Debt Forever

I find it a really boring cliche when someone starts an article by beginning with the definition of a word.  You typically see it like this:

              Word--noun. 1. Blah blah blah blah, etc.

The writer then uses that as a springboard to begin discussing something related to that word.  Another similar method writers use is to begin with "Webster's Dictionary defines..."  Using either of these devices is to me a very unoriginal way to start off an essay, and the practice seems to begin in junior high school.

However, I do find the etymology of words interesting and I think it is very important to use words precisely.  In an effort to develop this post, I thought I would look up "gratitude" in the dictionary.  I went to three different dictionaries and kept finding "thankfulness."  When I looked up "thankfulness" I was told that meant "gratitude."  I kept researching to find some way out of this conundrum when I finally found a dictionary that offered an alternative meaning to "thankfulness" and that was "appreciative."  Then when I looked up "appreciative" they said that meant full of "gratitude."  So this really got me nowhere. 

Looking up the etymology of appreciate helped; this comes from the Latin appretiare, which means "to set a price to."  So when someone does something good for us, we are aware of its value.  Furthermore, another word associated with appreciate and thankfulness was obliged, which means "to put in one's debt by a favor or service."  Part of gratitude or thankfulness means that we are aware of the gift, but there is something of a debt involved, and this often is nothing more than taking that sense of gratitude and expressing it as thanks to the person who gifted us.  We owe the giver, in a sense.

So, in a situation where somebody gives us something as an act of generosity or charity, it results in gratitude, which often carries with it some form of a sense of debt.  And when God blesses us, we feel a sense of thankfulness, and we are aware that we owe him thanks. 

Yet when we feel entitled to something, somebody owes us.  It would seem to be human nature that we would prefer to be in a situation where someone owes us rather than we owe somebody else.  I would suggest that there has been a huge shift in our society in our way of thinking about these things over the last century.  People do not want to rely on charity or the good will of others, for that obliges them to be thankful.  They would much prefer to rely on an entitlement, for that means that someone else is indebted to them.  For many, this has resulted in the state providing entitlements, very much a twentieth-century development in our country, as opposed to individuals, families, and religious organizations providing for other's needs.  It is much more preferable to receive that to which you are entitled, than to pray for God's blessings and be indebted to Him or to the kindness of others. 

Nowadays, when we incur debts, we are bombarded by advertisements that tell us that we do not need to pay them.  It is our "right" to demand smaller settlements or reduced payments.  But if you stop to think about it, when a debt is incurred, somebody has to pay for it.  For example, if you owe a home mortgage and undergo a foreclosure, the first obvious fact is that the bank paid for the debt.  But a loss for the bank may mean lower salaries for its employees, or lower payments to its investors, or perhaps higher borrowing costs for the next family that wants to take out a mortgage.  If the bank goes under because of a lot of these losses, and the government steps in, then the taxpayers are stuck with the debt. 

It goes the same way with our standing before the Lord.  Romans 6:23 tells us plainly that, "For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord."  As sinners, we create a debt, and the price of sin is death.  Somebody has to pay that debt, and for Christians that person is Jesus.  We are then indebted to God for the gift of eternal life because of the gift of His Son to us.  Many people in this world cannot stand the idea of being indebted to God, and think of Heaven as something that is owed to them because of the works they have done.  They say to themselves, "I am going to Heaven because I have done good things and am a good person."  They do not have a sense of gratitude but a sense of entitlement. 

Once the Christian understands their fallenness, their sinfulness, and the fact that there is no way they could pay that debt, and that Someone else paid it for them, then they can only feel gratitude.  I believe the growing sense of entitlement in our society at large has led us away from gratefulness, and that has led to a parallel lack of interest in a God to whom everything is owed.  One day, "at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the Glory of the Father (Phil 2:10-11).  Then those who did not want to owe God anything will pay the eternal price, and they will realize that they could have had their debt paid, free for the asking.