In my first installment of this series on "What the Bible Says About Debt" I referenced Proverbs 22:7 which tells us that "the borrower is servant to the lender". In other words, indebtedness makes you a slave to whomever you owe the money! It was my conviction, and it still is, that there is no such thing as "good debt". In our current economic crisis many people are finding out just how true this teaching is!
The first step to debt elimination is to have a right perspective about debt... it's never good. The second Biblical truth that really reinforces the first is found in Romans 13:8 and simply says "Owe no man". Are you starting to get the point that God wants us to understand about debt? Borrowing money makes us a slave and the way to avoid becoming a slave is to "owe no man". I don't know about you, but I find that verse pretty easy to understand and straitforward. There are plenty of folks in the financial world that will argue for the need to borrow money for nearly any reason and I will simply tell you that God does not agree with their philosopy.
There are very practical reasons why God gives this kind of advise in His Word. First of all, He loves you and doesn't want you to be enslaved for any reason especially financial debt. He cares about your emotional, spiritual and physical well being. The second reason is that God would like for you to be a lender not a borrower. In Exodus 22:25 God says "If you lend money to any of my people with you who is poor, you shall not be like a moneylender to him, and you shall not exact interest from him" ESV. God wants His people to behave just like He does, be a giver! When God gives He doesn't charge interest and He would like for us to be in a financial position to help others...interest free! Imagine the audacity of that instruction! We live in a day when it is nothing for a bank to exact 23 to 30 % interest on a credit line. It is highly likely that the reason you are reading this article is because you are struggling with debt. Because you have struggled with debt you have found it difficult to pay all your bills and nearly impossible to save money. The failure to save money has precluded any thought you might have had in the past about helping someone else in need. You couldn't help because you didn't have the money. The God of the universe is very generous giver. God so loved the world that He "gave" His only begotten son! He wants us to experience the joy of giving too.
If I can only make a few changes in your thinking then I believe there can be hope in your future. God says there is no "good debt". God says we should "owe no man". God says we should help other people out and when we lend them money we should charge no interest. These are just a few of the the things the Bible says about debt. In my next article I'll give you God's instructions about how to get out of your debt trap.