Proverbs 22:7 and Romans 13:8 · Subject · Money and Want
The Borrower and the Lender
Scripture speaks of borrowing and lending in the law of Moses, the Psalms and Proverbs, the words of Jesus and the letter to the Romans.
A church council at Westminster in 1126 approved the degradation of every clergyman who lent money at usury.
The rich rule over the poor, and the borrower is slave to the lender.
- Books
- Proverbs, Romans
- Hold in memory
- Romans 13:8, Psalm 37:21
Summary
Scripture lets the needy borrow and calls the righteous to lend. The borrower is to repay what he owes, the lender is to deal with the poor without hardness, and neither is to bind himself as surety for more than he can pay. Paul gathers every debt under one rule, that the only debt left standing among believers is love.
- Proverbs 22:7 sets the borrower under the lender's power, and the proverbs warn against pledging security for another's debt (Proverbs 22:26 to 27).
- Psalm 37:21 calls the one who borrows and does not repay wicked, and Romans 13:7 commands believers to pay everyone what they owe.
- Jesus told His hearers to lend to the one who asks and to their enemies, with no hope of being repaid (Matthew 5:42; Luke 6:35).
- The church's teachers have differed on interest, from Ambrose, who called it the mark of a hard nature, to Calvin, who judged it by equity.
Owing and Lending in Scripture
Paul's command on debt follows his command to pay the governing authorities their due.
The borrower and the lender is a study of the practice of the trial of money and want. Debt presses on many households, and the study asks what Scripture gives a borrower, a lender and a surety to do, and how far the command of Romans 13:8 reaches.
It sets the texts on the loan in one table with their Berean words and reads the debts forgiven in the Gospels. It gives the Hebrew and Greek words of the loan and the law and the councils on interest. It weighs the readings of Romans 13:8 and of interest, each with its holders.
Pay everyone what you owe him: taxes to whom taxes are due, revenue to whom revenue is due, respect to whom respect is due, honor to whom honor is due. Be indebted to no one, except to one another in love. For he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law.Paul moves from the taxes and honor owed to rulers to every debt a believer carries.
Eleven Texts on Borrowing, Lending and Surety
The rows run in canon order, from Deuteronomy to Luke.
Scripture asks the borrower to repay, the surety to pledge with care, and the lender to lend freely.
| The text | The Berean words | What it asks | Of whom |
|---|---|---|---|
| Deuteronomy 15:6 | you will lend to many nations but borrow from none | Lending as the blessing on an obedient Israel | The nation |
| Deuteronomy 28:44 | He will lend to you, but you will not lend to him. | Borrowing from the foreigner as the curse on a disobedient Israel | The nation |
| Psalm 37:21 | The wicked borrow and do not repay, but the righteous are gracious and giving. | Repaying what is borrowed | The borrower |
| Psalm 37:26 | They are ever generous and quick to lend, and their children are a blessing. | Lending readily | The lender |
| Psalm 112:5 | It is well with the man who is generous and lends freely, whose affairs are guided by justice. | Lending freely and justly | The lender |
| Proverbs 6:1 to 3 | My son, if you have put up security for your neighbor ... Go, humble yourself, and press your plea with your neighbor. | Seeking release from a pledge at once | The surety |
| Proverbs 11:15 | He who puts up security for a stranger will surely suffer, but the one who hates indebtedness is secure. | Refusing to stand surety for a stranger | The surety |
| Proverbs 17:18 | A man lacking judgment strikes hands in pledge and puts up security for his neighbor. | Shunning the rash pledge | The surety |
| Proverbs 22:26 to 27 | 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? | Pledging no more than one can pay | The surety |
| Matthew 5:42 | Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you. | Lending to the one who asks | The lender |
| Luke 6:35 | But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them, expecting nothing in return. | Lending without hope of return | The lender |
Proverbs 11:15, Proverbs 17:18, Proverbs 22:26 to 27, Matthew 5:42, Luke 6:35
Debts Forgiven in the Gospels
Jesus used a debt and its release as a picture of sin and forgiveness.
The Lord's Prayer in Matthew asks, "And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors" (Matthew 6:12), and Luke's form of the prayer speaks of sins (Luke 11:4).
In Matthew 18:23 to 35 a king forgave a servant ten thousand talents, and that servant jailed a fellow servant over a hundred denarii. To Simon the Pharisee Jesus told of a moneylender who forgave two debtors of five hundred and of fifty denarii (Luke 7:41 to 42).
In both parables the creditor releases a debt that could not be paid, and Matthew 18:33 holds the released servant to the same mercy.
What Proverbs 22:7 Says
Proverbs 22:7 sets the lender over the borrower as it sets the rich over the poor.
The proverb names the loan as a form of rule, and 2 Kings 4:1 shows that rule at work in a widow's house.
