The Bible and Debt

The bible always teaches us to be wary of debt. Our culture often promotes a view that buying now and paying later is normal. In a sense buying on credit is normal in our culture.

The issue of course is that something being normal does not equate to it being good. The bible teaches about being wary of debt because we are spending future income (which may or may not be what we expect) for present gratification.

Debt has destroyed the lives of many people. The bible does not ever absolutely condemn debt but asks us to think. It asks us to think if our inclinations of what we need and want are really so good for us.

The bible's teaching on debt, like many of the bible's teachings, are to protect our happiness. We have a tendency as fallen people to value pleasure in the moment far above the long term costs of our decisions. We often suffer from a shortsightedness which is why the bible teaches us to be wary of debt.

Choices and Their Implications

Often in life when we encounter deep problems there can be an easy short term path to avoid dealing with the problem and a longer path to solve the problem. We can often deal with the short term symptoms of the problem or the longer term causes.

Often as people we like to take the easy path. It is often easier to ignore this or that recurring issue with a relationship and patch it in this or that way than to seek a fundamentally better relationship.

Our sinful nature causes us to be shortsighted and we often do what is best for today, ignoring the longer term implications of things. Often we need prayer for how to go about our lives.

Being mindful of our tendency to live in the moment at the expense of the long term is important. Debt is a good example of this. Often it is easy to mindlessly acquire debt if we are not careful.

What feels good in the moment may be truly painful in the long term, but we often cannot see past the moment. It is why the bible often warns us to be very thoughtful about entering into debt.

There is never any absolute condemnation of debt in the bible but always a warning to consider that debt is non-ideal and to enter debt with caution. Debt is something to always consider with care and not to take casually.

It is ideal to consider the the short and long term consequences of choices. The short and long term result of choices can often be radically different.

Debt and the Bible

The bible always warns us to be thoughtful about going into debt. You see many people have very little thought of going into debt.

Our tendency as people is to see the short term and not the long term. What is good today is often not good tomorrow.

This is the danger of debt: it assumes to know the future. God does not absolutely condemn debt, but he warns us to be thoughtful of debt.

In a sense any contract is a debt. We often sign this or that contract thoughtlessly locking ourselves into long term obligations.

God calls us to trust him, but not presume on the future. Trusting God to provide for the debt we choose is not trusting God as much as presuming on the future.

Often there is a time and a place for debt. But the bible cautions us that debt is far more of a burden and danger than we have a tendency to assume.

Love as Debt

Romans 13:8 Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for whoever loves others has fulfilled the law.

I read a secular book recently that suggested that mutual indebtedness is what hold society together. At least in a secular sense this is true.

Our employer owes us a debt of pay and we owe a debt of service. The we are constantly exchanging debts. This money promise for this service, ect...

The bible has an other worldly suspicion of debt. It treats the topic of debt as something to be much more cautious of than the world sees debt.

The bible does not see debt to seek profit in the rosy eyes the world does. So when the bible suggest that there is a debt which is to be always outstanding we should take note.

You see it is in contrast to everything else in scripture. It has been placed in the light to show the importance.

Love is our outstanding debt. You see the importance of love is that it is to flow.

Often the issue in the church is that there are those who give and those who don't. You will find many churches where a handful of people really hold the whole church together.

The church struggles because there are those who love freely and those who just don't care to love. You see if is as if only a few pieces in the machine of the church have oil.

We wonder of the decline of church attendance as a percentage of the population and all we need to do is to see love. I am lucky to have been loved by a few members of the churches I have been in.

I say lucky because there are many members of the church who do not care to show love. In fact most members do not care to show love.

You see growing up in the church my whole life I was fortunate that a few members who really cared invested in my life. I could very well have fallen through the cracks. I ended up in the right small group - I was in a sense lucky.

You see God's hand is really behind all this "luck" and there it was really his will. But love is not flowing in the church.

And the reality is if a person enters the church for the first time it is really haphazard the response the will receive on who the meet. You see many of the best church members seem to wish to church hop.

I think this is in a sense that they feel weary because they give and give but so few people give. You see they are constantly loving but very few return the love.

The love of God needs to overflow into the world and the church needs to find love for its membership. Christians need to start loving each other because God has loved them.

You see we love because God has loved us and it is the overflow of joy in him which produces true fruit. The solution to the churches issues is really quit simple: the church need to find love. Getting there is hard, but what is needed is simple.