Opening Prayer
My God, grant me Christ’s love in my heart. Amen.
Text: Romans 13:8-10
Owe no one anything except to love one another, for he who loves another has fulfilled the law. For the commandments, “You shall not commit adultery,” “You shall not murder,” “You shall not steal,” “You shall not bear false witness,” “You shall not covet,” and if there is any other commandment, are all summed up in this saying, namely, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Love does no harm to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.
Devotion
When the world hates us, we love them all the more and repay their hatred with love. And when they storm against us to sink us in the abyss, by God’s grace alone this urges us to unity and brotherhood. Love one another! This is the law in Christ’s kingdom. We are obliged to love one another, and the Lord has given us grace to do it. It is a blessed debt. We pay it gladly, but wish never to be done with it. We try to fulfill our duty and we are happy in being able to do it, but we also desire to feel more and more deeply what we owe one another.
“You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” What a royal command! What a rich and precious life! And you can do it in Christ. When He says to us: “I give you a new commandment, that you love one another,” He gives us at the same time the power to do it. If we believe His Word, then it works in us what it says. It is the frailty of our faith which causes us not to love with a fervent heart and to show it in deed and in truth. Love is yours, believing Christian friend! Use it in faith. You are in Christ, and the living branch is never lacking in strength or life. It is expected that you hate the law, but that expectation is conquered for you and in you by Christ’s death so that you love the law. And it is completely certain that you have power in Christ to live a life of love. “What the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit” (Rom 8:3-4). Go then and live your whole life in love! Do nothing but love. O what a lucky person you are. How blessed it is to be with Christ in His Church when the storms surround us!
Closing Prayer
Lord, we pray You again: Pour out Your love in our hearts by Your Holy Spirit. “Give me, O God, this greatest bliss I know: a heart that with Your love shall overflow.” Amen.
Hymn
True virtue’s blessed mother
Is faithful charity;
She shows her lesser brother
The best that she can be;
Love is the constant debt
We Christians owe each other,
Each sister and each brother,
From heartfelt pow’r to get.
O fill my heart, dear Jesus,
With heaven’s charity;
Grant that all falsehood ceases;
Teach me to follow Thee!
Thy helping hand bestow;
Thy suff’ring, cross, and wonders
Shall tread all evil under
Within my mind and soul!
Kingo: De rette Dyders Moder L 226:1.4 tr. DeGarmeaux;
tune: Thomissøn (ELH 365); alternate hymn: O Holy Spirit, enter in ELH 27:7