"Love that Keeps No Score of Wrongs" - 11/05/25

Scripture
    “Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for whoever loves others has fulfilled the law.” — Romans 13:8 (NIV)

Reflection
In the hush of an autumn morning in Minot, when light filters softly through skeletal branches, there lies a gentle invitation into the truth of love's economy. The apostle's words come to rest in that quiet: "Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another…" (Romans 13:8). A debt. That word can feel heavy, as if love itself were a burden, yet here it is tenderly reframed. This is not a debt of obligation that binds in worry or fear. This is a freeing debt, a debt that opens us to the truth of our interwoven lives in Christ.

To owe nothing except love is to recognize that all other debts are settled in the fullness of grace. We do not owe if we love. Our failures, our missteps, our neglect of kindness are all absolved in the one who loved us first. In Korean, the word 은혜 (eun-hye, grace) holds this mystery: freely given, without calculation, without score. Perhaps the leaf drifting outside the window is similarly uncalculated. Its descent is a letting go, a surrender to wind and season. So our love, too, is called to a surrender: not a cold surrender of loss, but a warm yielding into connection.

The world counts debts. It tallies harm, measures justice, keeps ledger lines of transaction. But the gospel whispers a different way: love rich enough to fulfill the law, love that knows the neighbor as self, love that rises like morning light in darkness (Psalm 112:4-5).
In your daily devotion this morning, you may ask yourself: What debts do I carry? Not of money or obligation, but the silent hurts I count against others, the "I did this, you did that" ledger that lives under my breath. Here is the invitation: bring that ledger to the One who wrote our names in water and air, who bleached our records with mercy. Let the exquisite weight of knowing, "Whoever loves has fulfilled the law," settle in. Let it soften the fierce chords of judgment in the heart.

So breathe in. Exhale the small numbers you have kept. Breathe out into the wide open that is love's domain. The debt to love is the debt to freedom. The debt to love is the debt to community. The debt to love is the debt to Christ. Let it rest on you not as burden but as blessing.

In that spirit, carry the light of Psalm 112:4-5, that the righteous "dawns through the darkness, a light for the upright; he is gracious, merciful and just." Let grace dawn. Let mercy melt the hardness. Let justice not be the triumph of vengeance but the outflow of love.

And so in the whisper of this day, let the church of Vincent United Methodist Church, in Minot, in young families, in seniors, hear the free rhythm of debt-dismissed love. Let the rich simplicity of that debt to love carry you into the heart of God's wide home.


Prayer
Holy One, you call us to love without measure, free from ledger and tally. In your grace we find all our debts forgiven and undone. Breathe into us the quiet courage to love simply and fully, through small gestures, deep forgiveness, steady presence. Let our lives be the echo of your kindness in Minot and beyond. In the name of the One who fulfils the law in love, Amen.