Saturday, August 15, 2015

Psalm 37:21


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.