The Debt of Love I Owe

8 Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. 9 For the commandments, “You shall not commit adultery, You shall not murder, You shall not steal, You shall not covet,” and any other commandment, are summed up in this word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” 10 Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law. – Romans 13:8-10 ESV

Paul had just finished encouraging his readers to “Pay to all what is owed to them: taxes to whom taxes are owed, revenue to whom revenue is owed, respect to whom respect is owed, honor to whom honor is owed” (Romans 13:7 ESV). He was not alone in his thoughts on this topic. At one point in His earthly ministry, Jesus was approached by some Pharisees and supporters of King Herod who attempted to trick Him into saying something they could use against Him. Hypocritically addressing Him as “Teacher,” they said, “We know how honest you are. You are impartial and don’t play favorites. You teach the way of God truthfully. Now tell us—is it right to pay taxes to Caesar or not? Should we pay them, or shouldn’t we?”(Mark 12:14-15 NLT). 

Jesus saw through their scheme and asked them to show Him a Roman coin. When He asked whose image was on the coin, they responded, “Caesar.” Jesus matter-of-factly told them, “Give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar, and give to God what belongs to God” (Mark 12:17 NLT). For Jesus, the issue had little to do with money, public policy, governmental authority, or the rule of law; it concerned the Kingdom of God, and God’s Kingdom is not of this world. At his trial before Pilate, Jesus told the Roman governor, “My Kingdom is not an earthly kingdom. If it were, my followers would fight to keep me from being handed over to the Jewish leaders. But my Kingdom is not of this world” (John 18:36 NLT).

Paul understood what Jesus meant. That is why he told his readers, “there is no authority except from God” (Romans 13:1 ESV) and “whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed” (Romans 13:2 ESV). For Paul, it all had to do with God's sovereignty and rule. As believers, we are to be far more concerned about what God would have us do. Unless our earthly, God-appointed authorities are causing us to disobey God, we are to view them as acting on His behalf and show them the honor and respect they deserve as God’s servants.

We are to be debt-free in our submission to earthly authorities. In fact, Paul says we are to owe no one anything except love, and that indebtedness is never paid off. We owe love to everyone because of the priceless gift of love that God showed us. Paul has already reminded his readers, “But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners” (Romans 5:8 ESV). Now he says that when we love others, we are fulfilling the law. His point is that all the commandments prohibiting adultery, murder, stealing, and coveting are fulfilled by love. When we truly love others, the very idea of taking something from them that doesn’t belong to us would never cross our minds. That is why, when Jesus was asked what the greatest commandment was, He pointed out the two commands that call for love.

You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. A second is equally important: Love your neighbor as yourself. The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments. – Matthew 22:37-40 NLT

Paul writes, “Love does no wrong to a neighbor” (Romans 13:10 ESV). In other words, the kind of love Jesus was talking about is incapable of harming or taking advantage of someone else. God’s law was designed to manage and legislate man’s relationship with his fellow man and with God. But if we truly love God and love others, the requirements of the law will be fulfilled. If we love God, we will not worship false gods and will honor His name in the way we live our lives. If we love others, we will treat them with dignity and respect, and never consider taking advantage of them for our own pleasure or benefit.

Earlier in his letter, Paul wrote, “For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit” (Romans 8:3-4 ESV). The Holy Spirit provides us with the power to live according to God’s law, and the key is love. Not only have we experienced the love of God through the gift of His Son, but we also have the power and capacity to love selflessly because of the presence of God’s Spirit within us.

Jesus told His disciples, “So now I am giving you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other. Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples” (John 13:34-35 NLT). Our love for believers and non-believers alike is an indication of our relationship with Christ and His Spirit’s presence within us. In Paul’s way of thinking, we should worry less about what the government may be taking from us and concern ourselves with what God would require of us: Love.

As Paul pointed out in his first letter to the believers in Corinth, love is a non-negotiable requirement for all Christ followers. 

If I could speak all the languages of earth and of angels, but didn’t love others, I would only be a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. If I had the gift of prophecy, and if I understood all of God’s secret plans and possessed all knowledge, and if I had such faith that I could move mountains, but didn’t love others, I would be nothing. If I gave everything I have to the poor and even sacrificed my body, I could boast about it; but if I didn’t love others, I would have gained nothing. – 1 Corinthians 13:1-3 NLT

All our religious rhetoric and pious-sounding platitudes become meaningless if they are not accompanied by love. Our outward acts of kindness and mercy lose their effectiveness if they are done without love. Love is the fuel of our faith. John said that love is the greatest demonstration or proof of our faith in and love for God.

If someone says, “I love God,” but hates a fellow believer, that person is a liar; for if we don’t love people we can see, how can we love God, whom we cannot see? – 1 John 4:20 NLT

Paul warned Titus about those who “profess to know God, but…deny him by their works” (Titus 1:16 ESV). He described them as “detestable and disobedient, worthless for doing anything good” (Titus 1:16 NLT). Those kinds of people are loveless and, therefore, worthless. Their works are missing the one thing that God requires: Love. And what makes their loveless lifestyle so glaringly unacceptable is that God didn’t just command us to love; He gave us the power to pull it off. 

