TO BORROW OR NOT TO BORROW.  That is the (steward’s) question.

Thank goodness credit is so plentiful, so available and so easy to obtain.  God is soooooooooooooooooooooooooooo lucky, fortunate, blessed, etc. that we are able to borrow so much money to fulfill our management responsibilities for Him.  Just think of all the churches, pastoral staffs, para-church organizations, missionaries, mission organizations, good works, benevolence, philanthropic activities that wouldn’t exist if we couldn’t borrow all the money we have borrowed.  Isn’t this just about the most wonderful, clever thing you have ever seen, that is, the way God has arranged to provide the funds-property-possessions-etc. He needs to accomplish His purpose/goal/objective?  And not only that, but at the same time He has fulfilled one of the reasons He sent Jesus.  You remember John10:10 don’t you, “I came that they might have life, and might have it abundantly”.  Credit provides us with the opportunity to live the abundant life right here and now.  We don’t have to wait till we have the money saved, or till we get a better job, or till we get another job, or till we win the lottery, or till we receive our inheritance from our rich “uncle Frank”.  And at the same time, God also gets all the money He needs.  PTL???

ENOUGH SILLINESS

Actually the Bible does talk quite a bit about borrowing and often in a rather matter-of-fact way (Matt 5:42, Prov 22:7, 2Kings 4:3, 2Kings 6:5).  Interestingly, God promised to bless the nation Israel so much that they would not need to borrow but would be able to lend to many nations.  (Deut 15:6 and Deut 28:12)  And, although the NASB translates Rom 13:8 “Owe nothing to anyone…..”, that isn’t the whole story.  TLB and NIV translate that verse “Pay all your debts…..” and “Let no debt remain outstanding…..”.  Furthermore, not that commentaries are the “be-all/end-all”, but all those I have been reading agree that the context (verses 1-8) here is respect for (governmental) authority.

In my search to document what the Bible says about borrowing, I can find only two hard and fast rules.  #1.  You have to pay it back in a timely manner (no late payments Prov 3:27-28 and Eccl 5:4-5).  In fact, those who don’t pay back what they borrow are referred to as wicked (Ps 37:21).   #2.  Don’t assume responsibility for someone else’s debt (no co-signing).  You are stupid if you do this and you will suffer for it (Prov 11:15 and Prov 17:18).  Don’t do it (Prov 22:26-27) but if you have already done it, try every way possible to get out of it (Prov 6:1-5).

Rule #2 is referred to in the Bible as becoming “surety” for another.  That is, guaranteeing another person’s debt.  The Federal Trade Commission reports that over half of those who co-sign and obligate themselves to pay another person’s debt actually do end up paying it.  That, of course, is a bummer and is usually somewhat stressful on relationships.  Various experts and authors on this subject point to James 4:13-17 which raises the question: How can we guarantee to cover for another person’s debt when we really don’t know what tomorrow holds?  Although the Bible doesn’t stretch this principle beyond surety, some of these experts say that we should apply the same principle to our own debt.  In other words, we should not borrow money unless there is an absolutely, positively, sure way to guarantee repayment.  To do otherwise, would be to “presume on the future” because just as it says in the James passage, we don’t know what tomorrow will bring.  It’s hard to argue too much (at all?) with that principle especially in view of Rule #1: You have to pay it back.  With one possible exception (mortgage insurance), there’s really only one way to do that.  If we can find a lender that is willing to collateralize the loan with just the item to be purchased with the borrowed money, then guaranteed repayment would be assured.  A loan of this type is what we call secured credit.  In other words, the loan is “secured” by the value of the item purchased with the borrowed money.  For example, I have a feeling my 17 year old lawn mower is going to die one of these days (probably this season).  Would you believe, it’s possible in this day and age to spend as much as $1000 on lawn mower that you walk behind.  If I borrowed $1000 with a secured/collateralized loan to buy such a lawn mower and stopped making the payments, the lender would simply come and get the lawn mower, sell it and pay off the loan.  The lender would not be able to take away any of my other assets (possessions) and sell them if the used lawn mower didn’t bring enough to pay off the loan.  Well, you can see right away why most lenders are unwilling to make secured loans of this nature.  They could require a down payment to provide a little more protection but what they really want is the freedom to come and take away any or all of my other assets and sell them to settle the debt if needed.

