Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. (Romans 13:8, ESV)
Suddenly the PGA Tour is teeming with buddy golf.
Perhaps the move isn’t so sudden. Back in 2010, Ben Crane decided it was time to switch caddies. His choice? Good friend Joel Stock. Crane and his new man leaned on help from seasoned caddies like Paul Tesori to bring Stock up to speed, and Crane ended up with what he most wanted: someone who thought not only about golf like he did but about life, too.
Now if you look at the top 10 players in the world, you find friends and family on the bag. Five of these caddies weren’t tour caddies before taking these gigs. They might otherwise have no interest in caddying as a career.
The very word love often becomes a platitude in itself. But its expression in the real world is demanding.What does all this mean? Well, it’s not unique to say that long-term player-caddie relationships are like marriages. You endure thick and thin together—or double bogeys and double eagles. It means something powerful to undergo these times with someone who shares (or understands) your personality and perspective as much as yardages and green reads.
In correlation, I find it intriguing that Paul’s doctrine-dense letter to the Romans takes a strong and sure turn toward the practice of love. Nearly all of this apostle’s letters similarly move from questions of who we have become in Christ to how we live out this new identity before others. But in Romans that living out is very much about sharing life with those around us, both those who believe and those who do not.
Pastor Scott Sauls says it was Dr. Charles McGowan who taught him that doctrine is the skeleton of our faith. It provides the framework for every other part of the body, right to what we see on the outside. But, Sauls writes in his book Befriend, “If [doctrine is] the only thing visible about our Christianity, it means that our Christianity is malnourished or dead.”
What is visible, then, is the practice of our faith.
And the chief practice of the men and women of Jesus is love. At least it is supposed to be.
So that’s where Paul’s words to the Romans turned. It was as if he put a stop sign at the end of what has since been marked chapter 11. “That’s enough of that,” we might insert as subtext. “Now let’s get to the way you express this salvation in Jesus. You do it with love.”
Of course, the very word love often becomes a platitude in itself. But its expression in the real world is demanding, because people are involved and their needs come with every imaginable nuance. Paul’s master thought to Romans covers all that: “Owe no one anything but love.” Pay that debt—any time, all the time. This is the righteousness of Christ delivered in both meat and bones.
—
Jeff Hopper
September 26, 2017
Copyright 2017 Links Players International
The Links Daily Devotional appears Monday-Friday at www.linksplayers.com.