For all the law is fulfilled in one word: Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
ο γαρ πας νομος εν ενι λογω πληρουται εν τω αγαπησεις τον πλησιον σου ως εαυτον
11 Church Fathers comment on this verse
Then, explaining wherein the good of love consists, he says: "For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: You shall love your neighbor as yourself" (cf. Mt 22:39; Lev 19:18). Since they were distorting the law in every way, he says: "If you wish to fulfill the law, do not be circumcised, because it is fulfilled not in circumcision, but in love." See how he cannot forget his grief, but constantly returns to what causes him this grief, even after turning to moral teaching.
If you fully desire to fulfill the law, he says, then fulfill it not by circumcision, but by love, because the fullness of the law is contained in this. Notice that, while setting forth moral instructions, he does not forget dogmatic teaching. So deeply did he grieve over their error.
For the law to which you have recourse, in order to fulfill its many ordinances, is fulfilled in a few deeds, namely: "You shall love your neighbor as yourself" (cf. Lev 19:18; Mt 22:39; Mk 12:31; Rom 13:8-9).
Since he became free from all things, he became, because of love, the servant of all, that he might gain many (1 Cor 9:19). Therefore he directly exhorts the rest also to serve one another through love, which does not seek its own or what belongs to the neighbor.
For whoever wishes to be first will be the servant of all (Mk 10:44). So too the Savior, being in the form of God, did not consider equality with God a thing to be grasped. But He emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant, and, being found in appearance as a man, humbled Himself, becoming obedient unto death, even death on a Cross (Phil 2:6-8).
So also we formerly, under the Law, seemed to do certain things by necessity. But now that we are free, we know that these same things must be done chiefly by love. Love is so beautiful that it stands at the head of the whole Law.
The Apostle also enumerates the goods of love elsewhere, saying: "It does not envy, it does not act improperly" (1 Cor 13:4-5). After indicating many other things in the middle, he ends thus: "It hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails."
The Savior says in the Gospel that the sign of His disciple is revealed in this, that he loves his neighbor. In my opinion this applies not only to men, but even to angels. The same is said in other words: "Whatever you do not want done to you, do not do to others. And whatever you want men to do to you, do likewise to them" (cf. Mt 7:12).
I do not want my wife to be led into adultery. I do not want my property to be plundered. I do not want false witness to weigh upon me. To embrace everything in one brief saying, I do not want to suffer unjustly anything done to me without deserving it. If, by the love acting in me, I either do not desire the same or do not do it to another, then the whole Law is fulfilled.
It is not difficult to understand how all the commandments, "You shall not kill," "You shall not commit adultery," "You shall not steal," "You shall not bear false witness," and the rest like them, are contained in the fulfillment of the commandment of love.
It is difficult to show how the sacrifices prescribed in Leviticus, abstinence from certain foods and permission to eat others, in which one thing is considered unclean and another clean, and the unbroken yearly cycle of feasts can be reduced to one commandment of love. This can be done only if one passes on to affirm that the Law is spiritual. We served images and examples of heavenly things until the true High Priest appeared. Having once offered Himself in sacrifice, He redeemed us by His blood. Thus the whole truth and difficulty of the former Law was fulfilled in His love for mankind. For the Father so loved the world that He gave His beloved Only-begotten Son for us.
But for the one who already lives in the Spirit, who has put to death the works of the flesh, and who, beloved by the Savior, is no longer called a servant but a friend, the Law is no longer in force. That Law is appointed for sinners, the impious, the disobedient, and the corrupt.
Now, when we have at least in some measure fulfilled everything that was more difficult, we fail to fulfill the one thing that is truly easy, and without which all that we have fulfilled is vain. The body endures the discomforts of fasting. Vigils wear down the flesh. Alms are drawn out with labor. Even if faith is burning, blood in martyrdom is shed with fear and sufferings.
There are some who go through all this. Only love is manifested without suffering. And because it alone makes the heart pure, the devil drives it out of us, so that we may not contemplate God with a pure heart.
For when I sit and speak against my brother, and place a stumbling block before my mother's son (Ps 50:20), when I am tormented by another's happiness and count another's good as evil for myself. Is not what is said in the following words fulfilled in me: "If you bite and devour one another, take heed that you are not consumed by one another"?
Love is a rare possession. Who would wish to be separated from Christ for his brethren, imitating the Apostle? Who, rejoicing with those who rejoice and weeping with those who weep, is struck by another's wound? Who is struck by the death of his brother? We all love ourselves more than God.
