Divine Discovery: Monday

Read
Romans 13:8-9 8
Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for whoever loves others has
fulfilled the law. 9 The commandments, "You shall not commit adultery," "You shall not murder," "You shall not
steal," "You shall not covet," and whatever other command there may be, are summed up in this one command:
"Love your neighbor as yourself."

Reflect
Have you ever borrowed money from somebody? Maybe you forgot your lunch money one day and
needed a friend to spot you a couple bucks. You’ll pay him back tomorrow.

When you borrow money, you make a promise to pay it back. Did you ever forget to bring in the extra money
the next day to pay back your friend? You feel bad about it, because, in a way, you’ve broken your promise. And
you can’t help but wondering if your friend is starting to consider you untrustworthy. If you’ve ever had a friend
not pay you back, you know how you can feel used or taken for granted. You want to get that debt paid as soon
as possible so there are no hard feelings.

Paul reminds us in this passage that we aren’t to let our debts go unpaid. He knew the bad feelings that can
result from unpaid debts. And he reminds us that breaking a promise isn’t very Christian-like.

But then Paul says something else that’s very interesting. He says that loving our neighbor is a debt! He says
we owe it to other people to care for them, to help them, and to make their lives better. Have you ever thought
of it that way before?

Respond
We shouldn’t approach loving others as something they are lucky we’re doing because we’re nice
people. Instead, we should act like we owe everybody a thousand dollars and we forgot to bring it in. We should
care for others because we feel like we owe them big time.

This devotion can be found at