Love is Law

Love is not a bunch of ooey-gooey feelings.  And the definition of love is not abstract.  Matthew 22:36-40 says:

But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. 35 And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. 36 “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” 37 And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. 38 This is the great and first commandment. 39 And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. 40 On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”

This passage should have a very profound impact on how we think of love.  This does not say that loving God and loving your neighbor are the only two laws, or that these are somehow greater in value than other laws of God.  It sums up all the other laws by saying you should love God and love your neighbor.  In other words, love means being obedient to God's law.  If you want to love God you have to keep His Sabbath Day holy and not worship any other Gods.  If you want to love your neighbor you have to refrain from murdering and lying to him.

If I cheat on my wife, I am not loving her.  If I steal from my neighbor, I am not loving him.  If I take the Lord's name in vain I am not loving God.  

Jesus equated love and obedience to God's laws when he said, "If you love me, you will keep my commandments" (John 14:15).  The Apostle John echoes this by saying, "And by this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments (1 John 2:3).

Finally, we see the Apostle Paul say pretty much the same thing in Romans 13:9-10:

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.” 10 Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.

Thus, if we want to love our neighbor we can only do so by fulfilling the law.  That's what it means when it says that "love is the fulfilling of the law."  The Bible is clear.  The laws of God tell us how to love God and others.  The definition of love is concrete.  Obey God.