The debt we owe

"Man, I owe you," we say with no real thought as to what that sentence means. When the first sparing compromising vote came through Sunday night about the new stimulus package, one person said, "I'll be paying bills, student loans, a mortgage for the next 30 years," he said. "I'm not going to let this bring me down. It's one more thing I'll owe. When you're born, you start owing."

When you are born, you start owing. What a thought. A dreadful, truthful thought. The word comes from the French dette and ultimately Latin debere (to owe), from de habere (to have). The letter b in the word debt was reintroduced in the 17th century, possibly by Samuel Johnson in his Dictionary of 1755 — several other words that had existed without a b had them reinserted at around that time. Debt allows people and organizations to do things that they would otherwise not be able, or allowed, to do. Commonly, people in industrialised nations use it to purchase houses, cars and many other things too expensive to buy with cash on hand. Companies also use debt in many ways to leverage the investment made in their assets, "leveraging" the return on their equity. This leverage, the proportion of debt to equity, is considered important in determining the riskiness of an investment; the more debt per equity, the riskier. For both companies and individuals, this increased risk can lead to poor results, as the cost of servicing the debt can grow beyond the ability to pay due to either external events (income loss) or internal difficulties (poor management of resources).

Debt. It's a word that is virtually, uh, debt-free today. No one is interested in discussing debt any longer. Get it? Interest, debt?

We are, as a nation and as individuals, knee deep in debt. Writer Gary Gibbs says this:
There are more than 376 million Visas and MasterCards in circulation. This is up 80 percent from a few years ago when the average family had only two credit cards and $2,340 in outstanding balances. Today they have an average of four cards and owe nearly $4,880. Altogether, American consumers have racked up $480 billion dollars in debt with these little two- by three-inch pieces of plastic, and that figure grows at a 13 percent annual rate.

"We are a nation drowning in red ink. Plans for the large government budget surplus seem to be the focus of recent political attention, but soaring consumer debt is seldom discussed. Within the past few years (debt) has increased 39 percent and now exceeds $1 trillion. "When you carry this much debt it's scary," says consumer spending expert Madelyn Hochstein in a recent newspaper article, "Black-hole Borrowing, Consumer Debt Surging; Nation's Economy at Risk." The article goes on to warn that, "This could be a time bomb for the U.S. economy and its banks."

Let's get some perspective. One million dollars in $1,000 bills would make a stack eight inches high. One billion dollars in $1,000 bills would stack 115 feet higher than the Washington Monument, which itself is 555 feet tall. One trillion dollars in $1,000 bills would stretch 126 miles into outer space. If a person stood over a big hole in the ground and dropped in a million dollars every day, it would take 3,000 years to throw a trillion dollars away.

God's Word peers into the financial future and predicts that a catastrophe is coming. "Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you. Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are moth eaten. Your gold and silver is cankered; and the rust of them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as it were fire. Ye have heaped treasure together for the last days" (James 5:1-3, emphasis added). Brother James is telling us that riches won't help us now or in the future.

There are two principals at work here. First, you go where your god goes and where your heart has been. "For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also" (Matthew 6:21). If money is your god and your heart is set on earthly things, then when Jesus returns, you will go to the moles and bats with your idols. Second, we need to understand is that God owns everything and Satan tries to steal it from Him. "The earth is the Lord's, and the fullness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein" (Psalms 24:1).

But not only does Satan try to steal God's riches, but there are people who are not faithful also. A survey of 6,000 families who attended church at least three times per month showed that only 34 percent tithed at least 10 percent of their income, 40 percent gave three percent or less, and 26 percent gave virtually nothing.

God wasn't overstating matters when He said there were thieves in the church. Do you remember the story of Ananias and Sapphira? They promised to donate the proceeds from the sale of their house to God, but they reneged on it. The apostle Peter, moved by the Holy Spirit, rebuked the hypocrisy of this couple. "Why hath Satan filled thine heart to lie to the Holy Ghost? ... thou hast not lied unto men, but unto God" (Acts 5:3, 4). Then they dropped dead!"

Some people object to tithing by saying, "Tithing isn't required in the New Testament." The fact is that the Bible is God's Word no matter what testament it is found in. Furthermore, Jesus did endorse tithing in the New Testament. "Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cumin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these you ought to have done, and not to leave the other undone" (Matthew 23:23). The apostle Paul also endorsed the tithing system in Hebrews 7:8, "And here men that die receive tithes; but there he [Jesus] receives them, of whom it is witnessed that he lived."

God uses His tithe to support the work of His church. "And, behold, I have given the children of Levi all the tenth in Israel for an inheritance, for their service which they serve, even the service of the tabernacle of the congregation" (Numbers 18:21).

And remember that offerings are in addition to tithe and are not set at a certain percentage. "But ye say, Wherein have we robbed thee? In tithes and offerings" (Malachi 3:8, emphasis added).

We gladly give to God's work because we love Him and want to see people led to Christ. "So let him give; not grudgingly, or of necessity: for God loves a cheerful giver" (2 Corinthians 9:7).

It requires money to take the gospel to the world. It took money when Jesus was on earth. He had his own treasurer on His staff of disciples (John 12:6). And the early church taught that those who worked full-time in gospel ministry needed support from the church. "Do you not know that they which minister about holy things live of the things of the temple? And they which wait at the altar are partakers with the altar? Even so Lord has ordained that they which preach the gospel should live of the gospel" (1 Corinthians 9:13, 14).
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This is a fact: We have a debt to God that can never be repaid. Jesus paid our debt on the cross, paid for our debt not with debt consolidation plans but with the pure blood of the lamb of God. Therefore, we should think about what we owe him, our blessed redeemer, our kinsman, our pure and innocent sacrificial lamb.

Compromise on debt? Jesus didn't. He simply paid the greatest price of all with the only thing that could possibly pay off our debts. How is it then that we don't even pay a 10th back to him? How could it possibly be? What are we short-changing God of?

Stanley, son of renowned Charles Stanley, tells of speaking to a group of teens at camp one year. He wanted to impress them with the wisdom in obeying and following God. He put $325 into his pocket before his sermon that night. He talked about trusting God. Then he asked if there was anyone in the audience who had all their money with them that night. One young man did.
He invited the teen to the front. But before he continued, he wanted to make two things clear. One, did the young man trust Andy? "Yes," the fellow said he did. And two, Andy assured him that he would leave the stage better off than when he came. The young man held $226 in his hand. Andy asked him to give him all his money in return for what was in his pockets. Ultimately the boy refused the deal.

Like Andy, God has many good things to give us, but first He wants us to trust Him and hand over the things we're putting before Him. God loves us and wants the best for us. That is why He teaches us truth. Every truth He brings our way is for our good. He knows that a time of economic chaos and trouble is coming, so He asks us to follow Him. If we want to survive the coming economic abyss, then we must make God number one in our lives and recognize His ownership of everything by returning a faithful tithe and offerings.