Romans 13:6-10

⁶ For this reason you also pay taxes, because the authorities are God’s servants devoted to governing. ⁷ Pay everyone what you owe them: taxes to the ones you owe taxes, revenue to the ones you owe revenue, respect to the ones you owe respect, honor to the ones you owe honor. ⁸ Owe no one nothing, except to love one another, because the one who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law. ⁹ For the commandments, “Do not commit adultery, do not murder, do not steal, do not covet,” (and if there is any other commandment) are summed up in this, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” ¹⁰ Love does no wrong to a neighbor. Therefore love is the fullness of the law.

paying the bills

Paul’s counsel about debts becomes wonderfully concrete when viewed through the lens of ordinary life. The image of taking a stack of bills and turning them into a stack of paid obligations captures something deeply human: the satisfaction of clearing what is owed. Many can remember seasons when paying bills felt like a burden because the debts exceeded the resources. When that pressure lifts, the act of paying what is due becomes almost joyful. It reflects order, responsibility, and gratitude for God’s provision.

Paul urges the Roman believers to take that same posture toward every kind of obligation. They were not to run from their debts, even when those debts involved paying taxes to authorities who were corrupt, oppressive, or morally compromised. Rome was no model of justice, yet Paul still instructs believers to meet their civic obligations. Doing so was part of the basic goodness expected of citizens who belonged to a higher kingdom. It was a way of demonstrating integrity in a world that often lacked it.

But then Paul makes a striking shift. There is one debt, he says, that is never fully paid off—the ongoing obligation to love one’s neighbor. This is not a burden but a calling. Love is the bill that comes due every day, and every day believers are to pay it again. Unlike financial debts, this one is never meant to disappear. It is the continual expression of the life of Christ within His people.

Paul’s point is profound: if believers faithfully “pay” this debt of love, they will fulfill the entire law without even trying to keep track of commandments. Love does what the law requires. Love protects, honors, respects, forgives, and serves. Love refuses to harm a neighbor. Love seeks the good of others even when it costs something. When love is paid daily, the law is satisfied naturally, because love is the essence of God’s righteousness lived out in human relationships.

This transforms the Christian life from a checklist of duties into a rhythm of grace. Every day brings new opportunities to settle the debt of love—through kindness, patience, generosity, forgiveness, and compassion. It is a debt that never crushes, because it is sustained by the One who first loved us.

LORD, help us to pay our love bill every day.