“You shall not charge interest on loans to your brother, interest on money, interest on food, interest on anything that is lent for interest. You may charge a foreigner interest, but you may not charge your brother interest, that the LORD your God may bless you in all that you undertake in the land that you are entering to take possession of it.
The paying of interest in business and banking and the loan agencies, is a BIG deal. A simple internet search will show us how much interest the average person pays each year. It is amazing the amount of money that goes JUST to interest payments on mortgages, credit cards, car loans, student loans. Paying interest is what makes the money on a deal, for many transactions. Most business would prefer you DON’T pay cash for something. They would rather have you hooked on credit so that can collect interest. This is why the above text seems so strange to us. We don’t even think twice about paying interest. But, God, wanting His people to be unique to the world around them, was instructed to NOT charge interest to their fellow Israelites. We should take note of this. There were probably a number of reasons for this, but here are four:
1. God did not want a ruling class and a impoverish class. Throughout the Old Testament we see that God wanted His people to care for the poor and not create the poor. God knew that some would be poor for a variety of reasons. But, God did not want an oppressive system to take advantage of their brothers.
2. God wanted the nation to look different than the world around them. If there is ONE major way to look different in this world it is to have unique and unorthodox business practices. If you want to stand out in the world, don’t charge interest on a loan. Try it and see how you might be treated. It is not just the areas of interest charging that can separate you from the world when you practice business. God wants His people to look different.
3. This would require an enormous amount of faith. Not charging interest would mean no profit from your loan. Then why would you loan? The point is that doing business with someone is to create something for yourself. In this case, charging no interest, you are relying on God to bless you. That is an extreme act of faith. The above text even states that by not charging interest “... the Lord you God may bless you ...”.
4. The passage does not forbid the nation from charging interest to other people, outside their nation. This might cause us some alarm, but think about how tough that might today. Is it possible to run a business and treat believers different that other believers? Could you do that based upon the laws of our land? It should be noted that above passage was written in regard to different “nations.” This topic is better suited for a longer blog than this, but suffice it to say that God’s purpose with His people is to be distinctive from the world, but that we are also to live in the world. It is clear in the text that God allows us to do business different with the world than we do with our brothers. The key is doing that in the spirit of the current laws of the land and not breaking either truth.
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