SERIES: The Book of Romans
The Unpayable Debt
Introduction: Our national debt stands right at five trillion dollars—about $17,500 for every man, woman, and child in the United States. To grasp just how much money this is, if you spent $5,000 every minute, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, you would have had to start when Jesus Christ lived on earth to spend $5 trillion by the end of this millennium. (Note added in 2022: our debt just surpassed $30 trillion!)
Some economists and some politicians are beginning to wake up to the potential disaster this enormous indebtedness could produce. Yet even if those heartless Republicans get their way and succeed in balancing the budget in seven years (don’t hold your breath), the national debt will be at least 6 or 7 trillion by that time. Still, there are those who pass the situation off as inconsequential and actually encourage more borrowing. A few weeks ago I was listening to an economist on the McNeil-Lehrer News Hour who claimed that since borrowing stimulates the economy, it is a good thing and we should actually do more of it. He was perfectly willing to postpone the ultimate day of reckoning, which must surely someday come to pass.
Nor is Washington alone in this profligacy. Credit card companies mailed out 2.1 billion solicitations for new cards last year—an average of eight for every man, woman, and child in the nation. While only 1.5% of those were accepted, that still translates into 30 million new accounts. Credit card debt nationwide has tripled to nearly $400 billion in ten years. Among those who carry a balance on their cards, 70%, the average amount of that balance has increased by 350% during that same decade. A total of 807,000 personal bankruptcies were filed in the 12 months ended last June 30. Debt is obviously a major problem in our society.
It should not surprise us, then, that the Bible speaks to the issue. There are a number of warnings in the book of Proverbs concerning the dangers of excessive debt, and even here in the Book of Romans the Apostle Paul broaches the subject, though in a rather indirect way. He tells us in effect that there are debts that must be paid, but more importantly, there is a debt that can never be paid upbut must continually be paid on.
There are debts that must be paid. (6-8)
If you will recall from Pastor Paul’s message last Sunday, the Christian has certain very specific obligations to government. One of these is to pay taxes. I’ve referred to that in our outline today as a “public debt.” This is not to be confused with the debt government owes; rather it refers to the citizen’s debt to government.
Public debts (6,7). Let’s review Rom 13:6-7: “This is also why you pay taxes, for the authorities are God’s servants, who give their full time to governing. {7} Give everyone what you owe him: If you owe taxes, pay taxes; if revenue, then revenue; if respect, then respect; if honor, then honor.” Here we are told that the citizen has an obligation to pay both direct taxes and indirect taxes (or revenue). In Paul’s day there were ground taxes, income taxes, poll taxes, custom duties, import taxes, export taxes, bridge tolls, and many others. We don’t have some of those today, but we’ve got others that take their place, and then some.
The Bible here insists that the Christian is not exempt from these public debts just because he is a citizen of heaven and a sojourner here. On the contrary, he must pay his legal obligations to the governmental authorities. This does not mean he shouldn’t use legal means to lower the tax burden or shouldn’t work to lower the size of government. But he certainly should not be a tax evader.
Then in verse 8 the Apostle turns to the matter of private debt.
Private debt (8) “Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for he who loves his fellow man has fulfilled the law.” Now most of you are more familiar with the King James Version of this verse, “Owe no man anything but to love one another.” That rendering is so familiar and so direct that it has led some to contend that debt itself is ungodly and that Christians should never borrow, and churches should never borrow. After all, it says “owe no man anything.” How can the Bible be any clearer?
Now I confess that I have a special interest in this verse, for if that’s what it means, then I have violated God’s law, because I don’t hold the deed on my house—a bank does. More importantly, I am the pastor of a church that took out a mortgage to buy this beautiful site and later borrowed again to build this building. I wrestled with this verse a great deal when our leaders were going through those financial decisions. In fact, I wrestled with it so much that I ended up writing my doctoral dissertation on this verse. The title was, “Biblical and Practical Guidelines for Church Indebtedness.” Now relax, I’m not going to dump a bunch of scholarly research on you this morning. But I think I can share a few important things that can help us keep this whole area of our lives in balance.
