Love Fulfills the Law, Part 1

Love your enemies, Matthew 5 44. Pray for them who despitefully use you and persecute you, that you may be the sons of your Father who's in heaven. In other words, your Father who's in heaven loves the ones who are his enemies. You love them too.

You love them too. Be distinctive as marked by love. Welcome to Grace to You with John MacArthur. I'm your host, Phil Johnson.

Well, it's only a week away, and if you've forgotten, advertisers are sure to remind you. Valentine's Day is coming, and as greeting cards are bought, dinner reservations are made, flowers delivered, it seems appropriate to look at what scripture says about true love and the important role love plays in each of our lives. John will do that today in his series called Love No Matter What. But first, and with the idea in mind about expressing love, there are some people listening who've done that very thing. They've demonstrated their love for others, even for people they don't know. And John, I know you have some special comments to pass along to them.

There are lots of people that I don't even know, and I need to pass along our love and affection to them. And that group in particular are all of you who support Grace to You. Yes, you who are helping us place verse-by-verse Bible teaching into people's minds really all over the globe.

And it is global. It is a far-reaching ministry that Grace to You has. None of us ever would have believed it would have ever reached this level, but it's stunning. But it's only possible because of you, and we owe you huge expressions of love and gratitude. We want to thank that individual, that one of you who supports this program financially and in prayer, and who writes us and lets us know how the ministry is blessing your heart. And those of you who share Grace to You and encourage others to listen and share the resources, you're really partners with us in every sense.

And it's a humbling thing to receive your gifts. We realize that you sacrifice to do that. You trust us to take the money that you give us and put it into work for God's kingdom and for souls for eternity.

We know that. And that's the stewardship that we want to discharge faithfully. We also know that when you invest in Grace to You, you want to be involved in the lives of others, others far away, very far away. So you have a very extensive part in what God is doing all over the world, as well as on radio and television in the area where you might watch or listen. And your gifts are not taken for granted.

They don't go unnoticed by us or by the Lord. You're placing them in His hands, really, and we're so grateful. So we love you. We appreciate the cards, the notes, the calls, the emails, all of it working for the glory of God. And we thank you for being a partner.

That's right, friend. Thank you so much for your tangible expressions of love for Grace to You. And with love in mind, here again is John MacArthur to continue his series called Love No Matter What. Let's open our Bibles to Romans chapter 13 again as we come back to the Word of God.

Wonderful, wonderful section. One that I'm sure if you're any student of Scripture you've read many times and meditated on and perhaps taught, shared with others. Great truth. Romans chapter 13 verses 8 through 10. Let me read these verses beginning in verse 8. Oh, no man anything but to love one another, for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law. For this, thou shalt not commit adultery, thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not steal, thou shalt not covet. And if there be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this saying, namely, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. Love worketh no ill to its neighbor.

Therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law. For a Christian, obedience is a sweet word. It is a hopeful word. It is an encouraging word. It is a welcome expression of the deepest desire of the heart of a Christian.

This is essential. This marks the attitude of the true child of God, the spirit of a heart that is willing to obey, longing to obey, not out of fear but out of love. Somebody comes along and says, well now wait a minute, if we're saved by grace and saved into grace and stand in grace, as Romans 5 says, this grace in which we stand, and are no longer under and are no longer under the law, as Romans 6 indicates it, then is it not so that we no longer are bound to the law? That is true, in one sense, not true in another. We are not bound to the law as to its power. In other words, the law after we're converted has no power to condemn us. We are not bound to the law as to its penalty. It has no power to kill us, to execute us. But we are bound to the law as to its precepts, for God has not changed his morality.

God has not abandoned his standard of truth. And so it says in Romans 8 that even though in verse 1 there is no condemnation to them who are in Christ Jesus, that is the law has no power over us. The law cannot execute a penalty over us. Still, we have been made, verse 2 says, free from the law of sin and death, that is from the law's ability to cause us to be guilty of sin unto death. For what the law couldn't do in that it was weak to the flesh, God sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin condemns sin in the flesh. In other words, because of the sacrifice of Christ, the law can no longer kill us.

He died in our place. But when we were redeemed and though we are no longer under the law's power and penalty, the purpose of redemption is in verse 4, that the righteousness of the law might be eliminated. Is that what it says? No.

What? Fulfilled in us who now walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit. In other words, walking in the Spirit, we now have the capacity and ability to fulfill the law. See, we are free from the law only in the sense of its power to dominate us and condemn us, its penalty to sentence us to eternal death. We are not free from the law as to its precepts. We are still commanded and called to a life of obedience to the revealed Word of God. Now, obviously, the question comes, how are we going to keep the law?

