Where the Rubber Meets the Road
Tires: they’re the only part of the vehicle that touches the ground. Is anything more important? You might spend $300 on a new set, or you might spend $3,000. But you gotta have tires.
Tires are literally where the rubber meets the road.
In the life of a believer, that meeting point of everything you understand about God and everything you understand about people is so simple, you might take it for granted: love.
In his encyclopedic letter to the Romans, Paul systematically and brilliantly explained a variety of doctrinal themes with profound insight. He was pretty bright. Yet when he came to the point of suggesting how a person ought to live in response to all of that understanding – what to do when the rubber meets the road – he made it really simple:
“The commandments, ‘Do not commit adultery,’ ‘Do not murder,’ Do not steal,’ ‘Do not covet,’ and whatever other commandment there may be, are summed up in this one rule: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ Love does no harm to its neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.” (Romans 13:9-10)
There it is. If you want something deep, transcendent, mystical, or new, you won’t find it here. It’s that four-letter word found in sappy romance movies, sentimental greeting cards, and tired pop songs. It’s love.
Except it’s not the same love that’s described in pop culture. It’s entirely functional, in any circumstance, in any relationship, with regard to any challenge. It sums up the law, which means it is the extent of how God wants people to live. The type of love Paul described here is at the root of other expressions of human kindness, including compassion, empathy, mercy, servitude, justice-seeking, and generosity. A heart that’s loving, empathetic, considerate of the needs of humankind, and oriented toward the justice God desires won’t lead you to violate the laws described in this passage: sexual immorality and adventure-seeking (adultery), conflict and physical violence (murder), selfishness and inequality (stealing), or lust and greed (coveting). If you face any of these challenges and have abstract ideals on how to handle them, consider where the rubber meets the road and see how inviting God’s love into your heart could lead you to the right response.
That’s the human side of things, the description of love that flows through human interaction. But when Paul wrote about love as “the fulfillment of the law,” he was recalling something he wrote a few chapters earlier. By God’s law, no human has a chance at redemption. All humans have violated all of those commandments at some point, and a just God couldn’t allow that. So out of love, he sent Jesus to be the perfect manifestation of love for humankind. Love motivated his every step toward the cross. After speaking about love and acting lovingly toward people his whole life, he faced his final act of love.
It really is all about love. Does that sound unremarkable? Simplistic? Boring? If you’re looking for something grandiose or technologically advanced, think instead about tires. Think of your human relationships as contact patches. Most cars have four. Most humans have more than that. Love is an old concept, but as long as humans exist, love will too.
