Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"
In this age it is often considered foolish to pay your bills and keep out of debt, to avoid living on borrowed capital. Romans 13:8 says, "Owe no one anything except to love one another." It's good sense indeed to owe nothing except what you have collateral to cover (for example, a home for your family to live in).
A rather common expression in the King James Version is "gird up your loins" (1 Peter 1:13; Eph. 6:14). Even Jesus said we should have our "loins girded about," meaning, Be ready to go almost on a moment's notice (Luke 12:35). Don't let yourself be entangled with worldliness, "lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting [which means too much of anything], and drunkenness [anything that weakens your clear judgment], and cares of this life [credit card debt?], and so that day come upon you unawares. For as a snare shall it come on all them [including even the elders, pastors, and Bible class teachers??] that dwell on the face of the whole earth" (Luke 21:34, 35).
In simple language, what does it all mean? It's now true, more than any time in the past, that "there is not much time left, ... For this world, as it is now, will not last much longer. I would like you to be free from worry" (1 Cor. 7:29-32, Good News Bible). In other words, right now is "borrowed time." (Even a nation that lives on borrowed capital is in danger.)
Here's a morsel of Good News: that text again in Romans 13:8--yes, you are in debt, to love someone today with the love wherewith the Son of God has loved you. Blessed indebtedness, for He has "capital," "collateral," to cover you.
--Robert J. Wieland
From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: January 21, 1999.
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