles and Jesus welcomed tax collectors. The simple fact of trying to correct a wrong three times is also an indication of love. If one does not love another they certainly would not spend any time on trying to correct their errors. 

Which brings us back to the Law. It was Jesus who fulfilled the Law for us. He did so because he loved us. Freed from the bondage of sin and death and called into new life with Jesus, we are the fulfillment of God’s love. So wake from your slumber people, put on the armor of light, and proclaim the love of God to the whole world by word and deed and be the fulfillment of God’s love.