Many people have debts that they owe - a mortgage on a house, a car loan, a balance on a credit card, student loan debt, or high medical bills. Sometimes, with careful budgeting and financial planning, people can get these paid off, and then they are debt free. Or are they? In our Scripture for today, from St. Paul’s letter to the Romans, we read about one debt that we always owe. Let’s look into our Scripture and see what that is.
As we open our Bible passage, Paul urges his readers to not owe anything to anyone (vs. 8). I don’t believe that Paul is saying one shouldn’t buy a house and have a mortgage, or anything like that, and for some people, medical bills can be a big debt. However, we shouldn’t live our life with the habit of continually buying, and accumulating an unnecessary, substantial debt. Believers should not be burdened by unpaid debts or obligations. There is one debt, though, that the Bible said we all will have, and that is the ongoing debt of loving one another. That is a debt that is always owed. We never come to a day when we can say that we’ve paid off our debt to love this or that person, and we don’t need to love them anymore!
Love is the fulfillment of the moral law (vs. 9). As we read through the Ten Commandments, we see that by obeying these laws we show love, not only to God, but to our neighbor, as well. If we love others, we are restrained from doing them any harm, as love seeks the good of other people. If we genuinely love our family and our neighbor, we won’t lie to them, steal from them, and certainly not commit adultery, or murder them. We seek their good, their welfare.
Love is not just some warm, fuzzy feeling that makes you giddy like a schoolgirl infatuation. Love is active. It does no harm, but actively does good for others (vs. 10). This is not sentimental love, but Biblical, Spirit-enabled love. It is rooted in obedience to God’s Word. Our daily conduct should be measured by whether we bless or harm others. To love as Jesus did means that we incorporate God’s self-sacrificing love into our hearts. In Jesus, God showed us not only perfect obedience to the Law, but perfect love, as well.
As we continue in our passage, we are urged to live a life showing love because as each day passes, we are closer to the day when Jesus will return (vs. 11). Knowing this, we need to live with vigilance, not in a spiritual slumber. We are exhorted to spiritual alertness. The word “salvation” here in the context of this verse refers not to one’s initial justification when one turns to Jesus as is saved. Rather, it refers to our final deliverance when Jesus returns.
Frequently throughout the Bible the words “light” and “darkness”, along with “day” and “night” have a spiritual context with either righteousness or sin and evil. As believers, we must reject sinful practices, the “works of darkness”, and instead arm ourselves with Christ’s righteousness, His light (vs. 12). This is a call to separate ourselves from the world’s philosophies and sinfulness, and to actively live holy lives.
Paul continues by listing some sins which were common in pagan society then, and which are still very common in today’s society, some two thousand years later, and that is immorality, drunkenness, and strife (vs. 13). Such behavior is incompatible with living a life as a child of God, of one who seeks to pattern their life after Jesus. Our life should be lived in uprightness and pureness. Our testimony must be clean, avoiding both outward sins, such as immorality and drunkenness, and inward sins, such as envy and strife.
As Christians, our life is to be clothed with Jesus Himself (vs. 14). To “put on the Lord Jesus Christ” means to live in conscious submission to Him, reflecting His character in our own life. We must make an effort to not feed our sinful desires, but instead walk in a way that Jesus would. When we choose to follow Jesus as our Lord, He begins the process of making us more like Himself each day. It is not a matter of pretending to be what we are not, but rather of becoming more and more of what we are in Christ.
As we close, let us remember that every day brings us one day closer to that great day when we shall reach the end of our journey, and we shall see our Savior's face. That’s the thought that can keep us going. Now, at this time, we see Jesus in the Bible, but someday we shall see Him face to face!
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