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The Danger of Debt
“The rich rules over the poor, and the borrower is the slave of the lender.” (Proverbs 22:7)
If you are in debt (other than the kinds of debt where you aren’t building equity – like a home mortgage), re-read the verse above and put your name in place of “the borrower.” How do you like that state of being? How do you like being a slave to the one who have allowed you to borrow money from them?
The Bible warns often about the danger of accruing debt (Ps 37:21; Prov 3:27-28; 22:7; Matt 5:25-26; 18:23-25; Luke 7:41-43; Rom 13:8). It seems foolish or – at the very least – to incur debt, unless you have the ability to pay it off very quicky.
Why?
Because debt follows you and gets bigger over time, whether you are using whatever you wanted when you went into debt.
Because debt brings stress into the home. Some handle financial challenges better than others. Some who accrue debt don’t think about money that much, but they may be married to someone who stresses often about money.
Because debt often brings more debt. How often does someone try to rationalize getting another credit card in order to pay off one that is maxed? Or “finance” that affluent dream vacation?
Because debt assumed we will always be able to afford the payments towards our debt. Just because someone makes $80,000 today doesn’t mean they will still be making that one year from now when they are still paying off that debt. That is the sin of presumption (Prov 27:1).
Because debt doesn’t allow us to be a financial blessing to others. Debt ties up monies that could be used to help a single mom buy groceries or provide a meal for a homeless man. Debt ties us monies that we might use to pay a tank of gas for someone who just lost their job.
As Randy Alcorn asks in an article on debt, “the basic question is this: Is the money I will be obligated to repay, and the bondage it will create, worth the value I’ll receive by getting the money or possessions now?”
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