How can we keep it? If we are called to obedience and if by nature we long for obedience, how are we going to keep that law when we find ourselves restrained? Yes, we have the power of the Spirit in us, the law of the Spirit of life in us as we read in Romans 8. That law that enables us to do the will of God, but we also have in Romans 7, don't we, the flesh. And therein is the battle. In the inner man we delight in the law of God, but we have another law warring in our members and that's the principle of sin in our humanness. And so we have the sin principle in our humanness warring against the heart of obedience. And every Christian fights the heart of obedience and every Christian fights that battle.

Every Christian. And it is your humanness residual warring against the new creation that delights in the law of God. The hopeful part of it is that the longer you fight the battle the more victorious you're going to be and you'll learn to gain the victory even before the Lord comes to deliver you from the constraints and restraints of your humanness. So all of us then are faced with a heart of obedience if we're true Christian. I really believe that the heart of a Christian is a heart of obedience. A longing to do what is right. That's Romans 7. And it is sometimes restrained by our flesh. Now how then do we overcome that? I mean what is the key to obedience? How do we get to that?

How can we simplify that? Now as we know from this section of Romans beginning in chapter 12, this is the practical part of the epistle. And he's talking about all the ramifications of being a justified soul.

Everything that's going to result from our salvation. Right relationship to God is discussed, isn't it, in verse 1. Right relationship to the world is in verse 2 of Romans 12. Right relationship to the church is in verses 3 through 8. Right relationship to everybody comes in verses 9 to 21.

Right relationship to the government, chapter 13, 1 to 7. And now we have right relationship to society in general in verses 8 to 10. This is just another dimension of life that is impacted by salvation.

It affects everything. How we're related to God, to the world around us, to the church, to everybody in general, to the government, and to society. This whole section is an outflowing of right relationships that come from a redeemed soul. Now he says in verses 8 to 10 that the key thing in your relationships within society is the word love. And I want to try to just show you very simply in this passage that love is the key to obedience. We've tried to say already that obedience is what's in our heart to do and we're trying to get a handle on how to do it. And the key to understanding that is to understand love because love, he says twice in the passage, is the fulfilling of the whole law, you see. So in a way he reduces all of obedience to one thing and that is love. I remember hearing a man one time when I was young saying, the Christian life can be lived like this. Love everyone perfectly and do whatever you want.

I thought that sounded pretty good. I just didn't think it made much sense. Love perfectly and do whatever you want. But I understand that and I think you will too after you've looked at this passage a little more closely. So Paul says in reference to your relationship to the people around you, love is the key. And then he expands that and says in effect that love is is the whole thing in the Christian life. The key to everything in terms of relationships, all relationships.

Now it gives us three looks here that we can kind of track our way through on. One is the debt of love. Two, the discharge of love.

And three, the design of love. First of all, notice the debt of love in verse 8. He starts out, Owe no man anything but to love one another.

Owe no man anything but to love one another. Now what does he mean by Owe no man anything? He's just been writing about paying your taxes, hasn't he?

In verses six and seven and this is a bridge from the prior text. He's been talking about the essentiality of paying your taxes. It is a natural transition then to come into this idea of paying all your debts, all of them, whatever they are. He goes from the debts that we owe to the government to the debts that we owe to anybody in general. Just our our relationships to people around us. And the imperative here applies to every single relationship. No believer is to have unpaid debts.

Very pragmatic stuff. Pay your debts. Don't owe anybody anything. Now people have immediately asked upon reading this verse, does that mean that we are not to be allowed credit? Does that mean that we are not to borrow? That we are not to take money on interest? That we are to have no financial obligation at all? That if we can't plunk down cash we can't buy it? Is that what it means? There's no basis for borrowing anything, any time, for any reason?

Let's find out. Go back in your Bible to the 22nd chapter of Exodus. Exodus chapter 22. And verse 25.

And here in Exodus God is laying down some societal laws and rules and principles. And in Exodus 22 and 25 it says, if you lend money, I'll read that again, if you lend money to any of my people who is poor among you, someone obviously needs the money, you shall not be to him as a usurer, neither shall you lay upon him usury. Now usury is an old English word that basically means exorbitant interest, gouging someone. Like when you can't pay any of your debts and you're so deep in debt that you go to the place where they say they'll consolidate all your debts and you pay interests that will choke you. When you find someone and you lend them money and they're poor, that is they're in a position where they need the money, it is not discretionary, they need it, you lend it to them but do not charge them exorbitant interest.