Charles Spurgeon, in The Treasury of David (1870), gave his reason for the unpaid debt of Psalm 37:21: "Partly because he will not, but mainly because he cannot."
Adam Clarke, in his Commentary on the Bible (1832), asked of the surety in Proverbs 22:27, "Should any man give security for more than he is worth?"
Interest in the Law and the Councils
The law barred interest between Israelites, and the medieval church carried the ban into its councils.
Leviticus 25:36 forbids taking any interest or profit from a countryman who has become destitute. Deuteronomy 23:19 to 20 forbids charging a brother interest on any kind of loan and allows it from a foreigner.
Calvin Elliott, who wrote against all interest in 1902, held that the decisions of church councils against usury were "numerous and emphatic until the seventeenth century". He reported a council of 1311 that decreed punishment as a heretic for anyone who affirmed "that the taking of usury is not a sin".
The Words of the Loan
Hebrew names both parties of a loan with one verb, and Greek names the debt of Romans 13:8 with the common verb to owe.
Proverbs 22:7 names the borrower and the lender with one Hebrew verb, lavah. The borrower is its simple participle, loveh, and the lender its causative participle, malveh.
The surety of Proverbs 22:26 is arab, a verb meaning to pledge, found 22 times in the Hebrew Bible.
The verb of Romans 13:8 is opheilo, to owe, which stands in 34 verses of the New Testament, among them the debts of the parable in Matthew 18. Its form in Romans 13:8, opheilete, is a command in the present tense.
How Readers Weigh Romans 13:8 and Interest
Readers differ on what Romans 13:8 binds and on whether a Christian may take interest.
Romans 13:8 commands the payment of every debtJohn Gill; Charles Hodge
John Gill, in his Exposition of the New Testament, read the verse as "a general exhortation to discharge all sorts of debts". Jamieson, Fausset and Brown gave Charles Hodge's paraphrase, "Acquit yourselves of all obligations except love, which is a debt that must remain ever due".
Romans 13:8 bars a debt that injures the neighborAlbert Barnes
Albert Barnes, in his Notes, wrote that "The interpretation of this command is to be taken with this limitation, that we are not to be indebted to him so as to “injure” him".
Against this reading, the verse itself names no limit of harm.
The weight of the verse falls on the debt of loveJohn Chrysostom; John Wesley
John Chrysostom, in his twenty-third homily on Romans, wrote of the debt of love, "For he does not wish it ever to be paid off."
John Wesley, in his Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament (1755), called love "An eternal debt, which can never be sufficiently discharged".
Against this reading, the verse before it has just commanded the payment of taxes, revenue, respect and honor, so the money owed stays in view (Romans 13:7).
Every loan at interest is forbiddenAmbrose of Milan
Ambrose of Milan wrote in On the Duties of the Clergy, "It is a sign of a hard nature to extort more than one has given."
Against this reading, the master in the parable of the talents tells his servant that the money should have earned interest with the bankers (Matthew 25:27).
Interest is judged by equityJohn Calvin
John Calvin answered Claude de Sachins in a letter on usury in 1545. In Calvin Elliott's English, Calvin wrote, "I am certain that by no testimony of Scripture is usury wholly condemned."
He concluded that "usury must be judged, not by a particular passage of Scripture, but simply by the rules of equity".
Against this reading, Ezekiel 18:8 praises the man who "does not engage in usury or take excess interest" and names no exception for trade.
Help Beside Prayer
Scripture sends a household in debt to the help of others as well as to prayer.
Where a debt cannot be paid, the help of a church's deacons and of a qualified debt adviser belongs beside prayer. Where debt wears on the body or the mind, medical care belongs beside prayer as well.
The open hand of the lender belongs to the wider practice of generosity.
Sources
Scripture is the Berean Standard Bible.
- STEP Bible TBESH and TBESG lexicons and the TAHOT and TAGNT tagged texts (Tyndale House, CC BY 4.0)
- John Gill, Exposition of the New Testament (1746 to 1748), on Romans 13:8.
- Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832 to 1869), on Romans 13:8.
- Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset and David Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871), on Romans 13:8, quoting Charles Hodge.
- John Chrysostom, Homilies on Romans, Homily 23, on Romans 13:8.
- John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament (1755), on Romans 13:8.
- Charles Spurgeon, The Treasury of David, volume 2 (1870), on Psalm 37:21.
- Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible (1832), on Proverbs 22:27.
- Ambrose of Milan, On the Duties of the Clergy, book 3, chapter 3, section 20.
- Calvin Elliott, Usury: A Scriptural, Ethical and Economic View (Millersburg, Ohio: The Anti-Usury League, 1902), chapters X and XI, with Calvin's letter De Usuris Responsum in English.
- Martin Bernard, "Calvin légitimait le prêt à intérêt", Protestinfo, on Calvin's letter of 1545 to Claude de Sachins.
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