Acts 7:60

Acts 7:60 – Then he (Stephen) fell on his knees and cried out, “Lord, do not hold this against them.”

As the number of disciples was increasing in the early church it became too much for the original twelve to take care of. They had too many responsibilities and there were widows being neglecting in food distribution. The twelve decided it would be best to delegate some of the responsibility. They told the people to pick seven men to take care of these extra needs.

Out of all of the people, Stephen was chosen as one of the seven. He was described as a man ‘full of faith and the Holy Spirit.’ In Acts 6:8 we read that Stephen did great wonders and miraculous signs. Stephen was a man who stood out among the believers because of the fruit his life produced.

Now, when Stephen was opposed and persecuted, he never faltered in his stand. In fact, this verse (Acts 7:60) reflects his heart towards the people. He Loved them and wanted to see all of them come to God. These men are literally killing him and he is forgiving them.

God has called us to Love Him and to Love people. Once you see all that God has done for you and the Love He shows you, Loving Him becomes easy, but people are a different story. People can be harsh and mean, but we are to Love them anyway. That is the true test of Loving your neighbor: Loving them while they are persecuting you. Do you Love them that much?

Galatians 5:13-14

Galatians 5:13-14 – You, my brothers, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature; rather, serve one another in Love. The entire law is summed up in a single command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”

“It is for freedom that Christ has set you free.” God has called you to be free and through Christ Jesus we can have that freedom, but be careful. Just because we are free to do what we want does not mean we should. “Everything is permissible for me,” Paul says, “but not everything is beneficial.” We need to be careful to only do what is a benefit to us and those around us.

Do not use your freedom to indulge in the sinful nature. We will always have our sinful nature while we are in this world. It will always be craving the things that are contrary to the Word of God. If we choose to indulge or give into the cravings of the sinful nature they will get stronger.

Let me give you an example: Have you ever gone without eating for a time? Say you missed lunch, not because you are fasting, but just because you were busy. Time flew by and before you knew it dinner time was approaching. You are starting to get hungry, but not overwhelmingly so. You decide to have a snack. Before the snack you were fine, but afterwards you realize just how hungry you are and now you feel like you are starving.

When you give your flesh a taste of what it wants the desire for more increases exponentially. So be careful not to indulge your sinful nature; instead serve others in Love. When you are serving in Love, the desires of the flesh tend to fade away.  If you try to avoid sinning by obeying the law you will fail, but if you just Love people you will end up obeying the law because your desire to treat them well will supersede your desire to sin.

Romans 13:10

Romans 13:10 - Love does no harm to its neighbor. Therefore Love is the fulfillment of the law.

Jesus gave us this command and now Paul is saying it again. As he began this passage Paul says, “Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to Love one another.” He goes on to talk about how Love fulfills all of the commandments. When Jesus spoke these words He said that we are to Love God above all else and Love others as ourselves. Then He went on to say that if we follow these two things we will be obeying the whole law.

Now, let’s take a look at this a little closer. How is Love the fulfillment of the law? Before Christ came to earth there was the law. If you broke the law you were punished accordingly. It was a set of rules to be followed, but nobody could do it. We were all guilty of breaking the law.

Then Jesus came. He was able to obey the law to the letter and had no sin in His life. Through His life, death and resurrection He freed us from the law. Does that mean we no longer have to follow it? Absolutely not. In fact Jesus actually set us to a higher standard. He broke us free from the curse of the law and told us to Love others.

Now this is where our new command comes in. Love one another. Basically Jesus said, “Don’t obey the law and treat others right because you have to; Obey the law and treat others right because you Love them.” The law was put in place to keep us from harming ourselves and each other. If we truly Love our neighbor we won’t want to harm them. We will want what’s best for them, so in turn we will be obeying the law because of Love.

To restate what Paul said at the beginning of this passage, “Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to Love one another.” If you have a question of what is right or wrong, ask yourself if it is based out of Love; either towards God or toward another person. If you Love God and Love one another you will want to show them Love, not harm.