See what good things flow from love. If we endure martyrdom in such a way that we desire only that our remains be honored by others, if, following the opinion of the crowd, we fearlessly shed blood and distribute our property until we become poor. Then for such a deed there follows not so much a reward as a punishment, and rather torment for faithlessness than a crown for victory.
Why did the holy Apostle need to turn to the law, if the new covenant is foreign to the old legislation? He did this to show that both covenants are the work of one God. Their agreement is shown by the fact that in both covenants love for one's neighbor is equally acknowledged as the fulfillment of the law, making the good perfect. To show this, the Apostle said that love is the fulfillment of the law.
The whole Law and the whole fulfillment of the Law are contained in one word: love. For if someone loves another, he does not kill, does not commit adultery, and does not steal.
Paul himself adds an example from the Book of Leviticus: "You shall love your neighbor as yourself" (Lev 19:18). We must regard every man as our neighbor, and then Christ will be our neighbor.
So you also must love one another, but in the spirit. Here Paul, as though setting aside what was said earlier, seems to call them not to bite one another, but to love one another.
This is possible if you love one another in the spirit, not according to the flesh, not according to the works of the flesh, and not by following the flesh.
For whoever loves another does not envy, does not steal from another, does not harm him, and does not blaspheme or revile him.
"The whole law is fulfilled in one word: You shall love your neighbor." This does not contradict the words of Jesus Christ, who pointed to two commandments as the foundation of the whole law and the prophets, and placed the commandment of love for God first (Mt 22:38-40). The Apostle does not exclude the commandment of love for God. The Evangelist John proves that this latter commandment also stands in close connection with love for one's neighbor (1 Jn 4:20).
If Christ had granted us complete freedom in every respect and freed us from every law whatsoever, what would prevent us from pleasing our flesh?
If we must not please the flesh, then we have not been freed from every law whatsoever. This means not everything is permitted to us, and the freedom of which the Apostle speaks must be understood only as freedom from the Law of Moses.
In Christianity another law has taken the place of this Law: the law of Christian faith and life.
Having said that freedom from the Law of Moses must not serve as an occasion for pleasing the flesh, the Apostle then explains the opposite.
Walking in the Spirit (18), avoiding the works of the flesh (19-21), and bringing forth the fruits of the Spirit (22-23) are precisely the reasons a man becomes free from the Law and is not under the Law (18).
How is this so? Defining the essence of the Old Testament Law, the Apostle says: "The whole Law is fulfilled in one word: You shall love your neighbor as yourself" (v. 14).
When he shows the fruits of spiritual life (v. 22), he places love first, then joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, mercy, faith, meekness, and self-control.
It is clear that against such virtues the Old Testament Law can have no censure, condemnation, or punishment. "Against such there is no law" (v. 23).
On the contrary, having fulfilled the final aim and essential demand of this Law, Christians already become higher than it. "If you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the Law" (v. 18).
Thus, when proclaiming freedom, the Apostle means freedom from the Law of Moses. He bases this freedom on submission to another and higher law, the law of life in Christ.
He also bases it on participation in His sufferings through the crucifixion of the flesh with its passions and desires: "Those who are Christ's have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires" (v. 24).
"For the whole Law is fulfilled in one word: You shall love your neighbor as yourself" (Lev 19:18). "But if you bite and devour one another," and so forth.
Why does the Apostle omit mention of love for God? First, because his chief intention was to heal the weakening of mutual love among the Galatians.
Second, love for neighbors, being visible and tangible to all, necessarily presupposes the presence of love for God in a man.
By contrast, because love for God cannot be touched or seen, someone may mistakenly suppose it to be in himself when he does not have it.
Here begins the moral-instructive part, which continues to verse 11 of chapter 6. Since the Apostle teaches in relation to the living religious and moral needs of the Galatians, he first speaks of moral freedom.
By this he means freedom from sin and from the Law of Moses. Then he speaks of the chief principle of Christian morality, love, defining it according to the Old Testament saying, that is, only in relation to neighbors.
St. John Chrysostom says: "Christ, says the Apostle, freed us from the yoke of slavery and granted us freedom to do what we wish. Yet we must not use this freedom for evil, but as a means to receive a greater reward, ascending to more perfect wisdom."
"Thus we may acquire wisdom higher than the Law, since the bonds of the Law have been loosed. Then the Apostle shows the easy way to attain this. What is it? Through love, he says, serve one another."