We love each other because he loved us first. – 1 John 4:19 NLT 

John clarified that statement earlier in his letter when he wrote, “We know what real love is because Jesus gave up his life for us. So we also ought to give up our lives for our brothers and sisters” (1 John 3:16 NLT). We have experienced God’s love, and we have been given the capacity to share that love with others. So, we are without excuse.  

Isaac Watts put it well when he wrote the lyrics to the hymn, “Alas, and Did My Savior Bleed.”

But drops of grief can ne’er repay
  The debt of love I owe;
Here, Lord, I give myself away,
  ’Tis all that I can do.

I can never repay God for what He has done for me, but I can love others.

Father, as the old song says, “Love makes the world go round,” but it isn’t sachrine, Hallmark-card kind of love; it is the love You showed by sending Your Son to die for the sins of mankind. While we were sinners, You loved us. When we were unloveable and unworthy of Your affection, You sent Your Son to serve as the sinless sacrifice who paid the debt we owed. He sacrificed His life for us. Now, You call us to love as we have been loved. You command us to model our lives after His by loving others in the same selfless, sacrificial way. And to make it possible, You provided us with the Holy Spirit to convict, encourage, and empower us. Love is not an option; it is a byproduct of the Spirit’s presence and proof that You have poured out Your love into our hearts (Romans 5:5). May we love as we have been loved, so that others might experience the selfless, sacrificial nature of Your Son’s sacrifice on their behalf. Amen

English Standard Version (ESV) The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Permanent Text Edition® (2016). Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

New Living Translation (NLT) Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.22

A New Commandment

34 But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. 35 And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. 36 “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” 37 And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. 38 This is the great and first commandment. 39 And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. 40 On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.” – Matthew 22:34-40 ESV

31 When he had gone out, Jesus said, “Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in him. 32 If God is glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself, and glorify him at once. 33 Little children, yet a little while I am with you. You will seek me, and just as I said to the Jews, so now I also say to you, ‘Where I am going you cannot come.’ 34 A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. 35 By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” – John 13:31-35 ESV

Jesus issued many commands during His earthly ministry, so the question becomes, which of these commands was he referring to when He said, “Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you” (Matthew 28:20 NLT). The other question is whether these commands were meant for non-believers. In the Matthew 28 passage, Jesus clearly commands His disciples to “make disciples of all the nations,” indicating that the gospel message was intended to be shared with those outside of the nation of Israel. That is what Jesus meant when He said, “I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd” (John 10:14 ESV). His substitutionary death was on behalf of all humanity, not just the Jews. Yes, He was their Messiah but He was also “the Savior of the world” (John 4:42 ESV).

By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. – 1 John 4:13-14 ESV

Jesus commanded His followers to make disciples of all the nations but His commandments were to be taught to all those who placed their faith in Him as their Savior and Lord. So, it would appear that the commandments Jesus wanted to be taught were intended for His followers alone. They were for believers, not unbelievers. This view helps explain the rather perplexing language He used in His Sermon on the Mount.

Addressed to a predominantly Jewish audience, this lengthy message contained repeated references to the Mosaic Law and Jesus affirmed that He had not come to abolish the Law but to fulfill it. He told them, “Not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished” (Matthew 5:18 ESV).

“Therefore whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. – Matthew 5:19-20 ESV

Then Jesus dropped a bombshell on His Hebrew audience, telling them, “Unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:20 ESV). This idea must have stunned the crowd because they considered the scribes and Pharisees to be the spiritual superstars of Israel. They were the religious elite whose obedience to the Law was unquestionable and irreplicable. No one could live up to their standard of righteousness and, yet, Jesus was demanding that the average Jew do so if they hoped to enter the kingdom of heaven.

But Jesus wasn’t done. He went on to describe the old Mosaic Law in new terms.

“You have heard that our ancestors were told, ‘You must not murder. If you commit murder, you are subject to judgment.’ But I say, if you are even angry with someone, you are subject to judgment!” – Matthew 5:21-22 NLT

“You have heard the commandment that says, ‘You must not commit adultery.’ But I say, anyone who even looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” – Matthew 5:27-28 NLT

“You have heard the law that says, ‘Love your neighbor’ and hate your enemy. But I say, love your enemies! Pray for those who persecute you! In that way, you will be acting as true children of your Father in heaven.” – Matthew 5:43-45 NLT

Jesus was upping the ante but He wasn’t adding to the Law; He was simply explaining the depth of its meaning. The Law was never about a set of rules to be obeyed; it was about the lifestyle and habits of those whose hearts belong to God. Rules don’t produce righteousness. Adherence to a set of regulations can never make anyone right with God. This is something the apostle Paul, a former Pharisee himself, understood about the Law.

