Copyright 2015 J. Neely
Psalm 37:21
21 The wicked [rasha`]
borroweth [lavah], and payeth not again [shalam]: but the righteous [tsaddiyq] sheweth mercy [chanan], and giveth [nathan].KJV-Interlinear
21 The wicked borrows but does not pay back,
but the righteous is generous and gives; ESV
Borrowing and
repaying is not so much a financial principle as it is a spiritual principle. The world is full of people who borrow and
repay, and people who borrow and do not repay.
And it matters not whether they are Christians or unbelievers. Anyone and everyone has from time to time
found themselves in a place where they simply cannot repay.
But, in the
spiritual world, we all owe our life to God.
And as they say,
living in this world we are all on borrowed time.
Christians have
Christ to look to, for our repayment.
Our debts are paid in full, our spiritual debts that is, and so we have
nothing to worry about with regard to our eternal life status.
This does not absolve
you from paying your bills.
Unbelievers, on
the other hand, have the opportunity to have their spiritual debts repaid, but
they choose against that, or better stated, they choose to ignore that
option. And so, when their time is up,
they have had their borrowed time, chose not to have it repaid, and therefore
are in effect in default and bankrupt and sent off to debtors prison, so to
speak. That is the Lake of Fire. And that is a place where their debt will
never get paid, and is not expected to be repaid. They are just thrown away and forgotten, as
it were.
Now as for
believers.
We are all given three
things for our investment. We have been
given life, time and doctrine.
How you choose to
utilize these three things is your choice.
A wise person uses all three. A
fool ignores doctrine.
With life, you can
learn.
With time, you
have the opportunity to learn.
With doctrine, you
have the correct resource and access to reality and truth.
And again, God has
given you these three things and this places you again in debt.
God is the master,
and you (we), are the servant. He leaves
us with His property, and we are to invest it.
Those who invest
wisely, namely learn doctrine, understand doctrine, grow up in doctrine,
advance in their spiritual life, become productive and complete within
ourselves, then we have invested wisely, and our maturity and production are
the profits of that investment. We then
are the good and faithful servant and are rewarded accordingly because of our good
investment.
As for the Christian
who ignores the doctrine part of their life, they are the unfaithful, the
unproductive servant, the ones who have lived their life in this world, just as
unbelievers live and they have borrowed as it were from the world, but did not
repay in accordance with Gods spiritual process. So, they enter into eternity with the debt
and no profit, and therefore qualify for no reward.
Now there is one
more principle. The righteous, referring
here to those who advance in their spiritual life, have knowledge,
understanding, wisdom and maturity, and therefore they give.
Give, ‘nathan,’ is
used here in the broadest sense of generosity in all of its forms. They give to charity, they give of
themselves, they donate, they support, they help when help is needed. All in the sense of unselfishness, no strings
attached, no regrets, no second guessing, no questions, no second thoughts, no
expecting someone else to do this for them, no presumption that the recipient
has enough and does not need anything more, no presumption that the recipient
is not worthy of their generosity.
The mature
believer, knows that there is a responsibility to support and give and to
help. They know that God provides all
that we have and therefore anything given will be replaced.
However, the mature
believer is not irresponsible. One takes
care of self, family and so forth and never places his own in jeopardy in the
name of giving. You do not cause poverty
or hardship in the name of solving poverty or hardship.
These
studies are a part of the massive daily study web site at DailyBibeStudy.Org,
and are written, so that you can come to Christ if you have not done so
already, and therefore not be lost forever.
And
if you have already believed in Christ, then these studies are written so you
can learn and understand and grow in your spiritual life, so that you can come
to the full knowledge of Christ, so that you can fulfill your meaning and
purpose in life as God intended for you, and so you can qualify for a
phenomenal eternal reward which you will have forever. To ignore this opportunity to pursue a daily
study means you will be incomplete, unfulfilled and you will lose out, big
time.
The
Daily Bible Study is online, making it possible as never before in all of human
history, to advance in ones relationship with God, through Christ, and to
complete yourself beyond your imagination.
But
you have to decide to make that commitment.
No one else can study for you.
You have to do that yourself.
