HE PUTS "ROMANS 13:8" ON HIS CHECKS

Several months ago Ouida and I sold a piece of property to a preacher down in East Texas. It shows that I am gradually overcoming my anti-clericalism! He is of the "non-denominational" variety. Not our kind of non-denominational, but the kind that opens a store front and puts up a sign reading "New Testament Church" and that calls themselves simply believers or Christians—and all that but a short distance from a "Church of Christ." They have their nerve, I'll say. But anyway the realtor got this Joe lined up for the sale, and we decided to go ahead with it, even if he was a preacher.

We did not meet until were were at the title office to close the deal. He kept talking about the Lord, how the Lord "leads" him to do this and that, and "If the Lord wills," which is not all that common for such occasions. I was somewhat on the grumpy side since I wasn't all that eager to sell the property, and I was only hoping that the Lord would "lead" the brother to meet his contractual obligation over the next several years. But this is one of my sins, my distrust of people, especially preachers, who are so definitely "led" of the Lord, for I have observed that the Lord sometimes "leads" them right out of town, leaving a string of debts behind them.

But not this preacher, apparently. He pays not only on time, but ahead of time, at least so far. Moreover, he always writes "Romans 13:8" in the corner of his check. Well, I knew how that verse read without looking it up. I said to Ouida, "1 hope he keeps believing that verse!" And I could only add, "I wish some other people that I could name believed that verse." Rom. 13:8 reads: Owe no one anything, except to love one another; for he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law."

He sent another check just the other day for the upcoming month, and there was the notation "Romans 13:8." If that is what he means by being "led" of the Lord, then I for one will buy it. Jesus is our Golden Oracle, the full glory of God's revelation. He speaks to us through his appointed envoys, the apostles, and one thing he says is that we should pay our debts—Romans 13:8! He also says things like "Love is patient and kind; love is not jealous or boastful; it is not arrogant or rude" (1 Cor. 13:4-5). So, the Lord "leads" us into love and kindness and away from rudeness and arrogance, when we heed his word. This is not to say that he does not, through the in-dwelling Spirit, lead us in other ways, such as causing us to meet certain people or to read certain books. But I'm old-fashioned enough to believe that a diligent study of and a loving obedience to the word of God is still the best way to be "led" of the Lord. A man pays his debts because God's word teaches him to "Owe no man anything." That isn't bad even in the 1970's!

I've observed along the way that even Christians are more careful to pay debts that they have to pay, such as the house payment and the phone bill, than those debts that they don't have to pay, such as money owed a friend or a relative. Most of us are more diligent in paying the utility bill than in returning a borrowed book, and it isn't going to hurt anyone's credit rating if he moves away and "forgets" to pay the paper boy.

We all seem to agree that Romans 13:8 does not teach against contracting obligations. If I borrow money from you, and Matt. 5:42 does allow borrowing, I do not "owe" you until the time comes for me to meet the obligation. If I can't pay you as and when promised, I am obligated to make some satisfactory arrangement with you if possible. I should arrange my spending and non-spending so as to be ready to pay my debts when they are due. A little more of Rom. 13:8 in our thinking could spare us a lot of worry. God's way is always best! Young couples especially need to learn to live within their means—well within. That passage might well cause us to do without a lot of things that we really don't have to have. You might try it. The next time hubby wants to buy that "something" that can wait until some money is saved, suggest that he pray about it first and read Rom. 13:8. It is a joy to do without something when it means one is living closer to the scriptures.

These are hard times for people to "Owe no man anything," for we are assaulted by our "credit card culture." Our creditors realize it is easier for us to buy when we only need to hand over a credit card than to shell out the cash. I for one believe that most Christians, not all perhaps, should use credit cards very sparingly if at all. Why? Romans 13:8! The Christian who runs up a bunch of debts that she can pay only with difficulty runs the grave risk of becoming too much like the world.

I'm trying to teach this to Phoebe and her husband, another one of those young married couples that find it easy to spend more than they make. I didn't realize that it is so easy to get credit as when they recently listed all their outstanding debts. I went with them to see their various creditors around Denton. I got some of them to discount what was owed by paying the balance in cash. They were paying 36% interest on one debt. We borrowed enough cash to pay off all debts, and now they have but one obligation to meet each month. Before I did this, I wrote out an "Agreement" in which they "swore or affirmed" that they would contract no more debts until they got this one paid. I made it formal. They raised their right hands and promised it before God—and Ouida. And they both know that God will let them off the hook before Ouida will!

And I keep saying, "Learn to do without! Don't buy it until you have money to pay for it! In most cases, that is. I believe Phoebe is learning. With fewer debts, and without the habit of making still others, she is a happier person. "Owe no man anything;" God hath spoken, and it is the best of wisdom in this credit-oriented world of ours.

But that isn't all that God says in Rom. 13:8. How penetrating are those words " . . . except to love one another." Recently an old friend, who has come up the hard way, confided his financial statement to me. His assets totaled well beyond a half million. Below this list were his Debits, and here he had typed the word None. "You owe nothing at all, to anyone anywhere?" I asked him. He owed not one dollar, which is unusual even for the well-to-do. But I reminded him of the one debt he has, being a Christian, that he can never pay, and this is the debt of love.

It makes a person feel freer when she rises in the morning out of debt. "I don't have to worry about owing anybody anything today," she can say

to herself, even if she has but little of this world's goods. She is also freer when she accepts the debt that she can never pay, not even if she gives her body to be burned, and that is the debt of love. She can look toward heaven on bended knees and cry out to her God, "Father, today I have a debt that I cannot pay. The more I love the more I am to love, because You first loved me." It is the one debt that we must let stand, but we can rejoice that we always owe it. We are to love to the limit, but still we owe, and thank God for that.

There are those that will question our motives and impugn our intentions. But we owe such ones the debt of love. There are those who will use us and abuse us, but we must bear in mind that we owe them a debt, assigned to us by the Lord, and however much we pay, the debt is never redeemed. We are to keep on loving them, and loving them still more. There are those who are a worry to us, and they are not easy to forebear, but we must ever alert ourselves to the debt we owe.

Romans 13:8 will not only improve one's financial habits, but it can change his entire life. He will go to the assembly of the saints with a new outlook. "I am in debt to all these people and this very day I must pay something on that debt," and so he looks for new ways to show his love. He moves among his family and with those at work as a changed man, a man who recognizes that he has a heavy debt upon him, and he is ever busy paying it. He looks at his son, his daughter, his wife, realizing that he has fallen far behind in his payments on a very important debt.

There is a glorious contradiction in all this, for it is in paying the debt that can never be paid that we fulfill the law. We keep on loving and yet the debt of love remains the debt it was before. But as we keep on loving the debt of love is already paid in that "he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law." That is said of no other of God's commands. We can't fulfill the law by repenting or by being baptized or by giving of our means or by studying the scriptures. But in loving we fulfill all that God intended for the law. So, while love for others is a debt we cannot pay, in realizing that by loving on and on and on (even when we are not loved in return), we consummate the very purpose that God had in mind when He gave the law to start with!

"Owe no man anything, except to love one another; for he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law." Let's write it in our hearts if not on our checks. — the Editor