Why is it that believers often take money from their fellow believers or brothers and fail to make any attempt to pay it back? I have noticed this tendency among believers, even pastors. This strikes me as a form of wickedness.
Wickedness simply means to treat others in ways we would hate to be treated. So is borrowing and not paying back.
When I was young, I once witnessed a brawl among members of the same church after a service. It turned out that one brother had borrowed money and refused to pay it back. In an attempt to recover his money, the lender resorted to violence.
A pastor once approached me during a difficult season and asked to borrow some money. We agreed on a specific time for repayment, but that time came and went without him repaying the loan or even apologising for not honouring our agreement. Four years later, he still has not paid me back.
I also lent money to another supposed pastor with the agreement that he would pay me back. Many months have passed, and he has not returned the money. He earns a salary, has a family he takes care of, but making the payment is difficult for him.
Another believer called me and begged me for assistance to attend a program, promising to return it after a month. Until today, he still has not paid me back.
Why is it that believers who borrow from each other do not pay back what they borrowed? In their indebtedness they manage to afford food, pay rent, make trips and cover other expenses, yet cannot repay the money they borrowed during difficult times. This behaviour is ungodly and unchristlike and is an act of wickedness.
The wicked borrows and does not repay, but the righteous shows mercy and gives. – Psalm 37:21
Let us remind all believers that the scriptures indicate that borrowing without repaying is the way of the wicked. It is wicked pastors and wicked believers that borrow from their fellow believers and refuse to payback. And if the scriptures call them wicked, I wonder how they think to themselves that they are still sons of God and are heaven bound in while in their wickedness. Unless we are deceiving and flattering ourselves in evil.
Matthew 7:12. Therefore, whatever you want people to do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets.