"Lest they become disorderly after being freed from the yoke of the Law, he imposes on them another yoke, love. Though greater and stronger than the first, it is far lighter and more pleasant."
"Having considered the Law from every side, he says: if you wish to fulfill the Law, then do not be circumcised. For it is fulfilled not in circumcision, but in love."
Blessed Augustine asks: "Why does the Apostle speak only of love for neighbors?" He resolves the question in this way: "Love for God and love for neighbors are inseparable. Whoever loves God necessarily loves his neighbor also."
"Love is properly one: it loves God, and for God's sake it loves one's neighbor. But since religious disagreements had begun among the Galatians, love too had evidently begun to dry up."
"This also moved the Apostle to speak only of love for neighbors, in order to restore its weakening bonds."
According to Blessed Jerome, by the words "you bite and devour," the Apostle means something like this: "Having received freedom from the Law, serve one another through love. This will be the best fulfillment of the Law itself."
"But if you remain with the Law, you will have to accept everything, including an eye for an eye. By following this, you will bite and devour one another. Beware! This is where the Law will lead you. You will be destroyed by one another."
"Having examined the Law from every side, he says: if you wish to fulfill the Law, then do not be circumcised. For it is fulfilled not in circumcision, but in love" (Saint Chrysostom).
The Apostle speaks as though saying: according to the spirit of the new life in Christ Jesus, it follows that you should serve one another through love. Yet nothing different follows from the very essence of the Law itself. If you are zealous for the Law, then love your neighbor as yourself, and the whole Law is fulfilled by you.
For the whole Law is fulfilled by love. Every prescription of the Law concerning the brethren indicated a work of love. Whoever fulfilled it manifested love, but manifested it only at that moment. Whoever has kindled love in the heart constantly bears in the heart a readiness for every work of love.
Particular acts of love do not exhaust the whole source from which they flow. It is stronger and more abundant than they are. The zealous legalist manifested intermittent acts of love, while having an empty heart during all the time when it was not occupied by a work of love.
In Christ Jesus it is not so. Here love does not dry up, but is constantly present. It is not born and manifested only when a legal occasion presents itself. It constantly acts in the heart and does not wait for an occasion defined by the Law. It seeks the occasion itself, and when it acts, it acts not according to the measure of the Law, but according to its own breadth, which has no measure.
The difference is great, especially in this: then the works of love proceeded from external prescriptions, but now they proceed from the indication and impulse of the heart, with self-initiated action. Now the Christian is both fully free and the most perfect and complete fulfiller of the Law. For the love of God is poured into his heart by the Holy Spirit given to us.
Blessed Jerome writes: "What we formerly did by legal necessity, we must now do by love, having become free from the Law. Love is so great a good that the whole Law is contained in it."
Blessed Augustine asks here: "Why does the Apostle speak only of love for neighbors, when the whole Law and the Prophets hang not on this love alone, but especially on love for God?" He resolves this question thus: "Love for God and love for neighbors are inseparable. Whoever loves God with all his heart necessarily loves his neighbor also, because there is a clear commandment of Him whom he loves with all his heart. Love is properly one: it loves God, and for God's sake one's neighbor. Since the whole essence of a saving disposition consists in this, it was necessary to indicate the surest sign by which one may determine without error whether someone has such love or not. Everyone knows very clearly what love for neighbors consists in. Therefore one can tangibly determine whether he has it or not. But someone may mistakenly suppose that he has love for God, while not having it. For this reason the Apostle sets forth only love for neighbors. Whoever has it also has love for God. From the negative side this is even more certain: whoever does not have love for neighbors decisively cannot boast of love for God."
This is not cited word for word. The Savior Himself also set mutual love among His disciples as the sure sign of His disciples. His beloved disciple and the teacher of love says: "If anyone says, 'I love God,' and hates his brother, he is a liar. For he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen? And this commandment we have from Him, that he who loves God should love his brother also" (cf. 1 Jn 4:20-21).
The aim the Apostle has here also compelled him to act in this way. The disagreement that had crept in among the Galatians led them into divisions and quarrels. It was evident that love had begun to dry up. By pointing to the great significance of love in pleasing God, the Apostle wishes to bring them to the awareness that they had taken a crooked direction. For the sake of false teachings, they had allowed the bonds of love to weaken within them. With this aim he speaks further.
Passages read together with this verse.
Greek text, 16 words with lemma, transliteration and Strong’s number. Tap to expand.
THEOSIS