“Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for whoever loves others has fulfilled the law.” Romans 13:8 NIV
When I read this verse, I interpret it as this:
You can never love someone enough. We are under constant obligation to love people, whether we think they deserve it or not. A “continuing debt” means I constantly owe something. It’s never paid off. I continually owe people love. The goal is never met to the full.
Enter the concept of grace: grace is an undeserved gift.
“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God.” Ephesians 2:8 NIV
“Grace is God’s voluntary and loving favor given to those he saves. We can’t earn it, nor do we deserve it.”
The dictionary defines a gift as this: “a thing given willingly to someone without payment.” Jesus gave us grace by dying on the cross and buying our ticket into eternal life when we actually deserved to die. We didn’t have to pay for this because it was gifted to us. Eternal life with the Lord is a gift to us that we sure as heck didn’t do anything to deserve. That’s what grace is.
Can God give grace? Well, duh. He created it. Can humans give grace? That’s a completely different question. Previous to reading Romans 13:8, I would have said yes. I can give love that someone doesn’t deserve, right? We basically use the terms grace and forgiveness interchangeably. “I’ll give you grace. I’ll forgive you.” But when I read Romans 13:8, I changed my mind.
If grace is a gift, something we don’t owe, and a debt is something we do owe, then it’s nearly impossible for us to give grace because according to Romans 13:8, the love we deliver is a “continuing debt,” and not something we gift. It’s not something we give, it’s something we owe. We constantly owe love to one another. We never gift people with love, we owe it to them. Are you tracking?? This “continuing debt” isn’t something we’re repaying to each other though; it’s something we’re repaying to God. We owe it to Him to love the creations He died for. The debt is being paid to Jesus. And it will never be fulfilled because we can never love Him or His creations enough.
So the next time you love someone that’s hard to love, don’t think highly of yourself and your ability to love them. You didn’t gift them with love. You didn’t give them grace. You owed it to them by owing it to God. You gave them what Jesus already merited them to deserve.
Let’s not become discouraged by the impossible task of loving people and loving God enough. Instead, let’s thank God for the challenge of loving people to the best of our ability and knowing that God will always call us higher and always ask us to love them even more.
Challenge accepted!
I didn’t mention in my last blog that we are in Manzini, Swaziland this month. We have been here for nearly two weeks. Our team is spending the month with team 5 Multiply and we are split up between working at carepoints, maintenance, and media. I have been serving at one of multiple carepoints, which is basically a preschool that feeds about 250 children and is affiliated with Adventures in Missions.
There are about thirty kids that go to the Mangwaneni carepoint for preschool, which is the one my teammate Haley and I serve at. We help around in the 2 classrooms with whatever the teachers need assistance with and play with the children. It has been fun to get to know all the children’s individual personalities even when they don’t speak a ton of English. The curriculum and games they play are all in English so the children are learning quickly. I’ve been enjoying it a lot even though I am basically a human jungle gym for the children.
Thank you all for continuing to read my blogs and support me through this journey. You are so appreciated! I am 83% funded, WOW! I am so moved by everyone’s generous support. We are nearly there!!
