DEBT - SLAVE

DEBT
Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another. Romans 13:8a

A very positive trend in our culture today is getting out of debt. Many people are working towards being debt free. Financially, that path will give us a freedom that God intended for us to experience. [see below for the opposite idea]

But there is one debt that we can never repay - the debt of love. Not all debt comes because we have borrowed from someone. Indebtedness can come from the generosity of one person to another. If someone saved your life, you would feel in debt to him.

I owe the debt of love to one another - not because of what any one person did for me, but because of what God has done for me. He poured out His love to me when I became His child.

• This is love: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. 1 John 4:10 
• But God demonstrates His own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Romans 5:8 

I owe love to my spouse, not because of what he has done for me. Marriage isn’t about making sure everything is even. I owe love to my spouse because of the magnitude of love that God has poured into my life. I give that love to my spouse out of the overflow of God’s love for me.

We will never pay off this debt of love, but we can have great joy as we make payments.

In order to be free in the fullest sense you have to have opportunity, ability, and desire to do what will make you happy in a thousand years. …. The freedom of opportunity to do what we can, the freedom of ability to do what we desire, and the freedom of desire to do what will bring us unending joy... Therefore, true Christians are the freest people in the world.  John Piper

SLAVE
We can become enslaved many different ways.

• Money - The borrower is slave to the lender. Proverbs 22:7b
• Sin - Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. John 8:34
• Righteousness - You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness. Romans 6:18
• God - But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. Romans 6:22

To be free sounds more appealing than to be a slave. When we are set free by Christ, our slavery to sin is exchanged for slavery to righteousness.

The result of slavery to sin is death - spiritual and emotional. The results of slavery to righteousness are holiness and eternal life. 

To serve God, to love God, to enjoy God, is the sweetest freedom in the world. Thomas Watson