Unlimited: The Continuing Debt
Sep 7, 2023 391
Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another (Romans 13:8a).
None of us like being in debt. We like to finish paying our debts off. The apostle Paul has just told us not to owe anyone anything. Yet he tells us that there is one kind of debt that no matter how much we exert ourselves, we will never finish paying! This is the continuing debt to love one another. Paul himself writes,
I am a debtor both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to wise and to unwise (Rom 1:14, NKJV).
We can see from this verse that the debt of love that Paul owes to all is not dependant on whether he thinks that they deserve it or not. And so it should be with us.
There is one kind of debt that we will never finish paying: the continuing debt to love one another.
The debt that we owe to all was created at the Cross, through which we see all of humanity in the same position of eternal loss, and through which Christ has given us eternal life. Now, we understand that we owe a debt of love to all those for whom Jesus died.
Accordingly, in Jesus’ teaching about the sheep and the goats in Matt. 25:31–46, the saved are those who acknowledge their debt to Jesus by caring for the hungry, the poor, the strangers, and those in prison. The lost are the ones who don’t. We serve Jesus by serving others.
Spiritual Application
Do you feel the weight of the continuing debt to love others? Or are you continually seeking the love of others yourself?
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