On Prayer 28.5

But being in debt, one either pays the debt or withholds it; and it is possible in this life to pay, and possible also to withhold. And some owe no one anything; some, paying most, owe little; some, paying little, owe more; and perhaps there is one who pays nothing but owes everything. And the one who pays everything, so as to owe nothing, achieves this at some time, needing forgiveness for his former debts; and this forgiveness can reasonably be obtained by one who has striven from some point in time to become such that he owes nothing of what falls to him as unpaid. These lawless acts, imprinted on the ruling faculty, become “the bond against us” by which we shall be judged, like books written, so to speak, in the hand of all, which will be brought forward when “we shall all stand before the judgment seat” “of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or bad.” With reference to these debts it is also said in Proverbs: “Do not give yourself as surety, if you are ashamed before a face; for if he has nothing with which to repay, they will take the bed from under your ribs.”