Creflo Dollar - The Debt That Delivers From All Debt - Part 1
We went home after the service last Sunday, sat in our closet and the Lord came and spoke to us and said, now look at this through the eyes of grace. Don't approach it like you did several years ago. And he said, don't go pick up your book on it. I'm doing something new. Romans chapter 13 verse seven and eight, first in the King, New King, in the King James. And then we'll read it in the NLT. Now I'm gonna go just really slow. Make sure you are with me on this. Verse seven: He says, render therefore to all their dues: tribute to whom tribute is due; custom to whom custom is due. Fear to whom fear, or reverence to whom reverence is due. Honor to whom honor. Owe no man anything but to love one another. For he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law.
Now, in the New Living Translation, it reads like this, verse seven: "Give to everyone what you owe them: Pay your taxes and government fees to those who collect them. Give respect and honor to those who are in authority. Owe nothing to anyone except for your obligation to love one another. If you love your neighbor, you will fulfill the requirements of God's law". This morning. I wanna I wanna talk to you about the debt that delivers from all debts. The debt that delivers from all debt. What does that mean? Oh boy, we're gonna have a journey today. First of all, debt is something old or something due. Debt is not limited to financial debts. You've heard in times in passing somebody might say you owe him a debt of an apology, you know, you owe him, you owe him an apology. Or in Colossians chapter two, in fact, turn there for a moment.
Colossians chapter 2:14 in the NSAB and the ESV, we're gonna read it out of both of those versions. Colossians 2:14, the NSAB. He says this: "Having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us", referring to Jesus, "which was hostile to us. And he has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross". So there was a debt cancellation of our sins. And the curse that would come on us because we couldn't keep the law and Jesus, canceled out that certificate of debt. May not have necessarily been finances. But then there's another debt that's dealt with. And then you read this in the ESV version, he says: "By canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross". Wow.
Now let's look at Romans 13:7 and 8 again in the NLT. And I'll begin this journey. Romans 13 verse 7 and 8 in the NLT. He says: "Give to everyone who you owe what you owe them". So, yeah, there's this natural part of it. "Give to everyone what you owe them. Pay your taxes," quit trying to, yeah, I ain't even got to say it, you know, pay your taxes, pay the government fees and to those who collect them and give respect. He says also you need to pay, you owe respect and honor to those who are in authority, whether you like them or not. You owe respect and honor to those who are in authority. I mean, so the guy that doesn't, if your guy doesn't win an election, you still owe honor and respect to the one who's in authority. Y'all don't hear what I'm saying. But that's, that's all I'm gonna say about that. Is it? So now notice right here, verse 8, "Owe nothing to anyone", watch this, "except for your obligation to love one another. Owe nothing to anyone except your obligation to love one another".
If you love your neighbor, you will fulfill the requirements of God's law. Now, in these verses, the apostle Paul transitions from discussing what is owed to human authorities, including respect and honor, and he transitions into what is owed to every human being. He goes from what you owe human authorities, and he makes this switch and he starts talking about what is it that you owe everybody. So there's a debt you have to every human, whether you like 'em or not. And somehow that debt is gonna be responsible for what happens to the rest of your debts if you need some anointing to deal with them. Follow me carefully. The command to owe no one anything should not necessarily be read as a command to Christians never to borrow money for any reason. He says, don't read it like that. This is not a command to Christians never to borrow money for any reason.
The sense that the Greeks had is this, that when they wrote this, that we should not let any debt remain outstanding. That we should not keep on owing anyone for anything. That can be understood as a requirement to always pay what you owe in a timely manner according to whatever agreement you have made with the lender. Or put another way, he is saying, do not live your lives in constant dependency, borrowing, and unreliability. Don't live your life this way. So yes, he is absolutely talking about some natural human things here on this planet and in our society. But you know about context, the truth of the matter is Paul is not primarily concerned with money here.
See, all the time I read Romans 13 and 8, I read it thinking that he was primarily concerned with your financial debt. There is something here so much bigger than your financial debt. There's a bigger, larger intent here. And Paul is not primarily concerned with the money here. As the following verses will show, he wants to talk about obligation as Jesus followers to love other people, including our neighbors. If you get a hold of the context, what he is saying here, I am more concerned about you who say you're born again, you who are followers of Jesus Christ. I am more concerned about you loving others, including your neighbor. He seems to say that loving others is a debt. That loving others is a debt that we will never pay off. Here's a debt that we'll never pay off because as long as you're alive and as long as somebody else is alive, you owe them. Everybody becomes a creditor. And you will owe them.
And we can't get past the love that we got with our family. I didn't mean to say that. Excuse me. It seems to imply loving others is a debt that we will never pay off. We will never be done with paying love to each other. Christ-like love will naturally motivate us to keep all of the other relationship commandments in the law. See, we've been worried about give me some more principles so I can keep all the relationship commandments and Christ-like love. If we pay this debt, it will position us to take care of all of the other debts. The only debt that we are to acquire is love. The only debt we are, we ought to acquire is this debt of love. Now, look at Romans chapter one, verse 14 to 15, Romans chapter one, verse 14 and 15.
