2 Corinthians 3:6 For the letter kills, but the Spirit quickens. Several times in his letters, Paul the Apostle says that the Law brings death. In particular, much of his letter to the Romans is devoted to trying to get us to understand why this is so. I am seeing those passages in a new light as I walk through Kierkegaard’s Works of Love.

In the Gospel of Matthew, in the middle of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus says: Think not that I am come to make void the law or the prophets; I am not come to make void, but to fulfil (Matthew 5:17). In the same sense, Love is the fulfilling of the Law.

In Chapter 13 of the letter to the Romans, Paul starts by talking about our duty to abide by the rules of our society. (The same as Jesus’ principle of ‘render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s’.) In his list of examples, all the duties are stated as things or actions we owe; and therefore, he concludes with the admonition: Don’t live in debt. Then, as if that thought sparked a connection he hadn’t considered before, he pivots: Romans 13:8 Owe no one anything, unless to love one another: for he that loves another has fulfilled the law.

In the gospel of Mark, chapter 9, we find a man whose son was possessed by a demon; and the demon kept trying to kill the man’s son. So, the man goes looking for Jesus. But instead, he finds nine of his disciples. He asks them for help, and they fail.

In many ways, Elisha’s ministry is a foreshadowing of Jesus’ ministry. They both came on the scene after their Elijah prepared the way, and they both came to declare that the LORD saves.

Of the Old Testament prophets that came after Moses, two stand out because their message was accompanied by signs and wonders: Elijah and Elisha. The name Elijah means Jehovah is God. And that is what Elijah was sent to declare to the nation of Israel, the northern kingdom, in the time of King Ahab. At that time, the people, in spite of having the long tradition of their fathers, the stories of Abraham, Moses, Joshua… in spite of knowing what was right because they had been given the Law, they had chosen to abandon all that and followed their kings wholesale into sin.