Owe No Man, But Love

 “Owe no man any thing, but to love one another: for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law.” Romans 13:8

 Have you ever owed anyone money?   Or has anyone owed you and not paid?  It’s an uncomfortable relationship to be in; and the larger the sum the more uncomfortable things become.  We owed a tremendous debt to God and could not pay.  So Christ step in and absorbed the debt, and brought life and love to whosoever will.  

To truly understand or even begin to approach the depth of this scripture we must first understand the love that Paul is speaking about.  To do this, we can reach back to Romans chapter five where Paul writes: “And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.  For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.  For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die.  But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”  Can you see in this text the amazing love of God?  The passion of Christ?  How that the Son of God left heaven to be broken for you and for me?  To be tortured, rejected, and humiliated for you and me?  The just for the unjust.  This is the love of Christ.  That he gave.  He gave his time, himself, his life, his all; for you and me.  My sin was on his shoulders says the hymn writer.  My debt, he paid.  I owed God, but Christ wrote the check.  We live in a qualify and quantified world.  One must be qualified and quantified before you can justify giving them anything.  Justify giving, loving, aiding, helping, ministering, lending or embracing.  It’s much like when you go to borrow money.  Before you can borrow money, the lender wants to see if you have justifiable collateral against what they plan to lend you.  They want to qualify and quantify you.  They want you to fill out an application with your assets listed and references they can call to inquire about your character and past performance.  You must articulate to them what you’re worth before they decide to give you anything.  What if God had done that to us before he sent Son?  Would we have qualified?  Certainly not.  We must see and understand that freely we have received and freely we must give.  We are debtors to everyman in love, because our example became a debtor himself.  Christ placed himself as a debtor to all men; who am I to do anything less?  The man in the gutter, the women on the stoop, the drunks, prisoners, murders, gangsters.  I am indebted to love them.  This is contrary to the theme of the world.  The world loves its own.  It loves those like them.  Those that make them feel rich, safe, happy, familiar and comfortable.  We are called to love all mankind, even those who seek to torment and destroy us.  To take from us, and despitefully use and persecute us.  Jesus pleaded to God on behalf of his persecutors: “Father forgive for they know not what they do.”

 Second Corinthians says: “For the love of Christ constraineth us” The love of Christ compels, drives, and presses us.  The same chapter goes to say that we are “ambassadors for Christ.”  The ambassador goes out as a representative.  If you are sanctified and serving Jesus.  The love you show to people may be the only representation of Christ they ever see.  Their introduction to the gospel may be a cup of cold water, a warm jacket, a bus ticket, or new shoes.  A listening ear, or time of intercessory prayer.  This love is like a foreign language in the world today, and as ambassadors for Christ we must carry his message.  At the risk of our all.