THE previous verses gave us teaching concerning the Christian's duty towards the state and to the government. Here in these verses Paul gives us teaching concerning how the Christian should behave in society and towards other people. In this way Paul speaks about the Christian's behaviour in the total of life in the world. Paul does not consider our duty towards God, because he has been teaching this throughout this letter up to this point.

The fact is that in the totality of our daily living the Christian must so behave as to commend the Gospel and glorify Christ. The way we behave to others and in society is an important aspect of commending the Gospel, commending Christ and pleasing Christ. Nothing so destroys the image of Christianity than when Christians act in a way contrary to the Gospel, either through carelessness, or indifference, or plain disobedience to the teaching here. More harm is done to the cause of Christ by the bad behaviour of Christians than anything else. Our witness will be totally useless if we contradict the message by the way we treat other people.

THE TEACHING.

The important thing, as we come to this subject, is to be clear as to what the apostle Paul is saying, for until this is clear we shall not be able to progress in this branch of holy living.

Being in debt, which is not paying what we owe, is against the entire Christian image as presented by the gospel. When the disciples were challenged by the collector of the temple tax as to whether Jesus and his disciples paid the tax, Peter replied that they did. (Matthew 17: 24-27). The temple tax was by its nature a payment to God. In this passage Jesus teaches that even when the tax was not obligatory for those who were God's sons, yet it ought to be paid so that no offence was caused. So even when there is some doubt as to the obligation of a debt, yet the Christian ought to pay so that there is no offence caused, or people will have cause to criticise the gospel thereby.

The fact is that unpaid bills by Christians are a discredit to Christ. The practice in the world of waiting to the last minute to pay a bill is not a practice that the Christian should copy. We should pay our bills as soon as possible. Not to do so will make us guilty of stealing, because the business to which we owe the debt may become in difficulties when bills are not paid on time.

This teaching goes further. When we are employed we have a debt to our employer to give full measure in the work we are employed to do for him or her. To waste time, or produce shoddy work, is not paying what we owe him for the wages we receive. If we are self-employed or owner of a business providing service to others, then our debt, which must be paid in full, is to give the best and fullest service in that which a person is paying us to do. A gardener must garden to the best of his ability. The garage owner must provide as perfect a service as he can. These are just examples which can and must be carried across the whole of business. Business is in a mess at the moment because so many are not living like this. The Christian must pay debt to the full whatever it may be, and show forth the glory of Christ. It is true to say that if the country had more real Christians then there would be less trouble and failure in business.

There is another aspect of this subject where we must be careful to pay our debt. When we are working for business, and when we are employed, then our time in work belongs to our employer, or to the one to whom we are providing a service. Many Christians justify witnessing in work time as doing the work of the Lord and therefore justified. Paul's teaching here contradicts this. We have a debt to spend the time in which we are employed for the employer. If we spend some of this time in witnessing or in any other way than for our employer, then we are not paying in full the debt we owe our employer.

THE NEVER ENDING DEBT.

Having impressed on us the importance of paying our debts, Paul uses the principle to teach something which is at the heart of Christian character and living. He speaks of an enduring debt, which is at the heart of paying our debts. The enduring debt is the debt of love. Christ gave the example of this in his love for all in his life on earth, and we must follow his example. We must never stop loving others. By this Paul means we must always act towards others in action to do them good, and help them, and to promote their well-being. This is Christian love. It is not necessarily about liking someone, or being drawn towards them in friendship. In fact there are many people it is impossible to like. However we must love them, and this our continuing debt to them. Jesus taught this love when he said we must love our enemies. (Matthew 5: 43-48 and Luke 6: 27-30). In Luke Jesus tells us what loving our enemy is. It is to do good to them, bless them, pray for them. It is not retaliating when we are abused and have even violence made against us. Jesus showed this love perfectly.

FAILING IN LOVE AND SO FAILING IN PAYING OUR DEBT.

Paul introduces the commandments in the second table of the ten commandments. He introduces them because the breaking of these commandments is a demonstration of failing in our debt of love. All sin is a denial of love because it does harm to others. It is often given as a justification for some act of wrong that it is not doing any harm to others, but this is a lie. Every failure in keeping the commandments, and every sin we commit, has a ripple effect which brings harm to others. We may not be able to see this harm, and it may not be our intention to harm, but the harm is there, and so it is a failure in our debt of love to others. However when we seek to live the commandments, even in the seriously deep way Jesus revealed in the sermon of the mount, then we bring good to others.

For example, it is plain that if we commit adultery, then we harm a wife or a husband, and this harm escalates into the future, and is often irreparable. But even when we commit adultery when there is lust towards a member of the opposite sex, even when no outward act follows, we still do harm, because it brings to ourselves a wrong attitude to others which effects relationship, and this grows until our attitudes become corroded which then rubs off on how we treat others.

If we steel by not giving the best in time and effort in our work, it still does harm. The harm is not perhaps visible, but because we are not giving of our best, the employer is not getting the best, so the business suffers, and the whole of the business society suffers. If this sin continues, the harm also escalates.

In fact love is fulfilled and begins with righteousness. When our living is pure and good, then our actions and life bring good to others, and this is love, and our debt to others.

Sin is an expression of selfishness, which always harms others. The heart of sin, and so lack of love is living for self in one way or another. The heart of love is selflessness, where self is placed last. The strange thing is that we are selfish because we think that it is the way to happiness. We live for ourselves to gain everything we think will make us happy, but the fact is that the happiest people are those of are most selfless. There is a reward of happiness where there is the most love, and those who are most selfless are the ones who know the greatest joy.

APPLICATION.

So where does the Christian go from here. The way forward is to heed this teaching and practice it. The difficulty is in the practice. The truth is that it is one thing to approve the teaching, and desire to be obedient, and quite another to be obedient in its fullness. So to help in this let me offer the following thoughts.

Firstly, there is no substitute for dwelling much on the love of Christ to every saved and believing Christian. Christ loved us while we were still enemies. His love reached out to us and took hold of us. This love is seen that while we were still sinners Christ died for us. This love is seen in that Christ's love dwells in us and on us even when we do not appreciate Christ's love, and continues even when our lives fall so far short of a true response to his great love for us. We need to pray that we may be given a deeper and deeper sight and appreciation of his love, and pray for it earnestly from our hearts. There is a hymn which is a prayer -

Give me a sight, O Saviour; of thy wondrous love for me.
The love that brought thee down to earth, to die on Calvary.

O make me understand it, help me to take it in,
What it meant to thee the Holy One, to bear away my sin.

Secondly, we must spend quality time in seeking to know the truth of God's word, which teaches us how to live to the glory of God, and gives us examples of the saints of old who lived the debt of love to others. Much of our failure to pay our enduring debt of love is not because we are not seeking to do so, but because we have too low a view of what that love should be. Only in the knowledge and example which the bible gives will we find our understanding improved and our hearts motivated to live that understanding.

Thirdly, we need to be careful to be watchful of our lives. Self examination is a good thing. Some may become over sensitive, but this is a rare quality in the climate of today. Before we go to sleep at night, it is good to bring the whole day before the Lord, and where we have fallen short, to repent and seek forgiveness and the grace to be better. We should also be sensitive to the leading of the Spirit, and whenever the Spirit shows us failure, to be quick to be sorry and seek grace to improve.