The debt you can never pay

When Paul wrote a letter to a wealthy friend and asked him to take back a runaway slave who had been converted in prison, he told Philemon that he would repay anything that Onesimus had stolen and subtly reminded Philemon, the slave-owner, that he actually owed his very life to Paul.

When you give someone a gift, what do you expect in return? A thank you note, or something more tangible? In the Philippines, the obligation sequence is described by the phrase utang na loob (debt of gratitude), and the proper response to a gratuitous deed or gift is dependent upon the social status and wealth of the recipient. Obligations come down to a simple bottom line that says, in effect, “OK, because of what I’ve done for you, you owe me something in return.”

When I was invited to a child’s first birthday celebration in Korea, I noticed that it was not a balloons and birthday cake sort of thing for the one-year-old, but a formal gathering of family and friends. Many were dressed in ceremonial attire and there was a veritable feast of wonderful food. Everyone who attended brought quite expensive gifts or sums of money for the birthday child, and all the gifts were duly noted by the family of the birthday child in a book. With each gift there was an obligation, over a period of years, to return the same value to the donor.

Some debts are such that no sums of money could ever repay them. Ponder the debt you owe to God for what He’s done for you, as well as the fact Christ paid a debt He did not owe. Everything that God blesses you with – including His forgiveness, His kindness, His gracious favor – are undeserved. Forever you will be in His debt! That’s what grace is about.

Used with permission from Guidelines International Ministries. To learn more about Guidelines and the ministry, send an e-mail to [email protected]. You may also visit www.guidelines.org.