TOPIC:“The Dissolving of a Debt”
“I am debtor both to the Greeks and to the barbarians; both to the wise and to the unwise” (Romans 1:14)
A number of years ago I well remember two small newspaper items which caught my attention. They both relate to our subject.
The first item was in the form of a public announcement. It reported that a certain ten year old boy named Michael England helped to accomplish what the experts had not been able to do for years. He assisted in reducing the deficit which a particular transportation association found itself in at that time. This boy, who had just returned from a music lesson, had taken the wrong turn and suddenly he found himself riding the subway with the money still in his hand. When the General Manager reached his desk the next day, a letter with the money taped on the back awaited him. So the headlines in the newspaper read, “Boy Pays Off Debt.”
The other item was in the form of a paid advertisement. It seems that a certain savings bank was encouraging people to take out a low cost life insurance. This would enable them to have enough money to pay off all their debts in case of death. So the title of the notice read: “Pay All Debts.”
Say what we will, that is sound advice. But have we Christians ever realized that not only do we have weekly bills and monthly payments to make, but we also have an account with God which must be settled. Now mind you, at this point I am not speaking of money, but of a message. The message of God's forgiving love and Christ's redeeming grace which people desperately need to hear. This, I suggest, is a disturbing debt that we as Christians had better take care of soon.
We must be mastered and motivated like that first century Christian, the Apostle Paul, whose life was literally swayed by the inner compulsion that he was in debt to everyone, and especially, to Jesus Christ. So much so, that he drives himself from town to town, from city to city, from country to country, discharging the debt that was so heavily laid upon him.
To be very specific, have you such a feeling of duty as that? Has it ever dawned on you what . . .