Please note that Paul’s primary intent here is not to teach about financial indebtedness. He makes one extremely brief reference to financial debt in verse 8 and the entire rest of our text focuses on the believer’s moral debt to love others. If all we get out of Rom. 13 is a warning against financial debt, we have missed the thrust of the text completely
Nevertheless, we cannot ignore the fact that Romans 13:8 says something about financial debt. After all, the Apostle could have said simply, “A believer is obligated to love his neighbor.” Instead, however, he said, “Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another.” The question I ask when I read the KJV, “Owe no man anything,” or the NASB, “Owe nothing to anyone,” is this: Does this verse really categorically forbid all borrowing? Can I not borrow for my education, or borrow to buy a house, or borrow to start a small business, or borrow my neighbor’s lawn mower? And if I cannot borrow, does that also mean I cannot lend, for if borrowing is wrong, lending must also be wrong, for it would be facilitating another person’s borrowing. Exactly what is forbidden by this text?
What I discover is that the verb “to owe” and the noun “debt” are very loaded terms, both in English and in Greek, and must be analyzed very carefully. A strong philosophical argument can be made, I believe, for the view that one is not really in debt unless his liabilities exceed his assets, unless he has borrowed beyond the means to repay, or unless he has fallen behind on payments.
For example, a person who borrows $10,000 but has available assets of $20,000 and is current on payments is not really in debt, nor, therefore, is he violating the biblical command to “owe no man anything”? On the other hand, a person who has nothing and borrows $100 is in debt, as is the one who misses even a $10 payment. So, even if it could be shown that Rom. 13:8 forbids financial debt, this does not necessarily mean that it disallows all “borrowing.” And the fact is, when one takes into consideration all the Bible has to say about lending and borrowing, this is exactly the conclusion one is forced to accept. For borrowing and lending are not only allowed in the Bible; they are sometimes even commanded. Jesus Himself said, “Do not turn away from the one who borrows from you.” (Matt. 5:42).
That is why the NIV translates this verse, “Let do debt remain outstanding,” and the New English Bible translates it, “Discharge your obligations to one another.” I believe those translations give us the correct meaning of Romans 13:8. But what we must be careful to acknowledge is that our text in any translation clearly forbids a cavalier attitude toward one’s financial obligations. It communicates the same message about debt as Psalm 37:21: “The wicked borrow and do not repay….” The mistake the wicked make is not the act of borrowing but of borrowing and not repaying.
There may be a number of good business reasons why one may choose not to pay the total price for something at the time of purchase, but there are no good reasons for having insufficient resources to repay one’s loans when they are due. A Christian should never be satisfied to have creditors banging on his door trying to collect past due accounts. Nothing will destroy his testimony quicker.
I would say that in order to be sure one never fails to meet his financial obligations, the wise Christian will never borrow unnecessarily. And even when borrowing necessarily, like for a house, one should not borrow any more than he could pay back assuming the worst possible set of circumstances—like the loss of a job or a severe downturn in the economy. A good rule of thumb when borrowing is to be sure that the most conservative estimate of our net worth is double the amount we are borrowing. That’s a rule our church has consistently followed.
Finally, I would venture a personal opinion that doesn’t necessarily come out of this text: that when it is deemed necessary to borrow, repayment should be accelerated as rapidly as possible. For a number of years now my wife and I have practiced this, avoiding all debt except our home mortgage and accelerating that significantly. I’m glad that our church has also done this. In the three years since we moved into this building, we have reduced our total mortgage on this property from nearly $1.4 million to just under $800,000. I am not the least bit reticent to encourage you here in the last five weeks of the year to make a special gift toward our debt retirement. I would like to see that reduced to $600,000 or lower by Dec. 31. We need new facilities desperately and we are seriously considering those options, but we are not going to pile debt on top of existing debt.
But what if you’re already up to your ears in debt? What if you were ignorant of the Bible’s teaching and have violated this principle found in Rom. 13:8? What do you do now? George Fooshee, a former parishioner of mine in Wichita, has written an excellent book entitled, You Can Be Financially Free, which gives eleven simple steps to getting out of debt, and these have worked for thousands of families:
1. Establish a goal to get out of debt.
2. Start by giving a set percentage of your income to the Lord.
3. List all you owe and all you own. (Assets and liabilities)
4. Have a sale (sell everything you don’t need).
5. Fix a monthly debt payment amount as high as you can afford.
6. Add no new debts.
7. Establish a time goal.
8. Cut the goal in half.
9. Develop a repayment schedule.
10. Share the repayment schedule with your creditors.
11. Stick to your plan.[i]
Now in a sense all I have said so far is extraneous to the main thrust of our text. Now we come to the heart of it.
