ROMANS 13:10

“Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of the Law.”

There are neighbors who just cannot get along. They fight about trees and fences. They even fight about an outside flood light. They say fences make good neighbors. I am not sure about that. Fences divide people. I understand the whole property line thing, but it is not about that. People who fight with their neighbors just want what they want no matter how others feel about it.

Paul has spent the last several verses talking about how to treat others. In today’s verse he kind of wraps up this thought before moving on to some other thoughts for the rest of the chapter (I know, he didn’t write chapters). After telling us to love each other, he says, “Love does no wrong…” the word for “wrong” here is kakos which Strong’s Concordance says means, “worthless (intrinsically, such; whereas poneros properly refers to effects), i.e. (subjectively) depraved, or (objectively) injurious — bad, evil, harm, ill, noisome, wicked.”

APPLICATION

Kakos is a primary word in the New Testament where it is used 50 times. Paul uses it 15 times in Romans alone. But one of the clear pictures of this word is found in 2 Timothy 4:14-15 where Paul uses it again. “14 Alexander the coppersmith did me great harm; the Lord will repay him according to his deeds. 15 Be on guard against him yourself too, for he vigorously opposed our teaching.”

You see, those who do evil against us are really rebelling against God. If you choose to do wrong to others, you also are disobeying the Lord’s command to love your neighbor. In 1 John 4:20 we are told, “If someone says, ‘I love God,’ and yet he hates his brother or sister, he is a liar; for the one who does not love his brother and sister whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen.”

Just who is this “brother” or “sister” or “neighbor”? Remember the story of the Good Samaritan. It’s found in Luke 10. Jesus told this story after He was asked, “Who is my neighbor?” The one who showed love was the neighbor. The one who went out of their way, at great personal risks, was the neighbor. Are you that kind of neighbor? Can you love that way? Sure, you can. Let God love through you.

Help me, Lord, to love others as You love them and only seek their good.

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