THE LAW, LOVE, AND SHAME

There are many verses that equate the Law with love, even the Law of Moses. Here is just a small sampling:

• For the whole law is fulfilled in one word, even in this: Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. But if ye bite and devour one another, take heed that ye be not consumed one of another. (Galatians 5:14-15, 22-23)

• Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. For the commandments, "You shall not commit adultery, You shall not murder, You shall not steal, You shall not covet," and any other commandment, are summed up in this word: "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law. (Romans 13:8-10)

Paul demonstrated how love fulfills the law. It doesn't disregard the law. Instead, it affirms and upholds the wisdom and teachings of the law. This tells us that if we are to love, we must love in accordance with the wisdom of the Scriptures and not through our culturally-conditioned notions of what it means to love.

Too often today's love demands that we unconditionally affirm whatever our brother wants to do. This is not love. Instead, this is being a people-pleaser, affirming others so that they will affirm us.

However, some will wrongly argue that Scripture gives them the right and duty to affirm every choice their friend makes:

• “So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets.” (Matthew 7:12)

Since they want to be affirmed in all regards, they wrongly reason that they should also affirm others in all regards, and that this is love.

However, their reasoning is not of "the Law love and the Prophets." Instead, love must be consistent with the teachings of Scripture:

• You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets." (Matthew 22:37-38)

Love cannot violate the teachings of Scripture. Instead, Jesus taught that the love of God must coincide with Scripture:

• "If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. Whoever does not love me does not keep my words. And the word that you hear is not mine but the Father's who sent me.” (John 14:23-24)

We are not free to love and worship God in any way that feels right to us. Instead, it has to be according to truth, His truth (John 4:22-24).

Loving others also has to be according to Scripture:

• Hereby we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and do his commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous. (1 John 5:2-3)

How do we know that we are loving our friend or our wife? We know this by verifying if our deeds of love coincide with Scripture.

Meanwhile, the world will call us "sexist," "bigots," or "homophobes." They will reject and shame us. Consequently, in order to stand, we will need the assurances of Scripture about the nature of true love. Without these, their shaming tactics will mold us into their image, as we see happening all around us.