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Being in Debt

by Jerry Ousley
5/10/2008 / Christian Living

It hasn't been that many years ago that we were in debt up to our eyeballs. With Americans it seems to be a way of life. How can you have anything without being in debt? At least that's the way I reasoned it out. We had car payments, credit card payments, and a house payment besides all the utility bills, insurances, doctor bills, and on and on. If you are like we were, payday was a welcomed event but only on that day because the day after, it was all gone and it was back to being broke.

Through a chain of events Deb and I were able to re-evaluate our financial situation and we were able to pay off all those credit cards, pay off our automobiles and we also had to do some belt-tightening on other things in order to get control of the situation. I praise the Lord because for the first time in our lives we use a debit card first and the credit card only if we have too. Even then we make it a point not to put more on that card than what we can pay off at the end of the month.

Sacrifices had to be made. We got rid of cable TV. We decided that for $40.00 per month we could rent movies cheaper. So now we've got a set of rabbit ears sitting on top of the TV set. You know what we discovered? All we watched during the week was the evening news. On the weekends we'd spend about thirty-minutes going through the channels trying to find something we were interested in or hadn't seen before only to finally give up and run down to the video store. At first we'd buy movies but then we discovered that you could rent a movie two or three times for what you paid for it and the ones we bought are still sitting on the shelf gathering dust. So we cancelled cable, got the rabbit ears and joined a mail video club. Now we watch what we want when we want for half the cost.

Anyway, other than the house, that's how we got out of debt and stay out of debt. By the way, we are also making sure that we pay extra on the house payment every month until we get rid of that one too.

I'm not going to preach a sermon today about the evils of debt. I believe each of us needs to figure out where the line is as individual families. It's also much harder to get out of debt when the kids are still home. That's not the point of our topic today. The Bible tells us in Romans 13:8, "Owe no one anything except to love one another, for he who loves another has fulfilled the law." While this verse is addressing debt (just read the few verses above this one) the greater emphasis is on a debt that we do owe: To love each other. This is an obligation as a believer in Jesus Christ that we cannot escape. It is how we are marked as Christians. This is our greatest witness. When we owe a debt of love to each other it becomes one we can pay with joy instead of drudgery.

Why are we obligated to a debt of love? It is because we really are obligated to Christ. In fact the Bible tells us in Romans 8:12 that we are debtors. Jesus paid the ultimate price for our sin on the cross. When we deserved death He died for us and His own sinless death paid for our sin. Doesn't it stand to reason then that it isn't a big favor we're doing for God when we love each other but only making good on an obligation we really owe?

Jerry D. Ousley is the author of ?Soul Challenge?, ?Soul Journey?, ?Ordeal?, ?The Spirit Bread Daily Devotional and his first novel ?The Shoe Tree.? Visit our website at spiritbread.com to download these and more completely free of charge.

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User Comments

Dear Mr. Ousley, There are many mixed metaphors in your article. Debt can be a religion. Religion (what man can do for God) is a curious blindness. Grace (what God does for man) is not an obligation - it is an unmerited gift to the undeserving. The thought of repayment is an insult to the giver of the gift of grace. Following the debtor verse you quote is Romans 8:13, which reads: "For if we live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify [make to die the things of the body (Col 3:5-10)] the deeds of the body, ye shall live." This is clearly accomplished through regeneration by the Spirit of God. Love is a heartfelt response, not a reaction to a reprimand. The great manifesto of Christianity in Romans 8:1 when correctly translated - as in all major translations - lacks the italicized words that have been added at the beginning and the scribal addition at the end of the KJV. The verse reads simply: "Therefore now no condemnation to them who are in Christ Jesus." To my point, the following cannot be misconstrued without extreme prejudice: "Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt. ... Blessed [is] the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin. (Rom 4:4, 8). And finally, John Bunyan (the author of Pilgrim's Progress) writes: "One day as I was passing into the field…this sentence fell upon my soul. Thy righteousness is in heaven. And me thought, withal, I saw with the eyes of my soul Jesus Christ at God’s right hand; there, I say, was my righteousness; so that wherever I was, or whatever I was doing, God could not say of me, he wants [=lacks] my righteousness, for that was just [in front of] him. I also saw, moreover, that it was not my good frame of heart that made my righteousness better, nor yet my bad frame that made my righteousness worse, for my righteousness was Jesus Christ himself, “The same yesterday, today and, and forever.” … Now did my chains fall off my legs indeed. I was loosed from my afflictions and irons; my temptations also fled away; so that from that time those dreadful scriptures of God [e.g. Hebrews 12:16 –17] left off to trouble me; now went I also home rejoicing for the grace and love of God.[14]" Regards in Christ Jesus, gonzodave

2008-05-10

Thanks for your comment however you missed the whole point of the article. It isn't so much as we owe a debt to God but to love one another. Jerry D. Ousley

2008-05-11

Dear Mr. Ousley, I did not address every point in your article. I wrote, "There are many mixed metaphors in your article." Mixing dilutes clarity. I could not find any mention of 1 John 3:23 where the commandment is to love one believer another. Totally aside from popular sentiment and wrong headed "tradition," a social gospel that includes all people within this divine love of the brethren does nothing but stand Scripture on its head. This gospel is prohibited because Christ did not pray for the world in His prayer to His Father. This is illustrated vividly in Acts. The world witnessed to the new Christian love for one another - not Christian sharing and love for them. Secondly, you clearly referenced debt and obligation. The title to your article is "Being in Debt." To that point, I wholeheartedly agree with your effort at debt elimination. Should one desire to be like Christ, pick up your cross and get on with your suffering like He did. Suffering is guaranteed by the Savior of our souls. If you meant something else, your analogy and conclusion was not definitive to me. Regards in Christ Jesus, gonzodave

2008-05-12

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