Bible Study January 27, 2025
I had the opportunity to have breakfast with a young man today who has his head on straight concerning the use of credit. We were talking about Dave Ramsey and we both are strong believers in the Ramsey Solution to debt management. The best way to manage debt is to completely avoid it. As we talked Proverbs 22:7 came to mind as he was talking. He asked me isn’t there a verse in the Bible about the borrower being slave to the lender? I decided this was a good topic to look into.
These verses are from Proverbs 22; I selected certain ones to point out.
“A good name is to be chosen rather than great riches, and favor is better than silver or gold. 2 The rich and the poor meet together; the Lord is the Maker of them all. 3 The prudent sees danger and hides himself, but the simple go on and suffer for it. 4 The reward for humility and fear of the Lord is riches and honor and life. 5 Thorns and snares are in the way of the crooked; whoever guards his soul will keep far from them. 6 Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it. 7 The rich rules over the poor, and the borrower is the slave of the lender. 8 Whoever sows injustice will reap calamity, and the rod of his fury will fail. 9 Whoever has a bountiful eye will be blessed, for he shares his bread with the poor.”
Debt is one thing that will destroy a marriage quicker than almost anything. It is right up there with the other two major issues in marriage children and sex. Those are topics for another day.
Being rich will not protect anyone from the snares of life. On the other hand a good name, a good reputation, honesty, and integrity are wonderful traits. Paying your bills could easily be added to this list.
I am certain many people would like to be more generous if they had more money because they would have less debt. Verse six tells us to start our children out with proper teaching and they will not forget it. We should not soft pedal the truth about anything which draws my attention to verse seven. “7 The rich rules over the poor, and the borrower is the slave of the lender.”
I realize the cost of living has been out of control and inflation has been extremely high my prayer is that it comes down and things become more affordable. Many people have had to even put groceries on a credit card. Children are taught to obey their parents unless that parent is leading the into disobedience (I am not sure why any parent would do that).
Unfortunately, many parents are not teaching their children about simple things like debt management and how to best use your money by being saving fifteen percent toward retirement, giving a tithe, and using the rest for your needs. I am not a proponent of the ten percent tithe we should give out of our heart not base it on a percentage.
When we do this then our children will not be a slave to the credit card company. I pulled this statistic off the internet by a simple search. “The interest rate on a (I will not name the company) credit card is a variable Annual Percentage Rate (APR) that can change based on the market and the Prime Rate. As of January 2025, the APR was 30.99.” There are others out there that are out of control.
To conclude my discussion with this young man today ended with him saying “I will not have any credit cards.” I applaud him for his decision.
Pray that God gives you financial wisdom.
Asbury Chapel 