Chapter 4
IV. Interest
A. The definition of interest.
Note: According to Merriam-Webster’s 11th Collegiate Dictionary, interest is “a charge for borrowed money.”
When you borrow money from the bank, you have to
pay interest to use that money. On a typical house
loan for 30 years, you could actually pay the bank
three times the amount of money that you borrowed.
All of that extra money is interest.
B. The charging of interest.
1. The Bible does allow charging interest to people who are not related to you, or who are not saved.
a. The Bible says in Deuteronomy 23:20, “Unto a ________________ thou mayest lend upon usury.”
Note: The meaning of the word usury is “the lending of money with an interest charge for its use” (Merriam-Webster’s 11th New Collegiate Dictionary).
This instruction was given to Israel. They could lend money to people of other nations and charge them interest, but they could not charge another Jew interest. The Jews referred to each other as brother.
b. The Bible, in Romans 9:3, 4, records Paul’s thoughts about his fellow Jews: “For I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my ________________, my kinsmen according to the flesh: Who are Israelites...”
1. The Bible does allow charging interest to people who are not related to you, or who are not saved.
2. The Bible does not allow charging interest to people who are related to you, or who are saved.
Note: The Jews are God’s chosen people, and He is still going to do a work through them. But all Jews are not saved. That is clear by the previous verses, and by other passages as well.
a. Romans 10:1-3 says, “Brethren, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be __________. For I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge. For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God.”Note: A Jewish person becomes a “child of God” like any other person does — by faith in Christ Jesus.
b. The Bible says in Galatians 3:26, “For ye are all the children of God by __________ in Christ Jesus.”Seeming the Israelites are God’s chosen people, and He did not allow them to charge interest to their brethren, then we can apply that to Christians as well, because Christian’s are also brethren to each other.
c. Matthew 23:8 says, “But be not ye called Rabbi: for one is your Master, even Christ; and all ye are ________________.”
d. John 8:38 reveals the difference: “I speak that which I have seen with my ____________: and ye do that which ye have seen with your ____________.” e. John 8:41,42 says, “Ye do the deeds of your _____________. They said they to him, We be not born of fornication; we have one _____________, even God. Jesus said unto them, If God were your Father, ye would love me...” f. John 8:44 says, “Ye are of your father the __________.”Note: A Christian is not a brother to the unsaved, because the unsaved person has a different father.
g. According to the Bible, in Exodus 22:25, “If thou lend money to any of ____ people that is poor by thee, thou shalt not be to him as an usurer, neither shalt thou lay upon him usury.” h. In Deuteronomy 23:19 we read, “Thou shalt not lend upon usury to thy ______________; usury of money, usury of victuals, usury of anything that is lent upon usury.” i. Leviticus 25:35-37 says, “And if thy ______________ be waxen poor, and fallen in decay with thee; then thou shalt relieve him: yea, though he be a stranger, or a sojourner: that he may live with thee. Take thou no usury of him, or ________________: but fear thy God; that thy brother may live with thee. Thou shalt not give him thy money upon usury, nor ________ him thy victuals for increase.”Note: So unsaved people, whether Jews or Gentiles, have the devil as their father. That means that they cannot be our brothers, unless they get saved.
Note: This last passage is very interesting, in that it talks about not lending to a stranger with interest, when that stranger is your brother. Applying that to Christians, then, it would not be right to charge another Christian interest, even if that Christian is a stranger (not related to you, and maybe not even the same nationality).
Please notice in that passage, that we are not only forbidden to charge interest when we loan these people money, but also if we give them food or lodging. Only the actual amount that it cost us should be charged to them.
If you took a poor brother into your house to stay for a while, you could charge him for the food that he ate; for the phone calls that he made; for the hot water that he used; for the increase in your electric bill since he came; but you could not “make a profit” off of his stay with you — only your actual extra costs. The idea is to spare him extra costs, so that he can get out on his own as soon as possible.
j. The Bible says in II Thessalonians 3:10, “For even when we were with you, this we commanded you, that if any would not work, neither should he ________.”Note: This is in no way to encourage laziness. A brother taken into your home is to work — not to be lazy and live off of you.