Usury does not mean any interest, it's not just an indicator of interest at all, it means interest that is unfair. Now the assumption of verse 25 is that it's perfectly alright to lend money. The other assumption is that if it's perfectly alright to lend it, it must be perfectly alright to what?

To borrow it. On the basis of the fact that you're dealing with need, this is a person who has to have it. And the warning is not to charge high interest because you've got a desperate person on your hands who has really little other choice. In Deuteronomy chapter 15 we find a further teaching in the Old Testament that helps us get a handle on this. Deuteronomy 15 7, if there be among you a poor man of one of thy brethren within any of the gates in thy land which the Lord thy God giveth thee, thou shalt not harden thine heart nor shut thine hand from thy poor brother.

What thou shalt open thine hand wide unto him and shalt surely lend him sufficient for his need in that which he lacks. Beware that there be not a thought in thy wicked heart saying the seventh year, the year of release is at hand and thine eye be evil against thy poor brother. In other words, you know what happened in the seventh year, don't you? Well, debts were canceled and land was not used and somebody might say, I'm not about to loan that guy the money. Next year's the year of release.

Next year's the Sabbath year and all this thing will be canceled. I'm not loaning him my money. He won't have a chance to pay it back.

He says, don't do that. If he has a need, you lend it to him. Verse 10, you will give it to him and your heart will not be grieved when you give to him because for this thing the Lord thy God shall bless thee in all thy works and in all that thou putest thine hand unto. For the poor shall never cease out of the land, therefore I command you saying, thou shalt open thine hand wide unto thy brother to thy poor and to thy needy in thy land. In other words, lending was a very important thing and the poor people, for example, a farmer whose crop didn't turn out right or who made an unwise investment or who was robbed or whatever it might have been to cause his poverty, we are to lend to those people.

Therefore, we make no assumption that lending and borrowing is wrong. In the case of need in the Bible, it is right, it is advocated as long as it is not an exorbitant interest and here we find it should be done with a willing heart, with a willing heart. Look to Psalm 37 for a moment in verse 26 and here just a commendation of a righteous man, of a blessed man, of a good man. It says he is ever merciful, and here's the characterization, and lendeth and his seed is blessed. The righteous are not only not forsaken, but they are gracious and merciful and they lend and they are blessed.

So it is a blessed thing to lend to someone who has need for what you have in surplus. In Proverbs 19 7, all the brethren of the poor do hate him. How much more do his friends go far from him? He pursueth them with words, yet the poor do not go far from him. He pursueth them with words, yet they are lacking to him. In other words, poor people sometimes can't get what they need from the people who say they're their friends, but down in verse 17, he that has pity on the poor lendeth, I love this, unto whom? The Lord and that which he hath given will he pay him again. When you lend money to someone who is in need, you are lending to the Lord and the issue is not whether he pays you back, that is the person to whom you lend it. The issue is that the Lord promises that he will pay you back, that he will pay you back. I can give testimony to that in my own life. There have been times when we have been asked to lend an amount of money to someone who was in a state of great need, and we did so in good faith and with joyful and eager hearts, and I can promise you that never have we done that without experiencing the super-abundant blessing of God. That is the testimony of the text as well. In Matthew chapter 5 and verse 42, coming over to the very familiar Sermon on the Mount, it says, and here is one of the principles our Lord wanted to see put into practice, Matthew 5 42, give to him that asks you, and from him that would borrow of you, turn not thou away. Turn not thou away.

When someone comes with need, you should respond in eagerness to meet that need. In Luke 6 35, it's the same thing, love you your enemies, do good and lend, hoping for nothing again and your reward shall be great. So all of that to say this, the text of Scripture, Old Testament and New Testament, always indicates that the one who lends is generous, that it should be done toward those who are in need, it should be done without a high rate of interest, it should be done with a willing heart, it should be done with a spirit that says, I am lending to the Lord, it should be done with a hope of eternal reward, spiritual reward, even more so than being paid back. But may I add as a footnote, the Scripture really knows nothing about lending and borrowing for things that are not related to need.

It really says very little about that. It does not advocate that we get into debt for luxury. As someone said, today people buy things they don't need with money they don't have from people they don't even love.

Today people buy things they don't need with money they don't have from people they don't even like. In Matthew 25, 27, the Lord's giving a parable there and He talks about the fact that one of the servants who was given a talent, verse 27, should have put the money to the exchangers and then at my coming I should have received mine own with interest. Now there is an indication, and it's the only one really in the New Testament where the Lord actually says a wise investment, putting money in a bank to be used to make interest, a wise investment like that is good. The assumption is that you're giving them your money, they're lending it out, making interest on it which they pay you. So the Lord understands that there are circumstances in business in which lending is a necessary fact.

