Debt, the Bible and You

January 15, 2012

It started simply enough. Mary had been raised in a poor family with a mother who never had time for her and a father who worked two jobs and was rarely home. While she put herself through college she met Mark, a pre-med student, and fell head over heels in love. They were married after graduation and even though they didnt have a lot of money, they got along famously. Living fugally and simply while Mark was in medical school was easy. Mary had grown up making do with what they had and as much as she loved Mark, she knew that she could live through Marks absence so that they could get to the goal that they both wanted. When Mark graduated from medical school they both celebrated. They thought that things would be dramatically different. Mark was inclined to be a workaholic and so even though the long hours of school and internship and residency were behind him, he continued to work 70 and 80 hours each week. Mary was ecstatic that the hard days of no money were behind them and she set out to buy for herself, for Mark, and for their new baby, all the things that her family could never have had while she was growing up. Marys sadness came from seeing Mark continue to spend all of his waking hours at the hospital and not at home with her and the baby. Since she had grown up with an absent father, she had always dreamed that Mark would spend time at home. Just as Mark began to feel tired and worn out from his hectic schedule, he began to worry about the debts that he and Mary were accumulating. It began to seem as if Mary was more in love with the house and the car and the baby than she was with him. They began to fight about how much they were spending and how much time Mark spent at work. After all they had been through they began to consider divorce, not because they didnt love each other, but because they simply couldnt get along anymore. While our story this morning is fictional it includes elements of several true stories. In fact, according to a 2004 survey conducted by SmartMoney Magazine and Redbook Magazine, money is the number one thing that married couples argue about spending is number two. Disagreements about money, spending, and debt are a leading cause of divorce in the United States. Worse, the divorce rate for Christian, churchgoing, married couples is almost identical to their secular counterparts and there is no reason to believe that the root causes of their conflicts are different. The reason we wrestle with Christian divorce is that the Bible has a lot to say about marriage, debt and spending. If the church were teaching the things that are contained in scripture, one would expect that Christian couples would be equipped to understand and better able to handle their financial situations. Sadly, in many cases the church has not been teaching these important principles and in even more cases, our members have listened, not to the teaching of scripture but instead to the clamor of our culture that calls us to spend all we can, to buy all the things we deserve, and that using and accumulating debt is perfectly normal and acceptable behavior. In scripture we find that Gods position is fair. If you buy something, you are expected to pay for it. If you have a disagreement over a transaction, whether buying or selling, Jesus has some advice. In Matthew 5:25-26, he says
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"Settle matters quickly with your adversary who is taking you to court. Do it while you are still with him on the way, or he may hand you over to the judge, and the judge may hand you over to the officer, and you may be thrown into prison. 26I tell you the truth, you will not get out until you have paid the last penny. Jesus expects that if you have agreed to pay for something, you will actually pay for it. To buy and not pay is theft. In scripture there is no allowance for bankruptcy. Someone who was unable to pay would be hauled into the town square and sold into slavery, perhaps with his wife and family, in order to pay the debt 1

that was owed. Even if the laws of the United States of America allow a person to escape the debt that is crushing them through bankruptcy, Gods standards of fairness dictates that if you have agreed to pay for an item and have received that item from the seller, then you are obligated to pay regardless of what the Judge, the court, or the American legal system has to say. Psalm 37:21 speaks plainly and says, 21The wicked borrow and do not repay, but the righteous give generously. Simply put, to borrow and not repay is wickedness. Debt is not new. People have been borrowing from one another since before the invention of money. Debt and borrowing were alive and well in the times of both the Old and the New Testaments. There are many passages in scripture that speak specifically about debt but it is important to note that in every single one, debt is a bad thing. The people of God are warned against going into debt, cautioned about the principles of debt and prohibited from charging interest (particularly between Christian brothers). There is not one single case in which debt is cast in a positive light. The clear principle is that debt should be avoided whenever possible and while debt may occasionally be necessary, borrowing should always be entered into cautiously, one should borrow as little as possible, and the loan paid off as quickly as possible. In fact, in scripture, if a debt could not be repaid within six or seven years, then the money should not be borrowed at all. In Romans 13:8, Paul says, 8Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for he who loves his fellowman has fulfilled the law. There are several reasons for this condemnation of debt and the most basic is found in the Wisdom of Proverbs 22:7.
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The rich rule over the poor, and the borrower is servant to the lender.

