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From the Editor: Debt

From The Hammer magazine, Vol. III No. III

“Let no debt remain outstanding except the continuing debt to love one another, for he who loves his fellow man has fulfilled the law.” (Rom. 13:8)

We all know what it is to have bills. Bills, bills, bills coming persistently in the mail is part of life. Scripture tells us to take care of these debts promptly. When one comes due, it should be paid in full.

But there is one debt that we can never properly pay off, one debt that is incessantly overdue and underpaid. We cannot save up for it. We must pay more than our tight budget allows each month, each week, each day. That debt is the continuing love due to our fellow creatures. It is the debt that remains outstanding day after day, month after month, year after year.

In and of ourselves we lack the resources to pay this continuous debt. But if we have died and our life is hidden with Christ in God (Col. 3:8), we have access to all the riches of God’s grace and love.

Perhaps we wish the Holy Spirit would send us an itemized statement of our debt each month. Then we would know how to begin. But God has given us His instructions and made provision in Christ for our weakness. We can, in Christ, put aside all anger, rage, malice, and slander (Col. 3:8) and put on love (Col. 3:14).

Although we may feel we will overload and short-circuit if we are faced with one more situation demanding our love, God can enlarge our capacity to pay this outstanding debt. If only we would give this debt the same attention we give to all our other monthly debts!

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