"Owe No Man Anything"
"Owe no one anything except to love one another, for he who loves another has fulfilled the law" (Rom. 13:8). This is one of the verses where the New International Version gives us a better understanding of the text. It says, "Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another..."
Christians are commanded to pay their bills! All of us can think of someone with a reputation for not paying their debts. What do you think of people like that? Would you be willing to loan them money?
While a young man, Abraham Lincoln went into business with William Berry. Months later, when Berry died, Lincoln was left with an enormous debt. Eventually he paid it all back, but it took him several years. This is one of the reasons he was referred to as "honest Abe".
Some years ago, Reader's Digest (June 1992) told of a ship builder named Walter Meloon who was forced into bankruptcy. It took a while, but Meloon paid back over $500,000, even though he was not legally bound to do so. I admire people like Lincoln and Meloon.
“Christians are commanded to pay their bills!”
"The Bankruptcy Code" in chapter 7, or liquidation cases, "the debtors property is sold off by a trustee to pay the debts owed to creditors. An individual debtor can keep a modest amount of household property or realty under federal or state exemptions" (The Academic American Encyclopedia). People today often carelessly spend money they do not have, and then go declare bankruptcy, without any thought of paying the money back.
When you go to the mall and sign your name on a credit slip, you are giving them your word the debt will be paid. Failure to pay the debt means two things: you are a thief and a liar! A thief because you have stoen property and a liar becaue you have not kept your word. Thieves and liars cannot go to heaven (Rev. 21:8; 1 Cor. 6:9-10). Bankruptcy is legal, but so is gambling, drinking and in some places, prostition.
A thief can be forgiven, but he must make restitution for what he has stolen (Num. 5:6-8 and Lev. 6:1-7). The "golden rule" provides us with a higher standard of conduct: "whatever you want me to do to you, do also to them" (Matt. 7:12).
I have met men who have declared bankruptcy and still thought they were qualified to serve as an elder in the church of our Lord. Such men must not be allowed to serve until their debt is fully repaid (with interest) for they will not "have a good testimony among those who are outside" (1 Tim. 3:7).
I wish every Bankruptcy Court had the following verse engraved in stone: "The wicked borrows and does not repay" (Psa. 37:21).
used with permission, padfieldconsulting.com
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Answering The Atheist
The Atheist's Complaint:
Is money good or bad? Ecclesiastes 10:19 indicates that money is the answer to all of life's problems, but 1 Timothy 6:10 says that money is the source of all evil. Is there a contradiction?
Response:
First, let us note what the two vierses in question say:
Ecclesiastes 10:19 - A feast is made for laughter, and wine maketh merry; but money answereth all things. (KJV)
1 Timothy 6:10 - For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows. (KJV)
In the context of Ecclesiastes 10:19, Solomon is addressing the conduct of royalty (v 16-20). Unwise leaders can bring great troublt to a nation - princes that "feast in the morning" (v 16), who feast "for drunkenness" (v 17), and are prone to "laziness" and "idleness of hands" (v 18). Accompanying all these other evils, may come heavy taxation (ie. "money answers everything").
Ecclesiastes 10:19 is not saying, as the questioner assumes, that money is the answer to all of life's problems. The context must be taken into account. And as most of us are well aware, it is not uncommon for governments to view increased taxation as the answer to their problems.
Likewise with regard to 1 Timothy 6:10, the questioner has states something which the text itself does not. Paul did not say that money is the source of all evil. Notice again, "the love of money is the root of all evil..."
First, it is not money itself that is the problem, but "the love of money." Money has caused neither good nor evil. It is how we act toward money that will result in either good or evil.
Paul's intention is not to say that every form of evil which exists is somehow linked to money. Again, the context identifies what evil the writer has in mind. At verse 5, the apostle speaks about those who "...suppose that godliness is a means of gain." (NKJV). And again, at verse 9, he speaks of "...those who desire to be rich..." and as a result "...fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and harmful lusts..." The things mentioned by the apostoles are linked with the love of money.
There is no contradiction.
This article is in response to Skeptic's Annotated Bible.