January 31 – Bound By Debt (Proverbs 22:7; Romans 13:8)

“The rich rule over the poor, and the borrower is servant to the lender.” (Proverbs 22:7)

IN WORD:
A recent survey indicated that the bulk of debt in the U.S. is credit card debt. That is one of many signs that modern societies, particularly in the Western Hemisphere, are driven to acquire at all costs. We accumulate the stuff of our material world at alarming rates. One of the prevailing shortfalls of our generation is that we are always “spending” more than we earn. We are called “consumers” because we consume — a lot.
Biblical wisdom orders us to be extremely careful with our indebtedness. Why? Because “the borrower is servant to the lender.” We are held captive — or at least restrained — by the debts we are obligated to pay. When those debts mount, we are limited in our choices. If God tells us to pick up & move somewhere else, we may not be in a position to do so. If He tells us to embark on a different career path, we may not have the resources. We put ourselves in a position to limit His work in our lives.
We are bound by the laws of our government and by the morals of our faith to pay what we’ve promised to pay. God would have us do that faithfully and zealously. But He would prefer that we never find ourselves in such a limited position. When we do, we may have made some inaccurate assumptions. We have assumed that tomorrow’s income will be at least as high as today’s, if not higher. We’ve tried to lock God into His bounty as though it were our right to receive rather than His right to give. We assume too much about tomorrow.

IN DEED:
The Bible does not absolutely forbid indebtedness. Each believer must determine as a matter of conscience and of the Spirit who works within us which debts are scripturally sound and which ones are not. But we are given strong warnings. God wants His people to be free from the world and bound only to Him. We must be careful: We should serve others because we are called by His name, not because we are obligated by our frequent signatures.

“Are we as willing to go into debt for the work of God as we are for a vacation to Hawaii?” -Erwin Lutzer-