All You Need Is Love

" Brothers and sisters:  Owe nothing to anyone, except to love one another; for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. The commandments, 'You shall not commit adultery; you shall not kill; you shall not steal; you shall not covet,' and whatever other commandments there may be, are summed up in this saying, namely, 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' Love does no evil to the neighbor; hence, Love is the fulfillment of the law." -- [Romans 13: 8-10].


Fulfillment:  (noun):   Completion or realization.


In The Old Testament, God gave Moses the Law. God summoned His Chosen One, Moses, to the pinnacle of Mount Sinai, and He gave Moses the Ten Commandments.

And God said, if you love me, you will keep my Commandments.

The Ten Commandments are familiar to almost every school child, both Christian and Jewish. In fact, the Ten Commandments are the very substance of our shared heritage.

At the time that Jesus came of age, the Law comprised both the Ten Commandments, and a host of other laws, regarded as handed down from God. There were laws on the harvest, keeping a clean home, the sacred religious commemorations, the food that one was to eat, how to treat a worker, or a widow or an orphan. [See Deuteronomy and Leviticus].

According to the website Judaism 101, "Judaism teaches that there are 613 commandments in the Torah"; (the first five books of the Old Testament is called the Torah).

SO--- 613 commandments? I truly admire my Jewish friends! But I, a lowly sinner, have a hard enough time with the Ten Commandments.

When Jesus came to preach His ministry, He said, "Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have come not to abolish them, but to fulfill them. For truly, I say to you. . . . not an iota, not a dot will pass from the Law until all is accomplished."--- [Matthew 5: 17-20.]

In other words, Jesus is not getting rid of all these Laws. But He is summing them up, bringing them all to fruition,  in one word -- Love.

I remember how, in April 2013, I tried to sum up all the things that are NOT Love-- in alphabetical order. [Related Posting; "The ABC's of Love, April 27, 2013].

Writing this List took forever! I was literally reading the dictionary from A to Z. I was afraid that I would miss a word. I had to keep back-tracking in the dictionary. I got confused whether one word was too similar to another. For example, by listing "Envy" and "Jealousy", was I repeating myself? What if I had an Abridged dictionary? -- not all the words will be there.

Besides, what was I going to do, carry this big list around with me all the time? Try to memorize it? I was so afraid that I would just charge ahead and do something without checking my list, that I was beginning to be afraid of making a move.

What a relief to learn that Jesus still believes in all these Laws, until the end of time. BUT, He gave us a shorthand to comprise all the rules. That shorthand is Love.

Which explains why, when I sent my young son off to pre-school for the first time, I told him, "Maybe you will not always remember the right thing to do. But all you have to remember is to do the Loving thing. If it is not Love, don't do it!"

You need only four letters to know how to live right and live well;  L- O- V- E.

(c) Spiritual Devotional 2014. All Rights Reserved.