8 Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for whoever loves others has fulfilled the law. 9 The commandments, “You shall not commit adultery,” “You shall not murder,” “You shall not steal,” “You shall not covet,” and whatever other command there may be, are summed up in this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” 10 Love does no harm to a neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.
Romans 13:8-10
Have you ever hated or disliked someone so much that no matter your best intentions, you could never express it any other way? We have all been in such a situation, where we feel so negatively about someone regardless of their offense against us or not that we could not bother to treat them well. We would rather eat our favorite trousers than to be in the company of those we can hardly stand. Some of us have been on the receiving end of such a relationship, and it is often discouraging, disheartening, and miserable. We feel like there is a debt that somehow needs to be paid, whether or not there actually is one – that somehow you have to find a way for them to like you or seek their approval. Some to their disdain, would outright respond exactly the same and would curse and walk away. But what results do these relationships cause? It causes schisms, division, lying, cheating, destructive speech, violence, wars, and murder. There is no positive outcome to such broken relationships. It only leads to sin, and thus more spiritual debt incurred for the life of others and for our own.
When we choose to dislike or hate someone, we’ve deprived them from the very thing which Christ gave us a mission to distribute and give to our neighbors. That very thing is called love. In fact love is not as simple as a free gift. That love was given to us at a price – of Christ’s blood. If God’s love is unconditionally given to us, then it is not just advice to love our neighbors, but it is a commandment and an absolute, uncompromisable duty as followers and believers of Christ. It is to the extreme we can label it, a sin, in every case and word to hate our neighbors. It is a sin which we can call the worst of all sins because it leads to every other sin, and deprives those who we hate of the very thing that was given to us so freely.
Thus today, we must be fearfully warned that the hatred of our neighbors, and the ill speech that we incur with our tongues and with our hearts must be battled with instead actions that reflect love – whether we feel we love that person or not.
“Do not waste time bothering whether you ‘love’ your neighbor; act as if you did. As soon as we do this we find one of the great secrets. When you are behaving as if you loved someone, you will presently come to love him.” – C.S. Lewis
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