Romans 13:8 - "Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law."
I have some debt in my life. Maybe you do too. In fact, I have more debt in my life than I care to think about. Maybe you do too. My debts come from my house and various realities in my past and present. Maybe yours do too. I have this tendency to look ahead to the day when my debts won't be hanging over me, and, in so doing, it's as if I'm wishing life away. I don't mean to throw away any time, but I just don't like debt at all. And life will be so much better when those debts are gone.
And then God reminds me. Through his word. And by his spirit. Instead of looking ahead to the day when my earthly debts are gone, I need to focus on the fact that my spiritual debts towards God are already gone. Jesus died for us to pay the penalty of my sin, namely, to pay my debt towards God. And when I focus on that fact as the most important fact, I don't lose time, wishing for the time when I won't have debts, instead I gain time, celebrating that my most important debt, my debt towards God has been paid by Jesus. And life is already so much better because that debt is gone.
And it sets me free to focus on paying what God tells me in today's verse is my only remaining debt, namely, to love others as Jesus loves me. When in Romans 13:8, God says, "Owe no one anything, except to love each other," God's telling us that paying this obligation will bring true fulfillment to our lives.
And it even helps me to see my financial debts in a new light as I make my debt payments and write those checks as an act of love towards them. God wants me to be thankful that the money was able to be loaned to me and to be thankful that I have means to repay. Or if I'm writing a check to pay a debt that stirs bad feelings toward the one I'm writing it to, then God wants me to turn it into an act of love and pray for the person I'm paying. After all, doesn't Jesus say, "Love your enemies, and pray for them"?
Oh, and one more implication of all this. As a pastor, I know a lot of people who tell me that they don't tithe. They don't tithe, and by not tithing they set aside God's promise to bless them because they want to pay off their earthly debts first. I've been at my church, by God's grace, for almost twenty-five years. I have yet to see the first person start tithing after their debts are repaid because they're always taking on more debts. But once or twice a year, I'll have someone tell me that they took the plunge and put tithing before their debt repayment. And when they did, surprise!, their debt just seemed to disappear in no time flat. Imagine that! God does what God says God will do.
Dear God, please help us to prioritize our lives according to your word and not our own. Grant us faith and courage to love you and love one another as our first priority and our matter of first importance. And then Lord, help us to see how everything else just falls into place, just as you promised when our priority is love. In Jesus's name, Amen.
Praise God!
Pastor Chris
"The gospel is the story of Jesus [what God's only Son has done for us that we can't do for ourselves], spoken as a promise." - Robert Jenson
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