John Calvin Commentary Romans 13:8

"Owe no man anything, save to love one another: for he that loveth his neighbor hath fulfilled the law." — Romans 13:8 (ASV)

To no one owe you, etc. Some think this was not said without a taunt, as if Paul were answering the objection of those who contended that Christians were burdened by having precepts other than that of love enjoined on them. Indeed, I do not deny that it may be taken ironically, as though he conceded to those who allowed no other law but that of love what they required, but in another sense.

And yet I prefer to take the words simply as they are. I think Paul meant to connect the precept concerning the power of magistrates to the law of love, lest it should seem too feeble to anyone. It is as though he had said, — “When I require you to obey princes, I require nothing more than what all the faithful ought to do, as demanded by the law of love. For if you wish well to the good (and not to wish this is inhuman), you ought to strive so 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 for all.”

So, he who introduces anarchy violates love, for what immediately follows anarchy is the confusion of all things.

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 rightly obey the commandments when we observe the law of love and refuse no burden to keep it. He thus fully confirms what he has commanded concerning obedience to magistrates, in which no small portion of love consists.

But some are hindered here and cannot easily extricate themselves from this difficulty — that Paul teaches us that the law is fulfilled when we love our neighbor, for no mention is made here of what is due to God, which by no means should have been omitted.

But Paul does not refer to the whole law; he speaks only of what the law requires from us regarding our neighbor. And it is undoubtedly true that the whole law is fulfilled when we love our neighbors, for true love towards man flows only from the love of God, and it is its evidence and, so to speak, 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 does not declare what men do or do not, but he speaks hypothetically of that which you will find accomplished nowhere.

And when we say that men are not justified by works, we do not deny 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 therefore the only refuge is in the grace of Christ.