INTRODUCTORY WEEK, 18th April 2010
SERMON TOPIC: Love Fulfils The Law
Scripture Reference: Romans 13.1-108Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for he who loves his fellowman has fulfilled the law. 9The commandments, "Do not commit adultery," "Do not murder," "Do not steal," "Do not covet," and whatever other commandment there may be, are summed up in this one rule: "Love your neighbour as yourself." 10Love does no harm to its neighbour. Therefore love is the fulfilment of the law. Romans 13.8-10
IT IS a meaningful season to launch the 40 Days of Love movement in our church. This year marks the 125th Anniversary of the Methodist Church of Singapore. As we celebrate 125 years of the existence of Methodism in Singapore, we remember our Wesleyan heritage to strive towards love and perfection in Christ.
1. We are to strive towards perfection in Christ
At my ordination as a Methodist minister, I was asked these two questions by the Bishop, the same questions which John Wesley, founder of Methodism asked candidates for ordained ministry: “Are you going on to perfection?” “Do you expect to be made perfect in this life?
Everyone knows that we make mistakes almost every day and fail many times to follow Jesus. No one is perfect. Therefore, notice that Wesley’s question is not “Are you perfect?” Rather, Wesley expected that leaders be persons who were cooperating with the work of grace in them by faith in Christ. Those who follow in the way of Jesus are best suited for the work of caring for souls and leading others to the life of salvation because they are going on to perfection.
Jesus Himself spoke in Matthew 5.48 (ESV): You must be perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect.
The context in which Jesus said this verse was borne out of love for God and people. Matthew 5.44-45 talks about loving your enemies: Pray for those who persecute you! In that way, you will be acting as true children of your Father in heaven.
Christian perfection is about the process of working towards being perfected in God’s LOVE. After receiving Jesus into our hearts, we enter into a life-long journey of sanctification. We work together as a community to perfect our Christian faith in LOVE which John Wesley called Christian Perfection. We press on towards fulfilling Jesus’ command for us to be perfect, as our heavenly Father is perfect in LOVE. We love God and our neighbours consistently throughout our lives - that is the core message of Methodism.
We are not talking about Christian Perfection as absolute perfection of our performance or morals. We are referring to a perfection of motive or intent. Love is perfected when we can decide at a point of the moment to love others just like Jesus when he washed the feet of his disciples. Jesus knew his disciples would run away from him and betray him. Yet, he expressed love towards them in action. Christian Perfection is achieved when it becomes natural in our Christian response to love others as much even when we know they are going to betray us or hurt us.
One commandment that sums up many other commandments is: You shall love your neighbour as yourself. Love does no wrong to a neighbour, therefore love is the fulfilling of the law. (Romans 13.9,10)
Interestingly, what does the law have to do with love?
2. Law and rules are meant to establish a relationship
We don’t like rules, yet we need them to develop the right relationship. When we go against the law, we know we enter into a conflicting relationship with the law giver. As drivers, there are traffic lights to guide us. All is well when we obey the traffic laws. If we beat the traffic light, we expect to be punished.
God had a relationship with Adam and Eve. It was based on love and trust. There was only one rule necessary to keep the relationship when God said: You shall not eat the fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, for in the day you eat of it you shall surely die. (Genesis 2.16-17)
That one rule protected them from death – death to a good relationship. God trusted Adam and Eve to keep this one rule to maintain their love relationship. But when they disobeyed and broke the relationship of trust, God had to add more rules to protect them and their offspring who were by then inclined to do more evil than good. And God is faithful. He loves to restore His relationship with us when we obey Him.
The Ten Commandments were designed to help us establish a good relationship with God. The laws of God are clear; they divide what is good and evil. It is good for our souls to find rest in God our Creator when we obey them.
The law not only points the way to our sin and lawlessness, it ultimately points the way to God. Though we fall short of the law, we are not hopeless. When God gives commandments, He also empowers us to fulfil them. He gives us Jesus Christ to show the way and the Holy Spirit to empower us. Jesus says in Matthew 5:17: Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfil them. Through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, it is amazing that God shows us a simple way to fulfil all the laws He gave us. Jesus loves us so much that He bore our sins on the cross, releasing the power to cancel our sin with His blood. God’s love has given us access to life.
