“...And the borrower becomes the lender’s slave.” (rf. Proverbs 22:7)
Whenever bad times occur, someone invariably will take advantage of another. The one with much will oppress the one with little. This is not a lesson in class warfare but rather in the politics of power. Therefore, he who has the ability to make or create the most money also has the wherewithal to become the most powerful as well as the most corrupt. This principle applies not only to individuals but also to organizations, industries, and governments. Those who borrow from them become servants to them and subject to their fiats.
As Solomon implies in the text, there are two avenues that one can take in order to avoid becoming ensnared by this scheme. First of all, one must avoid debt. We define debt as money borrowed to purchase an item or items that depreciate in value. This definition would, obviously, include computers, furniture, vehicles that far exceed reason, income and ability with which to pay, etc. Investments, such as education and homes, are not considered debts because their values only, or should, increase in time. The one qualifier to these items would be the advisement to only invest in that which you could legitimately afford to repay. (Note: One main reason for our current economic hardship is the ease with which too many people were qualified to get loans for homes and higher education who could not afford it and should not have ever been allowed to receive them.) Therefore, as long as the investment is wise and within reason, it is not a sin to put money into these efforts, since they will eventually prove to better one's life. Debt, however, only serves to drag down the borrower in the present and will be the "ball and chain" that may hold the person back from fulfilling one's goals and desires for the future.
Secondly, one must proactively spend and save wisely. Elsewhere in the Proverbs, Solomon tells the reader to take lessons from the ant, to note how the ant knows when to store up in times of plenty for the season of dearth. This is understanding. There is also wisdom in knowing when to spend as a nation so as to keep the economy going by making sure jobs are plentiful for those who can work. To listen to the harbingers of fear and doubt, and, thus, rein in one's spending is to thereby create exactly the downward spiral of economic hardship that everyone does not want to happen. It is a self-fulfilling prophecy! If, on the other hand, in the face of a downturn, people who did have the wherewithal to spend invested their monies in the marketplace, this would generate the necessary cashflow to turn things around, and, thus, insure that the downturn would be but a "bump" in the economic road of the nation.
This is an extension of the message in the allusion of Jesus' parable of the rich man and his barns (rf. Luke 12:16-21). Though the parable in context refers to the sin of greed and hoarding in the face of need, one can extrapolate that when one has the resources to be of a benefit to his fellow citizens and yet keeps it to oneself, it is a sin unto God and to one's fellow man. One should release those resources into the marketplace so that others can likewise gain the benefit of their blessings. I am not referring to Socialism or Communism where the society or the government becomes owner/controller over all of the resources. I am stating that when we in a free market economy withhold our resources from the economy for fear that we will have nothing at the end of the day, we will have nothing at the end of the day because we will have fulfilled our own prophecy. We all have to engage and invest in the process if the process has a chance to succeed for all of us.
The last thing that most of you expected was a lesson in economics when you opened this newsletter, much less from this section. However, it goes to show us all that God's Word is applicable and relevant to every area of life. The Scriptures are the foundation, not only of our faith, but also of our living from day to day. We need only to mine its depths to know how valuable its truths are to us...always.
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