Love Is A Debt You Owe

Text: Romans 13:8

Paul wrote in Romans 13:8 “Owe no one anything except to love one another, for he who loves another has fulfilled the law.”

Love is a debt you owe to everybody even if you feel like they don’t deserve it. It should be on the forefront of our minds that God loved each of us when we were yet sinners and also didn't deserve it.

Love is not a feeling, but rather is a spiritual force radiating out of your innermost being. God is love and His love is revealed and manifested by you being nice to someone. This love can produce good feelings, but you can love without feelings or even with bad feelings.

Love is a decision, and when the right decision is made you can love somebody even when you want to tell them off or punch their lights out. The nature of the flesh is to respond to hurt feelings. If someone slaps you, you want to slap them back harder.

The key is to be led by the Spirit and not by fickle feelings that are forever changing from one moment to the next. Galatians 5:15, 16 tell us, “But if you bite and devour one another, beware lest you be consumed by one another! I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.”

Love does no harm to a neighbor Romans 13:10 and the Message Bible records these instructions from Romans 12: “Love from the center of who you are; don’t fake it. Run for dear life from evil; hold on for dear life to good. Be good friends who love deeply; practice playing second fiddle” (Verses 9, 10). “Bless your enemies; no cursing under your breath” (Verse 14). “Don’t hit back; discover beauty in everyone. If you have got it in you, get along with everybody” (Verses 17, 18). “Don’t let evil get the best of you; get the best of evil by doing good” (Verse 21).

“Love thinks no evil” (1 Corinthians 13:50) and takes no thought about how to hurt somebody. Neither should one rejoice if and when your enemy falls and gets hurt. God loves through you, and you should help that fallen person get back on his feet and point him in the right direction.

In the Spirit we are to “be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might,” (Eph. 6:10) but in our relationships with other people we are to be harmless as a dove. Titus 3:1b, 2 tell us “to be ready for every good work, to be peaceable, gentle, showing all humility to all men.”

Love cares when something good happens to somebody else. Love is not jealous or envious, but instead rejoices when somebody else gets blessed. John, the disciple of love who laid his head on the bosom of Jesus, gave what is probably the most prominent instruction about love when he wrote in 1 John 3:18, “My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth.”

The Message Bible says, “Let’s not just talk about love; let’s practice real love. This is the only way we’ll know we’re living truly, living in God’s reality.” John knew that God will move when love is demonstrated.

*** Written by Randall Brewer ***

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