Romans 13:10

Love worketh no ill to his neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the Law.

The apostle has spoken at length of the duties and obligations resting upon the Christians in their capacity as citizens of the state and country. But he now extends the admonition to cover the relation of a Christian to his fellow-men in general. And there his injunction is: Owe no man anything, keep your affairs in such a shape that no person has a rightful claim upon you, especially as to taxes, custom, fear, and honor. In this external respect be under obligation to no one, no matter who it is in all the wide world; the duties incumbent upon us in every condition of life must be discharged properly, cheerfully, and in time. But one duty, one obligation there is which can never be discharged adequately, namely, the duty of love toward one's neighbor. It is a duty which can never exhaust its demands; as a matter of fact, the more it is exercised, the more it feels its own obligation. Paul brings evidence to support this demand: For he that loves his neighbor has fulfilled the Law. If a person were actually able to give to his neighbor the fullness of a free and unselfish love under all circumstances of life, he would thereby have fulfilled the Law. For all the commandments which the apostle now quotes, the Sixth, the Fifth, the Seventh, the Eighth, the Ninth, and any other commandment that may be mentioned, they are all included under one heading, in one summary, and that is: Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. Note that St. Paul here, as the Scriptures elsewhere, Mark 10:19; Luke 18:20; James 2:11, does not follow the conventional order of the commandments, as given in the Decalogue; the enumeration and the order of the commandments is of very minor importance, their content is the essential factor. And they all are included and comprehended in that one injunction, namely, to love one's neighbor, every fellowman, with the same love with which we regard our own interests and guard them against every infringement. And this is further confirmed by the statement: Love works no evil to one's neighbor; a person that is actually filled with the love that agrees with the will of God will engage in nothing which may cause ill to befall his neighbor, will avoid all the sins that are mentioned in the commandments. The word "neighbor" is here explained in the original text as the one who is near us. Any person in our immediate vicinity with whom we have had dealings, whom the providence of God has placed near us, is our neighbor, and towards such a one, especially if he be of the household of faith, Galatians 6:10, our love should exhibit itself in deeds of kindness, according to the will of God. And therefore the fulfilling of the Law is love, the proof and evidence for the completed fulfillment; in love the doing of all the commandments, of both the first and second tables, is included, its essence fills and covers all demands. It is an ideal which the believers strive and work for all their lives, to measure up to this standard, and by the grace of God they always make some little headway toward their goal.