Owe

“Owe nothing to anyone except to love one another;”  Romans 13:8

Owe – Do you know a pun when you see one?  Most of us think that we can recognize the humorous use of a word that suggests a different meaning.  But did you know that there are all sorts of puns in the Bible?  You don’t see them because the puns are in Greek or Hebrew.  This word is a pun.  Paul loves a little humor (and so does God), so he uses the word that means, “owing debts” to say “Don’t owe anything.”

If you paid attention yesterday, you won’t be surprised to find that this is the word opheilete:  the word for the debt of service that Jesus used when he washed feet.  Paul tells us that our obligation is to owe no debts except the debt of love.  Of course, that means that we are fully indebted to one another.  There is no greater debt than the debt of love.  Paul is saying, “Don’t owe anything except everything.”

But there is a bit more to this verse than a clever pun in Greek.  What does it mean to owe nothing to anyone except to love?  If we follow the example of Jesus, it means that the debt to be paid is to give up our lives for the sake of others.  To give up our plans, our time, our expectations, our schedules, our goals.  To owe nothing except the debt of love is to say, “not my will but yours be done.”  It is my life sacrificed for His purposes.

What does your Life Balance Sheet look like?  Are there lots of “debts” that don’t look anything like “love of others”?  Paul says, “Wipe out those added lines.  There is only one debt to pay.  It is the debt of a life sacrificed to God.”  No other debt matters.

Today:  Someone will come to me today who needs my love.  It will be someone who does not deserve my love.  But I have a debt to pay to the One Who loved me when I didn’t deserve it.  Today I will have the opportunity to “owe nothing except”.  Lord, help me see my debt and pay it.