Dave and I have worked for many years to get out of debt and to stay out of debt. Thank God for the blessing of being debt free. There is one debt however that we will never be able to wipe off the books; it will always be on the balance sheet.
“ Let love be your only debt! If you love others, you have done all that the Law demands. ” Romans 13:8 CEV
Each and every one of us are in debt to love.
Love is hard. It requires work and it isn’t for the faint of heart. The good news is that we haven’t been left on our own to pay this debt. We have been given help for each day.
“ God’s Spirit makes us loving, happy, peaceful, patient, kind, good, faithful, 23 gentle, and self-controlled. There is no law against behaving in any of these ways.” Galatians 5:22-23 CEV
There’s an urgency to be loving. The world is becoming more and more selfish; self-centered ambition drives so much of what is being done. Several years back there was a campaign to encourage people to do random acts of kindness.
What happened to that? Did you know that Jesus taught the same thing?
“The man replied, ‘The Scriptures say, ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, strength, and mind.’ They also say, ‘Love your neighbors as much as you love yourself.’ …
But the man wanted to show that he knew what he was talking about. So he asked Jesus, ‘Who are my neighbors?’
30 Jesus replied: As a man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, robbers attacked him and grabbed everything he had. They beat him up and ran off, leaving him half dead.
31 A priest happened to be going down the same road. But when he saw the man, he walked by on the other side. 32 Later a temple helper came to the same place. But when he saw the man who had been beaten up, he also went by on the other side.
33 A man from Samaria then came traveling along that road. When he saw the man, he felt sorry for him 34 and went over to him. He treated his wounds with olive oil and wine and bandaged them. Then he put him on his own donkey and took him to an inn, where he took care of him. 35 The next morning he gave the innkeeper two silver coins and said, ‘Please take care of the man. If you spend more than this on him, I will pay you when I return.’
36 Then Jesus asked, ‘Which one of these three people was a real neighbor to the man who was beaten up by robbers?'” Luke 10:25-27 CEV
Each one of us have been the man who was beaten and left on the roadside and if it weren’t for God’s unconditional love, we would be dead.
“Now I tell you to love each other, as I have loved you. 13 The greatest way to show love for friends is to die for them. 14 And you are my friends, if you obey me.” John 15:12-14 CEV
The debt of love is great. Christ freely gave to us, let’s be good Samaritan’s and freely give to those in need!