I had a professor at Mississippi College, Dr. Harold Bryson, that used to tell his students some thing that has always stuck with me – “Jesus isn’t hard to understand, He’s just hard to follow.”

That came back to me this morning as I read these words from Paul in Romans 13:

8 Owe no one anything, except to love one another; for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. 9 The commandments, “You shall not commit adultery; You shall not murder; You shall not steal; You shall not covet”; and any other commandment, are summed up in this word, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” 10 Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law.

Religion can be fun to debate about.  We can passionate conversation (i.e. arguments) about baptism.  Or about communion.  Or about a lot of things within our faith. But, these issues, these conversations, they don’t measure up to the whole of what the faith is about, about what the faith must be producing in our lives.

Love.

We have been loved by an awesome, amazing, holy, righteous, almighty God.  A God is all, before all, and beyond all. A God that is simply amazing, that our minds cannot fathom.

He has given us His son. He has taught us His way. And He wants us to live as He has called us to live.

What is the life?  Perfection?  Nope.  Winning theological arguments?  Nope.  Being better than other folks?  Nope.

Love.  Loving your neighbor as yourself fulfils the law.  That’s it. That’s the list.

That sounds awesome. The only problem is that it is hard. It’s hard to love your neighbor sometimes.  It’s hard to forgive your neighbor sometimes.  It’s easy to talk about, easy to right about, easy to think about.  It’s hard to do sometimes.

We can only do it though God’s grace.  It’s what we are called to do.  It’s what we must do this week. Love.  As we’ve been loved. And we are going to run into someone who we just don’t feel like we can/should love.

What is our response?  Love. That’s the command of Jesus.  Love. But remember that power to love doesn’t come from ourselves, but through Him.

Even when it’s hard to do, through the grace of God, may we love each other as He has loved us.