love fulfils the law romans 13:8-14

the continuing debt to love… love your neighbour as yourself who is my neighbour? love does no harm to a neighbour love is more demanding than law love fulfills the law Do not repay evil with evil. We should leave room for God to punish. Whilst we are likely to act in selfish anger, He will punish justly. I am not saying that it is wrong to seek justice. A world without the laws and legal systems that are in place would be awful. But ultimately, it is God’s prerogative to seek and deliver justice, not ours. We need to actively pursue doing good in addition to refrain from doing evil. It would be unusual if we did not do evil, but also not do good. We are called to live at peace with everyone. True peace between two people needs to be reciprocated by both parties, but we are the masters of our own actions so we should, so far as it depends on us, live peaceful lives (e.g. do not deliberately antagonise those that we do not get on with). I want to note that it is perfectly acceptable to tell people if they have hurt us with what they have said or done. By doing these things, we “heap burning coals” on the heads of those that we are in disagreement with. I am not sure if I’d enjoy burning coals on my head to be honest. The coals are used to represent the change of mind following deeds of love. The coals pictured here are intended to heal, and not hurt our enemy. Their aim is to win them over, not to alienate and to shame them to repentance from their ways. Personal reflection on my falling out with a work colleague; [background], he hurt me more than I would ever have expected with his words. I had two options after our falling out: shut him out, and return insults in kind, or to forgive him and move on, and change the dynamic of our working relationship. Thankfully I choose the later, and I can say with confidence that it was by far the better option. Subsequently, we got on and no further quarrels. The best way to deal with enemies is to turn them into our friends! I’ll pass over to JMC now for some concluding remarks on what we have discussed today in Romans 12

clothe yourselves… Do this, understanding the time… the night is nearly over so, behave decently, as in the daytime clothe yourselves with jesus do not think about how to gratify the ‘desires of the flesh’

love fulfils the law romans 13:8-14