Romans 13.10-Love Never Commits Evil Against A Neighbor Therefore Love Fulfills The Law
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Wednesday January 27, 2010
Romans: Romans 13:10-Divine Love Never Commits Evil Against A Neighbor Therefore Divine Love Fulfills The Law
Lesson # 448
Please turn in your Bibles to Romans 13:8.
This evening we will study Romans 13:10 in which Paul teaches that divine love never commits evil against one’s fellow human being, therefore, divine love fulfills the Law.
Romans 13:8-10, “Owe nothing to anyone except to love one another; for he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law. For this, ‘YOU SHALL NOT COMMIT ADULTERY, YOU SHALL NOT MURDER, YOU SHALL NOT STEAL, YOU SHALL NOT COVET,’ and if there is any other commandment, it is summed up in this saying, ‘YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.’ Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.”
Paul is using the figure of “asyndeton” in that he does not use a connective between verses 9 and 10 because he wants his readers to carefully meditate upon his statement so as to protect their fellowship with God, each other and their testimony before the unsaved.
“Love” is the articular nominative feminine singular form of the noun agape (a)gavph) (a-ga-pee), which means “divine-love” and is used with the Roman believers as the subject and their fellow human beings, whether believers or non-believers, as the object.
It does not refer to the function of human love but the exercise of divine-love since Paul wants his readers to reflect God’s love for them in their relationships with their fellow human beings.
Divine love is produced by the Holy Spirit in the believer who responds by faith to the Spirit’s revelation in the Word of God as to God’s love for the Christian and expresses itself in obedience to the Spirit’s command in the Word of God to love one’s fellow human being.
It is distinguished from the exercise of human love in that the former does not need an attractive object to love because it originates in the eternal, immutable character and nature of God whereas the latter is based upon the attractiveness of the object.
Therefore, the emphasis with this word is upon the Roman believers’ divine-love as it functions towards their fellow human beings since in Romans 13:8-10, Paul is addressing their relationship with not only their fellow believers but the non-believers as well.
“Does no wrong” is composed of the accusative neuter singular form of the adjective kakos (kakov$) (ka-koce), “evil” and the emphatic negative adverb ou (ou)) (oo), “no” and the third person singular present (deponent) middle indicative form of the verb ergazomai (e)rgavzomai) (er-gad-zo-meh), “does.”
In this particular context, the verb ergazomai means “to commit” since it is used in relation to kakos, which refers to an evil word or action.
The adjective kakos means “evil” in that it is used to describe anything by way of word and action that is produced by the old sin nature and is motivated by indoctrination from the cosmic system of Satan.
The adjective kakos describes anything that is said or done against the laws of God and in opposition to Him.
The meaning of the verb ergazomai is emphatically negated by the negative particle ou, “no,” which emphatically negates the idea that divine-love commits against evil against one’s fellow human being.
The present tense of the verb ergazomai is a “gnomic present,” which is used for a general timeless fact or spiritual axiom, or an eternal spiritual truth indicating that divine-love “as an eternal spiritual truth” never commits evil against one’s fellow human being.
It denotes that divine-love is characterized by the fact that it will never manifest itself by committing evil against another human being.
“To a neighbor” is composed of the articular dative masculine singular form of the definite article ho (o() (ho), “to” and of the adverb plesion (plhsivon) (plee-see-own), “neighbor.”
As was the case in verse 9, the word here in verse 10 means “the neighbor” and is used of any other person than oneself or in other words, it refers to any member of the human race.
It refers to any person that the Roman Christians might come into contact with during the course of their lives.
Romans 13:10, “Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.”
“Therefore” is the “inferential” use of the post-positive conjunction oun (ou@n) (oon), which denotes that the statement introduced by this word is the result of an inference from Paul’s teaching contained in Romans 13:9-10a.
This is indicated by the fact that the statement introduced by this word teaches that obeying the prohibitions in verse 9, which is summarized by the statement in verse 10a, manifests the fact that operating in divine-love is a fulfillment of the requirements of the Law.
“Love” is the articular nominative feminine singular form of the noun agape (a)gavph), which once again means “divine-love” and is used again with the Roman believers as the subject and their fellow human beings, both believers and non-believers as the object.
“The fulfillment” is the nominative neuter singular form of the noun pleroma (plhvrwma) (plee-row-mah), which is used in an active sense and should be translated with the verbal form “fulfills.”
The word refers to the act of fulfilling all the commands and prohibitions that appear in the Mosaic Law that are related to one’s conduct in relation to one’s fellow human being.
Loving one’s neighbor as yourself fulfills the commands and prohibitions in the Mosaic Law that are related to one’s conduct in relation to one’s fellow human being since this command summarizes these prohibitions and commands.
Obeying these prohibitions mentioned by Paul in Romans 13:9 manifests the fact that the believer loves his neighbor as himself or herself.
“Of the law” is the genitive masculine singular form of the noun nomos (novmo$) (no-moce), which refers to the Mosaic Law and in particular those prohibitions in the Ten Commandments that address the believer’s conduct towards his fellow human being.
This is indicated by the fact that it is being quoted from in Romans 13:9 (Exodus 20:13-15, 17; Deuteronomy 5:17-19, 21; Leviticus 19:18).
This passage teaches that the Law and the love of God are not mutually exclusive since operating in God’s love will fulfill all that the Law requires.
When the believer is operating in the love of God and thus fulfilling all that the Law requires, he is simply responding by faith to the Spirit’s revelation in the Word of God that he is the object and beneficiary of God’s love before and after being justified through faith alone in Christ alone.
This faith manifests itself in obedience to the Spirit’s command in the Word of God to love your neighbor as yourself and appropriates the power of the Spirit so as to give the believer the capacity to obey this command that summarizes all that the Law requires from the believer in relation to his fellow human beings.
Therefore, divine love in the soul of the believer is the result of faith in the Spirit’s teaching in the Word of God and is thus the production of the Holy Spirit (See Galatians 5:22-23).
Divine love produced by the Spirit in the heart of the believer who exercises faith in the Spirit’s revelation in the Word of God and is manifested by obedience to the Spirit’s command to love one’s neighbor as oneself will restrain the believer from committing sin and evil.
Galatians 5:16, “But I say, live by the Spirit and you will not carry out the desires of the flesh.” (NET Bible)
Therefore, the believer who obeys this command, which is the direct result of obeying the command in Ephesians 5:18 to be influenced by the Spirit will never commit evil against his fellow human being and will fulfill what the Law requires and will love his neighbor as himself.
Ephesians 5:18, “And do not permit yourselves to get into the habit of being drunk with wine because that is non-sensical behavior, but rather permit yourselves on a habitual basis to be influenced by means of the Spirit.”
The believer can only love his neighbor as himself when he views himself from the perspective that he is the beneficiary and object of God’s love before and after being justified through faith in Christ since obeying this command requires the believer to accept by faith the Spirit’s teaching that he is the object of God’s love.
The fact that God has loved us while we were His enemies by sending his Son to the Cross obligates us to love our fellow human being as God commands us.
All of this is taught by the apostle John in 1 John 4:7-16.
This principle teaches us that we can only love God and our fellow human being when we accept by faith God’s love or us.
Romans 13:10 echoes the teaching of the Lord Jesus in Matthew 22:34-40.
Romans 13:10 also echoes Galatians 5:14.
Galatians 5:14, “For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’” (ESV)
Romans 13:10 also echoes James 2:8.
James 2:8, “If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself,’ you are doing well.” (ESV)