Love Fulfills the Law

James 2:10-11 For whoever shall keep the whole law, and yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of all. For He who said, “Do not commit adultery,” also said, “Do not murder.” Now if you do not commit adultery, but you do murder, you have become a transgressor of the law.

"Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." Those are the words of Jesus in Matthew 11:28. Far too many of us are trying to work our way into God's favor. Yet our favor with God does not come from us. It comes from our relationship with Jesus. It is His righteousness imputed unto us that justifies us before the Father. So when we live our lives focused on living out the law, we waste precious time, and years, trying to gain something we already have in Christ Jesus. Sadly, the end result of trying to live in accordance with the law, rather than live a life of faith and grace, is that we end up being religious and legalistic. James makes it clear that it does not matter which part of the law we keep. If we violate one part of it, we are guilty of violating the whole law. Matthew Poole put it this way, "He breaks the whole law, though not the whole of the law: as he that wounds a man's arm wounds the whole man, though not the whole of the man." We may claim that we keep the Ten Commandments, but the fact is that there are more than ten. Not only that, but Jesus specifically gave us the commandments to love God and love our neighbor. In keeping today's verses in context, when we show partiality to anyone, we violate the commandment to love our neighbor, thereby violating the whole law. How we treat others makes a difference to our God; for He died for the world, and clearly tells us that He did it because of His love for everyone. The bottom line is this...we can never earn our salvation, for it is given to us by God's grace, when we put our faith in the finished work of Jesus. Once we are saved, we still cannot earn more favor by shallow religious works. We must live by faith, demonstrating our love for Jesus by obeying His commands; and when we stumble, we must recognize our need for repentance and confession, knowing that His forgiveness is always available, by His grace. So stop trying to earn what we already have in Him; victory over sin and death, and freedom from the law. If we love without partiality, we can be certain that, "Love does no harm to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of the law. (Romans 13:10)

Today, God extends an invitation to you to accept His free gift of salvation (Rom 6:23). Will you accept it? Anyone who calls on Jesus, by faith, in repentance, confessing your sins, will receive eternal life. Do not put off calling on Him, and receive His free gift of salvation today (Rom 10:13).