Title: Good Debt (Not What You Think!)
Text: Romans 13:8-14
Thesis: We are called to be good citizens, good neighbors and good examples… living decent lives for all to see.
Introduction
Debt has a number of categories… one is Government debt.
The Urban Dictionary defines debt simply as: “What America is in a lot of.” As of February of this year the United States owed over 17 trillion dollars in external debt in US dollars to international creditors. That amounts to $52,170 per capita in our country. That17 trillion dollars is 106% of our GDP (Gross Domestic Product).
It could be worse…we could be living in “Denial” which is this case is not a river in Egypt. Many European countries like the United Kingdom, which owes 406% of its GDP and Ireland, which owes 1,008.2% of its GDP are sinking fast in the murky waters of debt.
China on the other hand owes just 37.5% of its GDP.
As I looked through the list of eternal debt owed by all the countries in the world I noticed that most of the countries who receive humanitarian or military aid from the United States manage to keep their debt percentages well below their GDP. Egypt for example owes only 14% of its GDP and Israel and Pakistan are at 42% and 30% respectively. It is comforting to know that we are going into debt to assist those who are less indebted than are we. It is comforting like I feel comforted when someone asks me to give them money so they can gas up their late model SUV while I drive a 13 year dream machine… that means I dream it’s a 2014 Ram 3500 Laramie Mega Cab Dually with a 6.7 Cummins Diesel and a 6 speed, 850 Torque Output Allison Transmission.
Government debt is public debt but understand that public debt is owed by the American taxpayers. However our text today does not directly address the issue of taxation to pay for external government debt but it does speak to what may be understood as civic responsibility or debt.
One of the teachings in scripture is the responsibility of Christians to pay their taxes. As good citizens we pay our public debt of taxes.
I. Good Citizens: The Public Debt of Taxes (The State)
“Pay your taxes… pay your taxes and government fees to those who collect them, and give respect and honor to those who are in authority.” Romans 13:6-7
(With regard to honoring and respecting tax collectors… they were a reviled lot in those days. Jesus was criticized for hanging with the likes of tax collectors and sinner. We may have similar feelings toward our county assessors.)
There are numerous amusing quips about taxes.
• "The difference between death and taxes is death doesn't get worse every time Congress meets." -- Will Rogers
• "The only thing that hurts more than paying an income tax is not having to pay an income tax." -- Thomas Dewar
• “I like to pay taxes. With them, I buy civilization.”-- Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.
But of taxes, Paul wrote, “Pay your taxes, too, for these same reasons. For government workers need to be paid. They are serving God in what they do. Give to everyone what you owe them: Pay your taxes and government fees to those who collect them, and give respect and honor to those in authority.” Romans 13:6-7
Years ago Leadership Magazine reported that 18% of Americans believe it is okay to cheat a little on their taxes since the government spends too much money anyway. (100% American by Daniel E. Weis (Poseidon Press, 1988), reporting in Good Housekeeping, 10/88) I doubt attitudes have changed much.
It must be true because at midnight on April 15, 1987 seven million American children suddenly disappeared. Prior to 1987 tax filers were merely asked to list the name of each dependent child. However in 1987 tax filers were required to name each dependent child and provide each child’s Social Security number. Suddenly, seven million dependent children who existed only as phantom exemptions on the previous year’s 1040 forms – vanished. (Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner, Freakonomics (HarperCollins, 2005), p. 21)
The biblical admonition is to pay one’s taxes. Jesus commented in Matthew 22:17 and 21 that we are to “render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s and unto God what is God’s.” In other words we are to pay our public taxes.
Unfortunately Jesus does not say that we do not have to pay taxes that we don’t want to pay or for things we do not agree with or benefit from.
I have been around long enough to have heard just about every excuse for avoiding paying taxes. I knew a man who refused to get a driver’s license or register his vehicles because he thought it was an unfair tax. However he did not mind using public roads. Others refuse to pay the portion of their taxes that go towards public education because they don’t have kids in school so why should they have to pay to educate someone else’s kids? John Green has an interesting response to those who dislike paying taxes for education: “Let me explain why I like to pay taxes for schools even though I don’t presently have a child in school… I don’t like living in a country with a bunch of stupid people.”
Some do not want to pay for the welfare state and others do not want to finance another war. However, neither Jesus nor Paul gave us much wiggle room. In fact it would seem that no matter how galling it may be, we have a public responsibility to pay for public taxes.
In the Roman Empire the taxes to which the Apostle Paul was referring were as such:
1. Everyone paid a ground tax which was 1/10th of all grain produced and 1/5th of all wine and fruit produced.
2. Income tax was 1% of one’s income
3. Poll tax or head tax was due for everyone between the ages of 14 and 65 years.
4. Additional taxes were levied for using roads, crossing bridges, entering markets, entering harbors, owning an animal or driving a cart or wagon.
However onerous it might have been, early Christians were admonished to pay their taxes… as are we.
