Love worketh no ill to his
neighbor
Love worketh
no ill to his neighbour: therefore love is the fulfilling of
the law, Romans 13:10
Love would seek to do him good; of course it would prevent all
dishonesty and crime towards others. It would prompt to justice,
truth, and benevolence. If this law were engraven on every man’s
heart, and practiced in his life, what a change would it
immediately produce in society. If all men would at once abandon
that which is fitted to work ill to others, what an influence
would it have on the business and commercial affairs of men. How
many plans of fraud and dishonesty would it at once arrest! How
many schemes would it crush! It would silence the voice of the
slanderer; it would stay the plans of the seducer and the
adulterer; it would put an end to cheating, and fraud, and all
schemes of dishonest gain. The gambler desires the property of
his neighbor without any compensation, and thus works ill to
him. The dealer in lotteries desires property for which he has
never toiled, and which must be obtained at the expense and loss
of others. And there are many employments all whose tendency is
to work ill to a neighbor. This is pre-eminently true of the
traffic in ardent spirits. It cannot do him good, and the almost
uniform result is to deprive him of his property, health,
reputation, peace, and domestic comfort. He that sells his
neighbor liquid fire, knowing what must be the result of it, is
not pursuing a business which works no ill to him; and love to
that neighbor would prompt him to abandon the traffic. See #Hab
2:15, “Woe unto him that giveth his neighbour drink, that
putteth thy bottle to him, and makest him drunken also, that
thou mayest look on their nakedness.”
Therefore, because love does no harm to another, it is therefore
the fulfilling of the law: implying that all that the law
requires is to love others. Is the fulfilling. Is the
completion, or meets the requirements of the law. The law of God
on this head, or in regard to our duty to our neighbour,
requires us to do justice towards him, to observe truth, etc.
All this will be met by love; and if men truly loved others, all
the demands of the law would be satisfied.
- Albert Barnes, Barnes
Notes
