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Jesus was asked once “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” Jesus answered by saying “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.” If the entire Law and the Prophets are hanging upon the love of God and the love of our neighbor, there will be no ability to fulfill the Law or the words of the prophets if there is a deficiency in love on which the two depend. If what the Law and the Prophets are hanging upon breaks, then they both come crashing to the ground. The weaker hangs upon the stronger – therefore love is greater than Law.
Paul’s understanding is hand in hand with our Lord’s as seen in Galatians 5:6 “For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything, but faith working through love.” Paul was referring to the only means to fulfill the true righteousness of God. In the same chapter Paul wrote “For all the Law is fulfilled in one word, even in this: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Paul explains this in greater detail in his letter to Roman 13:9-10 “For the commandments, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not murder, you shall not steal, you shall not bear false witness, you shall not covet, and if there is any other commandment, are all summed up in this saying, namely, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. Love does no harm to a neighbor; therefore, love is the fulfillment of the law.” The only way the righteousness of the Law will be fulfilled in our lives is through the love of God being shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit – this is the hope we await by faith.