There is a debt that can never be paid off but must constantly be paid on. (9-14)
“Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another.” One of the early Church fathers commented, “The debt of love remains with us permanently and never leaves us; this is a debt which we both discharge every day and forever owe.” I think it would be helpful for us to evaluate Paul’s teaching here by means of a series of questions.
Who is the debtor? Who is it that owes this debt of love? I would take it that, in the absence of any qualifying phrases, all believers are intended. This is our debt by virtue of our membership in the Body of Christ.
Who is the creditor? (8-10) To whom do we who are Christians owe this debt of love? It was in response to the very same question by a certain lawyer that Jesus gave the parable of the Good Samaritan. In Luke 10:25-29 we read these words:
On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?” {26} “What is written in the Law?” he replied. “How do you read it?” {27} He answered: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.'” {28} “You have answered correctly,” Jesus replied. “Do this and you will live.” {29} But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”
The parable which follows and with which you are undoubtedly familiar, identifies a neighbor as “anyone in need.” A neighbor does not need to be a friend, though he may be. He does not need to live next door, though he may. He does not even need to be an acquaintance, though frequently he will be. All he needs to be is someone whom God brings across our path who has needs. If we have the time, the ability, and the resources to help, then we are debtors and the needy person is our creditor. We owe him love.
What is acceptable legal tender for payment?
You could not pay off your house mortgage at Citicorp or Merc Mortgage in Mexican pesos. Nor can you pay them with your stamp collection or by offering to sweep the parking lot of the bank. No, good old U.S. greenbacks or a check representing dollars is the only legal tender acceptable by the bank.
By the same token God has specified what is legal payment on the debt of love. Now this is important, friends, because all kinds of people are trying to use phony currency—counterfeit money that looks like the real thing but isn’t. They are doing things they call “love” but which in effect are nothing but bald-faced acts of selfishness. People are saying, “If a man or woman really love one another, there’s nothing wrong with them living together, even if they’re not married.” Or, “If two individuals of the same gender really love one another, it’s O.K. for them to be sexually intimate.” Or, “If a woman can’t afford to have another child and give that child a loving environment, then the loving thing to do is to abort the child.”
But God says He won’t accept such actions as payment on the debt of love. They are not loving acts and no amount of rationalization can turn them into loving acts. Verse 9 has been tragically misrepresented by some liberal theologians. They have read it as though the Apostle were saying that the individual commandments like, “You shall not commit adultery,” “You shall not murder,” etc. aren’t important any longer. Rather they have been superseded by the ethic of love. Love your neighbor as yourself and you don’t have to worry about all these commandments.
Well, frankly, there’s a certain sense in which that is true. It’s the same sense that St. Augustine intended when he said, “Love God and do what you please.” If we really loved God with all our hearts, we would only be pleased with what is right, so our desires would coincide with his. I suppose it is likewise true that if we really loved our neighbor, we would always do what is right for our neighbor and we wouldn’t have to check the rule book. But the fact is, most of us are Master Rationalizers, and God knows that if we want to do something bad enough, we can talk ourselves into thinking that our motivation is love.
Specifically, to prevent that kind of distorted thinking about love, God chose to define love in action. And this is the correct interpretation of verse 9. If a man seeks to discharge the debt of love to his neighbor, he will keep the commandments of God. Sure, they are summed up in the statement, “Love your neighbor as yourself,” but that general principle is in turn fleshed out in the specific commandments.
In case we had any doubt about how to show love to our neighbor, God says, “You don’t show it by committing adultery with her or with him.” William Barclay observes cogently, “When two people allow their physical passions to sweep them away, the reason is, not that they love each other too much, but that they love each other too little. In real love there is respect and restraint that saves from sin.”[ii]
The person who really loves will not kill, for love never seeks to destroy but always to build up. The one who really loves will never steal, for love is always more concerned with giving than with getting. He will not covet either, for covetousness is the uncontrolled desire for the forbidden thing (and love cleanses the heart until that desire is gone). In fact, love does no wrong to a neighbor.
