Love is the Reason and Purpose for all Things

Some theologians have counted all the laws in the Old Testament to be 613 in all.

God the Father sent and gave His only begotten Son to put an end to all the religious laws by giving one law that fulfills them all – love for God and fellow man: “You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. A second is equally important. Love your neighbor as yourself. All the other commandments and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments.” (Matt. 22:37-40 NLT). Jesus’ law of love is all encompassing and goes above and beyond all of the other laws put together.

God’s only law as expressed and summarized by Jesus Christ is now LOVE. As long as something is done in love – unselfish, sacrificial love, God’s love – then it is lawful in God’s eyes. We are not judged by how well we keep the endless, legalistic commandments of the old Mosaic Law.

By virtue of the aforequoted verse of the canonized Bible, we are now judged only by whether we believed in Jesus Christ and have accepted Him as our only LORD and Savior, or how much love for God and our neighbor we have, and how much we let love guide our actions, for “. . . love is of God; and everyone that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love” (1 John 4:7-8 KJV).

“Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ (or by believing in Christ), and not by the works of the law; for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified” (Galatians 2:16 KJV).

The word justified is very significant and relevant. Theologically speaking, it means “just-as-if” we have not sinned if we believe in Jesus Christ. This is an affirmation of what the Apostle John said: “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth (have faith) in Him shall have an everlasting (eternal) life” (John 3:16).

The New Living Translation (NLT) is clearer: “And yet we Jewish Christians (believers of Christ) know that we become right with God, not by doing what the law commands, but by faith in Jesus Christ, that we might be accepted by God because of our faith in Christ – and not because we have obeyed the law. For no one will be saved by obeying the law” (Gal. 2:16 NLT).

The rule we must go by now in every case is this: Is it done in love? If we know we are acting in God’s love, then we can go ahead by faith, according to God’s Word.

What is the whole duty of man? Solomon, the wisest man that ever lived on earth, such that no one was wiser than him before and after him (1 Kings 3:12) said: “Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep His commandments: for this is the whole duty of man” (Eccl. 12:13 KJV). Our Lord Jesus expressed this Solomonic statement in His own words in a more understandable and practical manner, as follows: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart” and “love your neighbor as yourself” (Matt. 22:37-39). 

Jesus Christ, the master communicator, made it a more personal loving relationship between Him and us with others. Instead of “fear God”, He said, “love the Lord”. Instead of “keep the commandments,” He said, “love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets” [or in this all the law and the prophets are fulfilled] (Matt. 22:40).

We will never be able to enjoy life to the full without God (or Jesus in person), because He has created our heart with a void (or vacancy), a hollowness, an emptiness, an aching void that only He can fill. He saved or reserved one spot in our heart, the very core of our life, for Himself without God/Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit in our heart, something is lacking even though we have all the money, wealth, prestige and influence in this world.

Theologically speaking, it is said that the human heart is the center of all human emotions and will. That is why LOVE is symbolized by a HEART. He created us human beings after His own image and likeness” (Gen. 1:26) to LOVE Him. We are His creation, His child, and He wants us to be like Him. God needed someone to LOVE who would also love Him. By experience, as a human father, I wanted all my children to be like me whom I will love and care for and who will also love me. 

LOVE is the law in this Earth NOW, and in Heaven.