Romans 13:8-10. Love fulfills the law, verse 8: "Owe no one anything but to love one another. For he who loves another has fulfilled the law, owe no one anything." Some Christians today think that this statement means that Christians should never borrow money. However, none of the early Christians interpreted Paul's words in that manner, for that is not his context. Instead, they recognize Paul is still referring to owing taxes and honor to the governing authorities.
This connection is even more obvious in the Greek than in the English, for the Greek word for owe, Greek ὀφείλω, is simply the verb form of due, Greek ὀφείλει, which Paul uses in the previous verse. For example, the apostolic constitutions apply this statement of Paul to both taxes and honor: "Be subject to all royal power and dominion in things that are pleasing to God, for they are the ministers of God and the punishers of the ungodly.
Render to them all the fear that is due, together with all offerings, customs, honor, gifts, and taxes. For this is God's command, that you owe nothing to anyone except the debt of love which God has commanded by Christ, but to love one another." Paul now adroitly transitions from the topic of governmental authorities to the subject of love, the debt of love that we owe to one another never ends. Chrysostom calls love the mother of good works.
He says, "Love is a continuous debt, for Paul does not wish it ever to be paid off. For he who loves another has fulfilled the law." Jesus said, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind." This is the first and great commandment, and the second is like it, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets. Jesus had earlier said, "Do not think that I came to destroy the law or the prophets.
I have not come to destroy but to fulfill." So Paul's words in this verse summarize what Jesus had earlier taught: love fulfills the law. To a large degree, love is the short word of which Paul spoke earlier. The Lord will make a short word upon the earth.
Ambrosiaster comments, "If the human race had loved from the beginning, there never would have been any wickedness on earth." Verses 9 through 10, for the commandments, "You shall not commit adultery, you shall not kill, you shall not steal, you shall not bear false witness, you shall not covet." And if there is any other commandment, are briefly summed up in this word, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." Love works no harm to its neighbor. Therefore, love is the fulfillment of the law.
If Jewish Christians were concerned that all morality would fall apart with the termination of the Mosaic law, Paul reassures them that this is not the case. The eternal moral standards contained in the law are summed up in the word love, and they never end. Origen comments that we can simply substitute the command, "Love your neighbor as yourself," for most of the Ten Commandments.
For example, if we love our neighbor, we certainly are not going to murder him, nor are we going to commit adultery with his spouse, bear false witness against him, nor desire to have the things that belong to him.
Polycarp writes, "The person who has love is far from every sin." Ambrosiaster comments, "Paul wants to make the transition from the words of the law to the meaning of the gospel." Thus he recalls the highest point of the law, then links it to the gospel in order to show that the two agree and come from a single author, that Christ should supplement the law was entirely proper. He directed that enemies as well as neighbors should be loved. Thus Paul inserts, "Love is the fulfillment of the law.
Justice is to love one's neighbor, but full and perfect justice is to love one's enemy as well."