Whenever you borrow, you give the lender power over you. Even if you owe your parents money, they have influence over many of your financial decisions and you will even feel influenced over things like Christmas presents and invitations to dinner. If you owe the bank for your mortgage, your car, or for you credit cards, you are obligated to do what is necessary to repay them even if that means you have to work Sundays, take on a second job, or give the bank money that you had intended to give to your church, to missions, or to help a friend or a neighbor who is in trouble. When you borrow, you give away your freedom and compromise what God wants for your life. In Mark 10:17-31 a rich young ruler asks Jesus what he must do to inherit eternal life and Jesus tells him to "Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me." 22 At this the man's face fell. He went away sad, because he had great wealth. Then Jesus told his disciples that It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God." 26 The disciples were even more amazed, and said to each other, "Who then can be saved?" 27 Jesus looked at them and said, "With man this is impossible, but not with God; all things are possible with God." The disciples were distressed because they had given up everything to follow Jesus but Gods concern is not with the money, not with yours and not with the money that belonged to this rich young man. Gods concern is with the heart and with your attitude toward money. This is the only time in scripture that Jesus asks anyone to give everything. The reason isnt that rich people are unable to get into heaven, but that the young man was not being truthful when he said he had kept the 2

commandments. The commandments say, Do not covet, and There shall be no other gods before me, but this young man coveted money and loved his money more than God. Jesus point is that the more money that we have, the easier it is for us to forget that we depend upon God and we begin to put our faith in money instead. It is probably not a coincidence that this passage comes only a few verses after Jesus teaching on divorce. All too often, the root cause of stress and strain on a marriage is money because one or more of the partners has forgotten (or has chosen to ignore) Gods teaching on money, on attitudes and on priorities. In Luke 12:15, we hear Jesus saying, "Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a man's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions." We arent the first generation to get hung up on accumulating stuff or enamored of people who can do things for us or who can give us more stuff. After Jesus fed the five thousand in the wilderness, he went to the other side of the lake but people heard, or guessed, where he was heading and followed him. In John 6:25-27, we find this story:
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When they found him on the other side of the lake, they asked him, "Rabbi, when did you get here?"

Jesus answered, "I tell you the truth, you are looking for me, not because you saw miraculous signs but because you ate the loaves and had your fill. 27Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. On him God the Father has placed his seal of approval." The people following Jesus came because they thought that he could give them food. Even today we wonder how many people are following Jesus because of what they think he can give them materially. Jesus point is that we should be following him and working for God, not so he can give us material blessings like good jobs, nice cars and a house in a good neighborhood, but simply because we love him. One reason that debt is so soundly, reliably and consistently preached against in scripture is precisely related to our heart condition. God has taught us to be content with what we have been given and asks us to rely upon him for the things that we need. Whenever we borrow money that we dont have, we are increasing our self-reliance (and depending on the bank) and trusting God less. Many (if not all) of the Christian finance writers strongly recommend that a family keep a budget in order to control our natural impulses. Most of us cringe when we say the word budget, but there are some very good tools available, particularly from Larry Burkett, Howard Dayton, Ron Blue and, of course, Dave Ramsey. People sometimes think that budgets are too restrictive, but knowing where you money is going and knowing for certain whether you can afford something before you buy it is freeing. In contrast, buying something only to discover later, when the credit card bill arrives, that you really couldnt afford it is not helpful and enslaves you, takes away your freedom, and reduces your ability to do things for the kingdom of God. Patti and I have been using budgeting software to manage our finances for many years. While we could do better and we do not keep a specific budget we do track where our money goes and we are careful how we spend our money. We are aware, each month, of how much we have and we plan our spending. While we use credit cards as a convenience, we have not carried a balance or paid interest on our credit cards in nearly 20 years. Being in control of your finances, your saving, spending, borrowing and use of credit is a critical factor in your ability to survive hard times. If Patti and I had owed a lot of money to the credit card companies, held loans for our automobiles and did not have accumulated savings to fall back on, there is no way that we could have ever survived two years of unemployment or found a way to live on a fifty percent cut in pay while paying bills for graduate school. It isnt magic, we still have challenges that we need to 3

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face, but we stand as witnesses when we say that good financial management has been critical to our survival and has made it possible for us to serve God. Once again, God is calling his people out of bondage but this time we are not slaves in Egypt, but have enslaved ourselves to debt and our desire for more. In Luke 14:28-30, Jesus says, Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Wont you first sit down and estimate the cost to see if you have enough money to complete it? 29 For if you lay the foundation and are not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule you, 30 saying, This person began to build and wasnt able to finish. Jesus calls us to use the gifts that he has given to us with wisdom and intelligence and to plan ahead as we build his church and as we build healthy families. I hope that you will join us as we come alongside those among us who are earnestly seeking to escape their bondage and slavery to debt and find freedom in the words and teaching of Jesus Christ.

You have been reading a message presented at Barnesville First United Methodist Church on the date noted at the top of the first page. Rev. John Partridge is the pastor of Barnesville First. Duplication of this message is a part of our Media ministry, if you have received a blessing in this way, we would love to hear from you. Letters and donations in support of the Media ministry or any of our other projects may be sent to Barnesville First UMC at 123 W. Church St., Barnesville, OH 43713. These messages are available to any interested persons regardless of membership. You may subscribe to these messages, in print or electronic formats, by writing to the address noted, or by contacting us at [email protected]. If you have questions, you can ask them in our discussion forum on Facebook (search for Pastor John Online). These messages can also be found online at http://www.scribd.com/Pastor John Partridge. All Scripture references are from the New International Version unless otherwise noted.