Lending and Expecting no Repayment (3)

I wrote an answer in the last two issues of the News to a question concerning borrowing and lending. The question was particularly directed to Luke 6:31-36, especially verse 35. The reader has responded to that article with some additional observations, which, while not exactly questions, are nevertheless of sufficient importance to include in this issue of the News.

He wrote about a man who lends money to another, but who does so without expecting repayment. The reader believes that the lender ought also to inform the borrower that he does not expect repayment. With this I agree.

Furthermore, the reader observes that "a Christian is obliged to pay back a loan or debt." With this I am also in complete agreement. Scripture emphatically lays down the obligation: "Owe no man anything, but to love one another: for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law" (Rom. 13:8). This text lays down a fundamental principle governing the Christian’s life. Scripture obligates us to pay back our debts. Not to do this is sinful. Even a man who declares bankruptcy may not use the laws governing bankruptcy to escape his debts. The only debt we owe to others (and it is a debt we owe continuously) is to love one another.

On the one hand, therefore, the lender may not require repayment; on the other hand, the borrower must repay. In the church, these things work out well—or at least ought to work themselves out without any problem. But in the world it is quite a different story. I mention this because the Christian, if he lends money to an unbeliever, must not even then expect repayment, while the wicked person is still under divine obligation to repay the loan, whether he does so or not.

Another important point enters here. The reader observed correctly that the matter of lending in Luke 6 is discussed in a larger context that includes verses 31-36. Here we are called to love our neighbours and to do so even if they are our enemies. I have discussed this obligation of the Christian various times in earlier News, and will not do so now. Here I want only to remind our readers that to love our neighbour, while it requires that we do good to them in all their needs, fundamentally requires of us that we seek their salvation. That means that we give anything our neighbour needs without hesitation, but in the name of Christ. That is, we tell our neighbours that they are obligated to repent of their sins and believe in Christ; and that we give them what they need because God has given us, undeserving sinners, far more than we ask or think.

The observation of the reader that "it seems that the more money people have the more likely they are not to want to fulfil the obligations of this verse [Luke 6:35]" is true. I know some saints in Myanmar who belong to a congregation in the Yangon area. This is in the region hit by Cyclone Nargis (2 May, 2008) and three families of the church lost everything they had, while others suffered losses as well, but not as serious. It must be understood that these people who lost all their possessions had nothing much to begin with: a bamboo shack, a couple of pieces of furniture—usually nothing more than boxes—and only enough food to last them, at a near starvation level, for one day. When telephone contact was made, the question was put to their pastor: What are your most urgent needs? His answer was that the whole congregation was sharing what they had with all the others, and that, at least for the present, they were getting by. So, he concluded, they had no immediate needs.

It is a strange and inexplicable perversion in our thinking and acting that the less we have, the more generous we are; while the more we have, the more we want and the greater is our reluctance to share what we have with others. This is a cruel manifestation of our remaining sin. One would think, looking at the matter objectively, that the situation would be just the other way around.

It is, however, true that riches are a deadly trap. One need only read I Timothy 6:6-10 to be shaken in one’s deepest being by our abundance of earthly things. We ought to understand, I think, that we are "rich" when we have more than we need for the day. We are commanded to pray each day for our daily bread. My father used to tell us when we were children at home, "You must pray for your daily bread, but you may not pray for peanut butter on it. If the Lord gives you peanut butter, then be thankful, but you must limit your prayer to bread." He made his point. Anything more than what we may ask for is "riches."

It is not a sin in itself to have an abundance of earthly things. These things are gifts of God, the overflowing fountain of all good. They are to be enjoyed as His gifts, and not to be despised with some sort of "holy" disdain, for they are to be sanctified by the Word of God and prayer (I Tim. 4:4-5).

These gifts of God are never "ours" to do with as we please, for we are only stewards and "The earth is the Lord’s, and the fulness thereof" (Ps. 24:1). They are all to be used to glorify Him and as means by which we serve Him. The principle of the kingdom of heaven is: "seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness" (Matt. 6:33). The word "first" here is not to be interpreted as number 1 in a long list of things we seek; Jesus means "first" as a fundamental principle of our lives, which governs and controls all we do.

Nor is it unworthy of our notice that the Lord speaks these words in connection with our calling not to worry about what we shall eat or what we shall drink or wherewithal we shall be clothed. Wicked people seek these things. Our heavenly Father knows what we need and is able to supply our every need (25-34).

We will, I am sure, object that the stringent demands of the kingdom are impossible to observe. We can coast along in our own "ordinary" way. But: 1) The Lord commands us to do these things. 2) We are citizens of the kingdom of heaven and we have the grace to be obedient. 3) Riches are a snare, and when they are such: "go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come and follow me" (Matt. 19:21).