"All You Need Is Love"

September 4, 2011

Romans 13:8-14

In previous weeks, the apostle Paul has shared who we are as part of the church – one in Christ and in one another, yet unique in our differing gifts according to the grace given us. What we hold in common, he says, is God’s great love for us and that we are to love God and one another as God loves us. Paul also said, “Let your love be genuine.” For him, love was to be central to our understanding of God and who we are to be as Christians… “They’ll know you are Christians by your love.”

But the apostle Paul wasn’t the only one who taught those of my generation the importance of love for our neighbor. In the 1960’s, I attended high school and college. During that time, I listened to a lot of music on the radio, as I think most of us did then. Looking back, one of my favorite groups had to have been the Beatles. I still find it amazing that over a span of fifty years or two generations, they’re also a favorite of my grandchildren. At any rate, their later songs sometimes had good messages, best I think when touching on truths akin to the teachings of Jesus and as explained by the apostle Paul in his letters.

Play the Beatles song, “All You Need Is Love”

[at beginning of first half, read #1 below from Romans 13:8-10 then #2 the second half]

1. “Owe no one anything, except to love one another; for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. The commandments are summed up in this word, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’

2. “Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law. Let us live honorably (and) … put on the Lord Jesus Christ.”

John Wesley, in Notes On the Bible, wrote Paul was talking about the general duties of a Christian. And that includes us as well. Paul says. “Owe no one anything, except to love one another;” To love one another, Wesley suggested is a debt we always have, one we will never be free of; and yet if we love as we should, it dismisses all the rest. “…for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law.” It isn’t a matter then of law, it is a matter of ‘love.’

Yet maybe Paul is not talking about debt in the same way we may think of it – something to be repaid. Perhaps it is more an obligation – it comes with the territory. As Christians, it is our duty to love our neighbor. Some writers even suggest Paul is talking about allegiance, rather than material indebtedness. Russell Rathbun believes, “He is calling the church in Rome out of the system of the empire and pointing to citizenship in the Kingdom of God where love is the law.” Owe no one, Paul says, no system or party your allegiance, rather owe all according to the rule of love.

The Beatles sang, “All you need is love, love is all you need.” When searching for personal meaning or purpose, nothing else was needed.

There's nothing you can make that can't be made.

No one you can save, that can't be saved.

Nothing you can do but you can learn how to be you in time – It's easy.

For the Beatles, it was easy. The answer for Paul was simple. There was only one thing. It came down to the great commandment: to love God and love your neighbor as your self.

Wesley would later suggest, “this same love that keeps us from all evil, incites us to all good.” What an idea! The love that saves us also transforms us. Love makes us holy. It is our love of God and of our neighbor that brings us closer to God and motivates us to good.

Paul said, “You know what time it is.” Listen to me. It is time to wake up. The Son is coming!

That too reminds me of another Beatles song, “Here Comes the Sun,” a song I think the apostle Paul would also have liked because it uses his imagery of dawn and a new day awakening with the rising of the sun – transforming darkness into light. Maybe you remember the words?

Little darling, it's been a long cold lonely winter
Little darling, it feels like years since (he’s) been here
Here comes the (Son), here comes the (Son)
and I say --- it's al-right.

The time for all of us IS NOW – like the dawn, a time full of grace but quickly passing. It’s time to awake from our sleep, to leave behind the darkness of the night, and to welcome the dawn of a new day. It is time to love – to love God and to love our neighbor. It’s all we need.