“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.”” -Romans 13:9
What Paul is emphasizing here is not an orderly treatment of the Mosaic Law, but the one overarching commandment that sums up all the commandments directed at one’s fellow man, namely, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
This, of course, is a summary of Jesus’s teaching that all the law can be summed up in two commandments, one directed toward God, and another, similar commandment directed toward one’s fellow man, one’s neighbor:
“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. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”” -Matthew 22:37–40
Recall that everything Paul is exhorting the believers to observe and practice is a result of the regenerated life in Christ. The new gospel-oriented humanity has been empowered by the Holy Spirit of God to now live as the sons of God here on earth amidst an unbelieving and, therefore, unregenerate and untoward humanity whose inheritance is death.
“If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you. So then, brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.” -Romans 8:11–17
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