There are many businesses you couldn't even operate. It's obvious that very few of us could live in a home if it wasn't for the fact that we borrow money. Borrowing is reasonable, particularly lending and borrowing in reference to people who have need for the basic needs of life. It's really renting money. You can rent money like you rent a house or rent a car or rent anything else.

But keep this in mind. The borrower is servant to the lender. Whatever you owe him you can't use for any other purpose, right? So as much in debt as you are is how much available funds are not usable to you, to the Lord, to whatever the Lord might put on your heart. So you want to be very careful and very restricted in terms of how you borrow, but it is not wrong. What it's saying is if you owe it, what?

Pay it. It is not forbidding the indebtedness, it is forbidding the non-payment. It is essentially exactly what you have in Psalm 37 21, the wicked borrows and doesn't pay back. Psalm 37 21, the wicked borrows and doesn't pay back.

That is not acceptable to the Lord. Pay your debts. Owe no one anything that is outstanding and overdue.

And then he makes an amazing transition, but, verse 8, to love one another. In other words, the only debt you'll always owe is what? Love. That's a debt you constantly owe, you constantly pay, and you never pay off. You owe love, you owe love, you pay love, you still owe love. You pay love, you still owe love.

You spend your whole life paying it and never do you pay it off. Origen, the early church father, said the debt of love remains with us permanently and never leaves us. This is a debt which we pay every day and forever owe. The debt of love. And the apostle is saying, this is something we owe everyone in society.

We owe everyone around us. This is something that marks our life, like John 13 34 and 35, by this shalom and know that you're my disciples if you have love one for another, right? We are to be marked by love. In 1st John, it is the very characteristic of a Christian, chapter 2, verse 10, he that loves his brother abides in the light. Chapter 3, verse 23, and this is his commandment that we should believe on the name of his son, Jesus Christ, and love one another as he gave us commandment. Jesus Christ and love one another as he gave us commandment. Chapter 4, verse 7, beloved, let us love one another for love is of God. Verse 21, I think also says it, this commandment have we from him that we who love that he who loves God love his brother also.

In other words, it is the mark of a Christian that he loves, that he loves. And this love is to be toward all people. We owe that debt to everyone.

We pay it all our life and never diminish it. We are to love. We are to love. Jesus made this clear in his ministry repeatedly as he called his disciples and the people who listened to his messages to love. Love your enemies, he said. Love your enemies, Matthew 544.

Pray for them who despitefully use you and persecute you that you may be the sons of your father who is in heaven. In other words, your father who is in heaven loves the ones who are his enemies. You love them too.

You love them too. Be distinctive as marked by love. Galatians 6, 10 says, do good to all men, especially those of the household of faith. Paul said in Colossians 3, 14, put on love. 1 Corinthians 14, 1, follow after love. Philippians 1, 9, abound in love. 1 Timothy 2, 15, continue in love.

And Peter adds in 1 Peter 1, 22, be fervent in love. And obviously we are to be bound together by the bond of perfection, which is love. So we're to love everyone.

That's our debt. That's the debt of love. Christians ought to be known in the world as those who love. This is Grace to You with John MacArthur, Chancellor of the Masters University and Seminary. And as John just said, Christians need to be known as those who love others no matter what.

That's the title of this series, Love No Matter What. And speaking of love, going back to what John said before the lesson, thank you for the love you demonstrate in supporting this ministry. Thanks especially for your prayers.

And if you can, take a moment to let us know how John's Bible teaching has helped you grow in your love towards others. Contact us today. Our mailing address is Grace to You, P.O. Box 4000, Panorama City, California, 91412. Or you can send your note to letters at gty.org.

That's our email address, letters at gty.org. And thanks for helping us remain a strong voice of Bible teaching in your community and beyond by being faithful to pray for us. That's really the most important way you can help strengthen this ministry.

And when you have a chance, go to gty.org and take advantage of the thousands of free resources available there. At the Grace to You blog, look for the series of articles titled, The Humility of Love. It's a great resource to help you dive deeper into the topic of biblical love. And don't forget, John's entire sermon archive, that's more than 30 years old, is available to download in MP3 and transcript format.

All of that and much more is free at gty.org. Now for John McArthur and the entire Grace to You staff, I'm Phil Johnson. Be here tomorrow when John helps you cut through the pink and red haze of Valentine's Day and know what true biblical love looks like. It's another half hour of unleashed love. And don't forget, John's entire book is about unleashing God's truth one verse at a time, on Grace to You.