The teaching moves from the area of paying one’s public due to paying one’s private debt as well. Verse 8 begins, “Owe no one anything – except for your obligation to love one another.” Romans 13:8
II. Good Neighbors: The Personal Debt of Love (The Law)
“Owe no one anything – except your obligation to love one another. If you love your neighbor you will fulfill the requirements of God’s law.” Romans 13:8
A debt is an obligation owed by one party (the debtor) to a second party (the creditor). A debt usually refers to assets granted by the creditor to the debtor, but it can also cover moral obligations.
For our purposes today, there are two kinds of private or personal debt.
A. Personal Financial Debt
“Owe no one anything....” Romans 13:8
Consumer debt is debt used to fund consumption… it is the debt incurred in the purchase consumable goods that do not appreciate. It usually takes the form of credit card debt, payday loans and other borderline predatory lending agencies that charge higher interest rates because their loans are unsecured.
According to the CNN Money people, Good debt includes anything you need but can't afford to pay for up front without wiping out cash reserves or liquidating all your investments. In cases where debt makes sense, only take loans for which you can afford the monthly payments.
Bad debt includes debt you've taken on for things you don't need and can't afford (that Ram 3500 Laramie Mega Cab Dually for instance). The worst form of debt is credit-card debt, since it usually carries the highest interest rates.
While at one time student loans were considered good debt, today not so much. Even in my profession seminarians are graduating and seeking pastoral positions carrying student loan debt that cannot be managed on a ministerial salary. It is even more critical for those who graduate with student debt and cannot even find employment.
One student from Liberty University said, “I hope the Rapture happens before my student loans are due.” (Kevin Roose, The Unlikely Disciple: A Sinner’s Semester at America’s Holiest University)
It is pretty bad debt when the only hope of relief is the rapture.
Meanwhile, we all understand that we are responsible for paying our bills… “Owe no many anything…”
But our text today says there is a debt that we can never hope to pay.
B. Personal Spiritual Debt
“…except your obligation to love one another. If you love your neighbor you will fulfill the requirements of God’s law.” Romans 13:8
The one exception to owing anyone anything is the debt of love.
I will sometimes say to someone who has done me a favor, “I owe you one.” Sometimes someone will say to me, “I owe you one.” Sometimes it is a tangible favor like coffee or lunch. Other times it is an intangible favor like a letter of reference or a referral or a thoughtful deed. But when we say, “I owe you one,” we are acknowledging we have received something and we owe something similar in return.
Several years ago I remember making an off-handed remark to Ruby Bauer to the effect that she owed me and Ruby replied (and I’ve never forgotten what she said), “Put it on my account on account I ain’t gonna pay.”
In the first Godfather an Italian funeral director’s daughter was beaten by her non-Italian boyfriend. When Mr. Bonasera went to the trial the boyfriend received a suspended sentence. Desiring justice he went to see Don Vito Corleone explaining how it felt to go to the hospital and find his beautiful daughter badly beaten and with a broken nose. And then to have the thug smirk at him in court when he received the suspended sentence was deeply insulting. Don Vito Corleone eventually agreed to give him the justice the courts did not.
When Mr. Bonasera asked what he owed for this justice Don Vito Corleone said, “Some day, and that day may never come… I may call on you to do a service for me. But until that day, accept this as a gift on the day of my daughter’s wedding.” Mr. Bonasera owed Don Vito Corleone something in return for the favor of roughing up the abusive boyfriend.
We might be inclined to think God must be something like Don Vito Corleone, i.e., God does us a favor therefore we owe God for that favor. We might imagine God saying, “I demonstrated my great love for you in that while you were still sinners, Christ died for you.” (Romans 5:8) And we respond to God, “What can I give you for this great favor?” And God says, “Someday, and it may never come… I will call on you to do a favor for me.”
The debt of love is not a check we remit to God every month in order to keep the love debt collectors off our backs… it is something we do for others because of God’s great love for us.
It is not so much a debt as it is our Christian obligation or duty. Jesus said, “’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 the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments.” Matthew 22:37-40
This is a debt that you pay every day. The next day you owe the debt of love for that day so you fulfill your debt of love to God and others every day… it is the debt that can never be paid. Fulfilling our responsibility to love God and others is something we do, as followers of Christ, each and every day. And we pay usually pay the debt of love in small ways.
One morning I ordered a steak and egg burrito at Sonic for breakfast. I took my iced tea with easy ice and my steak and egg burrito, pulled around and parked to eat my burrito and read the front section of the paper before work. After parking I pulled the lid from my drink only to discover my iced tea was some tea in a lot of ice. I like some ice but I also like some tea so I always order easy ice. I unwrapped my steak and egg burrito only to discover I had some kind of concoction which included jalapeño peppers slathered in some kind of jazzy sauce that wanted to leak out of the tortilla onto my shirt.
What to do? Do I get all incensed over the fact that I did not get what I wanted the way I wanted it? I drank my iced tea and ate my jazzed up burrito. (Remember we are talking iced tea and a burrito here.) Believe me, I am not a wimp. But let’s face it. People are people and people sometimes make mistakes that are far from fatal mistakes. I could have nicely made a fuss about not getting what I ordered and gotten what I ordered. But my guess is someone else was enjoying my steak burrito while I enjoyed their jazzed up burrito. And my guess is… the young woman who served me was hardly living her dream job as it was and to be a grump would not have made her day a better day. (Please don’t tell me she needed to learn from her mistakes and that I have an obligation to bring her faults to her attention so she can become a better person.) It was not uncooked. No one had spit on it. She did not throw it in my face. She made a mistake and to be reactionary and anything less than understanding and loving on my part would have been a much graver mistake.