1. The Bible does allow charging interest to people who are not related to you, or who are not saved. 2. The Bible does not allow charging interest to people who are related to you, or who are saved. C. The earning of interest. 1. According to Matthew 25:14-30, it is only being a wise steward to use the resources that you have to multiply them, for it says in verse 27, “Thou oughtest therefore to have put my money to the _____________________, and then at my coming I should have received mine own with usury.” 2. The same principle is seen in Luke 19:12-27, and it is summarized in verse 23 where it says, “Wherefore then gavest not thou my money into the ________, that at my coming I might have required mine own with usury?”
The Bible encourages ambition — but not greed. 3. The Bible says in I Timothy 6:10, “For the ________ 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.” 4. If you have an amount of money that you do not presently need, then it is okay to put it into a bank account and draw interest on it. The Bible says in Luke 19:23, “Wherefore then gavest not thou my money into the ________, that at my coming I might have required mine own with usury?”
The problem comes when people have large amounts of money in the bank, and do not use it to help their fellow Christians who have a need. 5. The Bible says in Deuteronomy 15:7,8, “If there be among you a poor man of one of thy brethren within any of thy gates in thy land which the LORD thy God giveth thee, thou shalt not harden thine heart, nor shut thine hand from thy poor brother: But thou shalt open thine hand wide unto him, and shalt surely ________ him sufficient for his need, in that which he wanteth.”Note: The bank is making money for themselves by loaning out your money. The least that they ought to do is to reimburse you a little interest money for using your money.
Note: One reason that people do not lend to their brother in need, is because a loan to such a brother would have to be interest free, to be Scriptural. That would mean that they would lose the interest that they were making at the bank.
Remember, it is not wrong to draw interest on your
money, but if you can use it to draw heavenly interest
by helping those in need, then do not be foolish
enough to lay up earthly treasure.
6. The Bible says in Matthew 6:19-21, “Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: But lay up for yourselves treasures in ____________, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.”
7. On the other hand, there are times when a relative or another Christian may not get an offer for a loan, because they are unreliable. The Bible tells people to be careful when they lend money. It says in Psalm 112:5, “A good man showeth favour, and lendeth: he will guide his affairs with _____________________.” Do not expect people to lend you money, if you carelessly spend that which you get.8. Proverbs 3:27, 28 says, “Withhold not good from them to whom it is due, when it is in the __________ of thine hand to do it. Say not unto thy neighbour, Go, and come again, and to morrow I will give; when thou hast it by thee.”Question: Do you have the means to help out a brother in need? Or are you ignoring what you see, and what you could do to help?
REVIEW:
1. According to Merriam-Webster’s 11th Collegiate Dictionary, interest is “a charge for ________________ money.”
2. The Bible does allow charging interest to people who are not related, or who are not saved, because Deuteronomy 23:20 says, “Unto a _________________ thou mayest lend upon usury.”
3. The Bible does not allow charging interest to people who are related, or who are saved, because it says in Deuteronomy 23:19, “Thou shalt not lend upon usury to thy ______________; usury of money, usury of victuals, usury of anything that is lent upon usury.”
4. If you took a poor brother into your house to stay for a while, you could not “make a profit” off of his stay with you — only your ____________ extra costs.
5. A brother taken into your home is to ________ — not to be lazy and live off of you.
6. The Bible says in II Thessalonians 3:10, “If any would not work, neither should he ______.”
7. It is not wrong to earn interest on money, because Luke 19:23 says, “Wherefore then gavest not thou my money into the ________, that at my coming I might have required mine own with usury?”
8. The Bible encourages ambition — but not __________.
9. It is not wrong to draw interest on your money, but if you can use it to draw heavenly interest by helping those in need, then do not be foolish enough to lay up _______________ treasure.
10. Psalm 112:5 says, “A good man showeth favour, and lendeth: he will guide his affairs with _____________________.” Do not expect people to lend you money, if you carelessly spend that which you get.
Chapter 1, 2, 3, 4, Final Test Liberty Bible Course Directory