Let's read this in two versions, in the King James and then the NLT. Paul is saying: "I am a debtor both to the Greeks and to the barbarians". Wow, from one pole to the next. "Both to the wise and to the unwise". Verse 15: "So as much as in me is, I am ready to preach the gospel to you that are at Rome also". What is he talking about? He's talking about a debt but not a financial one. Look at this in the NLT. He says: "For I have a great sense of obligation to people in both the civilized world and the rest of the world. I have an obligation to the educated and the uneducated alike. So I am eager to come to you in Rome also to preach the good news". So Paul was speaking about a debt. He felt in sharing with them the gospel of Christ because God had so blessed the apostle Paul above measure that he felt himself a debtor to the lost world.
Now, that's love. That's love. It was love that motivated him to say, I am a debtor to everybody who don't know and have heard this gospel of grace. It is a gospel debt that he's referring here in Romans. It is a debt of good news that he's referring here in Romans one. A debt that can only be paid by giving the gospel to others any way he can. So he said that is a debt that I have taken on, a gospel debt. I've got to preach it from the Greek to the barbarians, praise God. I got to get it to the wise and the unwise. He said there is nobody outside of this. I gotta get it to every human. And this is what Paul was also saying, with this debt of love is concerned. This debt of love, he says, has to be paid to humankind. People you don't like, people you can't stand, people you don't know, people you mad at, people who offended you.
You are in debt while you're alive to every human being. And you will not be able to pay this debt because it's gonna take the grace of God for you to make the payments. Because actually some of these people you owe love to, I'll get there a little bit later. When you have paid all of your other debts, okay? When you've paid off your taxes, when you've paid your customs, whatever else you may owe, there will still be one debt unpaid, that is the universal debt of love. Love must still remain the root and the spring of all of your actions. You don't need another law. There's no other law that's needed when you are paying this debt of love. And like I said a few minutes ago, without grace, this debt of love owed to mankind, think of that. You have, you owe mankind a debt of love, and it's gonna take grace to be able to pay it. You're not gonna pay it off, but you're gonna pay it while you're living.
You owe mankind. It just blew my mind. I owe mankind. I'm not talking about, I owe Master and Visa. I owe mankind. I realize that even if I pay all of my money debts off, I still have a debt that I owe to all mankind. I thought that this was just about giving you some formulas so you can pay your financial debt. But I'm gonna show you something a little greater. I'm gonna show you how to release the supernatural to come in to pay your debt, regardless of how much money you making per week. There is something about paying the debt of love that will release an anointing to take care of all of the other debts you have in your life. And not many Christian people have understood or tapped into this. Why would you make me indefinitely in debt to mankind? You know, you know, God's got something he working on. You know, God God, God understands this. God, God knows, bruh. And instead of you arguing about it, I don't know about paying no debt to everybody.
You might be stopping something up in your life. And I have been called here today to introduce to you to the most powerful anointing known to man, but it's not going to be made available until you understand that you have a debt to pay with all of mankind. Oh my goodness. Wow, without grace, this debt of love owed to mankind can't be consistently paid because every man is a creditor for the debt of love. Every man is a creditor for the debt of love. Every man, the one you ain't spoke to, the one you mad at, the one you said you never speak... Every man is a creditor of this debt of love. Now let me back up just for a moment until before I hit this thing, I discovered praying over this and studying this that there is a correlation between slavery and debt, slavery and debt. Now, this time I wanna read Romans chapter 13:7 through 8 out of The Message translation. And I wanna talk about slavery first and then bring it right on in here to debt.
Now some of y'all who are in debt and can't pay your bills, you don't need to be sleeping right now. Because I'm not screaming and whooping this out. I gotta teach this in you or all you're gonna get is the happy part and still walk away in debt. And then there's a powerful tool that's been given to you to use. Romans 13 in The Message. I'm gonna read verse 7 and 8. So I'll start right here in The Message, just continue on 7, 8 until I get all of it. He says: "That's also why you pay taxes, so that an orderly way of life can be maintained, fulfill your obligations as a citizen, pay your taxes, pay your bills, respect your leaders. Don't run up debts except for the huge debt of love you owe each other. When you love others, you complete what the law has been after all along. The law code, don't sleep with another person", and then it goes on da, da, da, da, da, da.
Now the Bible condemns forced slavery. I'll show you that in a minute. It condemns forced slavery. Men who would twist scriptures into saying that a man can treat another as property to be purchased. People that believe that are at best ignorant of what the Bible says or at worst, willingly prejudiced and full of hate if you believe that. Now, 1 Timothy chapter 1 and 10 talks about the law is still valid for sinners. And within that list, 1 Timothy chapter 1 and 10, it mentions this word men-stealers, men-stealers. He says: "For whoremongers, the law was still for whoremongers, for them that defile themselves with mankind, for menstealers". What is that? Menstealers? It's men who would steal away another man or woman or kidnap another man or woman or take another man or woman and then sell them into slavery. They are wicked sinners that do that. And the Old Testament condemns that.
Exodus, chapter 21 and 16. Go there in the King James. Exodus 21 and 16. The Old Testament condemned that. He says: "And he that steeleth a man and selleth him, or if he be found in his hands, he shall surely be put to death". So the Old Testament absolutely condemned that, that you can't take a man and sell him into slavery. Also in Deuteronomy 24 and 7. Deuteronomy 24 and 7. He says: "If a man be found stealing any of his brethren of the children of Israel and maketh merchandise of him or selleth him, then that thief shall die. And thou shall put evil away from among you". So yeah, we're thinking about slavery that black people suffered. But even today, if you take a child and sell it into sex slavery, the Bible condemns that and said that is so wicked that even under the law, he says, you ought to be put to death for doing something like that.