THE ONLY ALLOWABLE SUSTAINED DEBT

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In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for whoever loves others has fulfilled the law.

Romans 13:8

This ends today’s reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

Debt seems to be a fact of life these days, at least as long as I can remember.

Of course, going back to my days, growing up in the seventies, I had a chance to understand the importance of establishing and maintaining good credit. It used to be sacred and something people would intentionally protect because if you lost your credit reputation, you usually would not regain it.

And then, it happened. Debt became common place, treated with a dangerous sense of lassez faire and indifference.

Instead of saving up for purchases so one could pay cash, credit cards became all the rage. At first, they were reserved for those with the best sense of credit but it didn’t take long for the floodgates to open where anyone could get a card if they wanted it, even people who had failed in the credit game in the past to the point of filing for bankruptcy.

Living within one’s means was cast aside because now if you didn’t have the cash on hand, you could just put a purchase on your card and worry about paying later. A procession of these actions saw balances balloon and only minimum payments applied, paving the way for interest charges to offset much of the headway made toward paying the debt down. Eventually, the fun expended at buying without really having to pay out at the moment led to grief and anguish later as the amount owed dragged a person down into the pit of indebtedness, a pit that is extremely hard to get up out of and I speak from experience.

You see, I once allowed myself to get overextended, so much so that I had to go to my father and ask for his help. I decided the best way to find rescue from the pit of indebtedness was to get a consolidation loan but there was only one problem. The bank wouldn’t loan to me because of my credit rating. To get the money, I would need a co-signer.

And so my dad stepped out on faith and supported me. In return, I vowed to not let him down and I didn’t. It took me five long years to pay that loan off but it was worth it as I found myself set free from my debt and in a place where I could be financially responsible. I vowed I would never be drug back into that pit of indebtedness again and today I can proudly say I have made good on that vow. I have sustained being a good steward of my money and have prospered as a result.

Friends, this freedom from debt is what the Lord desires. He wants us to live within the means He provides and trust that He will give us what we need, when we need it, to fulfill His purposes.

Does this mean that all debt is bad?

No, God certainly isn’t sending that message as we see in our verse for today, verse 8 of Romans 13:

“Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for whoever loves others has fulfilled the law.”

If the Lord didn’t approve of us having debt from time to time, He would say so. But here, the concern is for debt that goes unpaid, a debt that remains outstanding because there is no payment to draw it down.

Another concern is for debt that is perpetual. We aren’t to go through life, always owing money to people but there is one continuing debt we are to adopt, the only debt God allows and that is the debt to love one another. It is the only allowable, sustained debt.

Love is not only central to the scriptures but it’s central to the Lord who provides us those scriptures, the Lord through which we learn to love. As we approach each other in our daily interactions, we are to allow the Lord to love through us. In other words, we are to be vessels of the Lord’s love.

Doing this takes away the complicated nature of worldly love and replaces it with the effortless nature by which the Lord shows devotion to His people. It’s how we can really and legitimately love our neighbor as ourselves as Jesus commanded.

How large is your unpaid love debt?

The balance is as large as the number of people you have yet to love in life plus those people you may have loved but then stopped.

The truth of the matter is that we will never pay off our continuing debt to love others but I’m okay with that because given this, I always know the way to approach anyone the Lord brings to my life, even in the most chance encounters.

In the end translation, it’s all about love, extending the love of the Lord to all that He brings us to, and in 2022, I pray you will join me in making regular love payments to others as we remember the love God gave to us through His Son Jesus. For it’s that kind of love, the love that brought us salvation, that leaves eternally indebted to our Heavenly Father.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

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