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Cancelling Debts

             At the end of every seven years you must cancel debts. (Deuteronomy 15:1)

This is also why you pay taxes, for the authorities are God’s servants, who give their full time to governing. Give to everyone what you owe them: If you owe taxes, pay taxes; if revenue, then revenue; if respect, then respect; if honor, then honor.  Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for whoever loves others has fulfilled the law. (Romans 13:6-8)

How long has it been since you cancelled debts? I know we love the idea of having our debts cancelled. Buy a brand-new house and vehicle and pay on them for only 7 years. Or, better yet, buy them at 6.5 years through the cycle and only pay for 6 months! I don’t think it would work that way, but we like the idea. And, as for the forgiving debts others owe me, well, I don’t have the money to lend, so that is a non-issue.

          Quite probably, Scripture wasn’t referring to people who owe debts to society: criminals doing time. Can you imagine letting mass murderers, serial rapists, or traitors out of prison after only seven years? Or, if there’s a fixed cycle like the one above for the house and vehicle, after six months? I suspect that would very quickly change people’s minds about the death penalty.

Before I continue, I want to point out that the goal is not to incur debts that others have to forgive. We’re supposed to pay what we owe others, so if we can’t pay for that house and vehicle within the time remaining, we had better set our sights lower, on something we can pay for in that time. And there is one debt that is not cancelled, the debt to love one another.

But let’s make it personal. It is, very likely, the end of the seventh year in your relationships with at least some people. In some cases, the person we think owes us a debt may not even know we think so. They owe me, or they owe us, for something they may not have even done, or may not remember the same way, but in our memories, they owe us, or someone, and we want to make sure they pay their debts.

          As we head toward the end of the year, and toward a season when we often sing of peace on earth and goodwill toward men is there anyone who owes you? Do you owe yourself? Is there anyone who would justifiably claim you owe them? Are there promises you made that you need to keep? Or has someone else made a promise to you and failed to keep it? Are you bearing any grudges? Does anyone have one (or more) against you? Sometimes, some of these may be unjustified, but the debt involved is so small that it would do us no harm to pay it. A kind word. An apology for something we said.

          Do we have the courage to ask someone if we owe them? I doubt I have that courage. Do we have the courage, or love, or kindness to forgive anyone of their small debts? Or big debts? How about the faceless debtors – the systems or parts of systems that owe us? The corporations or agencies? Is there anyone you can forgive between now and the end of the year? Anyone whose debt you can cancel? I'll admit, this one is a huge challenge.

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