The only other kind of credit is what we call unsecured.  There’s no collateral for the lender to come and sell to pay off the loan if we stop making our payments.  Credit cards, store accounts, oil company cards, etc. are usually unsecured.  When we stop making payments on unsecured debt, the lender will send us reminders.  The lender may call to remind us.  The lender may hire a special company called a collection company and they will contact us to remind us to make our payments.  The lender may hire an attorney and sue us.  The lender may seek to garnish our wages where we work in order to force us to make our payments.  These are all rather unpleasant circumstances (see Matt 18:21-35 for some really unpleasant circumstances) and they will have an impact on our credit “rating”. 

Although the Bible doesn’t come right out and say not to borrow, there are several issues associated with borrowing that we should be aware of.  First of all, God doesn’t need to borrow money or need for us to borrow money for His benefit.  God owns all the money and He has provided and is providing for all of our needs by supplying us with enough money.  Our job as Christian stewards is to manage His money.  Managing His money is really rather easy.  All we have to do is make wise/smart use of it to accomplish His objectives.  If we can demonstrate, justify, and/or document that borrowing is wise/smart and will bring glory to God (His objective) fine.  I don’t see anything wrong with going right ahead and borrowing whatever the Lord counsels us to borrow.  If we do this however, it places us in an awkward position.  Prov 22:7 tells us that the borrower becomes the lender’s slave.  The problem or dilemma this places us in is that when we received Christ as our savior He became LORD AND MASTER of our lives.  If that weren’t enough, the real problem arises when we see that it’s not possible to serve two masters.  Matt 6:24 says “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will hold to one and despise the other.  You cannot serve God and mammon (money, wealth).” (NAS)

Oooops!!  Now what???  I think I just painted myself into a corner.  I’m a little convicted and I must confess that I’m guilty.  I have borrowed some money during my life.  I applied for and received a mortgage to buy a house in 1966 and several years ago I finally got it paid off.  I have borrowed money to buy several cars during my life.  Could I have saved enough money to buy a home for cash?  I don’t know but I do know it would have taken a long time.  Could I have saved enough money to buy a car?  Probably, and it’s probably possible even today.  Next time you buy a car (used never new), finance it for three years, but keep it for six years or longer (and take real good care of it).  When you get it paid off at the end of three years, keep making payments but put them into your savings account instead of sending them to the finance company.  At the end of six years you will have enough (or pretty close to enough) to buy your next (used) car for cash.  Try it, you’ll like it.  It really feels good not to be making car payments.  Another major area of borrowing for many people is that “required” to start a business.  Can one start a business without borrowing?  Sure!  Some people have done it.  It usually takes longer but I’m not sure it really matters when we consider things from God’s point of view.  We are only a dot on God’s time line even though 60-70-80-90 years seems like a long time to us.

In any event, almost everybody (including most of us Christian stewards/slaves/servants) has some money borrowed.  Some more than others.  All of the authors/experts I have read hesitate to say the Bible teaches that borrowing is wrong.  However, I’m not so sure but what I haven’t made a pretty good case for such a statement.  Therefore, I’m going to try and paint myself back out of the corner and justify at least some of the borrowing we have done or are currently doing. 

