The Scripture reading for this Sunday is Romans 13:8-14. (The sermon on Sunday will address more closely the reasons for Paul’s command to love in verses 11-14).
“Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for whoever loves others has fulfilled the law.” – Romans 13:8
It’s important to note that in this verse, Paul is not talking about financial debt when he says let no debt remain outstanding as though we shouldn’t borrow any money. In verse 7, Paul has just instructed the Roman Christians to ‘pay what they owe’ with the idea being that if they have an obligation, they must pay up and honor it; if they made a promise, they must keep it; if they owe respect to a position, they must respect.
But there is one debt that will never be paid in full, Paul tells them. That is the debt to love. For all other things they must pay what they owe (and, by extension, we must pay what we owe) but this does not apply when it comes to the debt of love. When it comes to love there is no bar to reach. The debt for loving one another is one that we must keep paying.
But Paul is not talking only, or mainly, about our fellow Christians. He is addressing our duty to the “other” – the folks who are not like us, those who are outside our circle of love. This call to love even the “other”, even those who are hard to love, even those who have a completely different worldview and perhaps hate us for being Christians, is God’s will for those who have been saved by His wide mercy. Loving others, Paul reminds us, is how we keep the law. (Paul echoes Jesus summary of the law – love God and love others – here when He says love is the fulfillment of the law.)
This calling to love presents us with a challenge. Today, “love” is a word that refers almost exclusively to emotion. But, when we look at how Paul spells out love in verse 9 we see that the love to which Paul is calling us has little to do with emotion, at least mere emotion. The examples of love that Paul gives refer to behavior rather than feelings. Paul calls us to love our neighbors (meaning all people we come in contact with) and, as Paul shows us, our neighbors will know that we love them by how we act toward them.
After all, this is how we know that God loves us. God didn’t just tell us. God sent His Son, Jesus, to die for us. God sacrificed Himself for us. This is why we love; as 1 John 4:19 says, “We love because God first loved us.” And that's a debt we will never pay off.
Therefore, let us clothe ourselves with Christ, and let us love as God loves us.