To Avoid Compromise, Love

February 16

We know we are admonished to, “Render to all their due. Tribute to whom tribute is due, custom to whom custom is due, fear to whom fear is due. We are to give honor to whom honor is due” Romans 13:7. The Word of God is very clear about coming forth with what is owed.

And yet, we are also told that we are to, “Owe no man anything but to love” Romans 13:8, for in loving, we will, “fulfill the law.” The Lord in His wisdom recognizes that if we will fulfill that one tenet, we will thereby fulfill all the law; we will gladly extend all that we owe, if we will but love.

If we withhold that one thing, if the law of love is not viable within us, we can hardly be depended upon to be forthcoming with anything else that we owe. We may ‘draw the line’ at different places—some may brazenly rob others of what is theirs, some may cheat in their taxes, some may file false insurance claims—but our integrity will be compromised somehow, to some degree, if we do not love.

But if we do love! Oh, then the Lord is glorified in us! We will be quick to be generous with our substance and with our prayers. There will be no good thing that we will not gladly share if we truly love Jesus above all else and comply with His law of love. In Matthew 10: 42 He says of such, “If anyone gives even a cup of cold water to one of My servants because he is My disciple…he will certainly not lose his reward.”