Obviously, the law applies to those to whom it was given, for its purpose is to keep people from having excuses, and to show that the entire world is guilty before God. For no one can ever be made right with God by doing what the law commands. The law simply shows us how sinful we are. – Romans 3:19-20 NLT

The law of Moses was unable to save us because of the weakness of our sinful nature. So God did what the law could not do. He sent his own Son in a body like the bodies we sinners have. And in that body God declared an end to sin’s control over us by giving his Son as a sacrifice for our sins. He did this so that the just requirement of the law would be fully satisfied for us, who no longer follow our sinful nature but instead follow the Spirit. – Romans 8:3-4 NLT

So, when Jesus addressed His audience and explained the true meaning of the Law, He put the hope of righteousness out of reach for them. He set the requirements for entering the kingdom of heaven so high that it became unattainable. But Jesus wasn’t eliminating any hope of attaining a right standing with God; He was simply preparing to seek by a different means. Men cannot save themselves. Good works can’t produce righteousness. Obedience to the Law doesn’t earn anyone favor with God. That is why God told the rebellious people of Israel, “I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean. Your filth will be washed away, and you will no longer worship idols. And I will give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit in you. I will take out your stony, stubborn heart and give you a tender, responsive heart. And I will put my Spirit in you so that you will follow my decrees and be careful to obey my regulations” (Ezekiel 36:25-27 NLT).

The commands that Jesus expects His disciples to obey can only be kept through the power of the Holy Spirit. Just before His ascension, Jesus told His disciples they would receive a “power from on high” (Luke 24:49). He spoke of the Holy Spirit whom He would send to empower, guide, and instruct them after His departure.

“If you love me, obey my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, who will never leave you. He is the Holy Spirit, who leads into all truth. The world cannot receive him, because it isn’t looking for him and doesn’t recognize him. But you know him because he lives with you now and later will be in you.” – John 14:15-17 NLT

Jesus knew that obedience to His commands would only be possible through faith in Him and with the help of the indwelling Holy Spirit. That is why Jesus told His disciples, “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:3435 ESV). What made this commandment “new” was its emphasis on a kind of love that replicated that of Jesus. It was to be a selfless, sacrificial, lay-it-all-in-the-line form of love that was only possible with the help of God’s Spirit. Jesus demanded that His followers love one another but He provided them with the means for doing so.

When the self-righteous, law-abiding Pharisees asked Jesus to name the most important of the 613 laws in the mitzvot or Mosaic Code, Jesus responded, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind” (Matthew 22:37 ESV). Then He added, “This is the great and first commandment” (Matthew 22:38 ESV). This answer must have pleased the Pharisees because they believed they had faithfully kept that commandment. But Jesus added an addendum to His statement that quickly burst their bubble and deflated their pride.

“And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.” – Matthew 22:39-40 ESV

He knew the Pharisees were arrogant, self-promoting attention seekers who looked down their noses at anyone outside their elite clique of self-proclaimed law-keepers. Jesus considered the Pharisees to be corrupt, prideful, and selfish. They were more concerned with their own privilege and position than with helping others.

But Jesus demanded that His followers exhibit a selfless kind of love that emulated His love for them. Jesus declared Himself to be the good shepherd who lays down His life for the sheep (John 10:15). The apostle John picked up on this theme when He wrote, “By this we know what love is: Jesus laid down His life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers” (1 John 3:16 BSB). The apostle Paul echoed this same sentiment when writing to the believers in Ephesus.

Imitate God, therefore, in everything you do, because you are his dear children. Live a life filled with love, following the example of Christ. He loved us and offered himself as a sacrifice for us, a pleasing aroma to God. – Ephesians 5:1-2 NLT

In his first epistle, John expanded on this life of love that Jesus commanded His disciples to live.

God showed how much he loved us by sending his one and only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through him. This is real love—not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins.

Dear friends, since God loved us that much, we surely ought to love each other. No one has ever seen God. But if we love each other, God lives in us, and his love is brought to full expression in us. – 1 John 4:9-12 NLT

This kind of love can be faked but never replicated. It can only be produced by the indwelling power of the Holy Spirit and, according to Jesus, it will be the primary evidence of true discipleship (John 13:35). Not only that but failure to love our brothers and sisters will negate any claim that we love God.

If someone says, “I love God,” but hates a fellow believer, that person is a liar; for if we don’t love people we can see, how can we love God, whom we cannot see? And he has given us this command: Those who love God must also love their fellow believers. – 1 John 4:20-21 NLT

This “new” commandment emphasized the importance of love in God’s kingdom. That is why Jesus said love for God and love for others were the two greatest commandments, upon which “the entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based” (Matthew 22:40 NLT). As the Law clearly stated, love for God was non-negotiable.

“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.” – Deuteronomy 6:4-5 ESV

But Jesus was demanding and commanding a second expression of love for God – that of loving all those who bear His name and share a common faith in His Son. It is that kind of love that will give evidence of the Spirit’s presence and proof of a saving relationship with Jesus Christ.

English Standard Version (ESV)
The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Permanent Text Edition® (2016). Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

New Living Translation (NLT)
Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.