There are, of course, other specific descriptions in the New Testament concerning how the loving person will act besides these four commandments here. In the 13th chapter of I Cor., for example, we are told that love is
patient
kind
does not envy
does not boast
is not proud
is not rude
is not self-seeking
is not easily angered,
keeps no record of wrongs
does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth
always protects
always trusts
always hopes
always perseveres.
That’s how love acts. That’s the legal tender that is acceptable as payment on our debt to love. Love, therefore, is the fulfillment of the Law. This doesn’t mean that love takes the place of Law. Rather what Paul is saying is that while a person can keep the Law without loving (the Pharisees were masters at that), it is impossible to really love without keeping the Law. When you love you fulfill the Law.
From verses 11-14 the Apostle turns to the matter of time.
How much time is left to meet this obligation? (11-14)
“And do this,” Paul says in verse 11, “understanding the present time.” That is, start paying on the debt of love since you know what time it is. Well, what time is it? It is, first of all time to wake up. “The hour has come for you to wake up from your slumber, because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed.” Like so many great men, Paul was haunted by the shortness of time. Time is short, first of all, because it flies by faster as we get older. In fact, over the past 40 years I’ve noticed a very strange thing happen. Christmas used to come only every 2 or 3 years. Now it’s here again in 5 or 6 months, or so it seems.
But time is short also because Jesus is coming again—at a time when we least expect it. Every day our ultimate salvation is nearer, and we must have all things ready. “Teach us to number our days that we may gain a heart of wisdom.” (Psalm 90)
Secondly, it is time to lay aside. The imagery used here in verse 12 is of the person who is just rousing from slumber as dawn begins to break. What is the first thing he does? He takes off his nightclothes and dresses for the day’s work. It’s inappropriate to wear one’s pajamas to church or to work, so, says Paul, let’s take them off! What are some of these nightclothes which are inappropriate for God’s servants to be wearing during the daytime? Look at verse 13: “Let us behave decently, as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and debauchery, not in dissension and jealousy.” The first two of these sins deal with intemperance, the second two with sexual misconduct, and the final two with conflict.
You can’t indulge in these things and love at the same time. You will destroy others and destroy yourself. I like what C. S. Lewis says,
We are half-hearted creatures, fooling around with drink and sex and ambition, when infinite joy is offered us. Like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea, we are far too easily pleased.[iii]
Thirdly, it is time to put on. Just laying aside all these evil actions that are the antithesis to love doesn’t make a person presentable. There was a man in Matt. 12 who had a demon cast out of him, but when nothing positive took that demon’s place, seven other spirits more wicked than the first came to live in that man, so that his last state was worse than his first. Paul knows that danger, so immediately after listing the things that must be laid aside, he mentions that it is time to put something on. In verse 13 it is the armor of light. In verse 14 he personalizes it—we are to put on the Lord Jesus Christ.
The reference to armor suggests to us that to walk through this world as children of light involves a warfare with the powers of darkness (see Eph. 6). The reference to putting on Christ communicates the need for a deliberate, conscious acceptance of the Lordship of the Master, so that everything is under His control—motives, desires and actions.
A final exhortation tells us to make no provision for the flesh in regard to its lusts. What Paul is saying here is that “putting on Christ” cannot be done in a spirit of complacency, as though a life of godliness will automatically follow a Lordship decision. No, the Christian must exercise ceaseless vigilance lest the flesh prevail. And one very important factor in this vigilance is that the believer must not think about how to gratify the desires of the old nature. He must not fantasize about what he would do if he were sure he would not get caught.
Friends, the time is short. Your life is going to come to a close sooner than you think. Or Jesus is going to come again when you least expect it. Are you ready? We need to wake up to the debt we owe because One paid infinitely for us. “Let no debt remain outstanding when that time comes, except the continuing debt to love one another.”
DATE: November 26, 1995
Tags:
Debt
Love
Taxes
Time
[i] George Fooshee, You Can Be Financially Free, chapter 2, “Escaping the Debt Trap.”
[ii] William Barclay, The Letter to the Romans, 176.
[iii] C. S. Lewis, quoted by Ray C. Stedman, Expository Studies in Romans 9-16, From Guilt to
Glory, Vol. II, 135.