Romans 13:10

"Love worketh no ill to his neighbor, therefore love is the fulfilling of the Law." Observe how it has both virtues, abstinence from evils (for it "worketh no ill," he says), and the working of good deeds. "For it is," he says, "the fulfilling (or filling up) of the Law;" not bringing before us instruction only on moral duties in a concise form, but making the accomplishment of them easy also. For that we should become acquainted with things profitable to us was not all that he was careful for (which is the Law's care), but also with a view to the doing of them it brought us great assistance; accomplishing not some part of the commandments, but the whole sum of virtue in us. Let us then love one another, since in this way we shall also love God, Who loveth us. For in the case of men, if you love a man's beloved, he that loveth him is contentious at it. But here He deemeth thee worthy to share His love, and hateth thee when thou sharest not. For man's love is laden with envy and grudging; but God's is free from all passion, whence also He seeketh for those to share His love. For He says, love thou with Me, and then thyself also will I love the more. You see the words of a vehement lover! If thou love My beloved, then will I also reckon Myself to be greatly beloved of thee. For He vehemently desireth our salvation, and this He showed from of old.

Finally, he sets forth in what follows how great is the power of charity. For he who loves his neighbor, he says, has fulfilled the law. For: You shall not commit adultery, you shall not kill, you shall not steal, you shall not bear false witness, you shall not covet; and if there is any other commandment, it is summed up again in this word: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. And at the last, gathering up briefly the reason for so great a good, he says: The love of one's neighbor works no evil; therefore love is the fullness of the law. Above he had said that he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law; and because it seemed difficult how anyone could fulfill the whole law in a single utterance, he renders the fullest account, saying: The love of one's neighbor works no evil, and therefore love is the fullness of the law. For set love alongside each single commandment of the law, and see how easily they are all fulfilled. Can he who loves his neighbor possibly kill him? It is certain that no one kills the person he loves. Love, then, is that by which the commandment is fulfilled which enjoins: You shall not kill. And again, does he who loves his neighbor commit adultery with his wife? Assuredly never. If, therefore, you love your neighbor, neither will you commit adultery. Likewise too, he who loves his neighbor does not steal what belongs to him; and he who loves his neighbor does not speak false witness against him. Likewise the remaining commandments of the law also, if there be love toward one's neighbor, are kept without any labor. Yet I think that in this too the Apostle wished us to learn something by a shorter road. […]

He shows that love has both kinds of perfection. When he says that "love does no evil to one's neighbor," he indicates that it is abstention from evil, and with the words "love is the fulfillment of the law" he points out that it is …

For sacred Scripture is principally concerned with the works of reparation. Whence it treats chiefly of faith, hope, and charity, through which virtues the soul must be reformed, and most especially of charity. Of which the Apostle says that it is the end of the …

No one is saved without knowledge of himself, from which indeed the mother of salvation, humility, arises, and the fear of the Lord, which itself, just as it is the beginning of wisdom, so also is the beginning of salvation. No one, I say, is …

Then when he says, the love of our neighbor works no evil, he clarifies his proposition with the following syllogism: One who loves his neighbor does no evil to him. But the aim of every precept of the law is abstention from evil. Therefore, one …

For it is a sin not only to devise evil against thy neighbour, but to withhold good from those to whom it is due; both are forbidden together, Prov. iii. This proves that love is the fulfilling of the law, answers all the end of it; for what else is that but to restrain us from evil-doing, and to constrain us to well-doing?

Love worketh no ill to his neighbour,....

Love worketh no ill to his--or, "one's" neighbour; therefore, &c.--As love, from its very nature, studies and delights to please its objects, its very existence is an effectual security against our wilfully injuring him. Next follow some general motives to the faithful discharge of all these duties.

Love worketh no ill - As he that loves another will act towards that person as, on a reverse of circumstances, he would that his neighbor should act towards him; therefore, this love can never work ill towards another: and, on this head, i.e. the duty we owe to our neighbor, love is the fulfilling of the law.

Love worketh no ill ... - Love would seek to do him good; of course it would prevent all dishonesty and crime toward others. It would prompt to justice, truth, and benevolence. If this law were engraved on every man’s heart, and practiced in his life, what a change would it immediately produce in society! If all people would at once “abandon” what is suited to “work ill” to others, what an influence would it have on the business and commercial affairs of people. How many plans of fraud and dishonesty would it at once arrest. How many schemes would it crush. It would silence the voice of the slanderer; it would stay the plans of the seducer and the adulterer; it would put an end to cheating, and fraud, and all schemes of dishonest gain. The gambler desires the property of his neighbor without any compensation; and thus works “ill” to him. The dealer in “lotteries” desires property for which he has never toiled, and which must be obtained at the expense and loss of others. And there are many “employments” all whose tendency is to work “ill” to a neighbor. This is pre-eminently true of the traffic in “ardent spirits.” It cannot do him good, and the almost uniform result is to deprive him of his property, health, reputation, peace, and domestic comfort. He that sells his neighbor liquid fire, knowing what must be the result of it, is not pursuing a business which works no ill to him; and love to that neighbor would prompt him to abandon the traffic; see Hab 2:15, “Wo unto him that giveth his neighbor drink, that putteth thy bottle to him, and makest him drink also, that thou mayest look on their nakedness.” Therefore ... - “Because” love does no harm to another, it is “therefore” the fulfilling of the Law, implying that all that the Law requires is to “love” others. Is the fulfilling - Is the “completion,” or meets the requirements of the Law. […]