Our only debt
I was talking with a friend yesterday. He had been on a group call and they were all asked a question: “Why do you love Jesus?” They were all initially stunned into silence! To be honest, when he said this, I too had this mild internal panic of “How do I answer that?!” There are many ways it could be answered - all valid to varying degrees - but the answer that quickly came to me was: “When you’ve encountered Jesus, how can you not love him!”
This morning, I woke up with it on my mind and one specific point was highlighted to me: debt.
Colossians 2:13-14 says; “And when you were dead in trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive together with Him, when He forgave us all our trespasses, erasing the record that stood against us with its legal demands. He set this aside, nailing it to the cross.” This passage tells us that when we were lost in the ocean of our debt of sin and unrighteousness, God took it all, nailed it to the cross in His Son, and then erased the record of it all - and its eternal consequence - through forgiveness. This is probably one of the most powerful Scriptures in the Bible! The debt we had, which was beyond our capacity to pay, has been paid in full and erased. We are now debt-free.
Or are we?
Yes! This is the first answer. Jesus said it is finished: “For our sake He [God the Father] made Him [Jesus] to be sin who knew no sin, so that in Him [Jesus] we might become the righteousness of God.” (2 Corinthians 5:21). There is no question or doubt over what Jesus accomplished through His life, death, resurrection and ascension.
But the second answer is…no. To be in debt means to owe something, and Paul clearly tells us there is one debt we must pay, and only we can pay it. Romans 13:8 says; “Owe no one anything, except to love one another; for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law.” The NIV puts it like this; “Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another.” Loving one another is the only ongoing debt that needs paying.
This is something you don’t hear much about: love is required of you by others…! God fulfils the love we need from Him, but this Scripture is telling us that we all also need love from each other. God cannot fulfil this on our behalf; only we can love others, willingly, and fulfil that need, or debt. (Take note too, that loving one another fulfills the law! This is a minefield I’m not going to get into right now!) Yes, it is a debt - it must be paid, or else we are not honouring the debt (or fulfilling the law!). Not only that, this debt is due every day!
Think of this: you can’t love someone yesterday and you can’t love them tomorrow - you can only love them today - so you can only fulfill your debt of love for that day alone. Tomorrow is another day with its own provision and need (see also Matthew 6:25-34). Think about the manna that the Israelites ate while in the wilderness; they couldn’t eat what they collected yesterday and they couldn’t collect and eat what was for tomorrow (except for the Sabbath) - only what was for that day. God fulfilled His ‘debt’ of provision every day for that day’s need, out of His love for them.
So, to be clear, our debt before God has been paid in full by Jesus - we are debt-free before God - but our debt to one another (of love) remains open. This is our only debt.
The big question now is how are we going fulfill our debt of love to one another each day?
P.S. Becoming a hermit doesn’t count!