Payment for Debt:
We all know that debt is something that we owe out of obligation; something that must be paid or rendered. Debt has been a part of human history for thousands of years. We can look at the ancient Greeks, Egyptians, Romans, etc... and see that debt and the process to make payment was established very early on. One of the ways that payment was allowed to be made was through a process called "Debt Bondage" in which a person who owed something would pledge their lives in service to the debtor. In exchange, the debtor would pay for the persons food, clothes, shelter, and applied labor to the debt owed. in the later part of the 17th century the term was referred to as indentured servitude - This form of payment is what made it possible for a lot of American Colonist to get to America from Europe. The person wanting to come to American would give themselves in debt to a wealthier person who would pay for their passage to America, house them, cloth and feed them until their obligation was paid. Though the vast majority of those in Indentured Servitude would not live long enough to pay their debt in full.
So how does this relate?
In Romans Chapter 13:8 I believe that Paul is saying that we should forever be in debt to love. That like the indentured servant we are to pledge ourselves to love and that for the remainder of our lives we need to serve love. One aspect of debt bondage and indentured servitude is that you could possibly pay off your debt and be freed from it at some point. It seems to me that Paul wants us to know that we can never love enough to ever "Pay it off" that we should stay in debt to it. God is the master in which we owe ourselves, Christ was the ultimate example of love that we need to follow, and we need to pledge ourselves to God and the ministry of Christ. God will feed us, clothe us, take care of our basic needs, and ultimately through Christ pay our Passage to heaven. Paul is reminding us of this and that we need to labor in love as payment for Grace.
Implications for us.
Love or connection is what brings all of us together and should be something that we seek to provide to others. In fact, love and connection is a primary human need and the lack of it can manifest in numerous negative ways in your life. Depression is the most common result of a lost feeling of love and connection and one of the criteria for a diagnosis of depression is rapid weight loss which is typically a result of not eating. This indicates to me that at the very core level of health that the emotional needs of people supersede that of the physical body. We need to feel love and we need to be connected; it is our nature. When we fail to love or connect we begin to die emotionally and it can eventually lead to our physical death. Paul is informing us that if we love others unconditionally we lay a strong foundation that will allow us to be loved and create needed connections that allow us to thrive in life. Paul is giving us a strategy for meeting our human needs.
If we can adopt this love service we will not only experience a level of connection with those in our lives like never before but we can experience connection with God that creates true life fulfillment. It says in 1 John 4:8 Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. To love someone else is to know God and is to be a demonstration of God in the world. Our debt or obligation is to repay God's Grace of salvation through the love that we provided to others.
How Can we Implement this today?
listed here are a few ways that you can begin to repay the love debt:
1. Random Acts of Kindness - for example, the next time you are at the check out counter leave a couple of dollars at the register for the person behind you to help them pay for their items. Now, you can do something different of course like giving a couple of dollars to the homeless, stopping on the side of the road to help someone with car trouble, write thank you cards to coworkers, or whatever else you can think of. The idea here is that you would practice these random acts so often that they turn from conscious actions to habitual ones.
2. Volunteer your time - Choose a charity, church, company program, or any other type of organization that interest you and donate some time. If you love animals find a shelter, if you have kids volunteer at the school, if you have parents that you care for and live in an assistance home help out a couple of hours a week, etc... the idea is that you are willing to give beyond yourself. Contribution beyond yourself is one of the Human Needs that leads to life fulfillment and is it can be meet through the donation of your precious time.
3. Sacrifice your Interest - This is about deepening your current relationships. If you are in a relationship (dating or married) and/or have children there is no better way to demonstrate your love with them and strengthen your relationship. In sacrificing your interest you take yourself out of the equation and focus completely on someone else's needs and desires. If your significant other loves the ballet but the thought of seeing other men dancing around in tights for 2 hours make you sink I say get out of your own way and take her to the ballet. Risk being physically sink if you have to in order to show her that you love her. Be willing to go that extra mile to show her you love her. If your kids would like for you to tag along on a school field trip to the penny factor and you are allergic to Copper go with them and support them in the passion for penny's. Hopefully, you understand that I am being a bit silly and I certainly would not want you to harm yourself to show your love but what I am saying is that initially we all need to get out of our comfort zones and place others above ourselves. If we sacrifice our own needs and desires so that someone else can experience theirs then we truly know what it means to be in debt to love.
It is my hope that this has at least sparked your interest and that you want to begin to look at what you can do to be fully in debt to love and how it can really change your life.
No comments:
Post a Comment