Galatians 5:14
For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself
Does this mean, there is only one law now?
Also isn’t there much more other commandments other than the first ten ones?
First, St. Paul is not speaking about
only the Decalogue or the Ten Commandments, but “the whole law.” (Galatians 5:14) The context of the comment is about ending the debates among the Galatians regarding whether or not Mosaic Law was a requisite to gaining salvation.
People were ‘biting and devouring one another’ in a fight over whether the Law should or should not be applied. (Galatians 5:15) Since those Christians who wanted to make Law observance required were the ones causing the problems, Paul’s argument was ‘if you really want to obey the Law, then start showing love instead of arguing. For the Law basically gets completely fulfilled in following the command: Love your neighbor as yourself.’
That command to “love your neighbor as yourself” is
not from the Ten Commandments but from Leviticus 19:18. Paul was basically saying to these Christians who wanted to be under the Law, 'if you want to follow it then stop debating and show love as commanded by the Law!"
Only the Jews are obliged to observe the Mosaic Law, and they do not do it because they believe it will supply them with eternal salvation. They do it as part of their covenant with God because God freed them from slavery in Egypt. The opposite of slavery to men is freedom to obey God, and it was for such freedom that the Law was obeyed, not to gain any type of grace that leads to life. This is why Jewish Christians did not themselves have to stop following the Law, as this aspect of Jewish culture was not in conflict with the salvation in Christ.–Acts 21:17-26.
But the Gentile Christians of Galatia did not understand this, as some saw the Law as obligatory for Christians because they mistakenly saw it as a necessary means for Gentiles who wanted to embrace the Jewish Messianic concept in Jesus. Paul demonstrated they not only were wrong, but that they weren’t observing the Law anyway because they were failing to show love in the way they were arguing and forcing the issue upon others.
Since Jews do not observe the Law as a means to salvation but as an exercise of freedom from physical slavery, Paul stated that Christ did something similar for the Gentiles. Instead of obliging them to a covenant at Sinai as the Jews are, they have been set free *from slavery to sin *to obey Christ in an even greater freedom. The “New Covenant” doesn’t come with a cultural law code demanding uniformity among its members as the Mosaic Law does of the Jewish nation. In Christ the freedom is to live unity amidst diversity.–Galatians 4:21-5:15.
Paul’s words at Galatians 5:14 is part of the conclusion of this argument, which even on his part got a little heated. There is a little tone of sarcasm in this verse as Paul is proving his point by “twisting the knife,” so to speak. ‘You aren’t forbidden from obeying any part of the Law if you feel it’s SO important,’ St. Paul is saying, 'so how about starting with Leviticus 19:18 and start showing some love instead of fighting and forcing and arguing, huh?"
But Paul is not specifically saying anything about the Ten Commandments here.
the LORD thy GOD with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with thy whole mind. [38] This is the greatest and the first commandment. [39] And the second is like to this: Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments dependeth the whole law and the prophets.