Scripture teaches that borrowing and lending are a natural part of life, but should be approached with caution and integrity. In Proverbs, warnings are given about the dangers of debt, with Proverbs 22:7 noting that the borrower becomes a servant to the lender. The Psalmist observes that the wicked borrow and do not repay, while the righteous show compassion and generosity, as seen in Psalms 37:21. Romans 13:8 encourages believers to owe nothing but love to one another, and Deuteronomy 23:19 prohibits charging interest to fellow Israelites, promoting a spirit of kindness and fairness in financial dealings.
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Be indebted to no one, except to one another in love. For he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law.
Do not be one who gives pledges, who puts up security for debts. If you have nothing with which to pay, why should your bed be taken from under you?
Do not charge your brother interest on money, food, or any other type of loan.
If anyone does not provide for his own, and especially his own household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.
But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them, expecting nothing in return. Then your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High; for He is kind to the ungrateful and wicked.
My son, if you have put up security for your neighbor, if you have struck hands in pledge with a stranger, if you have been trapped by the words of your lips, ensnared by the words of your mouth, then do this, my son, to free yourself, for you have fallen into your neighbor’s hands: Go, humble yourself, and press your plea with your neighbor. Allow no sleep to your eyes or slumber to your eyelids. Free yourself, like a gazelle from the hand of the hunter, like a bird from the snare of the fowler.
If you lend money to one of My people among you who is poor, you must not act as a creditor to him; you are not to charge him interest.
It is well with the man who is generous and lends freely, whose affairs are guided by justice.
If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a ringing gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have absolute faith so as to move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and exult in the surrender of my body, but have not love, I gain nothing. Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no account of wrongs. Love takes no pleasure in evil, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be restrained; where there is knowledge, it will be dismissed. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when the perfect comes, the partial passes away. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I set aside childish ways. Now we see but a dim reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. And now these three remain: faith, hope, and love; but the greatest of these is love.
Do not charge your brother interest on money, food, or any other type of loan. You may charge a foreigner interest, but not your brother, so that the LORD your God may bless you in everything to which you put your hand in the land that you are entering to possess.
He who increases his wealth by interest and usury lays it up for one who is kind to the poor.
Now if your countryman becomes destitute and cannot support himself among you, then you are to help him as you would a foreigner or stranger, so that he can continue to live among you. Do not take any interest or profit from him, but fear your God, that your countryman may live among you. You must not lend him your silver at interest or sell him your food for profit.