In this day and age, it’s really important to have a good credit rating.  The trend toward a paperless/cashless society has been going on for quite a while and seems to be picking up steam.  In order to function well and efficiently IN such a society (IN the world) we need to have credit readily available to us and with the best terms available.  The world measures how good our credit rating is by our credit score.  Back in the 1960’s a company by the name of Fair Isaac developed a formula for calculating what they called the FICO Credit Risk Score.  The data used to make the calculation are supplied by three credit reporting companies (Experian, Equifax and TransUnion).  FICO credit scores range between 300 and 850.  Low is bad.  High is good.  The median score in this country is around 723 and the average is around 766.  Lenders make their lending decisions based in part on our credit scores, high score, you get the loan, low score you may not.  They also determine what interest rate to charge, low score, high rate of interest, high score, lower rate.  Insurance companies can determine the level of premium to charge based in part on our credit scores.  Landlords may determine whether or not to rent to us based in part on our credit score.  Many employers (around 50%) base hiring decisions in part on credit scores.  Some universities are starting to base admission decisions in part on our credit scores.  Evidently credit scores have proven to be good predictors of our character? behavior? integrity? etc.  And best of all, credit scores can be obtained very quickly, for a small fee and without much manpower on the part of the user (lender, landlord, insurance company, etc.).  The moral of this story………  Make sure you have a high credit score.  Not to worry, here’s how: pay your bills on time, all the time (it accounts for 35% of your credit score).  Use less than 50% of the credit available to you (don’t max out your credit cards; keep the balances under 50% of the limits) because it accounts for 30% of the credit score.  Don’t close old accounts because length of credit history accounts for 15% of the credit score.  Don’t apply for a bunch of new credit cards; new credit accounts for 10% of the score.  Use a variety of types of credit to show some diversity in its use.  Diversity of credit accounts for 10% of the score.

What if my credit score stinks????  Again, not to worry.  You can fix it.  Go to annualcreditreport.com (or call 1-877-322-8228) and get a free copy of all your credit reports.  You can get a free copy from each of the reporting companies once a year (there may be a small fee to get your score).  Don’t go to freecreditreport.com (or similar) because the report is not free from those people.  What you want to find out is if there are any errors on your reports.  25% of all reports do have errors.  You can dispute any of the information on the report and if it proves to be inaccurate or out of date, it must be corrected or removed.  Then start paying your bills on time, all the time.  Stop using your credit cards and stop living beyond your means.  It will take awhile, but your score will improve.  And from here on out, follow these four simple rules and you won’t have any more credit card trouble.  #1. NEVER charge anything on your credit card you can’t pay off at the end of the month.  #2. ALWAYS pay off your credit cards at the end of the month.  #3. NEVER be late or miss a payment.  #4. ALWAYS borrow money for big ticket items from the bank/credit union with a collateralized loan.  Never charge big ticket items on your credit card (unless of course you can pay it off at the end of the month).

If you have been abusing your credit/borrowing privileges by living beyond your means, quit it.  If you aren’t already in trouble, you will eventually get there.  The WORLD wants you to get there because then you will be OF it and not just IN it.  Not only will it be personally painful but you will not be achieving God’s purpose for which you are managing His money/possessions/property, etc. 

I better quit before I dig this hole any deeper.  Let me just conclude by saying BORROW WISELY.  Take Randy Alcorn’s admonitions to heart.  It’s dangerous to borrow when we end up owing more than the stuff is worth that we bought with the credit.  It’s dangerous when it tempts us to violate our convictions.  It’s dangerous when it robs God to pay creditors.  It’s dangerous when it leaves us little or no freedom to respond to or act on the prompting of the Holy Spirit.  There are consequences: it tends to linger longer than we realize; it often causes worry and stress; it can bring on a state of denial; it may lead to dishonesty; it can be addictive; it is presumptuous; it can prevent God from getting our attention; it can prevent us from taking advantage of profitable investment opportunities; and finally to the extent that it doesn’t bring glory to God, it actually ties up resources and makes them unavailable for the kingdom.  Lastly, we forget that the amount we borrow is not the amount we actually have to pay back. And especially, we forget that this money isn’t really our money.  You don’t suppose this is some kind of test do you?