Therefore God has demonstrated that one law that embraces all other laws: “LOVE,” as Paul declares in Romans 13.10 and in Galatians 5.14.
Love is the fulfilling of the law. Romans 13.10
For the whole law is fulfilled in one word, You shall love your neighbour as yourself. Galatians 5.14
Love fulfils the Law that God sets for us in order that we can be in a right relationship with Him. Love fulfils the commandments of God that we can stand upright as God’s people as He desires, as He wills it to be. In Love, God shows us how we should treat our fellow neighbours whom God created too. He loves to see a community of love and trust among the people He created. The world is in a mess because we are lacking in it.
I would like you to declare the following truths. God will empower us to fulfil His commandments with Love:
You shall not commit adultery - Love forbids adultery, for the body is the most intimate temple of the Holy Spirit.
You shall not murder - Love forbids killing. Love releases a heart of hate, bitterness and anger.
You shall not steal - Love forbids stealing. Love causes us to be generous towards others in need and to advance God’s kingdom through our tithes. Stop withholding good to bless our neighbours. (Proverbs 3.27-29)
You shall not bear false witness - Love forbids false witness against our neighbours. Love prevents us from bad-mouthing others. Love releases God’s words and oracles out of our mouths to bless others.
You shall not covet - Love forbids covetousness in craving ungodly desires. Love rejoices with others even when they are doing better than us.
When we are filled with Love, the Bible says we can never harm our neighbours. With Love, we will not be thinking evil against our neighbours or hoping evil will befall upon them that their children will meet with an accident; planning evil by turning up the music volume when you know they need rest after their mid-night work shift. With Love, our neighbours can feel safe in our presence. It is the Presence of God that we bring to bless them with.
Lastly, owe no one anything but Love. We should never owe any man anything in loans unless we can plan to pay it back. We should pay our debts and fulfil our obligations to pay all services rendered to us promptly. We do not shame the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. We want to be generous in loving others with no limit.
If we as Christians continue to live owing debts and committing sins, we are no different from the people of the world. We are indeed bearing false witness to who God is. We are then nothing more than hypocrites when we profess ourselves as Christians without a heart for God. (Mark 7.6)
3. Love is the greatest of all
My dear brothers and sisters in Christ, we ought to stop sinning and start building up LOVE from inside out. Be ever ready to express it outwardly to bless others, so that all glory goes to God. Love will bring more people to Jesus Christ. If we want revival in Bedok Methodist Church and in this world, start loving one another.
John Wesley challenges us: Catch on fire with enthusiasm and people from miles will come to watch you burn. When we are on fire with Love, people all over Singapore will come to watch us burn. Let us lead others to Jesus Christ through our Love. God has empowered us to fulfil the law. It is possible and a reality that we can have a right relationship with God and others.
Our relationship with God is always work-in-progress. It is never finished. Consistently, let us keep on believing that Christian Perfection is possible in our lifetime. Let us trust God when He says it is Love, the simple formula that fulfils the law where we can establish a right relationship with Him. Also, it is important to realise that we were never meant to live out the Christian life alone. Surround ourselves with godly people. Join small groups and class meetings. It is a safe place for us to work out our Christian perfection.
The 40 Days of Love over the next six weeks can help us to build up Love relationships, bringing peace to our community. My prayer is that we will see this corporate study on Love as a new beginning to our Christian life of loving others. Don’t miss the opportunity we have right now to draw closer in our relationship with God and with one another. Let me challenge us to start it right every day of our lives, putting our relationship right with God first and loving our neighbours as well.
Jesus is saying to each of us: “Trust Me.” His words will not return void but accomplish its purpose with success. (Isaiah 55.11) With Jesus’ help, let us strive to be holy and perfect in our daily lives, just as our Father in heaven is perfect. Let us strive to love God and one another.
By Rev Fred Tan
Bedok Methodist ChurchClick here to go back to 40DoL homepage.
