Paul summarises the basic underlying principle of the Law of Moses in this way:
“You shall love your neighbor as yourself. Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.”
It’s a concept that’s simple to understand, often repeated, yet quite profound. We know from Jesus’ parables that our neighbour is anyone around us. That homeless guy on the street. That smelly person on the train. That annoying work colleague. Yet somehow we are to love them just as much as we love ourselves. To cater for their needs as readily and instinctively as we provide for ourselves.
That’s actually really really hard for us to do. So hard in fact, that only one human ever succeeded. But that doesn’t excuse us from not trying. I think it helps to consider another of Paul’s statements in this section of Romans.
“For if we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. So then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s.”
We have been redeemed from being servants of sin, and instead called to be servants of righteousness. Our life is not ours to live, but God’s. Jesus also felt the same way, when he said “For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me.”
That is our challenge. To do God’s will, and not our own.
Even so, this is not something we can accomplish by ourselves. We need God’s help, in order to be a servant of righteousness. David highlights this reliance upon God when he wrote
“O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water.”