======================================================================

Matt 5:42 “Give to him who asks of you, and do not turn away from him who wants to borrow from you. NASB

Prov 22:7 The rich rules over the poor, And the borrower becomes the lender’s slave. NASB

2 Kings 4:3-4 Then he said, “Go, borrow vessels at large for yourself from all your neighbors, even empty vessels; do not get a few. NASB

2 Kings 6:5 But as one was felling a beam, the axe head fell into the water; and he cried out and said, “Alas, my master! For it was borrowed. NASB

John 10:10 “The thief comes only to steal, and kill, and destroy; I came that they might have life, and might have it abundantly. NASB

Rom 13:8  Owe nothing to anyone except to love one another; for he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law. NASB

Rom 13:8  Pay all your debts except the debt of love for others-never finish paying that! For if you love them, you will be obeying all of God’s laws, fulfilling all his requirements. TLB

Rom 13:8  Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for he who loves his fellowman has fulfilled the law. NIV

Deut 15:6  For the Lord your God shall bless you as He has promised you, and you will lend to many nations, but you will not borrow; and you will rule over many nations, but they will not rule over you. NASB

Deut 28:12  The Lord will open for you His good storehouse, the heavens, to give rain to your land in its season and to bless all the work of your hand; and you shall lend to many nations, but you shall not borrow. NASB

Prov 3:27-28  Do not withhold good from those to whom it is due, When it is in your power to do it. 28 Do not say to your neighbor, “Go, and come back, And tomorrow I will give it,” When you have it with you. NASB

Eccl 5:4-5  When you make a vow to God, do not be late in paying it, for He takes no delight in fools. Pay what you vow! 5 It is better that you should not vow than that you should vow and not pay. NASB

Ps 37:21  The wicked borrows and does not pay back, But the righteous is gracious and gives. NASB

Matt 18:21-35  Then Peter came and said to Him, “Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me and I forgive him? Up to seven times?” 22 Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven. 23 “For this reason the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a certain king who wished to settle accounts with his slaves. 24 “And when he had begun to settle them, there was brought to him one who owed him ten thousand talents. 25 “But since he did not have the means to repay, his lord commanded him to be sold, along with his wife and children and all that he had, and repayment to be made. 26 “The slave therefore falling down, prostrated himself before him, saying, ‘Have patience with me, and I will repay you everything.’ 27 “And the lord of that slave felt compassion and released him and forgave him the debt. 28 “But that slave went out and found one of his fellow slaves who owed him a hundred denarii; and he seized him and began to choke him, saying, ‘Pay back what you owe.’ 29 “So his fellow slave fell down and began to entreat him, saying, ‘Have patience with me and I will repay you.’ 30 “He was unwilling however, but went and threw him in prison until he should pay back what was owed. 31 “So when his fellow slaves saw what had happened, they were deeply grieved and came and reported to their lord all that had happened. 32 “Then summoning him, his lord said to him, ‘You wicked slave, I forgave you all that debt because you entreated me. 33 ‘Should you not also have had mercy on your fellow slave, even as I had mercy on you?’ 34 “And his lord, moved with anger, handed him over to the torturers until he should repay all that was owed him. 35 “So shall My heavenly Father also do to you, if each of you does not forgive his brother from your heart.” NASB

Prov 11:15  He who is surety for a stranger will surely suffer for it, But he who hates going surety is safe. NASB

Prov 17:18  A man lacking in sense pledges, And becomes surety in the presence of his neighbor. NASB

Prov 6:1-5  My son, if you have become surety for your neighbor, Have given a pledge for a stranger,

2 If you have been snared with the words of your mouth, Have been caught with the words of your mouth,

3 Do this then, my son, and deliver yourself; Since you have come into the hand of your neighbor, Go, humble yourself, and importune your neighbor.  4 Do not give sleep to your eyes, Nor slumber to your eyelids;  5 Deliver yourself like a gazelle from the hunter’s hand, And like a bird from the hand of the fowler. NASB

Prov 22:26  Do not be among those who give pledges, Among those who become sureties for debts. NASB

James 4:13-17  Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow, we shall go to such and such a city, and spend a year there and engage in business and make a profit.” 14 Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away. 15 Instead, you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we shall live and also do this or that.” 16 But as it is, you boast in your arrogance; all such boasting is evil. 17 Therefore, to one who knows the right thing to do, and does not do it, to him it is sin. NASB