if ye wish well to the good, (and not to wish this is inhuman,) ye ought to strive, that the laws and
judgments may prevail, that the administrators of the laws may have an obedient people, so that
through them peace may be secured to all.” He then who introduces anarchy, violates love; for
what immediately follows anarchy, is the confusion of all things.^408
For he who loves another, etc. Paul’s design is to reduce all the precepts of the law to love, so
that we may know that we then rightly obey the commandments, when we observe the law of love,
and when we refuse to undergo no burden in order to keep it. He thus fully confirms what he has
commanded respecting obedience to magistrates, in which consists no small portion of love.
But some are here impeded, and they cannot well extricate themselves from this difficulty, —
that Paul teaches us that the law is fulfilled when we love our neighbor, for no mention is here
made of what is due to God, which ought not by any means to have been omitted. But Paul refers
not to the whole law, but speaks only of what the law requires from us as to our neighbor. And it
is doubtless true, that the whole law is fulfilled when we love our neighbors; for true love towards
man does not flow except from the love of God, and it is its evidence, and as it were its effects. But
Paul records here only the precepts of the second table, and of these only he speaks, as though he
had said, — “He who loves his neighbor as himself, performs his duty towards the whole world.”
Puerile then is the gloss of the Sophists, who attempt to elicit from this passage what may favor
justification by works: for Paul declares not what men do or do not, but he speaks hypothetically
of that which you will find nowhere accomplished. And when we say, that men are not justified
by works, we deny not that the keeping of the law is true righteousness: but as no one performs it,
and never has performed it, we say, that all are excluded from it, and that hence the only refuge is
in the grace of Christ.
9.For this, Thou shalt not commit adultery, etc. It cannot be from this passage concluded what
precepts are contained in the second table, for he subjoins at the end, and if there be any other
precept He indeed omits the command respecting the honoring of parents; and it may seem strange,
that what especially belonged to his subject should have been passed by. But what if he had left it
out, lest he should obscure his argument? Though I dare not to affirm this, yet I see here nothing
wanting to answer the purpose he had in view, which was to show, — that since God intended
nothing else by all his commandments than to teach us the duty of love, we ought by all means to
strive to perform it. And yet the uncontentious reader will readily acknowledge, that Paul intended
to prove, by things of a like nature, that the import of the whole law is, that love towards one another
ought to be exercised by us, and that what he left to be implied is to be understood, and that is, —
that obedience to magistrates is not the least thing which tends to nourish peace, to preserve brotherly
love.
10.Love doeth no evil to a neighbor, etc. He demonstrates by the effect, that under the word
love are contained those things which are taught us in all the commandments; for he who is endued
with true love will never entertain the thought of injuring others. What else does the whole law
forbid, but that we do no harm to our neighbor? This, however, ought to be applied to the present
subject; for since magistrates are the guardians of peace and justice, he who desires that his own
right should be secured to every one, and that all may live free from wrong, ought to defend, as far
as he can, the power of magistrates. But the enemies of government show a disposition to do harm.
(^408) The debt of love is to be always paid, and is always due: for love is ever to be exercised. We are to pay other debts, and we
may pay them fully and finally: but the debt of love ever continues, and is to be daily discharged. — Ed.