Owe no man anything. Not merely your money debts! True, the wicked borrow oft and pay not back; the righteous show mercy and give. But the command is all-encompassing. Let officebearers pay their debts to the congregations by instructing, comforting, exhorting, and rebuking with the word, loving the word and defending it at the cost of their lives. Let husbands pay their debts to their wives by cherishing them and wives pay their debts by submitting to their husbands. Let parents pay their debts to their children by teaching them the truth. Let children pay their debts by showing all honor to their parents. Let employees pay their debts by giving an honest day’s work for an honest day’s pay and employers pay theirs by giving an honest day’s pay for an honest day’s work. Let citizens pay their debts by paying their taxes and submitting to the government. Let the magistrate pay his debts by rewarding the good and punishing the evil. Do you see how comprehensive the command of the Lord is? It touches every area of life. None are exempt. You owe the debt as really as he who borrows must pay his debt. So says the law.

And the apostle makes the admonition very sharp when he adds, “but to love one another.” Love is the esteem of another as precious and dear and the determination to do good to the beloved. Love works no ill to the neighbor, thinks no evil, and rejoices not in iniquity but rejoices in the truth. Love is perfect! All our paying of our debts must have their origin in love, or we have not paid them. Owe no man anything but to love one another means that love is the deepest motivation for all our behavior in the various relationships of life. And thus paying that debt in love means that love can never be this for that. Paying that debt is never dependent on whether someone deserves it or does not deserve it. Does not the world love that way? For the world, love is not a debt but a transaction.

The debt of charity is permanent, and we are never quit of it. We must pay it daily and yet always owe it. This is the end of discussion about whether our love gains richer experience, more assurance, more favor, or more of anything whatsoever. You can never even discharge the debt. Surely, you do not discharge your debt with God. God did that in Christ, both your love-debt to him and your love-debt to your neighbor. And God left you with an abiding obligation that you cannot discharge. You can never love enough. You can never stop loving. Always you must love. No matter how often and in what way you pay your love-debt, it remains.

For love is the fulfillment of the law. Do you believe that? Love is the fulfillment of the law? Perfect love of God and of the neighbor is the fulfillment of the law. If you believe that, you know that your payment of the love-debt can never be the ground of your blessing, your salvation, or your righteousness. It is not perfect love and never will be in this life. It hardly even approximates love very often; it is mingled and defiled with the works of the flesh. To see love as the fulfillment of the law, you must look to the cross. There Jesus Christ loved God perfectly and his neighbor perfectly, paid God what God was owed, and restored what he did not take away. There Christ fulfilled the whole law for righteousness to everyone who believes. There he revealed love: God’s love, the love that saves and does good even to his enemies. And it is your abiding love-debt that you love the neighbor in thankfulness to God for his love of you.