Friends in Christ Weekly Message
September 6, 2008

Don't run up debts, except for the huge debt of love you owe each other. When you love others, you complete what the law has been after all along. The law code - don't sleep with another person's spouse, don't take someone's life, don't take what isn't yours, don't always be wanting what you don't have, and any other “don't” you can think of - finally adds up to this: Love other people as well as you do yourself. You can't go wrong when you love others. When you add up everything in the law code, the sum total is love.
Romans 13:8-10 (Message*)

The law - the “rules” - of the Judaeo-Christian tradition are really just examples of ways that we show the fundamental law of love. The central message is loving others. If we do that consistently, we're on the right track.

If we are filled with love for others, we won't need to worry about the details of what we're told not to do. We simply won't be doing them because they are not loving. And we'll be going beyond the letter of the law to the underlying spirit of the way God would have us live.

Bill Samuel

* The Message version ©1993-2002 by Eugene H. Peterson.

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