We fulfill the law of love by being loving and kind and patient and forgiving and not easily offended. We fulfill the law of love through practicing moral purity, honoring the sanctity of life, respecting the property of others and so on… When we love God and love others we are keeping each and every one of the 10 Commandments.
Paul ends this segment of our text by writing, “Love does no wrong to others, so love fulfills the requirements of God’s law.” Romans 13:10
The final segment of our text addresses what I think of as the debt of decency.
III. Good Examples: The Debt of Decency
“This is all the more urgent, for you know how late it is; time is running out. Wake up, for our salvation will soon be here… we must live decent lives for all to see.” Romans 13:11
In the matter of being good examples the text speaks of urgency. It seems there is no time for dawdling when it comes to spiritual things. There is only time for action.
The first thing we are to do in order to set the stage for being examples of decency is to remove the dark deeds from our lives.
A. Remove Dark Deeds, Romans 13:12-13
“So remove your dark deeds like dirty clothes… don’t participate in the darkness of wild parties and drunkenness, or sexual promiscuity and immoral living, or quarreling and jealousy.” Romans 13:12-13
Wild parties and sexual promiscuity and immoral living and quarreling and jealousy make up something of a short list of behaviors unbecoming those who follow Chris, but it does illustrate the gamut of deeds regarded as sinful behaviors to be removed from our lives.
Paul gave us a way of measuring our thoughts and actions in Philippians 4:8. He wrote, “Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise. Keep on putting into practice all you have learned from me…”
Just this week I popped in a DVD I had gotten from Netflix. I had read the reviews and it sounded like something I would enjoy. However I was not long into the story before I realized, “I don’t think this is something I need to be feeding my mind on…” It did not pass the “what is excellent and worthy of praise test.”
I was reminded of a story I read about a young Black Bear in Jamison City, Pennsylvania got into unexpected trouble when he found an old plastic jar. The jar contained cooking oil and the bear couldn't resist the temptation so he stuck his head inside to get a few licks. Unfortunately for the bear, his head got stuck in the jar and remained stuck for at least 11 days. Something had to be done or the young bear would die.
So one night four guys armed with a rope and flashlights went looking for the bear. They said it was actually pretty easy to find him because he kept banging into things as he lumbered through the darkness.
They eventually cornered the bear in someone’s backyard and managed to subdue him long enough for one of the men to yank the jar off the bear’s head. A local employee for the Game Commission said that this incident shows that people should keep lids on jars that they throw away. But a larger lesson for us may simply be, don’t be sticking your head into jars and other places your mind ought not be. (Matt Woodley, managing editor, PreachingToday.com; source: NBCNEWS.com, "Bear with head stuck in jar is rescued in Pa." 6-16-13)
The second thing we do to set the stage for being examples of decency is put on Jesus.
B. Put On Jesus, Romans 13:14
“Instead, clothe yourself with the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ. And don’t let yourself think about ways to indulge your evil desire.” Romans 13:14
If any athlete was known for focus, it was Michael Jordan. In Jordan's book, Driven from Within, Fred Whitfield, president and chief operating officer of the NBA's Charlotte Bobcats basketball team, tells a story about something Jordan did while getting ready to go out one evening. When Jordan asked if he could borrow a jacket from Whitfield, he found that Whitfield's closet was filled with both Nike and Puma products. The Nike outfits had been given to Whitfield because of his relationship with Jordan, who had a lucrative contract with the company. The Puma outfits had been given to Whitfield because of his relationship with ex-basketball player and Puma representative Ralph Sampson. Whitfield recalls that Jordan walked into the living room, laid all the Puma gear on the floor, and went into the kitchen to grab a butcher knife. When Jordan returned to the living room, he proceeded to cut all of the Puma clothes to shreds. He then picked up the scraps and carried everything to the dumpster. Once Jordan came back inside, he turned to Fred and said, "Don't ever let me see you in anything other than Nike!" (Bill White, Paramount, California; source: Thom S. Rainer and Eric Geiger, Simple Church, B&H Publishing Group, 2006)
As followers of Christ no one ought ever see us wearing anything other than Jesus. That’s how we live decent lives for all to see.
Conclusion:
We began this morning with this summary statement: We are called to be good citizens, good neighbors and good examples… living decent lives for all to see.
I close this morning with a prayer I pray at the beginning of every day and often throughout the day. I want to share it with you as a good starting place for fulfilling our obligation to become good citizens, neighbors and good examples of decent living.
It goes like this:
“May Christ as a light illumine and guide me. May Christ as a shield overshadow and protect me. May Christ be on my right and my left. May Christ be before me and behind me. May Christ be beneath me and above me… and all about me. And may the peace and the power and the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ be with me wherever he may lead me.” Amen
