“For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” (Gal. 5:14)

Moses gave the law but Jesus fulfilled it. Jews were admonished to keep the law but Christians, like Christ, fulfill the law. Jesus fulfilled the law by keeping it to the fullest and thus satisfied its demands. We fulfill the law by keeping a simple requirement: love. Just as God brought the law to fulfillment through his love we bring fulfillment by loving others.

Christians fulfill the law. They don’t keep it, they fulfill it. Whether the law of Moses or the law of God both are fulfilled in the same way by love. We don’t have to keep the law of God because Jesus took care of our salvation on the cross bringing us grace from the law of God. But we must fulfill God’s law by loving our neighbor as ourselves. Two things God requires of us. One, love Him which we demonstrate by obeying the gospel and two, love everyone else by serving them as bondservants of Christ.

Jesus took on the form of a servant because He loved us. We must take on the form of servants because we love Him. It is so simple but we find it so hard. Possibly it is so hard because we love ourselves so much we have little room for loving others. We need to love ourselves a little less and others a little more so they equal out. We are not asked to love our neighbors more, just not less.

Task for Today: Measure your love. First for self and then for others. How does that work for you? Need to decrease one and increase the other? Get started. What do you want for yourself? Give it to someone else. How do you want to be treated? Treat others exactly that way. Remeasure. Do it again. Practice. “One for you and one for me, one for you and one for me.”