What is a biblical view of debt?

Hello, my name is Ron Blue. I’ve been helping people for almost 30 years now apply biblical wisdom to their life and their financial life. One of the biggest issues for everybody is the whole idea of debt. There are ministries that have risen up out of the debt question. I think there’s some misunderstandings, if you will, on debt. Now, debt is basically any money that you’ve borrowed; you’re in debt, you owe that money back.

I think that the biblical view of debt is this: borrowing is not a sin. There’s no place in the Bible that says that it’s a sin. However, it can be, many, many times, foolish. And everybody needs to recognize that the borrower is always the lender’s slave. In just the last few years we’ve seen that biblical principle fully understood in families, in businesses, on Wall Street and in our government, and that is that the borrower becomes the lender’s slave. It’s not wrong to borrow, but it’s not always wise to borrow.

I think two things about borrowing. Number one, debt – getting into debt, getting into a very unhealthy level of debt - is symptomatic of something else, and it’s only symptomatic. The problem is not the debt. The problem is why did I get into debt; how did I get into debt? You’ve got to solve the problem and not the symptom. Paying off your debt by debt consolidation or whatever is okay, but you’ve got to really solve the problem. Why did I get into this particular situation? And deal with that, and then develop your plan to repay the debt.

You just need to remember, bottom line is borrowing is not a sin, but it may be foolish. There are different kinds of borrowing. Some of them could be wise, but most of them are foolish to take on. It’s always better to be out of debt than in debt. That’s kind of the bottom line wisdom is: if I can be out of debt totally, I’m better off than I am in debt.

Click here for the January 15, 2010 Blog Entry