Borrowing and Lending: One Sounds Better than the Other

It sounds different to say “I pay my credit card balance off every month” then to say “I borrow money from Mastercard/Visa every month and pay the debt off just before the lender imposes the penalty of interest.”

But that’s what it is.

We have this language that we use in our world to make things that we haven’t thought about or thought through sound more sophisticated than they may well be.

In the Bible, we see that the borrower is servant to the lender: Proverbs 22:7, and yet are surprised when we “learn” that there are prepayment penalties on a mortgage, or that we’re only able to pay off a certain amount of mortgage every year, while we use their money to pay for “our house”, or when the bank exercises foreclosure, overdraft or non-sufficient fund penalties. This is the trip we signed up for, in writing between “us” and “them” - the lender holds all the cards.

What about when we co-sign? That’s not a modern idea either (Proverbs 6:1–7).

The reason that co-signing takes place is because every piece of data that the bank collects (banks are experts in lending) point to the person you’re co-signing for not paying the bank back. If the bank doesn’t have an appetite for this risk, there’s a good reason that you shouldn’t either. But folks co-sign for their loved ones every day. It’s a place logic wouldn’t take us to, but we do it anyways.

We don’t budget, and then we’re surprised when there’s more month than money, or that our project costs have overrun what we had in mind (Luke 14:28).

When we borrow, we presume on future income (James 4:13-16), and only God knows the future. Debt is a thief, but seen as normal; be weird.

In the Bible, God makes no mention of the upsides of debt nor does He borrow anything to accomplish His works. It’s not there in the 2000 + verses relating to money and material things.

I challenge everyone to really slow down and look at their decision making processes - are you confident with the moves you make, or have you been sold?

If you've been sold, are you confident that you like where you're going?