Author	Thread: Collecting Debt
Admin	Collecting Debt Posted : 27 May, 2011 05:23 PM What does the Bible say about collecting debt? There's a guy who I helped out immensely, at some significant financial cost to myself. He's been promising to pay me back for months, but hasn't even been able to offer a small portion of the repayment. Mostly, he just makes excuses over and over again. They get more and more ridiculous. It's embarrassing for him, and and it's annoying for me because I'm losing my respect for him. I can't forgive it because it wouldn't prove anything. It would only be a depiction of weakness on my part (plus it's a lot of money that I kinda need now), so what do I do? What does the Bible say I should do? What would Jesus do? Post Reply
View Profile History	Collecting Debt Posted : 29 May, 2011 07:24 AM @et. I am basing my answers on teaching is the OT. First, there is nothing wrong with lending money to a friend as long as you don't charge interest. Secondly, if the debt is not paid that person is to become the slave of the lender until he has worked off the debt. It is very clear in the ot that God expected these kinds of disputes snd he also expects the debts to be paid. Or have you forgotten that we all owe a debt we could not pay and it had to be paid for us? God set up a civil law for His people that included a system of courts and judges. They were the men who sat at the city "gates" . They didn't literally sit outside the gate of the city but were the civic leaders that made judgments about disputes and laws. I'm sure Jesus did not give us a command to take people to court however it is evident in His own experience that there was a judicial system in place. Then there is this advice given my Jesus: Mat 5:25 Come to terms without delay with your opponent while you are yet with him on the way to the court; for fear he should obtain judgement from the magistrate against you, and the magistrate should give you in custody to the officer and you be thrown into prison. I work for one of the largest banks in the sorld. It has been in business for 300 years. I am a debt collector for this bank and I can tell you that the issue with debt is not that it is just wrong to borrow and not pay back but this kind of behavior effects all of us whether it is personal debt or a loan from a lending company or bank. Every fee and interest rate we pay is in place to compensate for the loss of revenue in unpaid loans. Billions of dollars are never paid back and those billions of dollars are dollars that could still be available to help our economy but because the money did not come back to the lender we all suffer. People may not like debt collectors but if it weren't for them the economy would be a lot worse off. Consider this, the civil laws God put into place in the OT were specifically designed to make a strong nation out of Israel. Even the ceremonial laws were intended to accomplish strong results. There is nothing wrong from a Biblical perspective with taking someone to court to make them fulfill a legal obligation. The truth is that even if we take someone to court it is difficult to get our money, but we can get a judgment against them and then we have the legal right to put leans on their property or even garnish their wages or tax returns. Even so, we must ask ourselves if it is worth the hassle and cost to pursue the debtor or not and what evidence we have that the debt exists. Thunder Post Reply

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