Owe no man anything, but to love one another: for he that loves another has fulfilled the law.
Read Chapter 13
Ambrosiaster
AD 400
Paul wants us to have peace with everyone and love the brethren. Then we shall not owe anybody anything. He who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law of Moses. The commandment of the new law is that we should love our enemies also. Commentary on Paul’s Epistles.
The only way of cleaving to that pattern is by love. If we love another whom we believe to be righteous, we cannot but love the pattern itself, which shows us what the righteous soul is, in order that we too may become righteous. Indeed, if we did not love the image of God in him, we would have no love for the person, since our love for him is based on the pattern. Yet so long as we ourselves are not righteous, our love of the pattern is not enough to make us righteous.
Paul shows that the fulfillment of the law is found in love, i.e., in charity. Thus also the Lord says that the whole law and prophets depend on these two precepts, the love of God and neighbor. So he who came to fulfill the law gave love through the Holy Spirit, so that charity might accomplish what fear could not.
"But the cavillers did not know even this, as the apostle says, "that he who loveth his brother worketh not evil; "for this, "Thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not commit adultery, thou shalt not steal; and if there be any other commandment, it is comprehended in the word, Thou shall love thy neighbour as thyself.".
"who hates evil, having love unfeigned; for he that loveth another fulfilleth the law."
But that you love one another: This is a debt, says St. Chrysostom, which we are always to be paying, and yet always remains, and is to be paid again.
He that loveth his neighbour, hath fulfilled the law. Nay, he that loves his neighbour, as he ought, loves him for God's sake, and so complies with the other great precept of loving God: and upon these two precepts (as Christ himself taught us, Matthew xxii. 40.) depends the whole law and the prophets. (Witham)
Love is a debt which you owe to your brother because of your spiritual relationship to him…. If love departs from us, the whole body is torn in pieces. Therefore love your brother, for if you can fulfill the law by befriending him, then the benefit you receive puts you in his debt.
1044. Having shown how believers should observe justice toward superiors [n. 1016], the Apostle now shows how they should behave toward everyone generally. In regard to this he does two things: first, he states his intention; secondly, he gives a reason [v. 8b; n. 1048]. 1045. First, therefore, he says: It has been stated that you must pay your debts to all, not in part but entirely. And that is what he says: Owe no one anything. As if to say: you should pay all you owe to everyone so completely, one anything. As if to say: you should pay all you owe to everyone so completely, that nothing still owing remains. And this for two reasons: first, because sin is committed in delaying to pay, as long as a person unjustly holds back what belongs to another. Hence it says in Lev (19:13): "The wages of a hired servant shall not remain with you all night until the morning." And the same is true of other debts. Secondly, because as long as a person owes, he is in a certain sense a slave and is ob...
