“Owe nothing to anyone – except for your obligation to love one another. If you love your neighbor, you will fulfill the requirements of God’s law.” (Romans 13:8 NLT)
Here’s a Valentine’s verse to put in our pocket and carry us along the rest of the week. Wow, we have our wires crossed in twenty-first century, haven’t we? We are far more likely to owe everything to everyone and operate without love entirely.
The average credit card debt of an American hovers right around six grand. The median mortgage balance teeters close to $215,000. The typical monthly car payment is $530 for new vehicles and $381 for used (spoiler; the moment you drive it off the lot, it’s a used vehicle). Don’t even get started on student loans; those balances are high enough to send most begging to their state representative for student loan forgiveness. Its’ safe to say that Americans owe everything to everyone.
As a nation, we are strangely bankrupt when it comes to love. It is now more common to cohabitate than to make marriage vows. When a couple finally gets the nerve up to make the commitment; fifty percent of first marriages end in divorce. The percentage climbs higher on subsequent marriages. American’s aren’t much better with our offspring. One in four american pregnancies ends in abortion. The foster system is overwhelmed with neglected, abused or unwanted children. We are a country lacking greatly in love.
You may not see it this week. Nope, the next five days will be littered with paper hearts and chocolate covered strawberries. The illusion of love will preoccupy our attention. Hallmark and the like will light up every available screen, pressuring us toward some extravagant gesture of love toward our significant other. Shoot, yesterday I asked Alexa for the weather and after she told me the local temperature she asked if I could use some suggestions for my husband’s valentine. (Alexa clearly doesn’t know I made his gift weeks ago!)
What if we took this week and leveraged all it’s romantic solicitations for Kingdom’s sake? Decide today to let the roses and chocolates remind us of our debt of love. It isn’t owed only to our children and our spouse; it’s an outstanding balance for all of humanity. May we, as Christians, pay down the sum. After all, the world will know us by our love.
“If I speak with human eloquent and angelic ecstasy but I don’t love, I’m nothing but the creaking of a rusty gate. If I speak God’s Word with power, revealing all His mysteries and making everything plain as day, and if I have faith that says to a mountain, “Jump,” and it jumps but I don’t love, I’m nothing. If I give everything I own to the poor and even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr, but I don’t love, I’ve gotten nowhere. So, no matter what I say, what I believe and what I do, I’m bankrupt without love. Love never gives up. Love cares more for others than for self. Love doesn’t want what it doesn’t have. Love doesn’t strut, Doesn’t have a swelled head, Doesn’t force itself on others, Isn’t always “me first,” Doesn’t fly off the handle, Doesn’t keep score of the sins of others, Doesn’t revel when others grovel, Takes pleasure in the flowering of truth, Puts up with anything, Trusts in God always, Always looks for the best, Never looks back, but keeps going to the end.”
(1 Corinthians 13:1-7 MSG)
“Your love for one another will prove that you are My disciples.”
(John 13:35 NLT)
Lord, forgive us for getting scripture twisted up in our living. We forget that we owe a debt of love; nothing less. Help us this week – in the flurry of commercialized love – to express genuine godly affection. Let the romance remind us to love one another generously, endlessly. Teach us to walk in the way of love. Amen.