Mar 20 - Romans 13:8a

Owe no one anything,

except to love one another

Romans 13:8a

^NRSV

 

There is a new and profound form of slavery in America. 

 

Are you a victim? Are you enslaved?

 

I’ll bet you are. As it says in Proverbs 22:7, “the borrower is slave to the lender.”

 

It is on the altar of immediate gratification that millions of Americans daily sacrifice future freedom and financial flexibility. We do it with borrowing and credit. Perhaps we can justify a mortgage as an investment. But car payments and credit card debt are chains and bondage. 

 

You know what they say about casinos, don’t you? The house always wins. 

 

Well, just as casinos stack the odds in their favor, so do banks and lenders ... and especially credit card companies. It’s a business. They’re in it to make money. And they’re very good at it. They’ve got clever gimmicks. “Zero down.” “Only $200 a month.” “Low introductory rates.” Easy credit is promoted as a service.

 

Lenders prey on pride, vanity, and mostly naïveté. And in the end, they create willing slaves of the materialistic, the impulsive, the unwise, and the desperate. 

 

Biblically, debt is not necessarily a sin. But it is constantly painted as unwise. And covetousness is part of the poisonous root that consistently trips us and causes us to fall into the pit of debt. 

 

For young married couples, many of us unconsciously expect to compete with our parent’s abundance immediately. We think that this is what adulthood and marriage is supposed to look like. And we forget that most of our parents struggled to make ends meet when they first began (and we forget that these early days of tiny apartments and Raman noodle suppers were some of the best days of their lives.)

 

Consciously or unconsciously, how many of the following motives drive you? We’re hooked by advertising. We’re tied to trends. We want to be entertained. We’re technologically addicted (an expensive habit). We compete with friends. We want comfort. We expect convenience. We want our parent’s standard of living at the start of our journey? (After all, that’s what we’re used to.)

 

Well ... guess what? All of those things cost money. Therefore, you must to decide whether you will exchange future freedom and financial flexibility for immediate gratification. Debt may be legal, but it’s still slavery. As it says in scripture, “Owe no one anything, except to love one another.”

 

Question: see below

 

In Christ’s Love,

a guy who’s allergic to chains

 

Question: How do you manage money?

 

·         A cash system is the best. Why? Because when you’re out, you’re out. You consider every purchase and your wallet literally tells you when you’re out.

 

·         A debit card is dangerous because it’s way too convenient! It’s too easy to just swipe a card and keep overspending our budget categories. Swiping is mindless and seems painless. And yes, a zero balance may eventually enforce an end to our spending, but until then, impulse buys are too easy.

 

·         And that’s why a credit card is infinitely more dangerous: Nothing says stop! We’re encouraged to keep spending and spending. But it’s nonsensical. We’re paying 5-20% more on every purchase. And the interest -- and the burden -- compounds monthly. We may have fun going down, but make no mistake, we’re falling into a painful hole. We’re enslaving our future.

 

·         By the way, car loans -- a common source of debt -- are financial suicide. Two-hundred-a-month sounds doable. You figure that that’s only about $2,500 per year. But after five years you’ve paid $12,500 (much of which is interest) on a $25,000 car that’s now worth only $7,500. That means, if you keep the car, you still owe them $12,500-$15,000 (depending on your interest rate. “Don’t worry,” says the car salesman, “We’ll help you out. We’ll give you another loan.” Monthly payments that you’re basically accustomed to sound much better than facing the debt. So now for the privilege of paying two-hundred-(plus)-a-month for ten total years, you now end up with another $7,500 used-vehicle, and you still owe the dealership about $30,000. (Remember: The house always wins. Which means the borrower always loses.)

 

·         FINALLY: If debt is unwise, unbiblical, and enslaving, are you willing to pledge to avoid debt (especially credit card debt and automotive debt too) and start living within your means. Why or why not?