Being in Debt, It Was Worse in the Old Days
Being in Debt, It Was Worse in the Old Days
Being in Debt, It Was Worse in the Old Days
The old laws for delinquent debts seem harsh and unnecessarily cruel to us today, and perhaps they were. But the principles behind them were sound and just. The laws assumed that nobody was forced to borrow money--that people borrowed money voluntarily. The lender extended honor (money), and the borrower represented himself as trustworthy. Thus the punishment for defaulting on a debt was actually more severe than for theft because it was considered a breech of trust.
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Some well-intentioned teachers have taken the position that all borrowing is prohibited according to God's Word and that, consequently, Christians should not be involved in any borrowing or lending. Almost without exception, the biblical reference such teachers use to support their position is Romans 13:8: "Owe nothing to anyone except to love one another; for he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law."
I wish it were that simple, but it isn't. When I first came across Romans 13:8 in my study on finances I thought, "Aha! Here is the justification for telling Christians to get rid of all credit, especially Christians who have misused it." But then I found myself in a quandary. If God, through the apostle Paul, intended to tell His people that all borrowing was prohibited, why are there New Testament Scriptures instructing men to repay what they borrow? That would be like prohibiting theft and then giving detailed instructions in how to invest stolen money. Obviously, that is ridiculous, which is why in the Bible you don't find principles regarding the handling of stolen goods.
Of course, God may have decided that it was time for His people to become totally debt-free, and thus in the New Testament changed the_rules that had previously held true concerning indebtedness. But only those two alternatives exist: either God changed the rules for His people and we had better get about the business of eliminating debt immediately, or Romans 13:8 does not mean that Christians should never borrow anything. So I did some evaluation of the passage in Romans. I'd like to share my conclusions, for I believe them to be accurate and confirmed by the preponderance of Scripture. You can read the same passages and make up your own mind. Just bear in mind that when I began my study I was looking for a justification of the teaching that all borrowing is unscriptural.
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